Gabe's FSJ Diary (formally Grand Wagoneer build thread)

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az chip
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Re: Gabe's FSJ Diary (formally Grand Wagoneer build thread)

Post by az chip »

I love the progress! But where is the front bumper?
'81 Cherokee Chief 81 WT Chief/MSD 6/Holley Sniper/ Rusty 4" Spring lift/ Bulltear oil adapter/K&P Engineering Oil Filter/ NP 208/ Serehill Light Harness/KC LED Headlights/ Evil Twin Fab Roof Rack and sliders/ Ross mirror mounts.

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Nikkormat
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Re: Gabe's FSJ Diary (formally Grand Wagoneer build thread)

Post by Nikkormat »

az chip wrote:I love the progress! But where is the front bumper?
Justin made off with the front bumper and a few other bits a few years ago. This used to be a parts rig!
Gabe, "reformed" Jeep hoarder.
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Lumpskie
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Re: Gabe's FSJ Diary (formally Grand Wagoneer build thread)

Post by Lumpskie »

Dude! Nice solder work! And nice job with the sharpy too. I can't even tell that it wasn't paint.
1989 Grand Wagoneer - Rebuilt 360, 2" Alcans, 10" travel Gabriel Guadian shocks.
1996 Land Cruiser - 1HD-T Diesel, Gturbo (23psi), Wholesale Automatics 442f, F/R ARBs, 35" Duratracs, ARB Rear Bumper, OME 2" lift, home built sliders and aluminum belly skid
2000 Honda Civic - Integra GSR engine, transmission, shift linkage and axles, 200hp, 33 combined mpg
2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9 - 437hp/447ft-lb

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Nikkormat
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Re: Gabe's FSJ Diary (formally Grand Wagoneer build thread)

Post by Nikkormat »

Status report, Tuesday February 27th 2018. 11:40 PM.

Long time no update, here's the condensed version of what you've missed.

- The 90's engine was just as bad as I thought. Really glad I waited to try and slap a cam and lifters in it. Tons of copper in the oil filter and I confirmed it hadn't come from the cam bearings (which, as Roadkill will show you,are totally optional).

- The 91 fought us every inch of the way going back together. The flex plate had gone missing during its lengthy storage and finding an 89-91 specific replacement on short notice proved impossible. After we finally found it there was still hope of assembling it in time for me to roadkill it up here to Justin but that plan went egg shaped once we tried to drop the drivetrain back in. I think it took Wyatt and I something like 37 hours to get the bugger wrestled into place and bolted down. With many hours of work still ahead of us and my departure a week away we threw in the towel and tried to enjoy a few days of fun before he had to go back to classes.

- After applying for some student loans (which I previously hadn't qualified for as both my mother and father were unable to provide proof of income) my parents decided I needed to do something to build some credit before it comes time to refinance all of this debt I'm taking on for schooling. We kicked around the idea of a credit card, or a car lease. But in the end I talked them into cosigning an unsecured personal loan for $6500 that I could use to buy a newer more reliable vehicle to supplement my fleet of hoopties.

- I searched extensively for a Tacoma with low miles within 300 miles of Denver but nothing came up in time. Like the true addict I am I started looking at nice rust free FSJ's to blow my "reliable vehicle" cash wad on. I was in negotiations for a rust free 1983 Waggy with a 5 speed and bench on bench interior. But the seller wouldn't be back in time to sign the title over. At that point I started looking for XJ's from 1997-1999 with zero rust and under 150k miles. Much to my surprise, I found a one owner 1998 (BEST year IMO) at a dealership down in Denver with only 140K on the odometer. Stalked the vin around the web and confirmed it was a one owner rig. The PO was a retired firefighter in Canon City (a desert town with an environment perfect for preserving vehicles) who had passed away a few months prior.

- With Wyatt in tow we went down for a test drive and found the happiest little XJ I've ever seen. Chili Pepper Red Pearl with a Lund Visor that has been on it since new. Dealer installed bull bar with two fog lights off of a TJ, running boards, window deflectors, rear wind deflector, and a bug guard. Three stick on through-the-glass antennas also grace the exterior. I don't know what the other two went to, but the one that's still hooked up feeds a perfectly functional Radio Shack CB dated 1998. The current dealership picked it up at auction, threw a 3 inch Rough Country lift on it and (unfortunately) a set of 31 inch Michelin XLT M/S tires that rally round off the Old Man aesthetic.

Really fell in love with it in the test drive (which, shockingly was unsupervised). It was a little sluggish at first but a quick TV cable adjustment in a gas station parking lot woke the AW4 right up. It wasn't long before I was blowing the Michelins off the rear at every stop sign; especially the ones where I was making a right turn. :evil: The trashlok in the rear is surprisingly tight and responsive.

It had a few problems so after 20 minutes of hoodlumery we went back to the dealership to haggle. They had been sitting on it for two months and had dropped from a starting price of $8200 to $7100. When I said I was coming down to look at it they dropped it again to $6800. So it was pretty obvious they wanted it gone. :-bd On the test drive we found the heater lacking, and front end alignment sketchy at best. Prior to the test drive we crawled all around it and checked every fluid. The coolant was on its way out (my experienced tongue would say it was a 2004 vintage Prestone concentrate with a mixer of city tap water and AMC engine block rust) and the ATF looked original. It also needed hatch struts. We shook hands on $6800 and fixing the issues I had found and a passing emissions cert; as the catalytic converter was the original unit.

They lazily flushed the heater core (instead of the entire system as we had agreed on) and replaced the thermostat with a 205 to increase the heat output. That worked for about five minutes on the final test drive! They did do everything else I had asked and it passed emissions with flying colors. So I beat them up on price some more and got for a little over $6600. As an out of state buyer I didn't even have to pay sales tax. 8-) I wanted to go even lower, but they sold it to me at enough of a loss I didn't care. They only recouped the cost of the initial purchase, lift, and tires. That night I replaced the hose they nicked while flushing the heater core, flushed the whole system for three hours and removed a surprising amount of nastiness, refilled it, and took a friend down to Denver to watch his brothers band play (and make a midnight rains on voodoo doughnuts). It then became apparent the headlights would need to be replaced. Suckers were dim!

The next day I replaced the headlights, the headlight switch, and the foglight switch. The headlight switch was failing intermittently whenever it warmed up, leaving me with only fog lights while the switch cooled. And the foglight switch only worked about half the time, eventually failing all together. As for the headlights themselves, they were dated 03/98. Which explains the dimness. With those few things taken care of I loaded it to the gills with Waggy interior parts, strapped a period correct Thule box on the roof loaded with the rest of my crap, and headed out to school.

I got too late of a start to be able to stop in Moab on the way back up here so the unibody was spared that workout, for now. The trip was uneventful besides loosing a brand new headlight (which was replaced under warranty!). It was really weird to get 17-20 miles on a gallon of gas. And to be able to go pretty much as fast as I wanted. The 4.0 doesn't quite have the hootspa for sustained speeds over the mid 90's but even loaded down and lifted it was able to hit the speed limiter at somewhere around 112 without much hesitation. Which is concerningly fast in a lifted XJ!

I can't get pictures to load on this dang school computer, so I'll continue this update soon and add some pictures and tell rest of this story. Crap, where did that hour just go?
Last edited by Nikkormat on Wed Feb 28, 2018 12:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
Gabe, "reformed" Jeep hoarder.

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Nikkormat
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Re: Gabe's FSJ Diary (formally Grand Wagoneer build thread)

Post by Nikkormat »

I was able to fight it into uploading one picture. Here's a teaser. Image
Gabe, "reformed" Jeep hoarder.

AwesomeJ10
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Re: Gabe's FSJ Diary (formally Grand Wagoneer build thread)

Post by AwesomeJ10 »

Good times man, although that seems high for an xj, I am glad you got it!

There has been quite a bit of movement up here on my offgrid property and I should update my own post...
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tedlovesjeeps71
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Re: Gabe's FSJ Diary (formally Grand Wagoneer build thread)

Post by tedlovesjeeps71 »

Congrats on the Xj!!!
Too bad I didn't know you were looking. I'm putting the long arms on mine this weekend (hopefully) and it will be going up for sale. Wife is pushing us to get the **** out of our apartment and the only way that happens is if I turn up some $$.
If you plan on wheeling it (obviouse...Duh!), Look into getting some frame stiffeners from rough stuff. It'll help keep the beer can frame straight when you do start abusing it. Doors will remain usable, less squeaks. Worth the $ and the hassle.


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Nikkormat
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Re: Gabe's FSJ Diary (formally Grand Wagoneer build thread)

Post by Nikkormat »

Well poo. Just blew the transmission clean out of the 86 in the drive thru line at taco Bell. The next update to this thread was SUPPOSED to be a sweet J10 but now I'm selling it instead of the 86. :(

On the bright side, I've finally found a way to do an AX15 swap easily. And I know a guy selling a pretty sweet bumper for cheap.

Maybe this Jeep's name should be "Clingy"? Cause I can't seem to get rid of the BEEPING thing.
Gabe, "reformed" Jeep hoarder.
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tedlovesjeeps71
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Re: Gabe's FSJ Diary (formally Grand Wagoneer build thread)

Post by tedlovesjeeps71 »

Nikkormat wrote:Well poo. Just blew the transmission clean out of the 86 in the drive thru line at taco Bell. The next update to this thread was SUPPOSED to be a sweet J10 but now I'm selling it instead of the 86. :(

On the bright side, I've finally found a way to do an AX15 swap easily. And I know a guy selling a pretty sweet bumper for cheap.

Maybe this Jeep's name should be "Clingy"? Cause I can't seem to get rid of the BEEPING thing.
So now your gonna sell the great white hope in order to keep the Klingon??


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Nikkormat
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Re: Gabe's FSJ Diary (formally Grand Wagoneer build thread)

Post by Nikkormat »

tedlovesjeeps71 wrote:
Nikkormat wrote:Well poo. Just blew the transmission clean out of the 86 in the drive thru line at taco Bell. The next update to this thread was SUPPOSED to be a sweet J10 but now I'm selling it instead of the 86. :(

On the bright side, I've finally found a way to do an AX15 swap easily. And I know a guy selling a pretty sweet bumper for cheap.

Maybe this Jeep's name should be "Clingy"? Cause I can't seem to get rid of the BEEPING thing.
So now your gonna sell the great white hope in order to keep the Klingon??


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The good thing about selling it to Wyatt is I'll get to buy it back eventually.

But dang Ted, that's funny.
Gabe, "reformed" Jeep hoarder.

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Re: Gabe's FSJ Diary (formally Grand Wagoneer build thread)

Post by AwesomeJ10 »

Good seeing ya the other day man!

Lemme know if you are selling that J10. I like it!
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