Project: Workin' Manche

[WahooSteeler]

Wow! That is one of the best looking MJs I've seen, hands down. I have the Laredo two-tone maroon and gray on the rockers (and flares) and i want to paint them black so that is why i wanted to see yours done so bad, and it confirms the look i want.

 

Also, I've always been surprised that I had not seen an MJ with Icons yet because I think they look great on XJs, and they look great on your truck too. Man, if you did the 97+ sw/out on the front clip, I guarantee you somebody would ask you if Jeep made pickups again.

 

Excellent work. Did you do all the body and paint yourself?

[jtdesigns]

Looks great! Still loving that hood!!!!

[minydigger]

Very nice I am definitely digging the hood is it custom or did you buy it??

[camjeep3]

agreed awesome, thats a show truck not a work truck, i like it. and i want that hood now!! i also love the blackout on it

[1bolt]

Man you guys are going overboard, the pictures are setting me up! Sooner or later one of you will see it in person and see all the mistakes and dribs and drabs that don't come through in pics. I didn't even sand the PO's paint mistakes off, I left them knowing they would show through. It's a ten footer if I wet sand some more! but hey it's a work truck! ;)

 

Thanks for the compliments just the same though, I like the color so much I may paint another Jeep that color, the next time though I'm going all out sanding and body work and shooting for 5 footer paint :) I could dig on an early 80's Fleetside (stepside) Honcho J20 360ci With the same basic scheme, or maybe an M715 hahah now that would be BA.

 

The Hood is written up on NAXJA here:

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.p ... +brew+cowl

if that link dies (NAXJA screws thread numbers up sometimes) just search using "home brew cowl" in titles only and it will be the only result you get back. Some details about it are at the beginning of this thread, it was made for my XJ but the XJ is getting a new and improved version here soon.

[Wildman]

1bolt - Regardless of what you say, it still in one fine job :thumbsup:

[1bolt]

Updates coming, managed to punch out some of the things on the to do list pics and write ups should follow:

 

Black Interior makeover mostly done

Headliner didn't turn out well

New injectors idles smoother jury still out on fuel economy

 

old ones looked like this:

 

Tuneup mostly finished, need to drain all the driveline fluids still.

Knock Sensor replaced, no change in fuel economy

Open cooling system and found what is probably a small head gasket leak

Re-install AC system (deleted by PO) blows cold now

Full gauge cluster (need to get on this, I can't stand not having Oil and water gauges

Minor custom treatment for the grille done

Intake sealed to Cowl opening

Tow package Springs front and rear

New Rear (44 or 8.25)

Detriot Truetrac LSD's front and rear

Borla header (not done but bought one off Ebay for a hundred bucks... can't beat that.)

Higher Flow exhaust

Rear disc upgrade dependant on what rear I put in

Front Speakers, rear 6X9's, rear small sub + amp done

[1bolt]

Coolant system change over lead to a nasty surprise (that I'm still not completely sure about). As you can see the old closed pressurized system had been perdiodically overheating (boiling in the overflow) after long trips. The color was my first red flag:

WTF? that looks like coffee! Straight away I assumed blown head gasket. The truck ran so well when I got it and time/work/familly kept me from ever changing out all the fluids which is a ritual I observe with any vehicle I get.

So after pulling everything out this is what came out of the rad:

Yep head gasket is leaking, no other explanation for the burnt smokey coolant, it's obviously an operable gasket failure and only starts leaking after longer drives.

 

I suppose there's some possibility that the thermostat stuck leading to those boil overs but I can't explain the black coolant. The oil is fine and never milky so it's a small leak between a coolant jacket opening at the head, and a fire ring that's losing seal as it heats up.. The old renix is woefully underpowered compared to my other 4.0's. So anyway I went ahead and changed over to the open cooling system, back flushed the system several times over a couple weeks

But like I said the truck runs like a champ starts every time and since flushing several times the coolant has come cleaner and cleaner. So when it goes I will upgrade the exhaust, and intake and put a ported HO head on it.

 

So I went back to the fun stuff, customizing, I decided a while back that the XJ grill with the smaller thinner slats and wider openings wasn't beefy enough, the chrome 10 slot grill had the right proportions but they only came in chrome, and a black painted chrome one off Ebay just didn't quite work, too many lines, not simple enough to look beefy.

 

Started in on that and the nasty headliner:

And all the interior plastic which just needs to be black instead of tan: