Brusselsprout420 Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 And so begins another vehicle build. I bought my 96' 2 door Xj when I was 15 (1st car), not knowing anything about Jeeps or off roading. Soon there after I learned what a Comanche was, and ever since I've dreamed of having one. Fast forward 13 years and the stars finally aligned. So why Cu in the Jungle? Well, I spent my teens and early 20's building my emerald green XJ and somehow copper spray paint became my accent color. I always wanted an Orange Mj, but a few years ago we did Orange Monstaliner on my wife's Tj and she informed me orange is now off limits (whoops). After learning the history of this particular Mj, I felt it was only right to keep it green (Jungle Love Monstaliner) with the additions of my copper (Cu) accents, because who doesn't love science jokes. Speaking of this Mj's history... A buddy of mine actually sent me the FB market place post, I had just gotten my tax return, and now it's mine. As with any FB sale, I did a bit of digging to verify the seller was a real person and found their build thread...which lead eventually lead me to the original owner's build thread. Some of you may remember this rig when BlueXJ built it 15 years or so ago. Sadly in it's current state it's barely recognizable compared to what it once was. The mind blowing part to me, and why this build is special to me is that I actually remember being a teenager and drooling over this build and thinking "one day I'll get there". It's easy to argue this exact truck is what fueled my dreams. Unfortunately this truck needs EVERYTHING. I basically bought it as a caged body with useless (to me) axles. The good news, and the other part of why this build means so much to me is that I have almost everything it needs. Sadly my XJ is doomed for the scrap heap. The rust got so bad that I needed to take action. I cut out a ton of metal and then learned my company was transferring us from southeast Pennsylvania to Michigan. The process took 2 years and by that point she was too far gone to save. Fortunately I convinced them to ship 1 more vehicle across the country on company dime hehe. I'll use my Xj as a donor for the interior, drivetrain, and as many extras as possible. I know I tend to be overly sentimental with my vehicles, but it means so much to me that I'll be able to carry over so much from my 1st vehicle into my dream truck. So here is a list of what I have that'll get swapped over: - 96' H.O 4.0 inline 6 with onboard air (AC compressor mod) - Aw4 trans - NP231 xfer case with full SYE - HP dana 30 with HD Yukon carrier and 4.11s - Police package Dana 35 with HD Yukon carrier, 4.11s, lunch box locker, BDS diff guard, and 30 spline chromoly shafts. I know it's a turdy five BUT, while working at a speed shop in college, a customer offered it to me as described with only 2000 miles on it all for $100. I couldn't say no on my budget. I plan on adding a truss to it. - IRO OTK cross over steering - JKS adjustable track bar - Dirtbound Offroad DIY winch bumper with hoop - Smittybilt X2O 8000ln winch w/ Quadratec Synthetic line -35x12.50R15 Dunlop Mud Rovers - My XJ dash, seats, and interior My final goals/plans are: - 35x12.50xR15s - 3-4.5" lift. The previous owner put new 4.5" rusty's leafs in it, and included new Rusty's 4.5" coils. I don't want to change the current tube fenders, so if I can clear 35's at 3" I'll be thrilled, if not I'll go to 4.5". I'm all about Squatty LCOG Jeeps. - CavFab 3 Alpha 3-Link - Tom Woods drive shafts - Jungle Love Monstaliner - Chassis saver under carriage - Some flavor of Monstaliner interior - Shocks (most likely Bilsteins) - Will eventually redo the steering and track bar setup Here are some more pictures of getting her home (200 miles round trip) The previous owner had only tack welded a new front suspension on. During loading, every tack broke and the axle came completely free. Luckily they had a skid steer to lift the front and walk in on the trailer. The ice covered and sloped driveway made it fun. The 10 degree Michigan weather and wind made it extra fun. The axle was trapped under the truck and I didn't have any equipment to lift it, so I had to drag it off the trailer with the TJ. Took nearly 4 hours of inching because I couldn't get the wheels straight. So it was move forward 2 inches, then re position the TJ, yank it sideways, repeat about 50 times. The best part is that my winch solenoid quit half way off the trailer. Luckily my friend who sent me the posting and helped me retrieve it was in town and brought his Jeep/winch over to finish the job. On jack stands and roughly where she will sit. Rear bumper is solid and staying. Fortunately it came with something I like because my XJ rear bumper rotted out beyond use or repair. The cage was a huge factor in buying this truck. I knew i was going to need one, but I don't have a tube bender or the welding skills to SAFELY do it myself. Well, that's all I have for now. I probably won't be doing much work or posting in the next few months. I'm going to use the last bit of winter to stay warm, pinch my pennies, stock pile parts, and formulate a plan for spring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89 MJ Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 Welcome! I commented on your FB post when you got this (I’m Carter Thiele) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue XJ Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 Glad to see my baby being brought back to life. The guy who bought it from me sure did a number to it, it only lasted a week or two after I sold it until it never ran again. I have no idea how you will get a dash in there with the cage in place, it blocked the old dash pretty good, I wasn't able to open the glove box more than a couple inches even. Does all the primer mean that the rust was taken care of? The cab corners were getting pretty rough when I got rid of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMO413 Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 Welcome to the club. Can't wait to see what you put together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brusselsprout420 Posted March 4, 2020 Author Share Posted March 4, 2020 21 minutes ago, Blue XJ said: Glad to see my baby being brought back to life. The guy who bought it from me sure did a number to it, it only lasted a week or two after I sold it until it never ran again. I have no idea how you will get a dash in there with the cage in place, it blocked the old dash pretty good, I wasn't able to open the glove box more than a couple inches even. Does all the primer mean that the rust was taken care of? The cab corners were getting pretty rough when I got rid of it. I have no idea either lol. If I can't squeeze the dash in, then I'm not opposed to fabbing a custom one. Honestly I'm on the fence about just doing that from the get go. Oddly a motivating factor is being able to bury speakers in a custom dash so they are out of the doors. Better for protection and the ability to run doorless and still have music. The rust is a good question. I poked around quite a bit under the whole truck it's surprisingly clean to me. I'm not pro-welder but I'm pretty comfortable will sheet metal. So welding in new corners/rockers, even if it's not a factory piece, isn't out of the question. I have to be careful with what I say because I don't know who did what, but there are some sheet metal areas on the fenders that will bug me if I don't redo them. The firewall also needs a new heater core section patched in. I suspect that was done to make room for a V8. I thought the "weld" would be seal sealer or something, but to my surprise a magnet stuck to it. So that's gotta go, because in MI we need heaters lol. Also, someone for some reason cut the front fender off of the frame side and cut halfway though the bar about 6" over. Either way, I'm looking at a few weekends of metal work before anything else. Chances are I'll get everything looking good from 20 feet, then monstaliner it before swapping over parts. Similarly, the bed corners are a bit crusty. I'm thinking of buying Dirt Bound Offroad's MJ long bed armor pieces as a patch...then some how running tube/plate from the bottom of the tube fender to the bumper. I've never seen anything done like that before, but I figure if I can pull it off it'll protect the bed AND act as a boatside/slider of sorts. Long Butt problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue XJ Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 Drivers side fender tube is cut? Probably to get the steering box bolts out, I think I had that tube too close to the bolt to get a socket on it, but it was a new box so I didn't care. The guy put a 4.0 in it and was disappointed in the power compared to the stroker it had, so he attempted to put a 305 in it and then a 355, neither of which ever got finished. I still have 2 tubes in my garage to go from the rear tube flares to the back bumper which would eliminate the bottom portion of the bed back there and create an armor slider to protect the bed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brusselsprout420 Posted March 9, 2020 Author Share Posted March 9, 2020 Small update. Since I can't use the GM axle that came with the MJ, and the axle I need is under my XJ, I decided to buy a cheapo axle to make the MJ a roller so I can at least move both vehicles around my property. I found this 2wd WJ front axle on FB for $50! Came complete with the steering box, steering links, knuckles, calipers, brackets, hubs, and other some crap I don't need/want. I really only wanted the axle, but now I can do the WJ knuckle swap! The seller said he was parting out the Jeep because of an electrical issue, so fingers crossed most of this stuff is usable/not worn out. Though the rotors look to be about toast. I Feel like I basically stole the thing for what I'll get out of it. Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brusselsprout420 Posted November 8, 2020 Author Share Posted November 8, 2020 Update: the stars finally aligned for me to make some progress on the sliders. My welds are far from perfect, but I think they should hold. Really pleased with the results considering the 2x6 was salvaged from my XJ, and everything else was either from the sliders the truck came with, or scrap I had laying around. The ground clearance gain is substantial and I personally love this look way better. Now to do the other side. Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 looks good! be sure to try and get paint in the inside of all your work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brusselsprout420 Posted November 10, 2020 Author Share Posted November 10, 2020 The 4-link has arrived! Build by CFM Industries LLC. 2" x 0.25" lowers, 1.75" x 0.120" uppers. The cross member is 1/4" and 3/16" plate with a removable center section. Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiNi Beast Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 nice. the removable cross section will be nice. as i contemplate how ill be swapping tranny with a fully welded Crossmember. coming together though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brusselsprout420 Posted August 15, 2022 Author Share Posted August 15, 2022 I know it's been a LONG time since I've given an update. Mainly because I haven't been able to touch my project. Long story short, I had some SEVERE health issues which nearly killed me. I ended up on VERY light duty for almost an entire year. On my very best days, the most work I could do an a vehicle was an oil change. Then I got distracted with a different major project... Building a polebarn to make working on all my projects easier. Finally, last week I rolled the MJ into the new shop and began working on it again... Only to find I need to do substantial frame repair before anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brusselsprout420 Posted March 26, 2023 Author Share Posted March 26, 2023 I've finally caught up on non-Jeep projects, so now I can focus on the MJ a little more. After a thorough inspection, I realized the frame was way worse than I anticipated. So I got a sheet of 10ga steel and went to town. Basically I'm working one section at a time until the frame is replaced. Pretty much from the froward leaf spring mount, to the factory front upper control arm mounts is toast or needs attention... On both sides. I started with the side that's in way worse condition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvagedcircuit Posted March 27, 2023 Share Posted March 27, 2023 3 hours ago, Brusselsprout420 said: I've finally caught up on non-Jeep projects, so now I can focus on the MJ a little more. After a thorough inspection, I realized the frame was way worse than I anticipated. So I got a sheet of 10ga steel and went to town. Basically I'm working one section at a time until the frame is replaced. Pretty much from the froward leaf spring mount, to the factory front upper control arm mounts is toast or needs attention... On both sides. I started with the side that's in way worse condition. That is a genius way of moving the bed. I'm going to copy your methods when I get to cleaning and undercoating the back end of my '88. Excellent, excellent work. Keep it up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brusselsprout420 Posted March 27, 2023 Author Share Posted March 27, 2023 1 hour ago, Salvagedcircuit said: That is a genius way of moving the bed. I'm going to copy your methods when I get to cleaning and undercoating the back end of my '88. Excellent, excellent work. Keep it up! Thanks. It made removal an easy 1 man job. I also put so scrap 1x2 cleats at the end of each 2x4 to catch the lip of the bed. I didn't want to risk it shifting and sliding off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvagedcircuit Posted March 27, 2023 Share Posted March 27, 2023 17 minutes ago, Brusselsprout420 said: Thanks. It made removal an easy 1 man job. I also put so scrap 1x2 cleats at the end of each 2x4 to catch the lip of the bed. I didn't want to risk it shifting and sliding off. Good call! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89eliminator Posted March 27, 2023 Share Posted March 27, 2023 i appreciate the dedication on bringing this thing back to life. i remember following the original build thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue XJ Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 On 3/27/2023 at 7:27 AM, 89eliminator said: i appreciate the dedication on bringing this thing back to life. i remember following the original build thread. I'm glad to see it coming back to life too! I signed in today just to see if any progress was made on it, it's been years since I've logged in and was hoping to see something! It sure is in a LOT rougher shape metal wise than when I sold it, the frame was still solid and the cab corners were just starting to get crunchy. Nice work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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