The Heepster 01' XJ Build

[mglester]

Alright y'all, I know everyone likes to see a build over time, but mines already "built" if you will. I thought I'd share my Jeep's story.

I wanna apologize in advanced for any crappy cell phone pics.

The day I got her home... June 4th, 2010.

Bought her with only 81,000 miles on her. She was clean... but not for long. She would be my DD and weekend warrior.

The next day I took her on her first wheelin trip...

She didn't stay clean very often, usually she was covered in mud.

Not too long after getting her I managed to rear end my friend at the rodeo in the wet grass, guess bald streetys and wet grass don't mix. Instead of getting a new bumper I bolted up a 2x6 and painted it black. Redneck I know... fender flares also came off.

Because Cherokee's are a rolling tin can, my unibody suffered some damage that didn't seem like a big deal at the time, but caught up to me later on down the road.

Well, I grew tired of being stock so I bought the RC 4.5" X-Series lift and my friends and I got to work.

Lift went okay on the front end, but we soon ran into trouble when we got to the rear. Y'all that own Cherokees are probably familiar with the forward leaf spring nuts on the inside of the frame breaking. At the time I wasn't as daring as I am now, so I had it sent to Super Trucks to have the rear end finished.

After a nice dent in my wallet, I got her home. The day I drove her home from Super Trucks.

I know what y'all are thinking, where are my tires? The day after I got her back I sent her off to Discount Tire and had them put on some 32" BFG KM2s.

Looks like I've maxed out the number of pictures for this post, so here goes post number two.

 

[mglester]

After I got the tires on I was in love. Next thing on my list was front and rear bumpers. My buddy knew a guy in his neighborhood with some iron pipe and a stick welder so I sent it to him to have a back bumper put on. My buddy at the time didn't have a running Jeep so he let me borrow his homemade winch bumper the same guy had made for him. I was matching front and rear and I thought I was a bulldozer. I could run into anything and not worry about it.

The above picture shows my fenders cut. After a few wheelin trips with the new tires my fenders were really starting to hate me. So I cut them.

After swamping her a few times I decided it was time to take out the carpet and bed line.

After all this preparation, I had to go to where I dreamed about since the day I first heard about it. Her first tip to URE.

Yeah, I went down Daniel my first time to URE. It scared the sh*t outta me. Luckily I had a very good spotter on board and it was well worth it at the end. Complete adrenaline rush.

Sadly shortly after getting back from URE I started having problems. One day while driving out to my buddies house I started to hear a ticking. I simply thought it was an exhaust leak. Too bad I was wrong. It kept getting worse and worse and eventually sounded like it was gonna blow up. I had it towed to my mechanic and he diagnosed it as a cracked head. I was running on two of the 6 pistons. The coolant that had been seeping into the block had killed the motor. So she sat in the parking lot at my work for 3 months...

Kinda pissed off over how poorly made the motors were in 2000, I bought a 99 Honda Civic, 5 speed of course and it would be my DD. I planned on putting a new motor in the Jeep, but it would have to wait.

While she was sitting I figured I'd take the doors off. It was something to do.

The day finally came, when I had the money for a new motor. Picked it up from Rigsby's for a decent price. A 2001 with 116,000 on it. I wasn't about to put another 2000 in it.

Not having the time or means to do a motor swap, I had my mechanic swap it for me.

After all the anticipation I finally got her back. I was so happy to have her back on the road. The day I got her home.

It took a bit for the computer to get used to the new motor, but she was running strong. I discovered taking your doors off in April is a bad idea. It was just a tad bit too cold still.

 

[mglester]

Even though it was cold with two doors off, I couldn't stand how it looked, so the back two came off too. All cleaned up.

Well it was time to give my buddy his front bumper back, so I was bumperless for a while. Made my second trip up to URE in April of 2011. It was way better than the first trip.

Took a third trip to URE in June 2011. My first time going up Budweiser.

Shortly after that, I took a forth trip to URE and came back with some trail damage. Because Budweiser had a big boulder in front of it, I tried a different line and ended up cracking my frame right between the steering box bolts. I had it welded by one of the guys at the stables and kept wheelin the whole weekend.

Once we got back from URE, my roommate Ben welded it up again to strengthen it. It held well, and I just rolled with it.

At this point I was still bumperless, so to add some strength to the front end, Ben and I fabbed up the same kinda pipe that was used for the rear bumper. It was sturdy and covered up that horrible unibody.

Once I got the bumper on I thought I had solved all my problems. On the way home from my buddies house my radiator blew. Long story short I found a radiator out of a parts Jeep and tried to install it. After getting it all hooked up I took it for a drive and the tranny started slipping. I pulled the dip stick to find it bone dry. The radiator had a breech between the tranny and cooling portions and leaked into each other. When I dropped the tranny pan I thought I was screwed. The fluid that came out was brown and pink. I did a redneck tranny flush and by some miracle I haven't had any problems with the tranny. Broke down and bought a new radiator and installed it.

After all that I realized it was time to do brakes, ac bypass pulley, and my bed liner needed to be redone. So I got to work.

By time I was done with all that it was time for one last trip to URE for 2011. ROCKVEMBER.

 

[mglester]

So me and crew headed down to URE for Rockvember. It was a blast, didn't break anything either. Thank God.

Sadly it was the end of the year. URE wouldn't be open till March, so I tried to take it easy on the old heepster... well that obviously didn't work out.

The welds that I thought would hold didn't hold and ended up only holding together the outside of the frame. The problem was on the inside. So me and my buddy went to work. Tore the steering box out, knocked everything back to normal, and welded every crack and seem on the front end.

My buddy doing an awesome job welding upside down.

All fixed up and painted.

The fact that I was missing a trac bar bolt might have had something to do with the frame cracking... new lock nut and bolt.

So a whole bunch of bad stuff happened in the coming months... I bent my drag link, broke off a lower control arm bracket, had to replace upper control arm bushings, and install a new hub assembly and u-joint in my driver side hub.

New drag link:

Broken off lower control arm mount:

Old vs. new upper control arm bushings:

My roommate welding my new lower control arm brackets on:

Hub assembly and axle shaft pulled:

After all those repairs it was time for the 1st Annual OHV Uwharrie Jamboree...

 

[mglester]

So the opening weekend was amazing. Probably the best trip I've been on yet. This is what my Jeep looks like currently. Nothing major has been done since I got back other than the drum brakes in the rear. She's ready for her next trip in May. Thanks for letting me share y'all.

 

[NC919.4x4_XJ]

Looking good buddy!

 

[zombhntr]

I had the same unibody tears on my 95xj at the steering box I also welded mine and put a steering box brace in it once it tears its never as strong unless you brace/plate it. Good looking build I love xj's and owned three

 

[mglester]

Looking good buddy!

Thanks bud

 

[mglester]

I had the same unibody tears on my 95xj at the steering box I also welded mine and put a steering box brace in it once it tears its never as strong unless you brace/plate it. Good looking build I love xj's and owned three

Yeah, it's definitely a weak spot in the unibody. I thought about the steering box brace, but the area where the steering box sits is all bent up. I tried my best to bend it back in place, but I don't think a brace would sit flat. Do you have any suggestions on how to bend the metal back into place? I got it mostly flat, but it's still crinkled a bit.

 

[zombhntr]

Get a steering box brace kit mock it all up and whatever gets in the way hit it with a hammer till it fits when mine tore I didn't let it get very bad all I had to do was stitch a few inches back together.just mock assemble the whole thing o nce it fits and tack every thing in place with the steering box in place

 

[mglester]

Well it's been a while since I updated my build, I guess cause there hasn't been much progress. Been back to URE three times since the opening weekend in March. Didn't break anything major except ANOTHER tie rod. Replaced the tie rod with a IRO one, but not before I wheeled a stock stock tie rod I had laying around for a while.

After having it bug me for some long time I finally got around to my saggy passenger side leaf. I went ahead and swapped it out with a new one.

New trac bar bushing to get rid of an annoying clunk I kept hearing from the front end.

Picked up a new to me/used driveshaft and aux fan from a friend and I was finally running a lot cooler.

LCA bushings were shot so I went ahead and replaced those, she's riding a lot smoother now.

After running a stock tie rod for a while it was about time to get one that wouldn't bend... so I went with an IRO tie rod and it is BEEF!

So most recently, as of yesterday I went about replacing the drive side leaf cause I had an extra laying around and the bushings were shot in the other one. Of course the nut on the inside of the frame just kept spinning so I had to cut into the pocket to get a wrench in there to hold it still. All went well and got the new leaf in no problem.

As you can see the bushings are pretty worn out...

With all these repairs I've been making I'm kinda getting tired of my current setup so it's time to actually BUILD my XJ.

So here are the plans!

Tires: 35" KMs

Front Suspension:

• IRO 3-link (finally get rid of my lame short arms)
• 7" RC shocks (only running 4.5" of lift, but 7" shocks will supply me with more droop)
• Extended bump stops (trying to hit bump stops before the shock bottoms out)

Rear Suspension:

• IRO shock mounts (raise the shock mount up in the rear, gives more droop also)
• 1" IRO shackles (my stock shackles just ain't doing it for me)
• U-bolt kit (old u-bolts are toast)

Before any of this can happen I've gotta tackle the balljoints... but once all this is finished in the next month or so I'll throw a lunchbox locker in the D30 in time for opening weekend in URE. Wish me luck!

 

[99Classic]

The 01 motors still have the 0331 heads that like to crack...

 

[mglester]

The 01 motors still have the 0331 heads that like to crack...

Yeah I know, but I've seen polls comparing the years the 0331 heads were produced and 60% of the castings from 2000 motors cracked and only 4% of 2001 motors cracked so I'm hoping for the best. My 2001 motor now has 122,000 on the clock and she's running strong (knock on wood).

 

[99Classic]

Yeah I know, but I've seen polls comparing the years the 0331 heads were produced and 60% of the castings from 2000 motors cracked and only 4% of 2001 motors cracked so I'm hoping for the best. My 2001 motor now has 122,000 on the clock and she's running strong (knock on wood).

I didn't know that. I guess you do learn something new everyday. XJ looks good though. I go to UNCC right near URE but it always seems like something pops up to keep me from going.

 

[mglester]

I didn't know that. I guess you do learn something new everyday. XJ looks good though. I go to UNCC right near URE but it always seems like something pops up to keep me from going.

Thanks man, haha I know how that is. I can't wait for it to open back up again. Maybe we'll see you down there one weekend.

 

[mglester]

So lately I haven't done much other than a few things I've been putting off for a while now. Finally got around to replacing my ball joints. No more up and down looseness from the front end. I also did a little work with bed liner and finished my paint job I've been wanting to do for over a year. I also changed my rear diff fluid and what came out wasn't pretty but my spider gears and ring gear are in pretty good shape. Oh and she finally hit 100,000 miles. Here are the pictures:

None of that is very exciting BUT as of yesterday I FINALLY ordered the parts to get the ball rolling on my big upgrades... here's what I ordered:

• IRO long arms
• 7" nitro 9000 lift shocks
• IRO rear shock mounts
• Grade 8 u-bolts

Hopefully by the end of this week I will have everything installed and welded up. Stay posted for more pics!

 

[biggoofy]

If your gonna do shackles check Iromman4x4 fab instead of Iro

 

[mglester]

If your gonna do shackles check Iromman4x4 fab instead of Iro

Yeah, the Ironman shackles are beef, I've seen them before, I might get the relocation brackets too, they look sweet. Either way im gonna replace my shackles, the problem I don't wanna deal with is getting the old ones out...

 

[mglester]

Wow, it's been a while since I've been on here. Jeep's come a long way since Feb of 2013. Got the IRO long arms in and have been running them ever since. I'm very pleased with how they handle the abuse. I've done many more upgrades since tho. I'm gonna try and get caught up on the build thread.

Got the stock shackles out and put in some boomerang IRO shackles and upgraded my leafs to some RE 3.5"... they ride a lot better than RC obviously.

Tried swapping out my rear shocks for some Nitros and of course the infamous bolts broke off... no surprise there.

Instead of drill and tapping the holes I decided I was gonna make a new crossmember for the upper shock mounts. Ran no shocks in the rear for a while till I got my hands on some metal to weld a crossmember up with.

Next thing was motor mounts. Mine were shot so I went with the IRONMAN4x4 mounts. Kinda of PITA to put in, but with a little encouragement I got everything lined up.

What a difference the motor mounts made. Better torque transfer and pedal response. I was very pleased.

Last but not least I needed some more traction on the rocks, so I bought myself a Lockrite.

Oh so pretty. Install went smooth and it did great on the trail. I might have gotten a little too confident and this happened...

Long story short it took 5 hours to get out and the only thing that worked was a tractor... and this was the result:

Needless to say it was time for a unibody makeover in the front. I did a temporary patch to get the bumper back on and kept wheelin.

After wanting 35s for some time my buddy had just replaced two of his 35" Km2s with new ones and gave me the old ones. With only having to buy 2 more to have a whole set I found 2 from Discount for $425. Put them on at work and fell in love with them...

With bigger tires all I could think about were all the ledges I couldn't clear in the past with 32s so I set out to try em with the new 35s.

Well... I went a little too hard on a ledge and sheared my 8.25 yoke right off. Pulled the driveshaft and limped it off the trail in FWD.

Put a ubolt style yoke on it and I was back on the road.

 

[mglester]

Okay so after going to 35s I realized a major weak point I haven't really thought about. Steering... With all my troubles in the past with a weak unibody around the steering box I realized I had to do something about it. Being new to welding and just getting used to my new Hobart 140 I had a hell of a time trying to patch up the unibody. I tore everything down and got to cutting.

Everything on the inside of the "frame rail" was mangled and rusted so I had to replace it. Sheet metal work is not fun...

I boxed everything in the best I could just to replace all the old mangled metal.

Cut out the bottom and replaced it with new metal as well.

Then added a piece of 1/4" and tied it in to the inside. Took an old piece of 1/4" and bolted it on the outside of the frame rail and added one between the steering box spacer and the inner frame rail.

Wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, but once I got it all back together with the right size bolts the steering was tighter than it had ever been. Don't judge me on my welds at this period of time I was still a newby, but they're still holding up today.

With my steering box area in order I figured it was time to wheel. We took a trip out to the DPG for their annual open ride and I beat the shit out of her all over again. I managed to make it up this ledge that I noticed a lot of buggies were struggling to get up... my little shitty Jeep really surprised me. With a little skinny pedal I somehow made it up.

Ended up breaking a u joint on another ledge farther back in the woods and being close to the end of the day I got lazy and just put her on the trailer.

Didn't really realize how much character that weekend added until I got her home and started looking her over. The worst body damage I found was this:

I would have thought I would have felt this or heard it, but I'm sure i was at 6k when it happened so there's no telling. This gave me another project. I never understood why they made it so flimsy with holes all through it, but what I was planning was gonna fix it for good.

So one night I got out my favorite tool (the angle grinder) and started cutting away.

Started with a sheet metal base and worked my way up to thicker metal.

Welded some angle iron in to tie the two frame rails together. Top and bottom.

 

[mglester]

My finished project came out looking like this... with a gaping hole in the middle ha.

Nothing a good ol NCSU plate can't fix. Painted everything and installed some LEDs to replace my stock head lights.

With the front end being as ugly as it was I wanted to clean it up a bit, but first came more upgrades.

I peeled back my stock diff cover in the back on some rocks wheelin so I threw a Ruff Stuff 8.25 cover on it. Straight beef.

My tie rod had been bent for some time and I didn't wanna invest in 1 ton OTK for a D30 so I decided to flip the DS tie rod end OTK and upgrade the tie rod for the 10th time now...

For $150 I'm satisfied. Just drilled out the knuckle and welded in a tapered insert. Took all of 30 minutes at work on a slow day.

Last thing I wanted to do was better shocks in the rear and raise the shock mounts over the axle so I would quit dragging them on the rocks.

New shock mounts burned in, painted, and shock bolted up.

I went with Doestsch 8000s because I felt like they were the best bang for your buck. Not overly priced, but handle great off road. All in all it's a great shock for the money.

Now that I'm caught up with the build thread this is how she sits now:

Cleaned up the front finally and got her looking a little better. I'm almost at the point where I think she's sturdy and reliable to the point where I shouldn't have to do much, other than regular maintenance. I think now I'm ready for a new project. Another XJ... where I can start stock and throw tons under it and go bigger. That unfortunately won't be for a while though. For now, I'm gonna wheel the shit outta this one til then.

 

[NickMaul]

With all of that breakage that has happened I am surprised that the d30 hasn't given in yet. Is it still an open diff?

Some rocker panel slider replacements would look pretty good and save you some door trouble in the future. It is a pretty simple welding job if you don't rush through it. Keep up the good work. It is nice to gain building experience on an XJ. The next jeep I build will look 10x better than my current frankenstein XJ.

 

[mglester]

With all of that breakage that has happened I am surprised that the d30 hasn't given in yet. Is it still an open diff?

Some rocker panel slider replacements would look pretty good and save you some door trouble in the future. It is a pretty simple welding job if you don't rush through it. Keep up the good work. It is nice to gain building experience on an XJ. The next jeep I build will look 10x better than my current frankenstein XJ.

Honestly I am too... it's a low pinon locked with a Lockright. I've broke a couple shaft ujoints, but nothing serious. I can't decide if building a D30 is worth doing, or is it just a waste of money. The only two upgrades it has are the Lockright and new LCA mounts.

It's funny you say that because my next project was gonna be a rear bumper that slides down into the frame rails and full rocker replacement with some 2x4 steel. I'm just afraid of all the rust that I'll find within the rockers. Might end up having to cut out more and tie into the pillars and shorten the doors. I just looked at what you did and it looks clean, I would just need to cut all the back to the pinch seam and tie it all together for more of a unibody stiffener and rocker protection. I like the Jeep btw. Those are my thoughts exactly, my next Jeep's gonna be done right from the beginning, since I know all the weak points now.

 

[NickMaul]

Honestly I am too... it's a low pinon locked with a Lockright. I've broke a couple shaft ujoints, but nothing serious. I can't decide if building a D30 is worth doing, or is it just a waste of money. The only two upgrades it has are the Lockright and new LCA mounts.

It's funny you say that because my next project was gonna be a rear bumper that slides down into the frame rails and full rocker replacement with some 2x4 steel. I'm just afraid of all the rust that I'll find within the rockers. Might end up having to cut out more and tie into the pillars and shorten the doors. I just looked at what you did and it looks clean, I would just need to cut all the back to the pinch seam and tie it all together for more of a unibody stiffener and rocker protection. I like the Jeep btw. Those are my thoughts exactly, my next Jeep's gonna be done right from the beginning, since I know all the weak points now.

Looking Back I definitely suggest getting 2"x6" for the rocker replacement sliders. The 2"x4" I have do not stick out passed the door handles

 

[mglester]

Looking Back I definitely suggest getting 2"x6" for the rocker replacement sliders. The 2"x4" I have do not stick out passed the door handles

Oh yeah, if you push the 2x4 up against the pinch seem it only sticks out a 1/4 of an inch from what i've seen. I'd like 2x6, but the cost difference between the two is what makes me wanna go with 2x4. I'll probably go with 2x4 only because I'll be using the remainder to make a rear bumper and I don't want 2x6 for the bumper.