Sir Sam Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 2000 XJ 148k, $1400 purchase, after fees taxes tow, parts etc I'm in at $2100, need to buy paint but otherwise done spending money. Should be able to get 3500 out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJ is dead Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 Why is it every single one of these "cheapo 2nd gen XJs" found on craigslist is forest green, with front clip damage, under 2000 bucks, and is never anywhere near me? :rant: :rant: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrawombat Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 What is it with green '00-'01XJs getting banged up in the front and sold on the cheap these days? viewtopic.php?f=3&t=24563 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87Warrior Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 My guess is that was a salvage auction rig. Looking good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Sam Posted July 15, 2010 Author Share Posted July 15, 2010 My guess is that was a salvage auction rig. Looking good. Correct, but has a clean title. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWLONGSHOT Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 Your supervisor seems to be keeping quite an eye on you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Sam Posted July 15, 2010 Author Share Posted July 15, 2010 Yes, he can't stand to not be near me. Kinda annoying trying to weld with a dog bringing a tennis ball up to you. You throw it to get rid of him but of course he just brings it back. Guess thats why they call them retrievers. Got the fender support on and test fitting the fenders and header panel, looks good from that, but I will still need to see what all the alignment is like with the hood on and tweak that alignment to get the gaps correct. the spot welds are easy, but I cannot get the spot welder in everywhere, so I had to use my arc welder. 1/16" rods at 40amps with an arc welder!!!!! tricky. Managed to get some beads all along where I couldn't get the spot welder in, so thats all done. Gonna go back out and work on getting the PS pump pulley replaced, get the new radiator in, then airbox ecu etc untill its back to driveable condition. Then move onto the cosmetic bodywork. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWLONGSHOT Posted July 16, 2010 Share Posted July 16, 2010 PLEASE PLEASE be careful welding with animals around!! they too can be hypnotized into looking at the arch and it will burn there eyes same as yours and mine...ceptin' they cannot tell you its happened!!! :no: :wall: :( I keep my boys in the house or back yard when I'm welding. I also worry about passers by and my welding screen gets allot of use!!! :yes: ;) CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Sam Posted July 16, 2010 Author Share Posted July 16, 2010 Zeus was inside during the grinding and welding today.(was joking about the ball time during welding) Ok got some work done today, but hit a snag with the radiator which is going to cause problems for a little thing. Otherwise got it pretty far. Copper colored weld through primer: These are the sticks I use when I have to weld sheet, they work aright, but its still way too easy to burn through, generally I try to start the beads on the thicker material, then let the puddle pull down into the thinner stuff, the spot welder is WAY better for joining sheet, I just need some larger tongs. Test fit, alignment and everything looks good, fits up like it should, will need to testfit first with the hood to get the fender gaps dialed in, hopefully it won't require much tweaking and will lineup well. Radiator snag: you can see the upper photo is the more common stock type of AN fitting for the upper trans line. Below seems to be more the newer type of fitting, some AN fitting screws into the transcooler. I'm not sure if this is a newer type(as many replacement radiators I've seen are this style) or if its something for the dual core vs single. In any case I gotta find the fitting one way or another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kastein Posted July 16, 2010 Share Posted July 16, 2010 The upper pic is what I found stock on my '96 and '98, it's just a regular 45 degree flare iirc. The lower pic is what I found on the copper radiator I picked up from a part-out, you can get an adapter fitting that makes it into the stock fitting or you can use a small piece of 3/8" tranny tubing and a 3/8"-tubing (7/16" actual size iirc, but don't quote me on that, it's whatever comes on the preflared 3/8" steel tubing) nut, and then hose clamp the rubber tranny hose onto it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Sam Posted July 16, 2010 Author Share Posted July 16, 2010 The upper pic is what I found stock on my '96 and '98, it's just a regular 45 degree flare iirc. The lower pic is what I found on the copper radiator I picked up from a part-out, you can get an adapter fitting that makes it into the stock fitting or you can use a small piece of 3/8" tranny tubing and a 3/8"-tubing (7/16" actual size iirc, but don't quote me on that, it's whatever comes on the preflared 3/8" steel tubing) nut, and then hose clamp the rubber tranny hose onto it. Ya its the adapter fitting I need. I think the newer replacement rads come this way. I've run into this difference before, but it was never a problem since I had everything. I'm hoping the adapter fitting is still on the Jeep I took this off of, going to find out today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrawombat Posted July 16, 2010 Share Posted July 16, 2010 So that's what the adapter was for when I bought my radiator...I didn't need to use it on my '01XJ...probably still have it lying around somewhere. Can check for you when I get home if you can't find one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Sam Posted July 16, 2010 Author Share Posted July 16, 2010 So that's what the adapter was for when I bought my radiator...I didn't need to use it on my '01XJ...probably still have it lying around somewhere. Can check for you when I get home if you can't find one. Ya new replacement radiators seem to come with it, though it seems like sometimes you need it and sometime you don't, got me as to what the reasons behind it all are. Thanks for the offer though. I did not find it on the parts jeep I got it from, so I had to goto a junkyard. When I was there I found a couple of radiators that had been replaced. I pulled one and also grabbed the adapter off of another one. Luckily the adapter is the correct one so my buddy will be buying the radiator from me. I need to get this vehicle for sale ASAP so I was willing to spend $60 for a radiator just to get the project moving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Sam Posted July 17, 2010 Author Share Posted July 17, 2010 More work done today, nickle and diming me right now, and running into the unexpected. First off I found out the old airbox didn't have an air filter in it. I never checked it just removed the whole thing(the bottom was broken so I replaced it). So another $9 out of pocket. Then after getting coolant in the system I find out the overflow line is leaking and spitting coolant onto the fan which then gets flung in my face. Then I find out that the ac system which I thought was fine actually had no charge(just enough that my quicky test for pressure at the schrader valve didn't show that it was basically empty). Pulled a vacuum and it held, filled it with a partially used can of r134a, compressor kicked on and off a few times then nothing. Turns out the compressor clutch is bad, I guess I'll pull the one off of the parts Jeep here and use it(48k mile engine I had wanted to keep complete). Plus I still need to do all the front end bodywork still(as in paint and such). Taking longer than I wanted, wasted a day with the various snags, though thats actually to be expected, seems to always happen. Pics: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWLONGSHOT Posted July 17, 2010 Share Posted July 17, 2010 Thats usually how thisgs go... But nice work and excellent progress!!! :cheers: CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfpdm Posted July 18, 2010 Share Posted July 18, 2010 Nice work. :thumbsup: It's really funny to see what you are having to replace as the one I just bought is getting the same parts. :D I'm going on the cheap though as I'm not looking to flip it right now. Just going to get it back together and make it road worthy for a DD for awhile. :cheers: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Sam Posted July 18, 2010 Author Share Posted July 18, 2010 Well I got the AC going today. Took the compressor of my parts jeep with the 48k mile engine and threw it on this one, ended up using the washer/oring seals on the top of the compressor to get it to hold a vacuum. Sure enough with the new compressor the AC clutch kicked in. Got it blowing cold, measured 65 degrees at the vent when idling, driving along with air being forced in that should drop to 50 or so(from an ambient temperature of 95 or so). Nice work. :thumbsup: It's really funny to see what you are having to replace as the one I just bought is getting the same parts. :D I'm going on the cheap though as I'm not looking to flip it right now. Just going to get it back together and make it road worthy for a DD for awhile. :cheers: Oh don't get me wrong, I'm trying to do this on the cheap too, every dollar spent on it is a dollar I don't make back. But you gotta do what you gotta do to sell a vehicle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kastein Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 Sure you don't need to just remove a shim from the compressor clutch on that thing? Throw the one with the "bad" clutch into a vehicle, give it a try, if you can get it to kick in by using the handle of a hammer to push on the end of the clutch, you should be able to pull a shim out and make it work from what I've read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Sam Posted July 24, 2010 Author Share Posted July 24, 2010 Ok, so after taking a little bit of a break this week working on it I got back at it today. Got my paint, base/clear. Got the LCA mount fixed. Spent the rest of the evening getting the body panels on and alignment dialed in. Lots of on and off of the body panels, you can tell the aftermarket fender is of lower quality for fitment, never goes on as nice as the OEM fenders do. Too bad OEM 97+ fenders are so hard to come by in the junkyard. But after all of that the fitment is pretty much spot on. No wierd gaps or cracks, all nice and even, tomorrow morning I will throw the new bumper on and check alingment, then move onto the paint prep. either tomorrow evening once it cools off or sunday morning while its still cool I will be shooting paint. The plan is to shoot the fenders header bumper in place, and the hood separate starting with the underside. Got the few odds and ends to paint as well, RR flare, grill/headlight bezels. Not sure when I spray those. As you can see, the fitment is perfect, got all my gaps dailed in exactly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Sam Posted July 26, 2010 Author Share Posted July 26, 2010 Got the paint on it today. First time using base/clear. Learning curve for sure. Ended up getting some "stripes" between passes on the base. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now. I also found out that the clear likes to run more than I am used to. Oh well, guess I will try to buff those out. Plus the usual of lots of dust, should buff down nicely, overall though I am impressed with the base clear combo, definitely will be the way I will go from now on. A little bit of wetsand and buff and it will look nice, to quote a phrase "it'll buff out." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kastein Posted July 26, 2010 Share Posted July 26, 2010 Crap I shoulda mentioned this earlier... did you put spacers between the header panel and the fenders before painting? Always better if the body panels aren't stuck together with paint, helps speed repairs later. A couple washers on each bolt/stud pretty much does it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakjeep93 Posted July 26, 2010 Share Posted July 26, 2010 that turned out really nice. good work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Sam Posted July 26, 2010 Author Share Posted July 26, 2010 Crap I shoulda mentioned this earlier... did you put spacers between the header panel and the fenders before painting? Always better if the body panels aren't stuck together with paint, helps speed repairs later. A couple washers on each bolt/stud pretty much does it. Nope never done that, also never been a problem before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Sam Posted July 30, 2010 Author Share Posted July 30, 2010 Got the paint buffed down to my satisfaction, gotta spray some more clear on the one missing flare. Put bumper end caps on, drivers side splash guard, clean interior.......getting close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Automan2164 Posted July 30, 2010 Share Posted July 30, 2010 Man, if I had access to an auction like you it would be bad news. Nothing would ever get sold, and I would always see something that I "Had to have..." Looking good. Rob L. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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