rudycoop

It's been a while since I've been on here, I kind of kicked the project around and finished some other stuff first. I was able to pass the CA state bar referee and make it fully street legal. I finally broke it down for paint and suspension upgrades. The frame is like new. I have an original Comanche Dana44 I am putting in along with a mild lift. I am keeping it white. I scored a 2 door window switch in a boneyard and buttoned up the interior. Windows are coming out and truck will be like new when done. I had some fun securing the tank to drive it around the farm and down the block to get it painted. More progress pics coming.....

Take your time and don't get lazy selling parts. It's crazy what will sell on ebay. I can barely keep up with it all, but it has funded my whole project just selling old used parts.

A good running rust free XJ at that. It was hard to do. It lives on in the MJ though. It battled hard through 224k miles . That interior was so filthy it was comical someone could let it go so bad. HUGE black spots on the headrests on both front seats.

I had a fun weekend cleaning up the mess I have created in the past few months. I made the most out of the donor Jeep by chopping it up with a recipricating saw and parting every last thing out of it. I have officially made my money back on this project. TONS of work, but it was very fun chopping a Cherokee to pieces. I still have countless hours of wet sanding and some filling to do. I also have to put on my suspension and locate some nice new tires. It never ends. I really didn't even look like much in the back of the F250:

I am in the same boat. So damn expensive. I dream of finding one of those and an MJ d44 in the bone yard. I have a good selection of pick and pulls out here so anything is possible. I just found a 2000 XJ that was rear ended and mint every other way AND it was a 5 spd. I could hardly contain myself because it was literally just put on the yard. Photoshop stuff is coming.

I put my rear drive shaft in and mounted my exhaust. I ended up using a nice little flow master I had lying around instead of the stock Walker muffler. It sounds very throaty. On the road it drove very well and didn't act crazy in the least. I am going to have to adjust my kickdown and gear selector cables on my auto trans. I really had to step on it to get it to down shift and I have to give it a good nudge to get it it to click in to park sometimes. Seems pretty simple though. Calling around for estimates on the paint job tomorrow. I've been tossing around ideas for decal schemes. I think it will be cool to use a silver late model comanche decal on the door and a black sport sticker on the window. It would be a sport model and I think the look of it is cool. I am going to play in photoshop and post some pics of the different options. Pretty excited! I also got my keyless entry FOB and receiver. I had to do it. It's an option so why not capitalize on it? I have to drop my headliner to wire up the lights in the rear side panels anyway, so while in there I will wire in a new keyless receiver. I had one in there, but it must've gotten wet from the leaky windshield in the old XJ because it was cooked. The only thing I have left that stands out as different are the 4 window switches on my driver door. I have been forever searching for a 2 door switch. I even eliminated the rear wiper and defrost switches. I found a panel with only one switch and replaced it with the fog switch. It's pretty cool having it completely stock looking with no funny business.

Thanks, I am very happy with the color also. I originally was going to change it out, but I decided to stay with the white. It's headed off to the body shop next. I think I am going to spend some good money to get it painted. So far the build hasn't set me back much.

Thanks man. If any of you guys were around me I'd definitely help. Such great helping hands are what got me through this build. People came out of the wood work left and right. Really happy with it. Lots more to come.

I got the taillights wired and mounted along with finishing the interior. I went for my first drive! Naturally I had to take it on a dirt road.

Today I had a little time and it's very nice out so I got the seats installed. I am very happy with it overall. It looks and smells like new. I also got the front drive shaft installed and everything underneath mostly done. I had to order a new drive shaft that I found in a junkyard in TN on car-part.com. All I have left is to bleed the brakes, install shaft, and get tail lights installed. Beyond that I need to locate a suffice rear bumper. I'd love a stock one, but that's going to be pushing it. I am contemplating an S10 or after market replacement for the meantime.

Today my brother fit the front old style fender flares, while I worked on the interior. The flare IS NOT bolted on. It is just resting in place. I really like the look and am going to keep them: As for the interior, I got everything but the seats done. The mixed grays don't look so bad in person:

Thanks guys. I've been a bit crazed over the whole thing. I can't stand but work constantly until it's done.

Another long day of work today. I wired up some 4x6's in the stock location and patched them into the stock wiring harness. Woohoo I have 4 crummy speakers to listen to. On another note I decided I am going to try and alter some old school style front fender flares to fit up front and match the back. It seems a pretty easy chore. I will report back with pictures once I get to it. I got my door panels on and all my power windows/locks work as they should. Tomorrow the interior goes in. Pictures coming! I finished putting the front end on today. It looks great! I sprayed the plastic grill and headlight bezels with krylon fusion and it looks fantastic: More stuff coming tomorrow...

Well with my surgery being postponed and weather being in the 30's I've been sidelined for a little while. I get easily spoiled with this NorCal weather. Yesterday it was back to the 60's and I got back to work. I also sold so many damn old parts on ebay that my paypal $$ was burning a whole in my digital pocket. So i ordered Bilstein 5100's, new lift coils, Chevy truck shackles, etc for a nice mild 2" lift. I finalized my new transmission installation. It's in and working! I also installed neon injectors that I rebuilt. Then I extended my tail light harnesses. I used a bunch of wires I had laying around out of my spare parts bin to extend them. It came out great: Today I am FINALLY going to get my interior together. I also will get the front end finished being put together. I also am going to bleed and get my brakes going. It might actually move on its own today!

Thanks! It's been an amazing experience. So much awesome help. Everything just fell in my lap at the perfect time and it has come together nicely. It should be running and driving by the next time I get up there to work on it.

Right now, I'm running the stock sized 225/70R15's. When I bought the truck back in January, the PO had just recently put new tires on it so I can't justify changing them out any time soon (plus the money isn't there lol). With 2" of lift, they don't look tiny or funny. Eventually, I will probably go to 30" x 9.5"'s. I've got a set of turbine rims that I will one day refinish and that'll likely be when I make that step up. I saw the turbines. I want to see them finished! I had 235's and sold them because I didn't like the wheels. I'm also on 225's. Tires probably will not be a top priority of mine either. I am pretty much making sure she runs n drives right before I do anything else in that category. I am going to end up dropping a good bit of money into a paint job. The way I have finagled everything with buying this and selling that. I will pretty much break even on the truck, so I am going to spring for a sweet coat of paint.

Thanks! Still got a lot more to do. But you know how these things are... never ending. For a 2" lift I used coil spacers and Chevy lowering shackles. The shackles netted me the two inches I sought after, but the coil spacers rest on top of worn factory 4.0L springs from my '88 XJ. Realistically the front only went up about 3/4" inch, so it's got a bit of rake to it. Plan to level it out with either 2" lift coils or low mileage V8 ZJ coils + the spacers. Then it'll be a matter of new shocks. I'm basically on the same path. I used pucks on my old TJ and I was happy with them. I might get some new Moog springs that will supposedly lift me, if not I will get some spacers. I think I am also going to go with the Chevy shackles. What tire size are you running? I think I am going to run 30x9.5's.

What did you use to achieve a 2" lift? I just read your build thread btw. Nice work.

Did a ton of work on the Jeep today. I had to tap all the damn nuts for the trans plate. They were there just not tapped, because the truck was a manual prior. I got the new exhaust all bolted up and the plate installed: pic coming Then I put all new o-rings in the AC system along with a new dryer: Pic coming I ran into some issues with the truck running funny and the fuel pump having no power at times. I hadn't secured a ground on the inside of the cab and that made a major difference once secured. Probably should've gone over that first. Sometimes theres just too much going on. Turns out the trans I got is only a 21 spline not 23, which would explain why my damn kickdown cable is too short. I bought it from a guy that said it was a 93. No reason not to take his word, but I guess had I counted the splines I would've known sooner. So I have to swap out the damn trans. I already found one and have it all apart ready to go. Shouldn't be too bad. Truck is running good and the front end is almost all together. I spent a lot of time making sure every damn line was straight. Pain in the @$$, but worth every minute. It's going to look great when it's done. [/url] [/url]

Got it running today! It fired right up and the fuel gauge works! It has no exhaust or o2 sensors and still was running like a bear. Now I will put it together.

Thanks again man. You will find everything you need. It's all out there you just have to be insane about looking. I am extremely fortunate to be in NorCal dealing with all rust free vehicles. I grew up in NJ and everything was always a rusted up mess.

Just trash all those old wires and find that donor! That little 4 banger in there always cracks me up. I like that your rear bumper is in tact and not all banged up like mine. Everyone I ever see is basically trashed. Going to be a great project.

Great find! They all leak oil from various places. Not that hard to track down. Let's see some pictures! The HO motor is a must have really.

There are a bunch of ways you can do it and I will say overall it wasn't too bad, but I think it would be difficult to do well by yourself if you've never done it before. I was glad to have a helping hand to stretch the leather and hold things tight while I threaded. It just looks so damn nice. I am considering it. No comparison to the original.

So I've been killing myself doing this build because I had a major knee reconstruction scheduled for the 18th. So on Friday the hospital calls me and tells me they still don't have a cadaver knee to give me so I am on hold. So as much as I wanted to get this surgery done with, now I will be able to get my truck finished this week! Today was really tough. I will tell you things don't happen as fast when you are working alone. I have my gf's 78 year old retired heavy machinery mechanic to help me. He's been such a valuable asset with knowledge and ideas that I would never have come up with. Previous weekends I had tons of hands, this weekend not as much. The engine is in either way. SO MUCH WORK: Everything is wired and ready. I just have to put in the AC, serpentine belt, and radiator. It should run tomorrow.