98 XJ Sport... new guy here.

matt62485

Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2009
Location
Wilmington, NC
Sup yall? My name is Matt, from and currently living in Wilmington. I'm 24 and graduating from CFCC in Electronics Eng. Tech. next week and continuing work as an Instrumentiation tech.
Anyways, just recently purchased a 98 XJ Sport which was smoking pretty terribly due to a cracked head or something of the sort (lots of water/coolant in the oil). Talked the guy down to $500 for the Jeep, and found a full motor out of another 98 with 106k miles on it for $225.
Plans for now are to keep it simple and make it clean and run/drive for the beach season, then hopefully within a year start really doing it like i want.


For now:
- budget boost (getting one for cheap as hell)
- got a new front bumper with no dent and painted it
- repainted grill/headlight bezels
- h4 headlight conversion
- buff/wax job
- pull flares and paint em (krylon fusion)
- tint windows
- neoprene seat covers
- new carpet or pull it out and herculine/husky mats
- 235/75 goodyear duratracs (gonna try em over the bfg at's)
- reese hitch

heres it the day i got it...

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Now soon... but not soon enough, I plan to do something along the lines of
- 4.5" lift (RE or Rustys) ofcourse with a SYE and CV ds
- Soft 8's and some 32s or 33s
- winch mount front bumper/light bar w/ d-rings etc
- roof rack w/ tire mount, hilift mount, light mounts, etc
- dana 44 regeared
- bushwacker flares
- swaybar quicklinks
- lockers
- etc
something like this...
ai82.photobucket.com_albums_j250_jeepinruby_100_0875.jpg

i want to keep it practical but capable and not completely kill me wallet.
thoughts? comments? criticism? lemme hear it.

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oh, heres our 81 k5 we bought and never finished... been sitting for months.
- 396ci
- dana 60 / corp 14 bolt (horrible gears @ 4.10, 5.38 waiting)
- 44" boggers
- blah blah, had plan to do a 205 remote t-case swap and get it right. pops bought a nova and his interests changed. lol. i dont have the money to play with this thing... probably going to sell it.
ai4.photobucket.com_albums_y134_Dubkota_HPIM0961.jpg
 
Welcome aboard! Next time you are at cape fear CC, swing by the boat building dept. and tell Paul hi for me. He is the little short guy teaching the class.

Tell him Justin said hi.
 
Nice XJ. Sounds like you have a good plan for it. I wouldn't bother painting the flares though. They're gonna get scuffed up or knocked off anyway. Just put some black magic on them for now... and when you get the lift & tires, you can pull them off and trim the fenders a bit.

Which rear axle do you have right now? I hear the 8.25 is plenty strong enough for 33's. If that's what you have, just throw a locker in it and wheel it. If it breaks... then you can worry about replacing it with a D44.
 
yep it is a direct bolt up, and in my opinion the dana 44 would be a better choice, i have personally destoyed a 8.8 w/ only 33" tires, but as the saying goes opinions are like assholes?
 
thanks guys. yea ill prolly go with a dana 44 when it comes time.

im going to paint the flares sense i already scuffed them up. not gonna be trailing it much right now anyways. when i do get it setup for that, itll have bushwackers on it.

ill post up some pix this weekend hopefully of a little progress

edit: i havent even looked at the axle yet honestly. didnt even think about it. its sitting at my parents now since their driveway is huge. ill check it out this weekend.
 
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