JeffK

Started on my rear panel this week. Cut the new panel out of 3/16 hard board. $13.51 for a 4 x 8 sheet. I removed the stock jack mounts, and when I reinstalled the mounting brackets I put one on each side at the exact same spot (instead of both on the left). I cut out a reinforcement section for the center. The "grain" runs the opposite direction as the main panel. and glued it up. Here you can see the bracket placement. Very stiff. I marked and drilled the mounting holes for the amp and used these #10-32 x 5/16 Tee Nuts from the back side. Tee Nuts installed. Time for the cover. Glued up and ready. Glued setting on the front. I used speaker box cloth I picked up at a local Audio shop. A 4x6 piece was $15. Back side glued, stapled and trimmed. Finished. Hardware to mount the amp. Four #10-32 x 1/2 inch stainless Allen heads, Four Stainless #10 washers and Four Neoprene #10 washers. Hardware run about $6. Amp mounted. Inside shot. I had to add a 3" strip of the bubble insulation across the top to make it sit flush (similar to the factory piece just not as thick). I think it turned out pretty good, Stiff enough to support the amp and maybe a few other things all for less than $35. That's it for now, the flu is kicking my butt and I'm heading to bed.

Switch wiring another shot. With parking lights on. Parking lights off and finished. Still tinkering with the audio wiring. The previous owner had Circuit City install his head unit. What a mess. Can't figure out why they ever went out of business. Cleaned the bed out about 2 weeks ago, now it's back to it's catch-all duty.

I decided to upgrade my head unit as well. The loud beeping it makes after it's powering it off (to remind you to remove the faceplate) and never ending clutter on the unit display was more than I could take. I had my mind set on an Alpine iDA-X303, but after waiting for 2 weeks for them to come and still no unit. I decided to buy a different head unit and pony up a little more for a modest amp. I bought a Blaupunkt Kingston Head unit and a SPL FX4-840 four channel amp. Is it the head unit I wanted? No, but it does have the features I wanted. Front, Rear and Sub outputs. Rear USB out put, etc. Now comes the fun part of wiring it all in, along with the power windows. Wiring underway. Power window switches. The layout for the back of the OTRATTW switches I'm using. and the basic wiring diagram I'm working off.

No odor at all. No temp warnings or restrictions on the label either.

I picked up some XTC speaker baffles online. 2 each 5.25s and 4x6 shallow. I installed the right side speakers. Rear mounted in the baffle. Test fit install. Done. Front baffle, before trim. Trimmed and done. Picked up a set of seat belts from RetroBelt, decent enough quality. On the test fit they look like they'll work. Come with a removable sleeve on the female side. In the event I ever want to go with buckets I won't have to scrounge fro belts again. More on them later.

Fuse box came in from Summit Racing for the head light conversion, with a few extra slots for future lighting. I decided to upgrade my rear speakers, so I pulled my 0 miles Sony Xplods and ordered some Infinitys. $79.95 shipped from SonicElectronix. Pretty sweet. I pulled my door panels again to rewire the speakers and doors. A shot of the door speakers.

For the floor pans I used a waterproof self adhesive flashing I picked up at Lowe's (thanks woodkrawler) for about $15 a roll. Ended up using about 4 rolls. Started on the right side. and finally the right side finished. I finally had to force myself to face the damage from my jackstand miscue last fall. Surprisingly I caught a huge break on the repair. One good whack from my #10 dead-blow hammer undid about 90% of the damage. A little seam sealer. and a coat of bed liner and it's good as new. Well almost. Continuing with the insulation, left side. More left. Starting the trans hump. I vacuumed and lightly cleaned the floor with alcohol before I started, and there's no way this stuff is coming up without a fight. Finally finished. I'm pretty pleased with the results.

I haven't been spending as much time on my MJ as I would have wanted in the past couple of weeks. Some turmoil here at home and now the flu have slowed me down. Here's a run down of my current progress to date. Beware on the pics I haven't posted in a while. :D I've continued on with the insulation. Behind the seat the B pillars And finished the seams off with some foil duct tape

Summit Racing eBay purchases to NC will be at your door in 2 days.... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mopar-4120074-Leaf-Spring-Perches-3-in-x2-in-Width_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem4cee4fe012QQitemZ330415726610QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

As noted, Chrysler went back to one-piece rotors in mid-1999, not 1996. I've posted the run-down before, but here it is again. As before, this is from a book I am writing and it is copyrighted. By posting it here I do NOT grant anyone permission to copy it elsewhere, post it elsewhere, or in any way give or send it to anyone else. It is important to ensure that you have matching knuckles, hubs, rotors AND calipers. Mix and match, and the calipers may sit off-center on the rotors and cause all manner of problems. I bow to the experts. Best advise so far.

You have 3 choices. 1) 86-90(?) GM style brakes 2) 90(?)-early 96 Chrysler w/composite rotors 3) late 96-01 Chrysler w/solid rotors Any of those will work on your axle. As mentioned there is good and band with all of them. I prefer the mid 90's stuff because I'm most familiar with it and the calipers use a hex head bolt.

close enough it don't matter

I'm running a '99 D30 with '95 brakes/hubs, with aftermarket SS lines plumbed into the old hard-lines. I personally think the newer brakes are a little better, the rotors are inexpensive and there is a few more pad options.

I'm interested too, but I'd like to know the definite plan for the size and layout for the led holes.

It's in there, but you can read more about it here...B-pillar light alternative Old and new.

I had Hellas in my old '92 XJ. Excellent lights. These I read about on another forum, and everything I read was good. We'll see. Just bear with me, I've got several things I'm trying to get back together in it right now. When I get them installed I'll a least post up some pics here.

Spent some more time on the headliner today. Got all but one small wrinkle out. Then I stripped out one of the bolts for the grab handle and decided to give it a rest. Fedex and USPS brought a few goodies, lightened my mood some. The switch for the passenger power window was starting to go, so I ordered some new DPDT rocker switches. The truck didn't come with power windows and when I wired them in I had just put one switch on each door. OK, but kind of a PITA to reach the passenger side (not sure what I was thinking there). I got the switches from OTRATTW. Great people. I decided to mount the switches here, where factory switches would normally go. The factory bracket needed just minor filing in the corners of the holes for the switches to fit. Coat of SEM paint and ready to install. Also got the parts for my headlight conversion. The quality of the Autopal lights was surprising and they are about half the price of Hella and IPF. Housings w/bulbs and the 100w harness ran me $78 shipped.

That's good to hear. I was really wanted some BFG's, but my wife would have throttled me if I had dropped $850 on a set of tires. The look of the tires is starting to grow on me. Thanks CW I'm ready to drive it. I'm going to use the same hardboard I used in my door panels, got a few things in mind.

Pulled the trigger (always wanted to say that) on some new tires. Not exactly what I wanted, but my friend has had pretty good luck out of these on his Dodge. Has anyone priced tires lately? BFG All Terrains in my size are $191 each. Wow. Got these for $155 each. Rusty rotors, need to get it drivable.

I spent the past few days painting the rest of my interior panels... I finally got off my behind and started reassembling my interior. I decided to use a combination of a couple of home improvement store products for sound deadening/insulation. The flashing material woodkrawler used on the floors and this stuff on the vertical surfaces and under the headliner. Great big old roll for $30. Installed behind the headliner. My headliner backer was destroyed, and I have yet to find a decent one. Late last fall I picked this one up form a guy that makes headliners for collector cars etc from scratch. Back. Picked up some monster Velcro and away I went. Now to say this was a PITA to install would be an understatement, it had to be tweaked quite a bit to make it work. That said it still looks OK, I set the B-pillar panels in to see how it would look. Still ended up with a few small wrinkles, and for $135 that just aggravates the hell out of me.

I haven't eaten there in years! My grandparents place was just down on Park St.

I've got no issues with my current Renix setup. I'm probably going to run it as is till I have a problem and gather up the pieces for the swap up until then. The HO will probably be the way I go, but a stroker does sound interesting. There's a guy over at Jeep forum doing a stroker in his MJ, I'm going to watch how his turns out. I'm from China Grove so I'm down around Salisbury occasionally, I would like to see and hear that 5.9 in person some day.

I bought mine from here...http://www.taillightking.com/hot_rod_light_assemblies.htm for $15 each, but from what Akula69 posted you can get the exact same lights here http://www.infiniteinnovations.com/main.asp?p=4_179 for $8.95.

I bought mine from here...http://www.taillightking.com/hot_rod_light_assemblies.htm for $15 each, but from what Akula69 posted you can get the exact same lights here http://www.infiniteinnovations.com/main.asp?p=4_179 for $8.95.

The only Porsche lights I could find on Ebay were like $40 each or beat all to crap. As far as the LEDs...I bought a set and really didn't like them for my MJ. I like what woodkrawler has done to his MJ. He's modernized it with a '99 interior and sheet metal, so they are in line with what he's trying to do.