Been doing a little work on the XJ in what little free time I have. I have done some repainting on the jeep itself, like the lower part of the doors, rockers, grill, front and rear crossmembers, front and rear wheel wells and the header panel. I used Rustoleum Hammered Black on the jeep, and to paint all my Rock Lizard XJ Armor. I love the look of that paint, and it is tough. I am also redoing the entire exhaust. I don't have the header yet, but I did get new O2 sensors, MagnaFlow FreeFlow 2.5" In/Out Cat, and a 12" glass pack. So far my Rock Lizard Armor consists of the redesigned Rock Monitor Budget Bumper, Super Skink Sliders, Gecko A-Pillar Light Mounts, Gila Monster Upper and Lower Quarter Panel Armor, and a Tortoise Gas Tank Skid. I am working on a TCase skid for it this weekend to get me by until I get my TNT Customs YLink Belly Pan and Long arms. I also got a Tranny Cooler and new shocks. This is the first stage of my project build up. The next stage will consist of my full width High Pinion D44 front and 9" rear axles with ARB air lockers, 5:38 gears and rear disc brakes, along with Bilstein shocks, custom beadlocks with 37" Interco Trxus, TNT Customs belly skid and YLink long arms, and finish painting the rest of the jeep Rustoleum Hammered Green everywhere that was left white in the first stage. I am currently sitting at 5" lift with 35x12.5" GoodYear MT/R's on 15x10s with 3.5" Backspacing.
OK, onto the pictures. First, a before picture when I was 6.5" with 34" Trxus:
Now for the good stuff:
Picked this up from JEGS, after reading Jeepin' Jason's article. B&M tranny cooler part #70268. Here is his install article, which I will be using for my install:
http://www.jeepin.com/features/trannycooler/index.asp
It was a little more than what Jason paid, since they were charging handling when I purchased, so $55.98. Box is turned to reference the part number.
I don't have the header yet, but I am going to try out that APN header for $135.70:
http://www.autopn.com/store/pc/viewprd. ... duct=20009
This other exhaust stuff is from
www.summitracing.com. I got the Magnaflow High Flow Cat with O2 bung, part number MPE-94036 for $67.95, a 12"/18" overall length glass pack for $21.95, front O2 sensor #NGK-23099 for $45.39, and rear O2 sensor #NGK-23151 for $48.39. Shipping is free, but there is a $9.95 handling fee on the entire order. I have a buddy who does exhaust work, so he is running all new 2.5" pipe from header to tail pipe for me, and setting it up for high clearance. I don't have any comparison pics right now, but the glass pack and cat are only 4" tall, and 18" total length each, so they won't have very much below the framerail compared to the stock cat and muffler.
new cat compared to stock
new 12"/18" overall cat compared to old 24" Cherry bomb
With that Summit order, I learned they were having a sale on some close out Edelbrach IAS Twin Tube shocks. I guess it is a regular occurance. I don't normally like Hydro shocks, but after nearly 60,000 miles, my OME long travels are shot, so I needed some temporary shocks until I get my full widths finished so I can measure for some Bilsteins. Summit lists regular price on these Edelbracks at $49 each, but I picked them up at $19.98 each. Problem is, the only XJ shocks they carry are stock length, so those weren't going to work for me at 5" of lift. My OME LT lengths are 26.69" extended/15.43" collapsed for the front N35L's and the rear N36L's are 24.49" and 14.41", so I needed to find shocks that had similar measurements and mounting. I came up with #EDL-20132 front shocks for 1986-95 YJ 4wd with 3" lift, measuring 27.48" extended and 16.47" collapsed, and part #EDL-20119 rear shocks for 1991-94 Exploder/Navajo stock measuring 25.62" and 15.50". As you can see by the measurements, the compressed and extended lengths front and rear are about 1" longer, which isn't a problem, since extended will give a little more droop is my shocks are currently my limiting straps, and my bumpstops are set enough that I won't bottom out the shocks on compression anyways. And, I ordered from Summit before and had a $10 discount code, so my $9.95 handling fee was removed.
I'll be happy with $80 shocks for a few months until I get my $400 Bilsteins.
Wheel wells painted and new shocks installed
Grill, headlamp bezels, header panel and front crossmember repainted, with Gecko A-Pillar Light Mounts installed
Lower doors painted and Super Skink Sliders installed
Gila Monster Upper and Lower Quarter Panel Guards installed and the beginning of the first XJ prototype rear Komodo Dragon Bumper
Rock Monitor Front bumper
And the big picture so far
And just for fun, not too long ago I snagged a buddies Renegade light cover and threw it on to see how it looked. May just have to get my own.
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