Joel's multipurpose XJ build (rocks/boulevard)

[rockclimber]

pull the front springs. that will allow you to cycle from full droop to full bump with the shocks in place to set your bumpstops and build braces out of the way of things.

for a double shear bracket: I would reccomend just buying one off the shelf from someone who offers one with no drop like Clayton Offroad or Rubicon express and running a 7/8x3/4" rod end in it.

that 2" cartdridge joint will wear out pretty fast.

 

[clean4drxj]

pull the front springs. that will allow you to cycle from full droop to full bump with the shocks in place to set your bumpstops and build braces out of the way of things.

for a double shear bracket: I would reccomend just buying one off the shelf from someone who offers one with no drop like Clayton Offroad or Rock Krawler and running a 7/8x3/4" rod end in it.

that 2" cartdridge joint will wear out pretty fast.

fixed!

 

[rockclimber]

meh.... the differences are minimal.

the off the shelf brackets are all pretty much the same.

as long as they don't have any additional drop.


my reccomendation is to fully plate the unibody in that area... the HD offroad stiffeners are a good start, but you should really plate the bottom as well.

once that is done, move the bracket as far forward as you can before the trackbar hits the drag link and weld it to the frame. just remember to run a bolt in the rearward hole of the trackbar, since that holds the motor mount on.

also a cross frame brace is highly reccomended.

 

[moparmansfield]

Any updates on the jeep?

 

[rabies]

should paint that coffee table motor like neon blue or something

 

[frijolee]

Hi y’all,

Been a while, what's happening?


Rabies,

I've thought about doing some LED strip lighting from the inside, but haven't gotten around to it. I’ve mostly been focusing on my RX7 for some time now. Between that and kids and a pretty intense job and I haven’t been doing as much with the XJ as I’d like.

I'm actually writing from Xiamen China at the moment. Not much to do but work from the road so I thought I should document a couple little things more related to the Jeep that are little more “boulevard” than “rocks”.

Here's goes:

Like most XJ’s with leather steering wheels, the leather at the top of my wheel was pretty dried out from sun and exposure. It finally split and it was in a bad spot where I’d feel the torn seam every time I went hand over hand.

I happened to be at a trade show recently where they were demonstrating some pretty bad ass self fusing silicone tape “Rescue Tape”. Works for radiator hose repair, you can even roll it on itself and make a makeshift belt if needed.



Anyways after realizing how much it was going to cost to do a nice leather re-wrap and frankly, not wanting to spend a great deal of time fixing this, I decided to wrap the top section of the wheel in Rescue Tape and see if I could limp this down the road for a while (seemed like a very Jeeper-ish) thing to do anyways.

Filled the hole in the leather with a little scrap of rescue tape (had a sample in clear) so it would be at an even height.

Did a half width wrap (ends up a two even layers everywhere).

It actually came out nice enough that I may leave it there relatively permanently. It’s a self fusing tape so it’ll never get sticky and being made from silicone it should last a long long time. Heck, once it’s gotten a little bit if use, it even matches the color quite nicely!

For what it’s worth, if the above isn’t your bag, I did look at a few leather options. A few folks have used the universal wraps from Wheel Skins (http://wheelskins.com/). They look OK, but the bare OEM leather spokes sticking out were bound to bug me.

The money version is from Redline Leather Goods (http://www.redlinegoods.com/Cherokee9001shiftboot.php). You can even order a foam internal section to give yourself the nice fat grip that seems to be on all modern luxury cars. Still by the time you do both, it’s pushing $200 so I’m holding off for now.

Damn they’re sexy though.

FWIW I did stop by a leather specialty store as well to see if I could DIY this. Leather is sold by the cow (or deer or pig or whatever). You end up with too much and it’s just not economical unless you’re doing a bunch. If you want to do this nice, Redline is the way to go.

-Joel

PS I was sad I missed SoCal Fest this year. It snuck up on me and was happening before I had time to plan.

 

[frijolee]

One of the reasons I bought my particular Cherokee was how well it had been maintained and what excellent condition it was in. No sagging headliner etc.

Well, I probably never should have uttered those words to a friend when I bought this because wouldn’t you know it, the headliner started coming down a last fall. The RX7 has been down for a while so the Jeep is doing daily driver duty and having headliner brush your noggin every time you get in just makes you hate your vehicle.

I tried pulling down an edge and spraying 3M spray adhesive up there, but that lasted all of 24 hours before it was coming down again. Biggest droop was right over the driver’s seat (made me curious if that was a coincidence or whether sweat and body chemicals could make a difference over time, but that’s neither here nor there) so it had to be fixed, attempts to finish the RX7 be damned.

I committed for a weekend project while hanging with family last Christmas and ordered the kit from WLS headliners. http://wlsheadliners.com/cherokee-explorer-s10-blazer-ramcharger-headliner-kit.html If you want to do this I recommend you get the extra can of adhesive. It maybe could be done with one, but you’d be scrimping on the glue and I wasn’t into that.

After reading a few reviews on here it seemed like the 2173 Light Gray was probably as close to stock as I was going to find. It’s not perfect but the basic kit had enough to do the visors as well so unless you really know what to look for, I don’t think I’ll ever get busted on it not being the perfect shade.

Stock on the bottom, gray speaker grill for ref, and new material on the right.

Removal is mostly straightforward, if not very fun. I do wish I’d read some other more detailed write up before starting the job as I found that A) XJ’s use crappy plastic and B) Jeep’s clips are neither well designed nor intuitive. Tread carefully least you find yourself breaking more things than I did.

We basically need to get off all the trim that connects the headliner around the perimeter. Start from the rear. Some clips will come fine:

Some may not, and it appears there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. At least a few pictures show you what you’re in for.

You need 3 types of Torx drivers over the course of the job, T20, T25, and T50. The big guy is for the upper mount point of the rear seat belts.

Once all the hardware is pulled off the rear side trim slides apart (it nests into the section ahead).

The rear speaker grill covers and rear dome light both just clip in place, (nothing required except to pop them loose. The front reading light assembly, has screws hidden behind one of the lens and then you have to slide it forward to get free of two small keyways. I assumed it was just stubborn clips since I’d already fought with the rear trim. Not so much (not the shorn off nub on the left). JB weld to the rescue!

Everything else was fairly straightfowards. Just a mix of hardware and clips. Up front I found I didn’t have to full remove the A-pillar trim. It was enough just to loosen it up then I was able to slip the headliner out the back hatch (only way it’s coming out).

Opposite side… Note that big blob of RTV? Someone before had that trim off. They broke a clip too (I swear I think it’s inevitable, it’s just a terrible design), but it at least gave me a good idea how to fix what I needed to.

It’s out. This sucker is surprisingly fragile so tread lightly and whatever you do don’t step on it or bend it.

Conscripted a nephew to help me scrape off all the old foam. Yeah, child labor (j/k)! Picked up the recommended brush from WLS at the same time as the headliner. I brushed off the dead foam backing. It comes off so easily that it’s obvious why the sag happens.

Clean and ready to recover.

At this point I needed both hands and I was dealing with a time sensitive process so I stopped shooting pictures. I had already steamed out the wrinkles in the material before gluing began, and then just started from the middle like everyone recommends. Saw horses and two sets of hands help this go down smooth. You’ll want to practice the application around the built in speaker bar dry (assuming you have a later model XJ) as that’s the one tricky area.

You spray both sides liberally and wait to dry without glue surfaces touching before you smooth it down. (it should be flipped open in half. Use the flat of your hand and keep almost zero pressure on your fingers to keep from denting it. You want a very very slight pull as you go. Just enough to prevent wrinkles as you navigate curves and the like but no more (else it’ll tend to pull free later).

A few other write ups that may be helpful (pics of the gluing process, etc):

Headliner:
http://www.how-to-diy.org/8HKesFiX3UaDMp/Jeep-Cherokee-XJ-Headliner-install.html
http://www.4x4xplor.com/headliner.html
http://www.lunghd.com/Tech_Articles/Interior/Headliner.htm

Install is the reverse of removal.

 

[frijolee]

After doing the headliner I drove around with no sun visors and no rear speakers for quite a few months. (Hey, life gets full you know). I actually still haven’t put this 100% back together so I’ll have to follow up with a finished picture later just as point of reference.

That said, I finally got around to recovering the sun visors as well just a week or so back so here’s the process on them.

I’d did a little more research this time to try to figure out clips and the like before starting. Found a few write ups that showed the sun visor is basically a clamshell design so if I could get it open whole I’d be in good shape. None of the write-ups really showed how the thing worked though so I can likely add some missing detail there for anyone who needs it.

Here were my reference links:
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f11/vinyl-wrapped-visors-1415912/
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f11/headliner-visor-re-cover-camo-1216760/


First step was to pull the old material. It turns out that if you’re careful you can start from the corner with the hinge and the material will mostly just pull free of the visor.

You can basically get everything everything except the bottom edge of the mirror (and even that would likely come if you don’t mind some small tears internally).

To open the clips you need two flathead screwdrivers. One to pry at the seam, the other to simultaneously release the clip. You want to shove the clip releasing screwdriver into the semi-circle clip void at the very top of the hole shown here.

You want to do this on the side without the mirror. If you look closely at the above you can see a small ramp. You want to jam the screwdriver above the ramp and pry downward (as the clip forms a little bridge you need to deflect to release form the opposite side.


You also need to pull the pin out of the side opposite the hinge (that’s captured). Then once you release the clips all around the perimeter it’ll finally open up.

The advantage of getting the old cover off whole is that it makes a perfect template for the new material.

The mirror is a little tricky to get tucked back in there if you really don’t want any cut seams to show. I used some spray adhesive to keep the corners down. In hindsight, I’d also recommend using it on the outside faces so it’ll better follow the flappy tip. No big deal, and not something they did from the factory but it can’t hurt.

Snap it all back together, reinstall, and you’re done.


Both headliner and visors recovering are great chances to show some creativity if you want to chang up the interior. I ran across lots of camo and different material, but by far the most creative version was a gent who overlaid some material. Not, mine, but it made me laugh so I thought I’d share. Definitely a conversation point.

 

[frijolee]

Finished headliner pics:

Overall view: looks pretty close to factory. Bonus points if you can name the parts in the back hatch (doing a favor for a friend)

Rear speaker covers and rear dome light both just snap in.

Primary dome light has the slots and must slip forward to release.

And the finished version. I’d light to add some LED strip lights instead of the domes at some point but I was rolling around with only the passenger footwell light for quite a while so this is still a big improvement.

 

[frijolee]

The big news is that my wife and I just bought our first house.

We’re moving all of 0.5 miles (within our current neighborhood), but at least it’ll be ours. The interior has been gone through and I’m really looking forward to setting up the garage the way I want it. It’s not a huge garage, figure ~20x21 but anyone have recommendations on power, air, flooring treatments or attic storage?

At the moment I’ve been doing a lot of reading on attic trusses and acid stain for the floor. Since we have about a two week window to move I’m going to be trying to get a few of the project done early. As part of that I need to get my XJ wired up for trailer electrics in order to borrow a friend’s flat bed.

I did a bit of reading and looking on that score and wanted to document findings. Eventually I’d like to be able to tow with trailer brakes so I was looking at how best to get a 7 pin connector installed. Since I’m borrowing the ability to convert to 4 or 5 pin flat is handy too.

I started by looking directly at the bare connectors, IE http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B001EP0G72/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_7ZjYtb1TNH07F but there’s not a lot of space behind the tail lights and I wasn’t sure how this would wire up.

After doing some digging CURT and REESE both seem to be big names in the industry so I started with them. Curt’s application guide was pretty helpful albeit it took some studying since the formatting sucks and they don’t really explain what’s what.
https://www.curtmfg.com/masterlibrary/01resources/appguides/Curt_Hitch_App_Guide.pdf

I’d run across some posts discussing that earlier XJ’s have a dedicated trailer harness and some don’t. Since I’m going the easy route here I decided to do the T-connector for the 97-01 XJ. That’s Curt 55354. http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009I5WQ0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER There are different versions for other years covered in the above guide.

If I understand this correctly the T connector should let me plug it straight in at the tail lights. However this comes with a 4 pin flat connector.

From there I added an adaptor piece. Both Reese and Curt make them but Reese had the better review. http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CPI6S6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER.

Going to worry about trailer brakes and controller later, but I’m interested in recommendations if anyone has them.

 

[Root Moose]

I just wired up my XJ with a Tekonsha P3 and the generic wiring kit that etrailer.com sells (thread in towing section). Turned out well, no regrets on the items, the wiring kit was decent enough to get the job done without a lot of running around for odds and sods.

 

[a1racer]

That webbed headliner is pretty badass not really my style but still cool. My headliner just started drooping in the rear so looks like i will be using some of your tips soon.

 

[heyhar]

Finished headliner pics:

Overall view: looks pretty close to factory. Bonus points if you can name the parts in the back hatch (doing a favor for a friend)

Uh, fender skirts! What do I win?

 

[frijolee]

Uh, fender skirts! What do I win?

Yep. Helping a neighbor working on a '59 Caddy. I'd never seen anything like these skirts before, but then again I haven't played much with the old stuff. There are these crazy mechanical latches made of what looks like 1/4" steel pencil rod. It's beefcake but looks like amazing overkill.

You win the knowledge that you're a bad-ass of automotive minutia that most folks will never care about. Congratulations, you're in love with washing machines.

(Link follows if you don't know what I'm talking about. It's probably the best car guy article I've read this decade.)

http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/i-used-to-take-it-as-a-given-that-an-interest-in-vehicl-1464717649

Regards,
Joel

 

[Jeepedo129]

Hey Joel, Just wanted to chime in on how disappointed I am that i haven't stubbled on your build thread sooner. LOVE your attention to detail and quality of work.

Your exhaust is amazing, and being an Aircraft mechanic I love to see stainless tubing and v clamps. Your exhaust is defiantly something that I would expect to see under the cowling of a B-737 or the like.

Huge thumbs up :thumbup:

 

[heyhar]

You win the knowledge that you're a bad-ass of automotive minutia that most folks will never care about.

Congratulations, you're in love with washing machines.

Oddly enough, I've fixed a few, and I use ours weekly...Very weakly!

I was going to say Caddy skirts, as more Caddys came with them than any other car, all the way up to the end of the '76 model year. '59 Caddy has to be the pinnacle of '50s excess. Please, pictures soon!...Ray

 

[frijolee]

Brandon,

Thanks. Know what's ironic? I just stumbled across your build thread yesterday morning.

(It's awesome if anyone hasn't seen it)
http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1099482

I'd been debating whether to try the WJ knucles and brakes and improve my steering response, but I hadn't seen a single write up with good pictures of the changes and detailed implementation. When you started posting pics of the galvanic cleaning rig, I got seriously excited about your thread. I'd also never seen anyone outside of industry preheat and then sand cool castings. I approve big time and I'm absolutely going to be stealing some of your ideas. I'll chime in over there soon, just been slammed with the pending move.



Heyhar,

The caddy's interior is done (and it's on bags) but it's off at the body shop right now. I've kinda been wandering around topics in this thread already so I'll get a few shots of that eventually.

-Joel

 

[Jeepedo129]

I'd been debating whether to try the WJ knucles and brakes and improve my steering response, but I hadn't seen a single write up with good pictures of the changes and detailed implementation. When you started posting pics of the galvanic cleaning rig, I got seriously excited about your thread. I'd also never seen anyone outside of industry preheat and then sand cool castings. I approve big time and I'm absolutely going to be stealing some of your ideas. I'll chime in over there soon, just been slammed with the pending move.

-Joel

Thanks man for the complements! The WJ swap is probably one of the best upgrades for the XJ. Let me know if you have any questions as I have more pictures than what's posted. Also, I don't know if you've read over my uncles build thread (XJEEPER) but he has a good write up of his install, and I think you would dig his attention to detail and quality of work. He has been the inspiration to most of my build.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=913774&page=9

There is also a guy on YouTube that posted a video of his entire swap, he does it a little differently, but the idea is the same.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SjpEc07AJxM

 

[iluv83vettes]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SjpEc07AJxM

It only takes 22 minutes. I'm definitely going to do it now.

 

[Jeepedo129]

Maybe 24 min if you stop for a beer break.