My new favorite XJ

[mbred0609]

 

DISCLAIMER: I am by no means a professional, whether that be welder, fabricator, engineer, mechanic, whatever. I am just a guy who like to do things with metal and cars, and makes sh8t up as he goes along. I would honesty suggest you probably not do the things I do, but if you decide to do anything in even a similar manner as me, thats on you bro.

My new favorite XJ. I know it's just talk, but there's this saying XJ stands for eXperimental Jeep. I have a number of XJs but this is my new favorite XJ. I was told no more jeeps, but if i found a comanche (or 2?) That it was my one eXception Jeep.

Well I decided its finally time to take my new toy out of its packaging. The 89 was originally going to be my daughters, but I decided to give her the 88 so its more of a numbers matching vehicle. in the future she or someone may care, I don't. I just wanna work on it and have fun in it.

Down to the nitty gritty. Pulled the entire interior since I'm doing a 95 4wd automatic swap. The jeep had no engine when purchased, is 2 wheel drive, and if it remember correctly, I was told the 2wd 5 speed is in the bed. I honestly don't remember looking cause it got bought, parked, packed, and tarped.


So with that done, what surprises are in store for me?




Yeah, nice no surprises. I guess that makes it time to cut out the cancer. Ohh yeah, that box/brace (I assume brace) thingy that the fuel lines go around. It's not on xjs, so i assume chrysler decided it was neccessary? Or is that a important mj thing i need to learn about. To me it just looks like a small stiffener that makes running lines, slightly harder.

Looks like I need structural repair. I am by no means a professional, so I'll take all the constructive criticism and advice anyone wants to give; but I'm not saying I'm gonna listen. I'm sure hindsight will be 20/20 on more than one occasion, but I have full faith in my ability to build it strong and safe.
To get the basic structure back I'm using some 16ga old shelving. Stack and overlap to build up rigidity. I intend to seam seal and fluid film the inners before closing it up. It will also get the ironman full stiffener kit.




It is not the prettiest thing on my block, but its not the ugliest either. Granted the other ugly things may also be in my yard.

Ok, now to cap in the bottom hmm wait, don't caps usually go on the top. Am i bottom or bottoming in the bottom? Great the job is barely started and I'm already confused, this does not bode well. All that being said, Hindsight is knocking. He says, why didn't you cut that center leg longer? Ehh whatever, it'll be fine. Besides that was a lot of work, I don't wanna do that again today. 

Some times I just wish I had a dimensional storage pouch. If I did I would of pulled out my brake and this thing would be so pretty. But alas, no pouch no brake. Soo that thing is ugly. Especially noticable once I finally had it in place, the frustrated adrenaline from taking it on and off umpteen times wore off and I actually looked at it. Ehh, it'll be fine. Practice makes progress.


So thats basically 24ish hours of my weekend.

Ohh wait, I believe I did mention something about stiffeners. Lack of brake, bad bends, excuses, excuses whatever. I had to re-cut and weld part of the bottom to make the stiffener go into the position intended. And after all that work bending to make it ohh soo pretty.  Ehh, it was ugly before, its still ugly, itll be fine...

Next time will be more of the same. Hopefully sooner rather than later

[A-man930]

Good work and good attitude. 

[mbred0609]

14 hours ago, A-man930 said:

Good work and good attitude. 

Thank you sir. I try, on both accounts.

[Pete M]

do make sure you find and fix all the water leaks that led to those floors.   for they can be numerous  

[mbred0609]

Since my cab and engine bay are completely gutted is there anywhere specific you suggest I look? I plan to climb all over, under, and around this thing now that I'm not concerned about it folding. Not that it probably would have, buuut, better safe than sorry.

[fiatslug87]

Use Pete’s talcum powder trick to find the leaks.

[mbred0609]

OK round two. I'm trying to do things right, or at least as right as I can, by making the attempt to be patient and not rush things. I always rush things, I rarely have the luxury of time to actually take my time. Ohh so bad do I just wanna work on that floor. But gotta brainstorm, get some hardware, weld through (around) primer, yada, yada, yada. Besides it sucks to work on bigger things for only 2 hours at a shot on a weeknight.

 

 

That being said I moved to the front of the truck. As I mentioned it was sold with no drive train (except maybe a trans in the back) and no title. The harness was just cut to remove the engine. 

 

 

Now that its been gutted I can see what I'm up against up here. Now if i was some kind of professional I might get this sh8tbox sand blasted. I believe I may have mentioned somewhere that I am by no means a professional. Soo ima just do the best I can on this one, as practice for the next one, whenever that may be. 

 

My hopes are yall enjoy the commentary. But if you don't, well i really don't care. I am mostly doing this to document this project for myself, and I'm told that I like to hear myself talk. I guess I like to read myself talk as well.  Is that even a thing? Confused again..

 

Where was i? Ohh yeah, I am notoriously bad at keeping track of the things I do. Timeline, budget, what are those? It just took however long it took and cost whatever it cost. No I don't remember all the details, its just done....

 

That once again being said (ADHDish?), that battery tray doesn't look horrible, unless I'm either to lazy to pick up a wire wheel, or somehow forget to look underneath. On this night I happened to be neither. Take that hindsight. Now we're 1-1... FYI there are many more spot welds than yellow dots. Have fun if you ever do it.

 

   

Soo yeah that was fun. I think it was like 16 spot welds and there may have been 1 or 2 more in the center. But hey its out, no major deformation of the panels, and ooh I found a section left of the bumper mount that had a little bend, so hammered that true right quick. After I "fixed" it i thought, darn I didn't get a picture beforehand. I may or may not of been tempted to re-bend it just for photographic purposes.

 

 I didn't.... 

 

So now that that piece is out, what am I really looking at? It's not so bad, nothing a little shelf won't fix. I gotta get me some more shelves. Sure its got some cancerous rot, but I know a guy who my wife insists eats that stuff for breakfast. 

    

Now I have one of them benchtop HF sandblaster cabinets. Last time I tried it, well let's just say I maybe wasn't patient enough to deal with the flaws and find a work around. Or in layman's terms, maybe it was trash. But hey i wholly accept the fact that it could of been operator error. Sooo, I'm probably gonna give it another shot. Like I said I wanna do this as right as I can. Thank you internet for keeping me vigilant. I'll be honest, there may have been times I've either skipped doing something or say "Ehh, it'll be fine" and just kick the can down the road, due to that time thing i think i may have talked about. However being as I'm documenting this, I feel like the people who read this probably deserve to see me try my best. Even if that best is mediocre at best.  

 

Until next time...

[mbred0609]

39 minutes ago, fiatslug87 said:

Use Pete’s talcum powder trick to find the leaks.

Will do, thank you.

[A-man930]

The HF blast cabinet is much, much better once you do the commonly documented upgrades to the dust extraction, lighting, and pickup tube.