DutchVDub
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Milliken, CO
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone
Me too, but I want the Sahara Tan
Me too, but I want the Sahara Tan
proracedriver616's "jeeplife" story
- Thread starter proracedriver616
- Start date
Joe94xj
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- colorado Springs
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone
Me too but I will just have to stick with the crappy white.
Me too, but I want the Sahara Tan
Me too but I will just have to stick with the crappy white.
Pz10420
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Colorado Springs
That is one sweet looking xj! Well done.
eflores
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Greg's place
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone
your header panel and fender dont line up
i bet you never noticed that :laugh:
This week has been crazy, i lost a serpentine belt on saturday, only to have the new one skip a forward a rib on the alternator by monday. After taking the belt back off and examining the pulleys the harmonic balancer had started to seperate aftter all the rubber between the two pieces dry rotted and mostly fell out.
My water pump had a little bit of play in the shaft, and my radiator had been weeping a little for weeks now. So tuesday morning i bought a new radiator, upper and lower rad. hoses, thermostat/gasket, temp censor, water pump, harmonic balancer, and another serpentine belt.
I also picked up a 29 spline 8.25 carrier, have some 29 spline shafts ready for me to pick up, and ordered 4.56 gears/install kit/riddler diff cover. This thing is gonna be like brand new by the time im done lol!
I grabbed a pic of me parked next to a rescue green jk rubicon at lunch the other day too. You can definately tell that the lower line of ppg basecoat i used has more of the gold pearl in it then the factory chrysler color...but its pretty close and i still really love the color.
your header panel and fender dont line up
i bet you never noticed that :laugh:
proracedriver616
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- co
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone
are you kidding me...i do body work for a living, of course i noticed that ha ha. The pass fender is the same way, they are cheapo aftermarket fenders and thats as good as they are gonna fit
are you kidding me...i do body work for a living, of course i noticed that ha ha. The pass fender is the same way, they are cheapo aftermarket fenders and thats as good as they are gonna fit
proracedriver616
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- co
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone
Santa came an little early!!
IMAG0019
I ordered these from hannemann in california on thursday night after work and they showed up this afternoon! I was super happy with how fast they processed my order and shipped my fenders. The quality is better then i was expecting too, they are super thick fiberglass with really nice woven fiberglass. There are some small imperfections in the gel coat but nothing major, nothing a little glaze and primer/blocking wont fix. As for the fit we'll have to wait and see!
Ive got big plans for the jeep and plan on doing most of it this winter to get my jeep ready to go to easter jeep safari in the spring so ill be sure to keep this thread updated with plenty of pics
seth
Santa came an little early!!
IMAG0019
I ordered these from hannemann in california on thursday night after work and they showed up this afternoon! I was super happy with how fast they processed my order and shipped my fenders. The quality is better then i was expecting too, they are super thick fiberglass with really nice woven fiberglass. There are some small imperfections in the gel coat but nothing major, nothing a little glaze and primer/blocking wont fix. As for the fit we'll have to wait and see!
Ive got big plans for the jeep and plan on doing most of it this winter to get my jeep ready to go to easter jeep safari in the spring so ill be sure to keep this thread updated with plenty of pics
seth
DutchVDub
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Milliken, CO
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone
Sweet man, I've always been tempted to do a set of those but I'm not thrilled of the inabilty to match them in the rear on the 4dr chassis. A 2dr or MJ though..... hells yeah
Sweet man, I've always been tempted to do a set of those but I'm not thrilled of the inabilty to match them in the rear on the 4dr chassis. A 2dr or MJ though..... hells yeah
- Location
- Golden, CO
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone
Nice! I'll be watching for the updates. :thumbup:
Nice! I'll be watching for the updates. :thumbup:
proracedriver616
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- co
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone
im kinda torn about what to do in the rear being a 4 door and wanting to keep my doors useable, but ive always wanted to have bulge fenders so i figured id just go for it and buy the fronts and figure the rear out later!
im kinda torn about what to do in the rear being a 4 door and wanting to keep my doors useable, but ive always wanted to have bulge fenders so i figured id just go for it and buy the fronts and figure the rear out later!
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone
Check out the loose nuts rig. he has rear flares
http://naxja.org/forum/showpost.php?p=245774382&postcount=92
Check out the loose nuts rig. he has rear flares
http://naxja.org/forum/showpost.php?p=245774382&postcount=92
YELLAHEEP
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Littleton, Colorado
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone
Dunno why anyone would want 'glass fenders for rock crawlin..... but for light trails they'll probably survive. Colorado trails can be so narrow.
You could cut those rear bulge fenders along the door line then make inner filler panels with supports....... pretty much like a large version of Bushwhacker rear flares.....
Dunno why anyone would want 'glass fenders for rock crawlin..... but for light trails they'll probably survive. Colorado trails can be so narrow.
You could cut those rear bulge fenders along the door line then make inner filler panels with supports....... pretty much like a large version of Bushwhacker rear flares.....
proracedriver616
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- co
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone
the loose nuts rig is the background on my phone right now lol. I love everything about that jeep. I know i can cut the rear flares but it will still make getting in and out of the back kind of a pain. Plus if you dont have wide wheels or tires i think the rear hannemanns look kinda odd cause they are so wide your wheels end up tucked way inside the wheelwells. Axles and wheels are kinda up in the air at this point, just depends on what deals i find online, so ill hold off on the rear flares for a while.
the loose nuts rig is the background on my phone right now lol. I love everything about that jeep. I know i can cut the rear flares but it will still make getting in and out of the back kind of a pain. Plus if you dont have wide wheels or tires i think the rear hannemanns look kinda odd cause they are so wide your wheels end up tucked way inside the wheelwells. Axles and wheels are kinda up in the air at this point, just depends on what deals i find online, so ill hold off on the rear flares for a while.
proracedriver616
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- co
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone
small update, i had one of the preppers at work buzz down and prime my fenders at work today then rattlecan some 1k trim black paint on them. There were/are lots of pinholes and imperfections in the gelcoat and one little crack in the bottom of the pass. side fender i had to take care of and they still need a lot of blocking and body work to get them looking decent. I wanted to get them primed so they will be more impervious to UV rays and the elements till i get them painted.
Tomorrow morning im gonna be mounting them which will involve drilling all the mounting holes for the fender to the body, mounting the header panel to the front of the fenders, and cutting the front of the fenders to the right height for my 97+ header panel. Ill snap pics of everything tomorrow and post em up at some point this weekend.
seth
small update, i had one of the preppers at work buzz down and prime my fenders at work today then rattlecan some 1k trim black paint on them. There were/are lots of pinholes and imperfections in the gelcoat and one little crack in the bottom of the pass. side fender i had to take care of and they still need a lot of blocking and body work to get them looking decent. I wanted to get them primed so they will be more impervious to UV rays and the elements till i get them painted.
Tomorrow morning im gonna be mounting them which will involve drilling all the mounting holes for the fender to the body, mounting the header panel to the front of the fenders, and cutting the front of the fenders to the right height for my 97+ header panel. Ill snap pics of everything tomorrow and post em up at some point this weekend.
seth
dirteexj94
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Thornton
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone
Proracedriver616. Not to butt in on your thread but do you ever do body work on the side??
Proracedriver616. Not to butt in on your thread but do you ever do body work on the side??
proracedriver616
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- co
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone
Dirteexj 94: I used to but at my new shop they dont really let us do sidework unless its on our own stuff and even then we still have to open an RO on it...and i work so many hours now i can hardly find time to work on my own stuff.
I took home a bunch of my tools last night and went to my buddies house to mount my fenders this morning. Over the last couple weeks/months i have been swapping out my doors for a set of 97+ doors. Ive been doing one at a time as it is very time consuming. The strikers have to be swapped so i pulled the interior and drilled out the captive nut inside the quarters and b-pillars and made backing plates so the new strikes bolt on and still have adjustability just like factory. The wiring is also very tedious as nobody has any good writeups on the wiring part of the door swap. As of right now i have both rear doors bolted on, adjusted, wired up, and everything is working great with them. The front passenger door is also on the jeep and mostly wired up but because of the way they ran the door lock switch wiring in 97 compared to 96 (8 wires vs 3 wires) I dont have the lock switch working yet. So thats why the doors are a different color...now on to the fenders!
I decided to do the pass. side first since the second time you do something it usually turns out better then the first so in that theory the driver side should go faster and be easier to fit better. Once i unbolted the fender and sat the hannemann in place i felt like crying ha ha ha.
The initial fit was HORRIBLE! The fender actually wouldnt even sit on the jeep without me spending a good half hour grinding away a ton of material on the back of the fender where it meets the a-pillar. Next the front of the fender wouldnt sit right without being cut/ground to fit over and around the front of the inner fender and radiator support. Once i got the fender to sit remotely in the right place i began fine tuning the fit by grinding spots on the fender that interfered with the body of the jeep preventing it from fitting properly.
Drilling the holes was the easy part, i drilled one hole at a time and started at the a-pillar area and worked down making it fit the door first then worked forward making the hood gap decent. I went one hole at a time and used rubber washers i got from ace above and below the fender to prevent cracking around the bolts over time.
When i got to the header panel area there was nowhere to bolt the fender to because when you swap to 97+ fenders you have to get rid of the bracket that goes between the fender and inner fender on the 96- fenders. So as a temporary solution i made a little 90* bracket to attach the front of the fender to the inner fender. I need to get the correct brackets from the junkyard and attach the fender to that then figure out a way to attach the header panel.
I had planned on tackling both fenders today but had no idea the fit was going to be this bad, so after spending 3 hours on the first fender i abandoned the idea of getting them both on. In the end after a ton of work i got the pass. fender to fit decent but im still not happy with the gap/line up at the bottom of the fender to the door. Ill let the pics do the rest of the talking.
IMAG0027
IMAG0028
IMAG0029
....oh and i still need to trim the bottom of the fender up to match the bottom of the header panel but i didnt feel like pulling it back off again to cut it, i figure ill do it when i get around to installing the drivers fender
seth
Dirteexj 94: I used to but at my new shop they dont really let us do sidework unless its on our own stuff and even then we still have to open an RO on it...and i work so many hours now i can hardly find time to work on my own stuff.
I took home a bunch of my tools last night and went to my buddies house to mount my fenders this morning. Over the last couple weeks/months i have been swapping out my doors for a set of 97+ doors. Ive been doing one at a time as it is very time consuming. The strikers have to be swapped so i pulled the interior and drilled out the captive nut inside the quarters and b-pillars and made backing plates so the new strikes bolt on and still have adjustability just like factory. The wiring is also very tedious as nobody has any good writeups on the wiring part of the door swap. As of right now i have both rear doors bolted on, adjusted, wired up, and everything is working great with them. The front passenger door is also on the jeep and mostly wired up but because of the way they ran the door lock switch wiring in 97 compared to 96 (8 wires vs 3 wires) I dont have the lock switch working yet. So thats why the doors are a different color...now on to the fenders!
I decided to do the pass. side first since the second time you do something it usually turns out better then the first so in that theory the driver side should go faster and be easier to fit better. Once i unbolted the fender and sat the hannemann in place i felt like crying ha ha ha.
The initial fit was HORRIBLE! The fender actually wouldnt even sit on the jeep without me spending a good half hour grinding away a ton of material on the back of the fender where it meets the a-pillar. Next the front of the fender wouldnt sit right without being cut/ground to fit over and around the front of the inner fender and radiator support. Once i got the fender to sit remotely in the right place i began fine tuning the fit by grinding spots on the fender that interfered with the body of the jeep preventing it from fitting properly.
Drilling the holes was the easy part, i drilled one hole at a time and started at the a-pillar area and worked down making it fit the door first then worked forward making the hood gap decent. I went one hole at a time and used rubber washers i got from ace above and below the fender to prevent cracking around the bolts over time.
When i got to the header panel area there was nowhere to bolt the fender to because when you swap to 97+ fenders you have to get rid of the bracket that goes between the fender and inner fender on the 96- fenders. So as a temporary solution i made a little 90* bracket to attach the front of the fender to the inner fender. I need to get the correct brackets from the junkyard and attach the fender to that then figure out a way to attach the header panel.
I had planned on tackling both fenders today but had no idea the fit was going to be this bad, so after spending 3 hours on the first fender i abandoned the idea of getting them both on. In the end after a ton of work i got the pass. fender to fit decent but im still not happy with the gap/line up at the bottom of the fender to the door. Ill let the pics do the rest of the talking.
IMAG0027
IMAG0028
IMAG0029
....oh and i still need to trim the bottom of the fender up to match the bottom of the header panel but i didnt feel like pulling it back off again to cut it, i figure ill do it when i get around to installing the drivers fender
seth
proracedriver616
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- co
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone
I have been going back and forth a ton between a few different colors for paint and the i think basecoat/clearcoat has gone out the window with the addition of these fenders. I have a gallon of mil-spec CARC paint, its chemical agent resistant coating, its matte olive drab green, and its what gets sprayed on hummvees tanks and other military vehicles and equipment. Ive had this for about a year and kicked around the idea of using it on this jeep but went with the rescue green instead, but now that it needs a new paint job in the future im leaning towards the CARC.
I have been going back and forth a ton between a few different colors for paint and the i think basecoat/clearcoat has gone out the window with the addition of these fenders. I have a gallon of mil-spec CARC paint, its chemical agent resistant coating, its matte olive drab green, and its what gets sprayed on hummvees tanks and other military vehicles and equipment. Ive had this for about a year and kicked around the idea of using it on this jeep but went with the rescue green instead, but now that it needs a new paint job in the future im leaning towards the CARC.
DutchVDub
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Milliken, CO
One issue with CARC, it's a pain to clean. Dirt and oily finger prints never come off.
