Project: Hot Rod Cherokee

[1bolt]

Okay this is going to be a LONG project thread mainly because I've had this XJ for years and done many mods both good and bad. It starts about half of the way in from where I got it. I only started taking pics of things a couple years ago. The current direction I'm going with this is sort of a Hot Rod or rat rod XJ; A lifted, big tired 4x4 Hot rod. I can't afford to build an actual hot rod, but I want to do a lot of the creative stuff it involves. So a cheap XJ will have to do.

Most of the mods I do are simply to learn how to do stuff or get better at stuff I like to do. This is no show truck, it's got plenty of warts. Which makes it easier to do whatever the hell I want to it. Before I'm done with it I intend to Turbo it and get it running 13 second quarters with 33" tires all the way around. Hopefully documented here.

When I got it, the interior smelled like a hundred pissed off Tom Cats with bladder infections had been trapped inside for a week. The previous owner had intended to transform someone's pretty rusted out stock XJ, into a trail only rig. But apparently he first used it as a Cat box.

I bought it intending to do exactly the same thing, build a trail rig but after some initial work I ended up needing it as a DD, so naturally the direction of mods changed to more street and performance oriented stuff. Which makes it kind of a hybrid off-road and Street build.

At some point right about when I decided to go with the blacked out Anti-Bling look I took pics
Before:

After:


Specs around that time:
3.5" RE lift
33's BFG AT KO's
Cut fenders and rear lower quarters
Stripped interior with crappy DIY bed liner
AC deleted for on board air
LSD's front and rear (Trutrac)

More later

[Shark]

this is a cool concept and this is kind of what i have envisioned for my DD as well, right down to the turbo. i like the blacked out wheels. is that duplicolor wheel paint of did you actually have those powder coated? you need to black out the red stripe on the rocker panels. i sanded mine down, masked off the body and sprayed duplicolor bed liner across there. turned out great and endured a year now.
my DD is more of a street rig compared to my trail rig. mostly performance mods with a budget boost and 31's.
to save weight for MPG and weight/HP ratio you can take the lower back seat out and just fold the upper back seat down for a clean look.

[1bolt]

I did black out the red stripe. As you'll see it as it unfolds. Those pics are about two years ago. I'll be posting the project in chunks as I find the time. Just wish I had pics from earlier. The most interesting part will probably be the future additions, as I've spent the last two years basically happy with the performance. After the Cowl induction hood and intake and some minor tweeks many of the mods are interior and cosmetic up to the point where I start mocking up the turbo. The looks and comfort had a long way to go to catch up with the performance.

[Shark]

so you have the turbo up and running already or just mocked up? what turbo did you use? you teasing us here man. get the pics up soon please!

[1bolt]

I'm somewhat past mockup it's not mounted yet so don't worry. I'll let it unfold in the thread. I'm playing with two different Garrett clones. One (which would probably boost off idle) is a T3 .48 hot side .42 cold. The other which I expect to keep mounted is a chinese T04E .68 AR exhaust (56mm wheel) and .50 AR compressor (48mm).

[1bolt]

okay maybe it's more of a rat rod Cherokee,


Rust in all the usual places. The PO tried but didn't manage to get rid of it, actually made it worse in a couple places
This:

Will eventually spell the end of this Cherokee... If you are wondering why the Hell I'm building on it anyway... I don't intend to go much past the Turbo with this build it will either go back to being a trail rig, or it will donate it's front half to a Cheromanche build I've always wanted to do. That is the rear shackle bucket and it is basically rusted apart, It's still holding on and survives wheeling and daily use because I have it fishplated on both sides (inside and out). But it's swiss cheeze and only a matter of time. Instead of doing major surgery and back halving it I will just pull all the mods I like out of it and the engine/Turbo and put them in a fresh build one day.

The PO's On Board Air setup using the stock AC compressor, he did a nice job, it worked good with a little work. It could air up tires but couldn't really run air tools. That and the fact that it had to be turned into a DD ended up causing me to ditch it as the thing started gravitating into a street duty role.

I swapped AC in myself. AC has to be the silliest thing in the world to pay a shop to do for you... Remove the batt. screw in a couple hoses, bolt on the Compressor a recharge from autozone and tighten the belt and you're off.

I then sold the OBA setup for about three times more than the used AC stuff I replaced it with. The cleaned up Engine bay:

The black tube in the upper left corner of the pic is the PO's idea of making a snorkle by passing a tube through the firewall... ingenious until you find out how loud it is.

[Wrambler]

Interesting, So, gotta ask,
How's it smell now

[1bolt]

hahah, well it only smelled bad for a week before the interior was gutted. The last 5 or 6 months it smells like a new car thanks to leather seats front and rear... Something about leather always makes a car smell like new not sure what it is.

[seanyb505]

Looking forward to someone finally run a turbo!

[1bolt]

One of my favorite minor mods, dual remote oil filters mounted neatly besides the brake booster. I made a bracket out of some square tube... drilled a hole, and used the adjuster knob from a disgarded table saw. And no before you ask it doesn't interfere with the hood in any way.

A couple turns and you can swivel the whole thing up and tighten it back down:

I need to weld in a captive nut or maybe a rivet nut for the knob to thread in to so it will tighten up better but otherwise it's a nice setup. Oil changes (on this truck anyway) will never again lead to oil running down my arm. If you're wondering if it's messy, no just tip it all the way up and most of the oil runs down the hoses, then just spin them off. Which is 10x easier than before as well because you can get both hands around the filters this way, and easilly dab up any dribs and drabs.

Notice this also makes a perfect place for my oil temp gauge sender (brown wire) and a handy place to mount the Electric fuel pressure gauge sender. At some point that other bung next to the oil temp sender will come in very handy.

[seanyb505]

Ingenious bracket recycling! This may sound dumb, but what are the advantages of running two filters, other than cleaner oil? And how much work is required to get oil to them? Do you just run a line from the stock location to the new?

[1bolt]

it's a kit, theres an adaptor that goes on where the oil filter used to, that has two hose barbs, the advantage is twice the filtering... basically it will take twice as long for the filters to get restricted or clogged and thus two times longer before the filter bypasses most of the oil that flows to it. Which is what happens when a filter gets too restrictive from contaminants it has filtered out.

I think it also allows more "bandwidth" so to speak, meaning you can pump twice the oil through two filters at a given PSI (less resistence) so it's like having a filter that flows twice as much and is twice the size. Which also would mean that you're getting 2 times the volume of oil filtered per drive.

More, faster, longer... As you know we only need two of those qualities to justify a mod

[seanyb505]

I thought they were cheap, fast and long lasting....

[1bolt]

Cheap and more are the same things 4 dollar ribeye steaks are Cheap... thus I'll buy more... See what I mean? hehe

So anyway when I finally got sick of the previous owners interior remodeling job (which consisted mostly of removing 90% of it), and "bedliner" (duplicolor crap).

I went to the pick and pull and got some trim to replace all the missing bits:

And proceeded to tear everything out, and clean and paint it with Krylon Fusion. I went with two tone satin black and satin tan, because I had some extra black and because I've got a thing for black and tan, including the Bass ale and Guinness version of it.



This was a gray piece (the Junk Yard didn't have enough tan bits) I have to admit I had mixed results with the Krylon Fusion while good stuff for some plastics . It stuck to some panels better than others. I think that was directly related to how I did or didn't prep... Too soon to tell, But I've got the stuff in my MJ and I did barely any prep on the MJ's panels and lots of prep on most of the XJ's panels... Time will tell.

The tan is a near perfect match it looks a little shiney here due to the camera flash. It has a nice satiny sheen that looks not too far off something the OEM's would use. As I said I had mixed results and the cargo area pieces have suffered the most (perhaps predicably) I'll show the wear and tear in future updates; I'm not pretending everything I do works out perfectly.

Prep consisted of serious scrubbing with stuff called "Greased Lightening" which absolutely amazes me at how good it is at removing stuff that nothing else touches. Then acetone wipe down, then scuffing with green scotch brite pad... I have some pieces in high traffic areas (the black rocker sill trim) that are taking lots of abuse every time you get in and out and holding up well, that I barely prepped. While some stuff (cargo area greay pieces) that I prepped the most are easily scratched! It may be the Gray plastic is a different polymer.

Next I pulled the carpet out of a 2 door (they are identical) parts XJ and rented a rug steamer... not bad for a 15 year old carpet that had mass coffee stains.


Of course I was upgrading and modding other stuff while this was all going on.

[seanyb505]

Lookin really nice!