neohic

Had a really nice day at the car show. Seems like EVERYONE has a story about their own or their friend's or that one time they did this or that in a Beetle. ... but that's not why we're here, are we? After the show we went straight home as there was absolutely no way I was going to let all those freshly painted parts wait another night. Granted, the front bumper is hanging on by about half its hardware because I couldn't stand to use the crusty bolts that I had on hand. Otherwise, I haven't been this crazy about this truck since it was put back together the first time around. THIS is the truck I should've built. Gentlemen... I... love... my... Comanche. Sure there's a bunch of things I would still like to do with it this year, but there isn't any reason I can't finally start my MJ season! In an attempt to keep me on track with those little things, here's a list... New front bumper hardware C101 delete Radiator swap Redo the exhaust so it routes around the spare tire under the bed instead of just hacked off before it Do away with the load sensing valve Mount some tow hooks under the front bumper... brackets already there

Changed the oil this morning. That was uneventful other than the fact that I've been meaning to change out the oil filter adapter for the last few years. That got done today. Not a real big deal... now I can run HO filters which really opens up a bunch of options should I ever want to run an oversized filter. That, and the threads on the original one were majorly screwed up since I got the truck. Hopefully it'll stop the eternal oil filter leak that the truck has had since I built the engine. Then all the little fiddly-bits got a fresh coat of satin black. Went back and forth a number of times whether or not to paint the bumpers black. I was thinking silver as the truck originally had silver to go along with the stripes, but I really didn't want chrome and I thought that the silver would be too close to that. Then I was thinking a darker gray but I didn't want to add a new color to the mix. Between mine, the wife, and then Rob, the majority voted for black. Had to give myself things to do to get my mind off of putting it all back together this afternoon. Wait... just wait for the paint to calm down and harden up before handling everything. :fool: Maybe tomorrow? Maybe not? We'll see what happens. There's the local car show that I took this and the camper to last year tomorrow and the Beetle will be joining me. ... need to be fair between the whole gang anyhow. 8)

:rotf:

Yeah... there really isn't all that much one can do to change it up with an XJ tank skid. I've never seen one with drainage holes though. I wanted those so I can rinse things out from time to time with little fuss. You know... rust control and all... :fs2:

What a day! What a day! What a day! My fingers are numb. My arms feel about three times longer. Tennis elbow has got nothing on me. I have a huge new found respect for those people who spent their living washing and detailing cars. There is no f'ing way anybody could pay me to do that for a living. Today was spent fixing sins from last fall along with so many little things that have bugged me since I first painted the truck. There's always been trash in the paint... and there still is. However, it's never looked this good even immediately after everything was put back together the first time! It's started with a long over due wash... ... then things got a little carried away. Never have I ever really taken the time to learn how to properly clean paint. I highly doubt I did anything close to "proper" as far as polishing and waxing, but I'm happy with the results. I did some reading around online about what to use for cleaning up single stage paint. I used all Meguiar's products. Starting with their Ultimate Compound, that quickly came to a screeching halt. This was way too aggressive for what needed to get done. The roof of the truck never really looked all that great, so i started there. I've really been avoiding this for a while just for the being terrified of burning through layers of paint... and after a quick use of the compound, I was terrified even more! After a little more reading around, I came to the conclusion that my paint was very dry. Single stage paint has no barrier to the elements to it happens quickly. That's fine... I now know that more care needs to be taken with it also. Would I have gone with a single stage paint given I could go back and redo things?... nope. But, here we are and hind sight is always 20/20, eh? I moved away from the compound and switched to using Meguiar's Ultimate Polish followed up with their Deep Crystal Carnauba Wax. The polish creeps into the paint like lotion does to skin. There was a couple coats of this all over the truck and it desperately needed it. Poor thing... after the first coat, the gloss came right back and then some! I started with the roof and then the tailgate. Ordered up some decals from Spence and got those yesterday. Thanks again, Spence! I know... I know... the taillights look awful. That'll get taken care of soon enough. I just can't believe I went for so long without putting some proper silver letters back there. As for the rest of the truck, the entire truck got a couple coats of polish, one coat of the wax, and then the hood and roof got another coat of wax for good measure. The results? You can clearly see the recycling can and other such junk sitting in my shop... There is miles of improvement from where I started this morning! Everything was done by hand. There was a huge learning curve for me today and I really wanted the control of doing it all without a buffer. As I already said, I'm very happy with the results regardless of the physical aftermath on me. Couple drinks, and I'll be right as rain... maybe. As for the truck... I would imagine that if I really spent the time with a clay bar and did everything all over again, I could have an even nicer finish. On the other hand, there's a bunch of little dings in the box that never really looked all that bad. Now that everything reflects off of it, they look bigger! The box was originally off of an '89 (I think?) and it was white, then it was primer gray, then it was red. Never did they really look all that bad being that I had and still have full intentions of using it as a truck. Ah well... it's still the same old truck. It's just a little more shiny now! Debating on whether or not to put the freebie decal from Spence on the truck or not. Thoughts? Now I have a big pile of stuff that needs a fresh coat of satin black before it goes back on.

Thanks! Spent a little bit of time looking at this today. Got a package from Amazon with a fancy new air cleaner. Measured it up and it should fit... probably. Also this happened...

Nice. I would rock the hell out of that. :rock on:

Wow... just wow...

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

:bowdown:

Been noticing a bunch of 2 door XJs lately on CL in MN for whatever reason. This one really looks special though... especially for MN! :eek: Not sure what's up with the "diesel" fuel type though. I assume typo. Anyhow... http://stcloud.craigslist.org/cto/5085153833.html 1996 jeep cherokee no rust - $2500 (st cloud) 1996 jeep cherokee condition: like new cylinders: 6 cylinders drive: 4wd fuel: diesel odometer: 88 paint color: white size: mid-size title status: clean transmission: automatic this is a 96 jeep cherokee a sd jeep with no rust, it is in ST Cloud. It will need engine work but it is cherry jeep with 88,000 mi I am back and ready to get the jeep out of the garage thanks Steve

Not sure what to think of that. Some of me likes some of it but... but I don't know about the rest of me... :hmm:

Ah... the luxuries in life, eh? :laughin:

... says the guy who has to pull a wiper off to open his hood completely? :idea:

Wheel size aside, I really like the look of a long box with a little lift on 31s. I'd say yours is the yard stick on that, Don. :thumbsup:

Not a pain to get to at all. Thus... Tried to plan ahead on that one instead of the "that'll do" approach of all the other projects on this thing.

I thought I had all my ducks in a row with this one, and then I went out to the shop yesterday to try and put together all the pieces. Nope... of course not. In my haste of looking around online at what others have done I made the mistake of not actually MEASURING what would fit in the cowl and what wouldn't. I very happily stopped at the local parts place and picked up your average "this is going to make my car go so fast" style cone filter, went home to cut some very large holes, only to find out that my newly purchased "this is going to make my car go so fast" style cone filter is way too big to fit into the cowl. Bummer. Okay... had some running around to do in town yesterday so I stopped again. They were just unpacking a new batch of other style "this is going to make my car go so fast" style cone filters and I though that I had a winner. THOUGHT is the key word there. Everything looked like it would fit, but it was going to be tight. Looks promising? Nope... double fail. After expelling all options of fairly cheap local parts store "this is going to make my car go so fast" style cone filters, I did what I should've done in the first place and did some looking around online at dimensions I ordered up a K&N RU-5111. It's has a 3" flange and the dimensions are 4.5" at the fat end, 3.5" at the skinny end, and 5.75" tall minus the flange which is .75". It's really the 4.5" measurement that's the real magic of it. The cowl can be cut so it'll just barely fit between some nice stamped sheet metal lines, but I've got about 5.5" of depth to work with. Then there's the middle of the cowl that cuts in to make room for the valve cover which necks down to just over 3.5". It'll be tight, but I also wanted to go with something that won't choke anything down. Fingers crossed on this one. I've got some very large holes cut into the cowl that should really be filled with something to make it worthwhile. :doh:

It's there at the beginning and then later on as well... sorta...

She's a beaut, Clark!

Started on something new today. Does it add anything performance wise?... probably not. Will make a racket in the interior?... maybe. Am I making it just for the simple fact that I wanted to?... yup.

Because they're beautiful and are good for so much more than just MJ donors. Who needs an XJ rear seat anyhow? :dunno: Might even settle for just a rear seat cover.

Hey gang! I'm kind of on the market for a set of black seat fabric and head rests. Looking for both for the front two buckets and for the rear bench as well in this pattern... Obviously the cleaner the better. The rear seat doesn't need to be in awesome shape, but just as long as there aren't any huge rips. Not in a huge hurry as it's for a project that's been off and on for years now. To be honest, they're not even for a Jeep project. :peek: So?... anyone?

I'm sure the rest of us would like some updated pictures showing such awesomeness... just sayin'. :redX:

That's all that matters! :thumbsup: Looking forward to more pictures of the new rear. :popcorn: What sending unit is in that new fuel cell? Does it work with the factory gauge?