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. 

[Salvagedcircuit]

Impressive amount of work. Nice job! 

[mbred0609]

So yeah, its been a month, time flies when you're stuck doing all kinds of not fun sh8t. I had the wonderful opportunity to have a little bit of father and son quality time. Although maybe just maybe, it was more like a chance to get the kid back for all those lawns he didnt mow by having him work his a$$ off. This is only relevant to the jeep due to money and quite possibly but only slightly the reason why its been a month since I got to play with my toys. 

 

 

This plant loves to call me and ask me to jackhammer lead, although it seems to be only when I've finally gotten some motivation to work on one of my projects. But hey I'm not gonna complain about a mostly double time weekend. Last time they called me away from a project it was almost 2 weeks of running #90 hammers 12 hours a day. This time the lead was softer and it was only 3 days. Either way after a few days on a hammer I tend to get very unmotivated to do anything with my personal projects. Also didn't help my wife and her friend do pottery as a hobby and my tarage (yes you read that right)? mostly the welder runs off the same circuit as her kiln and she decided her kiln needed to run whenever I had some free time. 

 

 

So now that I've back storied, what did I do? I had all weekend, so I did a bit of a few things. I did finally order and recieve a bunch of consumables, so let's get back to the floor. I finished finish welding the pieces that were added last time and I almost fired the guy who worked on it last because I swear he told me the only welding that needed to be done was back side of the stiffener. He lied... but that isn't a cool new picture, or even anything new. So just as a final backup (I needed new nuts inside the rail anyway) I put a piece of 5/16 box tube and laid it in across the weakest spot and welded it in. 

  

Well hidsight is up 2-1 now. So yeah that lower bracket is not a part that you get when you buy the full keyparts floor set. Some guy told me he had one of those brand new in the box, right over there, so rather than drill out the spot welds (which honestly didn't need to be done either because there was not a brand new one on the box) I just hacked it off all willy nilly with the grinder. Well time to get fancy.

 

Yeah there was a big gap. I should totally fire that guy. The whole reason I was gonna put that on was just for the rot across the top ears. Like it barely took half an hour to fix it, not including the hours I wasted cutting it off before attempting to place the wrong piece in and out 37 times looking like an idiot the whole time ,just to finally rigg it back up. 

  

Incase you're wondering, I seam sealed every weld. Ohh and i may have lied a little bit for dramatic effect. I also needed to take that piece off to replace a section of inner rocker. Doesn't change the fact that guy told me he had a new one. 

 

 

I forgot to get a picture of the ugly thing I bent up with my hammer, but I'm sure you can imagine i made something bendy and ugly out of a shelf and it worked. 

 

Now onto something maybe a little more exciting, that is if your a glutton for punishment and like making things out of what most people would call trash. Trans tunnel... I bought 2 jeeps a couple years ago to rebuild 1 that had some pretty bad frame damage after it got hit while parked. Well one I still have (I was told I could get a title and never did, not for lack of trying) it will be a parts jeep for now and a beater later. That 99 jeep doesn't matter though, for now well talk about the 95. That single jeep has now provided structural parts for 2 cherokees and now a comanche. It has also provided a driveshaft for my new to me 99 2 door. So yeah that was $450 well spent and I'm not even close to done with its parts. 

 

So yeah trans tunnel, I'm not even sure why I kept the trans tunnel from that jeep when I cut the shell apart, I didn't even have the manche yet. But alas I did so I'm gonna count that as +1 for me against hindsight. So that 2-2 buddy...

 

 

OK so its not the prettiest trans tunnel, but its better than the one that was in there or wasnt in there, depending on your perspective. I mean what are the odds that I'd just happen to peer into the future and then say to myself, I might need that trans tunnel one day. Unfortunately, my mom is a hoarder, I hope that sh8t aint genetic, but things ain't looking so bright, depending on your perspective, of course. Hey at least I actually use my hoard of random things that I may, probably, possibly, on the off chance find a use for some day. But really talk about dumb luck. 

 

Now that the trans tunnel is mostly there I can finally think about a floor. Not the best of pictures and the floor is not actually installed, but it is prepped with all the spot weld holes and ready to have final fitment and welding done. Btw that pneumatic punch from harbor frieght for $70 is the sh8t.. I still need to fluid film inside the unibody and I'm thinking it might make life a little easier doing some of the other work if I don't have a sheet of steel to bang my head off of when I need to be under there.

  

 

While waiting on seam sealer and paint to dry i did manage to squeeze in a little time to work on that engine bay. I tried some stuff called Corroseal to deal with the surface rust/pitting but either its to cold or I'm an idiot and did it wrong, but its supposed to convert the rust to a primer and turn black. For me it kept turning bronze. However it did clean up a lot nicer with wire wheels after it had 24ish hours to sit. Ill have to do more testing later in a more controlled setting. For now I wire wheeled it clean and threw some primer over it for now to help avoid future rust.

 

That's it for this week's episode of pimp my sh8tbox. I do need to do some suspension work on that 99 2 door, hopefully this week before I take it wheeling this weekend. If not I guess I'll just rub tires again. I guess I also need to do some work on a trailer so I can tow my sh8tboxes around. Ohh and I also need to do about 37 other things. Ehh it'll be fine, but maybe I won't get back to this jeep again for a couple weeks. Idk..

 

Ohh yeah i mentioned something about losing motivation due to earning money. Yeah i was totally gonna put that money into some new cool part or something, buutt then i bought something else. My sons friend sent him a message about a pretty niceish comanche for $500. Niceish is obviously completely dependant on your perspective. This one appears to have a bunch of body work already done and its already gutted for a h.o. swap. Welp we went and looked at it and now all 4 of my kids are jeepers. After we finished looking at that jeep the guy says to me, "there's a second jeep". So 3 miles away tucked behind a garage under what looks like 37 years of thorn bushes growing over it, sits a salvage title manche the same color as the one I'm working on. That is except the tailgate, which is blue. What are the odds I just happen to be in need of a color matching fender and header panel? $300 and well now its mine. Its not home yet so i don't have any information to add on that. 

 

Hope you all have happy holidays.

[mbred0609]

I know its been awhile and this update isnt anything special, but if i don't write something I'll forget. I believe i mentioned that i have a problem with time management, keeping budgets, and just plain keeping track of the things i do in general. 

 

So I decided to go long arm and ordered from ironman4x4fab.com over the black friday sale. I knew it was a minimum 30 day lead time but it ended up taking like 90 or so. I cut out my lower control arm mounts end of December to prep for the long arm I expected in January, and well the truck sat on jacks with no front axle until middleish od june. To be fair I did get all the pieces sometime near the end of March but honestly I had higher priorities by that point and had lost a bit of motivation. There's that motivation thing again. I also hold no ill towards ironman for the long lead time, did it suck...yeah...but I get it. I waited until the last day of a sale, he also had people higher on the priority list. It's not like I thought it'd be an off the shelf product. I am also highly considering the rear long arm mounts in the future and I'll probably order the last day of a sale and other people will be higher priority than me.

 

Now to also be fair I could of done a number of other things, like actually weld in the floors, weld the new bed wheel wells in, remove the bed and finish the back half of the stiffeners, among other things, but it was cold and I that wasnt what i wanted to work on right now. No one's fault but my own, but lost motivation is lost motivation... Also I believe that now puts hindsight at 3 to 2. Don't cut important things off without a replacement readily available... Lastly, its not like did absolutely nothing over the winter, I did finish the front stiffeners as well as wire wheel, sand, and primer some rusty stuff under the hood. It was time consuming but it felt like filler work and I didn't get many pictures or remember to document it. I did however get pics after I threw some paint on it last weekend.

 

     

 

 

I have needed, no wanted that tarage so many times this winter. Ive put like a 100ish hours into my mom's car and I'm not done. I had to weld torque boxes and a do a bunch of rust repair on my 97 wrangler that my kid is running into the ground. Oh and I'm not done with it either. There is a diamond in the rough though. I did get to play with 2 other manches. Albeit I did have to do it outside, which sucked a LOT.. I'm gonna start a new thread to document that.

 

 

I did finally have enough of working outside though so I got the kit installed a few weeks back to make it a roller so I could have my tarage back. Currently the fact I have so many projects will have this on the back burner for a couple months. I'm sure I'll find a reason to touch something on it occasionally, but I'm not sure I'll remember to document it. Here's a couple pics on the long arm installed to end it out.

[mbred0609]

I believe i mentioned this is mostly a blog so I don't forget things. I wrote that last post well over a month ago and forgot to post it. Since then I've been a busy beaver. Not as much on this manche as id like, but hey thats the sh*tbox life I guess. Still getting things done on my mom's car (actually procrastinating a heater core), working the bugs out of my kids comanche (she's 13 I have time), replaced the entire lower half of the passenger quarter on my 99 2 door, and yes did some more work to my comanche. Pic of my kids comanche (also one of my daily drivers for a few years) just because.

So yeah not as much id like but progress is progress. Over the past week I pulled it back into the tarage, removed the bed and started on the rear frame. These past 2 posts don't feel as fun because nothing really went wrong and I havent had to do any serious fabrication. It's just been grind, clean, weld, and bolt stuff on. I know i should probably appreciate the "easy work", but thats not how my mind works. So either way here's some pics.

 

Now I don't want anyone to think I'm complaining about the back half being in overall nice condition, its just not what I'm used to. Overall this thing cleaned up really nice and I didn't actually have to repair anything other than 1 broken bumpstop bolt on each side and i guess I'll have to maybe repair a small section of 1 bed mount. That is to be determined on my mood. So here's some pics with the stiffeners and paint.

And now I am officially caught up with all completed work. I still have work to do on some other sh*tboxes, so maybe I'll back burner this like I said, or maybe I won't. Well see what mood I'm in.