bRIBEGuy's 2000 XJ

[EEP]

When I get home I will take a pic of skid plate, post it for you.

[SwampSinger]

Nice work on the patching!!

[jkrubi]

Looking very nice, but I hope you did not put bed liner in the windshield location. Makes it very hard to install a no leak window.

[EEP]

Pic of skidplate

[bRIBEGuy]

Some more long overdue updates...........

New windshield went in without a hitch.  If you consider a windshield getting scratched during install as "without a hitch".



No biggy, it' still the nicest part I currently have on the XJ. 


With the roof done and the windshield in, it was time to get this build back on track, and get rolling with some nice easy "bolt on" stuff.  Bushwacker Flat Flares, here we come!

[bRIBEGuy]

Step 1:  Remove old front flares.





Step 2: Remove old rear flares and bumper caps.




Step 3: Start swearing profusely at all of the rear quarter panel rust that had been hidden by the bumper caps and flares.

FML.

[Pookapotamus]

Time for a tuck mark!

[dubbleJs]

Time for a tuck mark!

The ole cut 'n fold!!

[Pookapotamus]

The ole cut 'n fold!!

Circumcision!!!!!!

[bRIBEGuy]

A snip and a tuck was the only way I could see the Jeep living longer.  With fear in my eyes I drilled out the rivits for the bumper cap mounts, grabbed my trusty angle grinder, and returned to my least favorite pass time ever......dealing with rust.





Since a cut and fold would involve needing access from inside as well, I started pulling interior panels, and my sub/amp mount.




With the sub out, this was the view from inside.




Pretty sure it's supposed to be like that, right?




Started to grind off more rust.  Then started cutting.  Cutting and grinding.  Cutting and grinding.......







Rust converter.  Self etching primer.  Folding.





Seam sealer.  A few self tapping screws.  Seam sealer.  Pop rivets.  More seam sealer.





Bondo.  More bondo.  Epoxy primer.  Paint.

[bRIBEGuy]

Since i was in rust fixing mode, I patched up a few more spots too.  No need to be pretty here....it's gonna be covered. 




Cut and fold in the back means the OEM bumper won't work.  Solution is en route thanks to Broken Axle Dave flexing his muscles and getting all medieval on his vendors. 




Lots to do until that arrives though.  I was sort of still in painting mode too, so I tracked down some Mazda colors and decided to give the XJ a bit of a hat tilt to Mortis.  After all, the XJ wouldn't be where it is without the help/advice of pook.

[bRIBEGuy]

And then it was back to those darn fenders.

Mark.  Cut.  Trim.  Fold.  Prime.  Paint.  Repeat.

[bRIBEGuy]

Dropped off a few bags of money at Broken Axle, and a while later Dave dropped off some really heavy boxes.





I started to mock things up........





And that's when the next round of problems raised their ugly heads......

[bRIBEGuy]

The JCR Crusader Sliders appear to be VERY nice, but they are fairly complex, and the instructions......lets just say, could be a bit better.  They are also designed around a stock Jeep XJ, and not one with cut-out fenders....though admittedly, I did kinda know this when I ordered them, and was sort of just hoping that crossing my fingers really intensely would make them bolt up with no mods.  No such luck.  The back end should be fine, but I'll likely end up having to cut off 1/2" or so off of the front, and drill new mounting holes.  Certainly not the end of the worlds.

Getting these things up and in place is a bit of a challenge due to their size/weight, and things starting moving MUCH smoother when I just wised up and tricked a buddy into coming over to play helper.  We managed to get the first upper mounting hole in the front drilled, and the lower mounting hole in the back done c/w nutsert.  After taking the drivers side to the same stage, we looked at moving onto the frame brackets, and were kinda thwarted by a complete lack of hardware.  Yup, that's right, the 18 self tapping 3/8" x 1" bolts were not included in the kit.

Grrrrr.................

Turns out these bolts seem to be rarer than diamonds as well, and after getting turned away by 3 hardware stores as well as Calgary Fasteners and Bolt Supply, I admitted defeat, and got in touch with Allen at JCR.  He apologized, and mailed me out a new set the next day (great service from those JCR guys). 

So now I'm back to sitting and waiting.

Stoopid Jeep.

[LLYJ]

You could use some of these cheap camper jacks with screw collars, work great for what you were doing, these ones cost me 5 bucks for 4 at a garage sale.