Filarski's XJ Pre-runner build

[FatCity]

Ryan and I finally started building his pre-runner. The plan is a family friendly 4 wheel drive built for the deserts of Baja but still capable of trail riding and daily driving when needed.

He bought this basically stock 98' 4.0 automagic Jeep XJ back in 2008 for $1300. The steering box portion of the frame was so badly cracked/shattered that the previous owners just wanted the un-drivable little Jeep out of their driveway.

Took a weekend to tear it down, plate it, weld it up and put it back together, but therwise it was in pretty decent shape… for a Cherokee.

Ryan put a new set of 31’s on it, a Detroit locker in the Chrysler 8.25 and drove it daily for five years. Even doing some duty in Baja for the 09 Baja 1000 when he used it to pre-run his section of the course before the race.

For 5 years now Ryan patiently collected, bartered and bought all the parts needed. Now its time to put it all together…

We started by going through both axle housings. A Currie fabbed 9 housing with 35 spline Ten Factory shafts for the rear and a custom Ford 8” with 31 spline chromo shafts also built by Currie.
Both housings did some time under different race Jeeps so we wanted to clean, paint and replace all the bearings first off.

 

[FatCity]

The rear housing came with a spool and a 620 gear ratio. After some discussion we decided to re-gear an Aluminum 3rd member that already had a Detroit in it that had been waiting to go in to my F150. Ryan’s time table is wayyyy ahead of my axle swap time frame so we agreed to use it and we’ll work something out down the road.
We picked up some 9” Motive Gear Performance 457’s from National Drivetrain to match the front.

Front Ford 8”

Next we parked it in Ryan garage and stripped the old suspension and axles out of it to bolt up the new stuff.

 

[FatCity]

Deaver race packs slung under

We re-used the factory spring plate and just made shock tabs for it.

We got both axles hung and the brakes plumbed. Ryan yanked the T-case and installed a Rubicon Express slip yoke eliminator and had Coast Drive Line in Ventura make some 1350 drive shafts for it.

New tires on and rolling.
From here we drove it one whole mile over to my garage and started doing the fab work.

 

[FatCity]

Getting ready to do some work…
Once we got it over to my place, we gutted the interior along with all the doors to make it easier to work around. And had a glass guy come take the windshield out.

 

[Mike1331]

that front axle is so sexay. Nice work

so those leafs were for a spring under app? I'm amazed at how low it sits if so. It looks to sit perfect.

cool build:thumbup:

 

[FatCity]

so those leafs were for a spring under app? I'm amazed at how low it sits if so. It looks to sit perfect.

cool build:thumbup:

Negatory, the Jeepspeed race pack from Deaver if spring over, it's just drooped out in the pic so it looks like theres a bunch of arc in the spring.

 

[FatCity]

We’ve been about racing the 1000 with this car next year so we built the cage out of 1-3/4 .120 DOM so we can get it SCORE tagged.

We went about the cage a bit differently than we have in the past.
We decided to do the dash tube and stub out for the engine cage first, then build the rest from there.
Our thought was it would be easier, save time and allow us to pull the cage out for welding.
I cant say it was any easier or saved us any time, but it allowed us to keep the A pillars nice and tight and get a full weld around the tubes headed out to the engine compartment.

This stupid tube took two people all day to squeeze behind the dash…

It took a ton of cutting and fitting to get a tube behind the dash.
We had to lose air ducting to the side vents but once we plug the whole it should blow out the center vents like mother effer…

 

[FatCity]

Got the main passenger section of the cage done. As planned it slid out pretty easily so we could weld the tops

 

[FatCity]

Cage is back in and we’re off and running with the rest of it.

 

[sjstar]

awsome work. This will be a good build to follow. I look forward to more posts especially when the dash goes back together. I am ordering my dom this week or so but i am having to start from bed cage foward due to buying and house and getting married. So C pillar back i will complete so i can at least drive the thing. Thanks for all the pics and details.

 

[GSequoia]

Family friendly. :laugh:

 

[GrimmJeeper]

love the work overall, but I really like that tube work from the C pillar back. I have a thing for cages that tuck way out of the way :thumbup:

nice to see you guys building another XJ! :cheers:

 

[sallys xj]

Greta build so far. Ill be following this one for sure so keep us up todate and good luck

 

[Larrythedog]

Cage is back in and we’re off and running with the rest of it.

I like how tight this is in the back.

 

[Built2Flex]

Very nice job. How did you punch square holes in the windshield tie-in?

 

[GrimmJeeper]

probably cnc cut on a laser or plasma table.

 

[POSJ]

I like how tight this is in the back.

lol...

 

[FatCity]

Very nice job. How did you punch square holes in the windshield tie-in?

We cut it on our plasma table.
We were TV repair men once...

 

[Larrythedog]

We cut it on our plasma table.
We were TV repair men once...

You trying to tell us you got a gnarly set of tools?

 

[BlueGerbil]

I like how tight this is in the back.

That´s what I told her.