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Project Motorcharge

50K views 387 replies 44 participants last post by  Motorcharge 
#1 ·
It only took me 3 and a half long years to get another one but I finally did it. XJ #4 and the 4th time it's cost me $400.

Jeep info is in my info on the left.

Rolled over 260k on the hour and a half trip home though the tires needed to be balanced bad. Other than that she ran like a champ and it should be a good foundation for a build. Also came with upcountry coils, an extra set of 5 wheels and an extra NP231 transfer case.

The interior is totally gutted minus the front seats/dash/steering column/ect. Needs a good cleaning and headliner replacement before it goes back together as well as bedliner on the floor. Lucky for me the previous owner replaced all the floor panels already with all new sheet metal so there is virtually zero rust other than some surface rust on the roof.
 
#2 ·
Lucky for me it came with upcountry coils and I have some 2" coil spring spacers that I think will fit them. If that's the case I'll be visiting the junkyard tomorrow or next weekend to get me a main leaf off a Dakota and I'll have 3" lift right off the bat.

Short term mods:
Stereo, amp, and speaker install - Kenwood head unit and amp, 12" Pioneer sub
Ammo can lockbox
Rear bumper/hitch build
Bedlined interior/exterior
Custom tube fender flares

To do list tomorrow:
oil/filter change
tune up
general cleaning of the interior
brake flush
coolant flush
tire balancing
alignment
a/c recharge
and if I have time, painting the fender flares and grill

Lucky for me I work at a Subaru/Nissan dealership and have access to tools and lifts on the weekends as well as brake, balancing, and alignment machines and every fluid machine you can think of.
 
#5 ·
It looks like it's in worse shape than it is. Once I get it cleaned up and fix some minor stuff it'll be looking pretty good. Soon as I sell my Dakota I'm gonna get it bedlined inside and out. Should be looking much better in a couple weeks.

I took it to the truck wash up the street from me and that made a huge difference. I really wanted to get into my storage unit to bust out the JF stickers but they were closed by the time I got there.
 
#7 ·
Gotten quite a bit done today and got a few nice surprises when I got her up in the air. A good portion of the front end suspension is all new, exhaust header is new, muffler, alternator, and best of all shocks new all the way around so hopefully the upper shock bolts wont be a ***** when I lift it here soon. Keeping it on pavement til I do just to keep them as easy to get out as possible.
 
#8 ·
Done today:
Oil change
Brake flush
Coolant flush
All fluids checked, filled up
Interior trim and panels scrubbed, degreased cleaned
Put rear seat and center console back together/in
Front grill/bezels repainted black
Mudflaps removed
Tires balanced
Replaced rear hatch struts

I didn't get as much as I wanted done because the shop closed early because they're paving all the lots at work tonight. Not to mention cleaning the interior took me a good part of the day. I'm really glad the whole interior was almost completely stripped because it hadn't been really cleaned in 10 years.

Tomorrow:
Front seats replaced (have XJ seats in my Dakota that are the same color and in much better shape)
All tint removed (cheap walmart stick on crap)
Front door hinges modified for removable doors.

Next weekend:
Redoing the headliner

Not much I can do next weekend due to monetary constraints. Need to save for bedliner for the next couple weeks for the exterior but iff I have time I'm going to try and get the interior bedlined (have a fair amount of Herc laying around) and the exterior sanded and primed for the exterior bedliner. Pretty sure I'm going to get that taken care of before the lift.
 
#9 ·
I'm also going to get the rear bumper build started next weekend. I'm going to do it fairly basic. Just following the body lines for the main portion with 2 clevis mounts and room for a hitch underneath. I'm not looking to make it too bulky but I want to be able to build a swing out tire carrier for it later on.

Will depend if this comes in or not: http://www.atozfabrication.com/store/Jeep-Rear-Bumper-Builders-Kit.html
 
#10 ·
I really want to Herc my floor but so scared to just start pulling up carpet, no telling what is under there I dont have much rust but it is there, can you post pics, is it just norm painting process?? clean it, sand it, primer, then bedline it? is that about the gist whats the easiest way to clean once everything is removed...powerwasher? or just vacuum and a broom, or if there is a build thread on this can someone show me the link please? btw awesome deal on the jeep I bought mine for $500 was in almost perfect condition, so you cant beat $400 man, love it!
 
#11 ·
I know I said I wasn't going to wheel it yet, but poor self control and powerline trail access directly behind my apartments was calling to me. :rofl:
Had to test to see if the 4wd worked at some point anyway right?

Nothing crazy, probably only went a 1/4 mile or so down em, but it came flooding back just how much I missed Jeeping.

Sorry there's only one after pic, but I didn't feel like getting out in the mud in low top vans.
 
#18 ·
I'm pretty torn between lifting it and bedlining the exterior first. Both are going to cost about the same for me. I was set on the lift til I saw a picture on here of someone using the same color bedliner I'm going to use and seeing how good it turned out. I had shocks ordered for the lift but they had to put them on backorder so I cancelled and hadn't reordered from elsewhere yet.

Here's the color I'm looking at:



Wheels will be the same color. Rockers/door lowers, door handles, grill, bezels, ect will be black.
 
#20 ·
I've loved that color for as long as I can remember and I'm stoked to do it, just not sure which to do first.

I'm heading to the junkyard tomorrow for s10 leaves and comanche shackles (they set a comanche out today), hopefully no one got them yet.

I've got everything I need for the lift minus the shocks and they're going to cost me about as much as the bedliner will so I'm kinda torn on which to do first.

Tonight I bought a clothing steamer ($30) to remove the old tint on the windows. It works awesome, but I only got the 2 back door windows done before it got dark and didn't feel like clearing out the garage to have light. I have to go into work tomorrow anyway to work on the Jeep so I'll just finish it up there.

To do list tomorrow:
shackles/s10 packs at the JY
finish removing window tint
put in upper shock bolt on drivers side rear
finish making the doors removable
install head unit and front/rear speakers with quick connects up front
replace thermostat and rear brake shoes

If I've got time I'll throw the Up Country coils and shackle on for ~1" of lift since I'll have the parts anyway and don't have to worry about the shocks with an inch.
 
#21 ·
I used straight ammonia on my tint (po had put on that ugly chrome tint). It took some long hours of razor blade scraping but I got it off of there eventually.

I vote go ahead and buy your shocks and get that bad boy up in the air. Just my personal preference. Looking forward to some good pictures after today, have fun man
 
#22 ·
I've done the amonia thing and the steamer beats it by a long shot. I'm about an hour in today on it and I've got all but a small portion of the hatch glass done.

Hit the JY this morning and the comanche shackles were gone but I got a tube bumper off it for $40. Waiting on them to pull it now. Go figure one bolt was seized and I couldn't get it to budge and couldn't get my sawzall in enough to cut it. Also picked up a mirror off a mail jeep for when the doors are off.

Pics later on today.
 
#25 ·
Got it up in the air after work and found the problem after putting 2 qts back in the trans, one of the lines blew out the side. Couldn't find anything wrong with the plastic clip but I couldn't get it back in either. Didn't have much time to mess with it. Hopefully I can just order a new clip and pop it back in, but either way at worst I'm looking at ~$40 for a new line and I get the fluid free at work anyway.
 
#27 ·
Plans for today:
finish making the doors removable
fabbing up a bracket for the cj rear mirror to mount on the fender
cleaning and painting the mirror
aux fan over ride switch
head unit and front speaker install
swapping the tires/wheels off my Dakota onto the XJ

If I have time I might run the wiring for the amp/sub but I still have to have the amp repaired so I dunno if I'm going to mess with it today. Also may start fabbing up new mounts for the rear bumper since the existing ones aren't going to work.
 
#28 ·
drivers side doors are off. If you do this mod make your life easier and get a bottle jack to lift the doors off once the hinges are cut and get a $15 harbor freight air hammer to knock the bottoms of the hinges off. The rear took me 30 plus minutes to get just the cut hinges off, the front took literally 2 seconds.

View attachment 420442
 
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