dasbulliwagen

I sold this truck in late 2024/ early 2025. The new owner said he was going to build it into a mud buggy.

I too was thinking that if you have stock springs, there's no way they're too stiff. I'm not sure you'll ever be in a place to make this happen, but try taking all of your shocks off of the truck, then go for a short drive in a parking lot. It's really scary! The continual bouncing, and huge amounts of sway make it downright dangerous to drive like that. It just highlights the amount of work shock absorbers actually do and the effect they can have on how your ride feels. I set mine up with Bilstein 5100's, which some people say run a little firm. But I like it like that. Before the Bilsteins and the 6 inches of lift I installed, I ran slightly modified black JK Wrangler takeoffs. They rode great without feeling too firm. They are about an inch longer than stock MJ shocks so worked good with a slight lift.

The one from Krusty is well made and worth the price. You'll need to paint it, but that's no big deal.

I did a junkyard one from a V8 ZJ. It's 2 1/2 turns lock to lock, compared to the stock 3 1/2 turns. I haven't had any issues with it over the last 10 plus years. I know this probably doesn't help much, other than the steering ratio if that matters to you.

Shocks are a big contributor to ride feel as well. What shocks are you currently running?

I won't throw it away, I'll eventually sell it as parts.

I've gathered all my parts, and now I just need to find the time to work on it. I ended up getting a used header panel. It's nowhere near perfect, I guess not even good enough for the junkyard to want to charge us (the dealership I work for) for it, so they just let us have it. But its solid enough and usable. Two of the mounting studs were twisted out of it, so I'll have to use some through bolts, and the wiring harness for it is cut up, but I have all the pieces, so I can make it work. I also have some new LED headlights, and clear turn signal and marker lenses to add LEDs to. I'll add more pics when I get to fixing it.

I got an offer last Thursday, $1300, for parts and about 6 hours of labor. If I can get a pick-n-pull header assy, Ill do ok on this. Having worked in dealerships service depts so long, I had no idea how low body shop labor rates actually are. Our small town dealership service dept rate I think is in the $160-$180 range, but avg body shop labor rates are about $60 hr! I guess thats what dealing mostly with insurance companies gets you. Ive looked at a couple U pull yards and there seems to be a few good XJ's within about 1 1/2 hr from me if they still have what I need. It will get fixed one way or another.

I remember seeing it on mine, but I don't remember if I put it back in.

The adjuster for the County's insurance company decided that they are going to cover me, and sent out an independent appraiser. I asked him if he had much experience with classics, and he said he hadn't, but that he'd be talking with someone else who did. I too saw the Hagerty page with the values and comps, which of all the places I looked had the highest values of anywhere I looked. The worst was Edmunds.com which after I put in my info, it gave me a value of about $2200. I know my truck isn't perfect, but $2200 is just insulting. I hope you get a good resolution for your truck. It will be a slow process. I'm just over a month since my accident and I still don't have a number for what they're going to cover for me. And there's still a possibility that they'll want to total it. Which would mean screwing with the title, buying it back, and still fixing it, but then having a salvage title. Not that I ever plan on selling mine, but still. Good luck with yours, hang in there.

On my way to work almost 1 month ago, I had a little accident. Everyone is ok. It was a glancing blow. I was going through my green light, when out of nowhere there's a fire Marshall's truck (Ram 1500) going lights and sirens through a red right in front of me. I slammed on the brakes and locked them up, but we just caught each other, my right front, and his right rear. I think my light bar I modified saved me a little, but still, another Wagoneer header panel bites the dust. The adjuster for the fire Marshall's truck says they're going to cover me, but I'm worried about how they're going to value it, and if they're going to want to total it. It just hurt the bumper and header panel only, so mechanically it's fine. I looked up classic car values the other day and the values were all over the map. Edmunds has me at just over $2000, while others range from $4000-$20,000 with an average for #3 condition at just under $7000. I won't let them total it. I'll fix it one way or another. I'm probably going to do a '97 up front conversion. I've priced up almost $900 in parts on Amazon to do what I need. Header panel and grille kit, bumper, end caps, headlights and buckets, and new Hella driving lights that got knocked off. Not including labor. I'm not going to let anyone else touch my truck. I'll post again after I start getting her back together.

Nobody mentioned, why not get rid of the Explorer to get something less than 5 years old? That makes more sense to me. You have two vehicles, The Jeeps, appreciating in value, and the Explorer deprciating. It only makes sense!

Thank you. I guess I didn't scroll down far enough last I looked at it. I'll order tomorrow.

Way back when, I wanted to convert to electric fan with a used WJ fan I had. I couldn't use the 2.5 shroud due to the offset, but I had 2 2.8 shrouds that I cut up and epoxied to the fan to mount it, as they were more centered on the radiator. I used it that way for several years.