Build Thread: Life of the Chili Pepper

With everyone documenting their rigs I got jealous and decided to put something together.

Life of the Chili Pepper… Hopefully a never ending story.

After owning and wheeling a couple other rigs I decided it was time to go back to the beginning. I wanted a Jeep that did not require a trailer. I wanted something I could take on weekend adventures, drive to work, and simply enjoy.

My Goals:
Around 3” of lift
Daily Driver
Body Armor
Everything heavier duty than stock

Based on the Carfax report I believe I am the seventh owner of this XJ. I spotted it with a for sale sign at Winterfest 2011 and started arranging a trade… We got something worked out and I took possession a week or two later.

This is it fresh off the trailer with 194,000 miles on the clock.


Two retreads, one MT/R with a broken belt and one nearly worn out MT/R
Bent frame rail
Missing a hood latch and something else under the hood, it’s been a while.
Both bumpers bent
No front sway bar
Oil leak
Howling front pinion bearing
Dead hatch struts
S shaped leaf springs
Damaged rain gutter
Roof rack partially torn off
Sagging headliner
Open straight pipe
Broken windshield
Worn steering parts
And more…

So right away I fixed the struts.



Over the next few weeks I moved onto other parts in need.

I don’t have pictures but the Chili Pepper immediately got front unit bearings, carrier bearings, axle shaft u-joints, and pinion bearings. Also without pictures it got a muffler to tame to tame things down a little.

Massaging the rain gutter and dent from the roof (back to acceptable)



Then inheriting a roof slider that I had helped Pat build for his rig before he moved to an exo-cage





Just in time for JCR’s annual tax sale I was able to work out the funds for both front and rear bumpers









The front bumper never really mounted perfect because of the bent frame rail so I decided to ask Pat for assistance in straightening it out a little. As you can see in the pictures we used one ram, one XJ, a come-a-long, hammers, and liberal amounts of heat. We jammed a pipe between Pats XJ and the bend to act as a fulcrum. We attached the come-a-long to the frame rail. From there we turned the wheels of my Jeep so they would push off against Pat’s Dodge Ram, hopefully giving us some more push on the frame rail from the gearbox pushing.. We got some movement and things look much better now.



I was able to take it wheeling for the first time at the Redbird clean-up, fall of 2011



I learned that I needed clearance but I didn’t really want to lose my fenders on this DD rig. So I decided to raise the factory fenders in the front.

Stock fender location



Material removed

Final resting place for my CB antenna. I love it here because it never gets in the way when you have the hatch open.



Part of my goal has been to limit upper flex and keep center of gravity low. I added these extended rear bumps with hopes that hitting an obstacle will cause the Jeep to go up before the low ride height can cause it to drag on something.



Also part of being lower means not lowering the rockers with rock rails so I did a full rocker replacement.







I added Pat’s old tire carrier and didn’t capture any pics of the process.

I took the Jeep to WF 2012 in this configuration and had a great time. Although the entire event I knew I had parts on borrowed time. I made it a goal that 2012 would include a fall that focused heavily on preps for WF 2013.







Not long after WF 2012 I started having oil pressure issues so I installed a high flow oil pump at 217,200 miles. No new pump pics, just the old slimy engine…



Prepping for trail clean-ups and WF 2013 I planned to do leaves, coils, shocks, shackle boxes and more. Here you can see the shackle box installed. Plus the new factory height leaf spring with a higher spring rate.

Somewhere in there I installed Currie 1-Ton Steering and in this pic I’m installing a Rough Country track bar.



Continuing with my theory that it’s good to limit up travel and force the rig to go up so it can’t drag its belly on everything, I installed extended front bumps too



And Rusty’s 3” Coil Springs



And one of the most noticed mods I have done… WJ Grand Cherokee leather seats






Maybe the happiest any repair has ever made me was after fixing the sagging headliner with this material I found at Hobby Lobby.



Just before WF 2013 I got two new tires to put on my ZJ wheels that I forgot to mention earlier. This set of tires means I’m running on two retreads that simulate the original GY MT/R’s and these two pictured tires that are somewhere between a BFG M/T and a Swamper TSL. I love these Tread Wright Max Trax and plan to get two more, giving me a matching set of 4.



The Jeep performed great at WF 2013 and I managed to go most of the year without getting any new pics or doing much work to it. I’m now at 229,200 miles and prepping for WF 2014. I just finished installing a JCR gas tank skid and plan to get my winch in the mail on Monday. Hopefully I will have pics of the winch installed and maybe two weeks out on installing rear ¼ protection.

The WJ seats are amazing!

Man those seats looks comfy!

That thing looks great for DD/weekend wheeler

I know just how comfy those WJ seats really are compared to stock XJ seats. They will be at the top of my list come Spring. My back with thank me. Do the power seat switches work on the side of the seat bottom?

Jeep looks great by the way!

Thread clean up in aisle 1...

mac 'pics are view-able' gyvr

philagony94xj said:

I know just how comfy those WJ seats really are compared to stock XJ seats. They will be at the top of my list come Spring. My back with thank me. Do the power seat switches work on the side of the seat bottom?

Jeep looks great by the way!

Click to expand...

Just about anything you would ever want to know about Grand Cherokee seats. Paste or follow the link if it works.

http://www.wjjeeps.com/seats/seats.htm

Big 'comfy leather' Hank

Those seats do look great.

I'd like to know how those Treadwrights do, thats a design I'm not familiar with...

Overall thats a great looking rig, wish mine was that clean, but then I wouldn't wheel it as hard as I do...

99SJ 'Following' Ex

99SJ_Ex said:

I'd like to know how those Treadwrights do, thats a design I'm not familiar with...

Overall thats a great looking rig, wish mine was that clean, but then I wouldn't wheel it as hard as I do...

99SJ 'Following' Ex

Click to expand...

Initial thoughts on the Treadwrights.

• I only air down to about 18psi since I'm still not sure of the effects. Still insane amounts of traction and most people would agree if they've seen it climb in the quarry at WF.
• wearing great, very smooth, no cupping
• E rated on these and I think they offer D rated. I'd like to try the lighter duty and see if they flex a little more.
• great road manners
• noisy and noisy
• hard to find a shop to balance them per the instructions
• absolutley have to be balanced per the instructions
• 'kedge grip' is amazing but for sure increased the wear rate.
• 12,000 miles on them this year with two rotations. I'm not sure if they will make it another 12,000 and still fit my opinion of 'WF2015 Ready' Side lugs will be there but less down the middle. I run a little high on pressure and it keeps them quieter (34-35 psi) but does wear the middle.
• The fake Good Years are far quieter but I don't think drive as nice when they are on the front.
• I think I've owned and wheeled... 35" MT/r's, 33" BFG MT's, 36" Swamper TSL's
• These are the same as 30.8", I think... I'd have to read the metric junk on the sidewall.

Big 'I will own more of them' Hank

Big Hank said:

Just about anything you would ever want to know about Grand Cherokee seats. Paste or follow the link if it works.

http://www.wjjeeps.com/seats/seats.htm

Big 'comfy leather' Hank

Click to expand...

Perfect! Good info. Thanks.

I've added a Superwinch LP10000.

Crazy happy over this winch. In attempting to put together an adventure rig this is a critical step in self sufficient back road exploration.





Big 'pulling power' Hank

Now I have another reason to keep an eye on CL, hopefully someone will be parting a wj with leather seats real soon

The wj seats look awesome! I had zj leather front seats in my first jeep. They were comfortable but they sat you up quite a bit higher which I wasnt huge on.

kmanxj5050 said:

The wj seats look awesome! I had zj leather front seats in my first jeep. They were comfortable but they sat you up quite a bit higher which I wasnt huge on.

Click to expand...

^^Exactly^^

I'm 6'0" tall and I don't think I would have done the install if I was any taller. I do plan to take the fronts out this summer and build an adapter to get a little more leg room. You kind of feel like you are driving a Land Rover Discovery with these things..

My other complaint is that is if you are hard on seats, you don't want generic leather seats. If you climb into and slide out of your jeep....these things would probably only last a year or two. They are usually 10+ years old before they are new to you.

Hate to sound negative on the swap. I have not had a single moment where I have even slightly questioned comfort since I installed them. I just have to treat them like they are fragile.

Big 'price you pay for luxary' Hank

The seats are excellent. Nice winch too.

What kind of modifications did you need to do to the Jeep to fit the rear seats in? And the front seat?

Fore Wheeler said:

What kind of modifications did you need to do to the Jeep to fit the rear seats in? And the front seat?

Click to expand...

Front seats:
Take the WJ seat off it's frame and install on XJ fame. Gear Wrench is critical when doing this. The old WJ seat frame will have all kinds of motors and stuff not related to the relcine option you will have left over. Your slide will come from the XJ bracket.

My extension idea is to use acceptable thickness bar-stock and maybe plug weld studs into it.. Then drill the appropriate holes to mount to the XJ frame.

Rear seat:
You have to beat on the the read fender wells and massage them a little. If you still completely tuck a rear tire, it may rub a little. I think I cut a little carpet.. My major issue with WJ rear rear seats is that you cannot fold them flat and I'm not even sure you can fold them all the way down when you have the front seats all the way back. I've basically given up on the idea of folding the rear seats down.

In a perfect world.... Black leather factory rear XJ seat. WJ fronts.

There are a couple great write-ups I used. I'll post a link tonigt if I can find one.

Total install time was about three hours.

Big 'plush' Hank