Budget XJ

[RunningProblem]

On second thought... I'll stick to grinding. I abandon my own wife and child to do this work anyways

How many did you go through? I'll stock up on a couple.

Not many. I bought them during his Black Friday sale so I had enough. Just make sure you’re comfortable welding while sitting and you’ll get better results. Mock everything up, take it in place, get the bend in the unibody, and since you have all three you can make sure it fits up nicely. The rears didn’t exist when I did mine. You might want to drop the gas tank for those.

Go slow. It doesn’t have to be done in a day, does it?

 

[fl0w3n]

It doesn’t have to be done in a day, does it?

It sure does, this shit can’t sit all season in pieces again

 

[RunningProblem]

It sure does, this shit can’t sit all season in pieces again

Could you spend a few hours each night on it after the kids are in bed? Tack welding helps get it right, and this should really help your build. Just take the time to tack it ALL in and like it all up instead of welding mods, then fronts, and find out it isn’t straight.

I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to work with the front part of the mids folding up and over the front stiffeners. I cut the front piece off and never welded it on. I don’t think it would fit at the time. I also needed to modify mine for some bolt holes I think.

 

[Mittnz]

Not many. I bought them during his Black Friday sale so I had enough. Just make sure you’re comfortable welding while sitting and you’ll get better results. Mock everything up, take it in place, get the bend in the unibody, and since you have all three you can make sure it fits up nicely. The rears didn’t exist when I did mine. You might want to drop the gas tank for those.

Go slow. It doesn’t have to be done in a day, does it?

I did my rears without dropping the tank, but I don't think I really welded the underside of them near the tank very much, sort of just tacked a bit (the part where the bolts for the hitch/rear bumper brackets go through). I figure there are 4 giant bolts in there, that part isn't really moving.

These stripping disks are the shit: Amazon.com

You'll only go through maybe 2 or 3, they are pretty durable and the paint/undercoating on the sub-frame is paper thin so you're not really removing a whole lot.

 

[fl0w3n]

Work and life has been busy as shit, but finally got a day to mess around last weekend.

HO header fits fine

Clearance to the block is extremely tight, pic makes it look even worse but it’s close, maybe 1/8-1/4 gap. I contemplated giving them a couple whacks with the BFH for clearance, but got lazy.

Renix intake just needs a kiss from the flap wheel on the bottom outside corner to clear the Renix header

And looking forward to getting this cluster fuck cleaned up. Started putting the wiring harness back in for some final routing measurements before the last couple splices. And a test run before I wrap it all up.

 

[fl0w3n]

Any suggestions for junkyard/OEM steering boxes to look into for the steering system rebuild, or just run the XJ?

Leaning towards a WJ high flow pump for the hydro fan, a Lee PS reservoir, a rebuilt box tapped for a surplus ram

 

[fl0w3n]

Had a hard time getting motivated this weekend after the work week… so I felt like I needed to get after a project that was just brute force

Cleaned up my 9” center section and cut the remainder of the old tubes out of it. You know how usually once you do one side, the other side is faster and easier? We’ll this didn’t go that way

I’ll probably need to bevel and detail the inner edge a little once I get the 60 cut up and ready to press in

Might need to hone it out or it’s gonna be a real tight press. Or probably better yet is get the 60 tubes turned down slightly and then it’ll also have a lip to catch for perfectly setting the stab in

First side I was able to loosen the tube up after cutting the weld and hammer it out through the center… second side fought the whole way and I needed to relief cut, peel the relief out, and then hammer it out in two sections.

 

[fl0w3n]

Need opinions on this pitting … will a lube locker and RTV be good enough? Or do I try and get it filled in and then milled back flat? I feel like the risk there is getting the mounting surface out of plane with the shafts… although the factory clearly wasn’t a precision piece so that’s probably an unlikely issue.

 

[_stucky]

I’d rtv it and forget all about it

 

[fl0w3n]

Gettin this crusty heavy bitch into position to start stripping…