boxyjeep

That hood and console...

The misaligned "Comanche" fender badge kills it for me. Sorry, but if you are looking for a premium price, you better get all the small details right...

Anyone here bought Rusty's 4.5" full-spring leafs for SUA lift? Looking to find the measurement from center axle to bottom of fender flare. I will be lifting the front of my truck ~5" and want a "flat lift" with little to no rake. If you have other brand full leaf packs installed for SUA, happy to hear what those lift heights netted too.

Will let you guys know how they come out once printed. The under-hood emissions label is unique to the year, engine, and CA/Fed status. The VIN sticker is unique to the model GVWR and VIN (with scan-able VIN barcode). Depending on how the printed decals look, I may consider taking orders, but it would take a bit of time to customize each one.

Great project! Any plans to do a 4WD conversion?

Looks like an awesome project to finish up. I'm astonished at how far forward that front axle is pushed. What's the wheelbase on that thing?

My truck was almost exactly like yours. It's an '88 from southern California. No rust, but the paint was totally shot and had patina/surface rust in a few areas. I debated for a long time on whether or not to keep the patina, paint it myself, or get it painted. In the end, I spent ~$4k to get it professionally done. It's not a $10k "show-quality" paint job, but I'm pretty happy with it. The bed was removed, door jambs, and underside of the hood all painted. If I had to go back and do it again, I would definitely opt for a body shop to do the work. Before... After...

For anyone interested, I found a few companies that print replacement emissions and VIN stickers, but they only sell to body shops. I discovered some reference pictures online and reproduced by emissions label and VIN sticker using Photoshop and Excel. I uploaded the images to a custom vinyl/sticker website and am having them printed. Only about an hour of time and $40 to have printed. I printed drafts out on my printer and they looked good. Hopefully the same result with the print shop. These are screenshots of the PDFs--they look a lot better when actually printed. The VIN sticker also has a valid barcode that scans. For those interested--these are required to register an out-of-state vehicle in California. They need the emissions sticker for smog testing and the VIN label for VIN verification. My truck was an original California truck, but I took it out of state for a year (and mistakenly registered it out of state). Bringing it back in now and getting things lined up for emissions and registration.

Unbolt the existing fuse block, unplug it from the engine side. Put them side by side on the drivers floor and remove each pin one-by-one to replace. Also, why did you buy a replacement? Were your pins shot (these can be replaced--parts on Del City), or was the fuse block itself plastic melted?

I found a few in a Google search, but wanted to see if anyone here had any first-hand experience.

Anyone know where to get these? Would also be awesome if someone was comfortable posting a high-res pic of theirs (ideally 87-90 4.0L). I just moved to California and will be getting registered/smogged here. Unfortunately these are required.

Been following this here and on IG. Amazing build. Looks amazing. What'd you go with for rear axle?

How did you get it out there?

That's epic. Interested to see how it ends up.

Thanks--it's tough making the decision between keeping it original vs. modifying. I'm happy with the route I went.

Thanks! This is a 97+ XJ washer fluid reservoir. Wasn’t too hard to mount up and drill the right holes for everything. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Bumpers done: Badland APEX 12k lb winch :-) Some of the trim pieces painted before install: Truck sitting nicely in the garage. Still need to get some additional trim installed and the interior back together.

Looks awesome. Saw you're planning a Golen stroker. Any reason that you're going with them vs. ATK? I'm planning to replace the engine in my truck soon and can't believe the base ATK stroker is only $3k, vs. $4-7k for Golen or others...

I'm insanely impressed that you were able to recover that frame. I think there was probably more metal missing than still there!

Thanks! Should look even better once it's put all back together and drivable...

Thanks. Debating between an ATK stroker or junkyard LS swap. Priced out the Novak adapters... probably at least $2k just to get an LS into the truck, not including the cost of the engine/transmission. I'll probably go the ATK route just so I can get this thing drivable. I've probably put less than 1,000 miles on it since I got it in 2018 so I'd really like to start using it now that it's looking good...

Finally back from the body shop and looking great. I need to get the bumpers, fender flares, trim, and other details back together, but the paint work is done. Bumpers are almost totally painted too: Now for the bad news... Temp was ~260 on my way home. Tons of coolant in the oil. May finally be time for a new shortblock... :-(

Gone?

Looks awesome. Before you swap out the lift, see if the shocks are shot. Might just need to replace those to get the ride quality decent.

Thanks! It's getting there for sure.