terrawombat

We keep throwing out the $5500 price for the cost of the kit. Lets not forget the cost of labor involved to convert the truck. I don't know about you, but I'm not going to be the one cutting up and welding on my brand new Jeep Wrangler Unlimited 4-door. I assume this kit will also fit the 4-door JK's from 2007...so we're still looking at a used vehicle in the 15-20K range.

A lot of things about people who list vehicles on Craigslist really grind my gears. Here's a couple: 1) Please do not list your vehicle as a Jeep Cherokee if it's actually a GRAND Cherokee. There's a difference. Figure it out. 2) I hate sellers who state, "WILL NOT RESPOND TO E-MAILS." I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but e-mail is a mainstream form of communication - use it. You had to enter an e-mail address in when you posted your Craigslist ad so I know you have one. Is it REALLY that much of an inconvenience to check it? Some of us can't make personal phone calls at work and have to rely on other forms of communication (like E-MAIL) to get in contact with you. There are a whole lot more things I hate about Craigslist sellers - like the ones who post stuff for sale, but have absolutely no ambition to put forth any effort to get a deal made - but I'll stop here for today.

And he has made a ton of money from his fairly tale.

This is my kinda weather. 100+ degree temps and 100% humidity do not bother me in the slightest - just have to make sure that my half gallon jug of water is always full. As long as I'm moving around and doing something I expect to be dripping in sweat constantly. It's when I'm sitting at a desk or lying on the beach doing nothing where I start to get irritable. I hate being hot (or cold for that matter) in places that I shouldn't be hot (or cold)...like in an office building. If I'm outside and it's blazing hot, I dress for the occasion. Same goes for when it's below freezing :D You're not going to be able to change the weather, so no point in complaining about it...at least that's my philosophy.

I finished the upper dash mounts last night. Dash is just about in and ready to go - need to drill the holes in the floor for the center dash support and get some nuts welded onto the body for the side dash supports by the doors. Then the dash comes back out and I need to work on mounting the steering wheel support and relocating the hole for the steering column. It's coming together...slowly, but it's coming together. I'll get some pictures of the progress up later.

Yep, definitely a rust belt issue. Finally got the door mounting bolt out today after a week-long Kroil treatment. Managed to only break one cheapy Torx bit on it!

Installing your gears in a straight housing may save your truck from "eating" tires, but then you'll just create another problem - "eating" gears. Properly setting up gears requires time and someone with patience, experience, and the right set of tools.

The lower seatbelt mounting bolts in my MJ managed to turn my torx bit into a twisted piece of garbage. About to break the T40 bit on the last remaining door bolt on my '99XJ donor - go figure...

I've got an extra black door from my '88MJ that I could use - It's just so ridiculously far down on the priority list right now.

I figured this thread would have been filled with pictures of the weekend by now...

$146/hr. At least that's what my company charges clients for my consulting services. Wish I got even a third of that... Anyway, my time is valuable right now and this fix is waaaaaay way down on the list of priorities. I'm going to be moving to Maryland sometime in the near future and I have 4,000 other things that need to get done before I think about a couple scratches on my door and fender. The intent of this thread was not to pry for ideas on how to fix the problems - I know what needs to be done. I was just stating how irritated I was that no one has taken responsibility and attempted to make amends. In an effort to keep this thread on track, reply with something that really grinds your gears (and it can't be bad synchros...Pete already said that). I hate drivers who will tailgate you and then after you move over to let them pass, they just sit in your blind spot and refuse to pass. 30 seconds ago, you were about to ram my vehicle, but once I give you the courtesy of passing, you decide to sit in the most dangerous spot possible. Argh.

After a very amusing and poor attempt at removing the windshield, I got it out, but completely ruined it. Oh well, I wanted to the newer XJ style with the outer seal in there anyways. I just wanted to throw up these two pictures to document the differences in the mounting points between the older XJ/MJ dash and the new XJ one. Not a single hole lines up :D

I may not have noticed if it was on the bed. This truck was definitely used as a true "work truck" during its life. There are lots of little dings all over the bed rails. My topper covers some of them up, but there are still quite a few there.

Because the likelihood of me finding a white XJ door in a junkyard that isn't dented and scratched to all hell is slim. The fact that there is are two big scratches and dents in my door does not bother me (it kind of flows with the rest of the truck), it's the fact that whoever did it has not fessed up, taken responsibility, and offered to do something about it.

Was away this weekend visiting my GF in MD. I leave all of my vehicles down at my shop and my Dad knows where the keys are. He's been using my '92MJ when I'm away - doesn't bother me considering he's my father and has given me quite a lot over the years. Come down to my shop this morning to find this: Well, that certainly wasn't there when I left for the weekend. I asked him what he hit and when he planned on telling me about it. Of course, he claims to know nothing about it, but it was very obvious that the truck was moved over the weekend, so unless someone stole my truck, took it for a joyride, and returned it to my shop, I'm not quite sure how else this could have happened. Definitely looks like he side swiped something. The truck may not be in amazing condition and it may have dents/dings all over it, but the passenger door and front fender were both cherry before this - guess I just need to add it to my list of things to repair before I get the truck repainted next year. I'm not a body guy at all and I leave this stuff to the pros, which is going to be $$$. Probably looks like normal "trail rash" to most of you guys, but my intention with this truck was to restore it and make it look new again... Arg.

That varies from person to person and is an awful blanket statement to use in any of your arguments. Marijuana effects my senses and abilities in such a way that I would be utterly and completely useless on any job. I can put back a few beers and be buzzed (not drunk) and perform my job flawlessly. It all depends on the person. However, that doesn't make either scenario right. Save this BS for the weekends or after work. I don't understand the need for people to constantly smoke up and get high and/or get drunk. Are those people's lives really that mundane where they need to use a substance to keep things interesting? Get a hobby.

I'd be most interested in the device they used to tune the vehicle. I'm going to assume it was the DRBII scantool, but I've never known that to be able to edit fuel/timing maps on the stock ECU - but I could be wrong. I know that Chrysler issues firmware updates to the PCM every so often and you can do to the dealership to have your PCM "reflashed" but that's a canned tune from Chrysler and I'm not sure that the dealerships have the capability to edit that. I could be wrong though and it'd be very nice to know that there are Jeep dealerships out there that can do this kind of work.

http://www.por15canada.com/can/index.htm

This is a pretty accurate description of the majority of my local PD. I think I used the quote function correctly, no?

Good to know. Thanks for the confirmation - I'll have to add that to my list of projects for my XJ :D

Yes, it should. XJ'ers commonly swap disc brakes onto the rear and I have yet to hear of anyone complaining that their master cylinder was inefficient. Although, are you sure that the disc brakes from the ZJ swap onto the Chryco axle? ZJs either used a Dana 35 or Dana 44a rear axle. I was always under the impression that the rear brakes will swap between the Dana axles, but I'm not sure if they'll bolt up to the Chrysler axle...

I'd have to look at what size the stock injectors are and how they compare to the 24lb/hr Ford injectors you have, but if they're larger, they'll flow more fuel obviously. I see that you have a larger TB to allow more airflow, but it's usually not that simple - not with fuel injected cars anyway. The old school carb'ed guys could get away with modifications like that since they'd just turn an adjustment knob here, tweak something there...and they'd still run pig rich :D I'd take a look at your fuel mileage and see how you're doing there. There should be a noticeable increase. Although, without really knowing what the O2 readings are, I can't really make any suggestions. Not that my suggestions would really be helpful anyway - since you can't tune and reprogram your ECU. I'm going to assume the Jeep guys knew what they were doing, although I must admit, that's the first time I've ever heard of a dealership being able (both technically and legally) to do a custom tune on a vehicle.

Sadly, not much to update. I need to get this truck out of my shop, powerwashed, and prepped for paint. I want to get the rear frame painted, then pull it back into my shop, get the interior in, make all of the cuts I need to in the firewall, and then strip it all back down to paint the engine bay and interior. Without a front axle, it was kind of hard to move the truck anywhere. Decided to just throw the D30 from my 5.9L ZJ donor into it. Bounces around a lot without shocks and sways a ton without a track bar or sway bar :D Jumped on the front to check for oil pan-to-axle clearance...we're good

I'm not sure of the exact build dates of the ZJs that got the AW4 (or AX15) for that matter.

Uhhh what? That'd be one hell of a conversion.