Search the Community

oh man, where do i start....? Short story i suppose... ive lurked these forums for awhile now and have wanted to make a build but rarely spend enough time on a computer todo so. anyways, i picked up this 88, shortbox, 4x4, 4.0L in the summer of 2018. i spent some time fixing the hatch patch lift/front end, one of the PO really had no idea what they were doing or didnt care. after said and done, i had her driving good. it was setup with a RC longarm & netting about 3in of lift. i did swap the coils cause i had no idea what they had stuffed in there and i had an extra set of 3in. (lowcoglife) after acouple weeks of PO repairs, i was happy i had saved this poor manche from certain doom as the life of a farm truck. i have a weird rule, before building a rig i have to daily it for a good while. has to prove its worth and show its colors. well, after awhile.. i decided to dump some money in her and did alot of odd and ends, which i won't really get into (nothing todo with the swap, jus giving abit of a backround story) i took it out and did some good wheelin', now i forgot to mention it had a good ol solid 4.0L tick to her, apon inspection after buying...it had 4 bent rods. i did abit of cleaning/flushing/replacing but not dumping too much into it, but alrdy planned on a swap at this point & started seeking an xj. came across a decently clean 98 xj but without much PO history & lots of miles, but the price was right. The adventure from 1988 to 1998 began about 2months after that. I'm about 6-7months into the swap due to personal crap.. medical issues, occupation change & moving. life getting into my jeep time >=[ anyways, i don't have much of an internet connection where i am now and have to hotspot my phone. so i will update as fast as i can trying to keep my post in correct order. currently i have alrdy swapped 95% of the interior, have all the wiring ran inside&out and i am rdy to pull the motor from the donor for some repairs/upgrade then drop it in. Now, I'm calling this a shade tree swap because when starting, the location i was at i didnt have much access to anything but hand tools/cordless power tools. I'm very motivated & spent several years in a shop turning a wrench but got out of the profession 5-6yrs ago. So this swap was done with basically hands tools, no welding, no air tools & stuff bought locally. (menards, lowes, napa, advance, farm&fleet) now that i moved, i have a fully setup & heated garage with my buddy. welder, compressor, plasma, tons of tools between the 2 of us. i also picked up a cheap 89, shortbox, 5spd, 2wd, 5spd that i brought back to life with lots of labor lol. i now daily it 60-80miles, 6days aweek. end game is 98 swap, d60/10.5 ton swap(have axles alrdy need built), 3link/4link, hybrid exo cage, custom topper/rack and stuff lol. ill be doing full frame stiffeners in the near future as well before the tons. she will be a built overland rig. planning a 4k trip to az in march (before the tons) for a test run. currently sorting all the pics from the swap for i can upload in order & update as fast as possible. (having a issue uploading photos, will get them up asap)