Moms Jeep!

[Chris]

I little backstory here. My mom and dad bought this jeep back in 1985 brand new at Orange Coast jeep here is SoCal. It was a two door Chief 4x4. (I have the original picture of it with our family standing in front somewhere, I will have to find it and post it) Well my parents divorce a few years later and my mom kept the jeep. She drove it from 1985 until the mid 2000's when she bought a new jeep but kept this one as she said no other jeep compared to how this one drove. By then it had 248,000 miles on it and the motor had been rebuilt twice. Other than that cosmetically it was in poor shape.

Since she was not driving it and my sister needed a 4x4 for the winter ai took it and put new interior in it and painted it up for her, this was back in 2009.

 

[Chris]

My sister had it for a year or two and then it was parked again. My mother passed away in 2013 and no one wanted the jeep. To me it had sentimental value, I grew up in this jeep. We did road trips, camping trips, exploring ghost towns, towed the boat to the lake. I learned to drive in this jeep and had a few other fun activities in this jeep. I offered to buy out my brother and sisters share of this jeep for 700 bucks and they agreed. I took it home and it sat for another year.

I almost sold it off in 2014 but nobody wants an 85 xj witha 4 cylinder carbed motor except me I guess. I decided I would then start building it into a rig I can take my kids on trips with and do the same things me and my family did when I was a kid. I started with pulling the front axle out and apart, cleaned everything up and installed new seals and a aussie locker. From there I did frame stiffeners and started my own long arms. In the meantime my wife and I decided we were moving so it got put back on the back burner until a few months ago when I put in my new garage. By now the brakes had gone to crap and I have to clean the carb everytime I go to start it.


I will pick back up on this later on when I have a little more time.

 

[Chris]

Here are a few pics of the stiffeners going on and axle coming out. Maybe one or two of my arm mock up.

 

[Chris]

I wanted to swap out the NP 207 transfer case with a 231 so I could do a SYE. Problem was finding one with 21 spline input shaft to match my antique transmission. I finally found one and once I got it home I opened it up and of course someone had broken a few parts in there.

 

[Havasu]

Man, those are great big pics! I love it!

 

[Cyklone]

Amazing. Keep it man bring it to glory have some fun and teach the kids in it... dont sell it.

 

[Chris]

I don't plan on it, I need to get to updating this thread, it has come a long way.

 

[Havasu]

Yeah, I would have bought that baby in a heartbeat but Chris told me to pound sand!

 

[Chris]

You would have wanted it, it needed everything. I could have bought and built a jeep cheaper and quicker than what I have into this one.

 

[Chris]

So I have been trying to get this jeep done. I plan on flat towing it behind my RV up the Oregon coast next month. So far, the long arms are done, the steering is almost done, ended up going with Grand Cherokee V* steering and flipping the driver side tie rod. Rebuilt that NP231 Tcase and put on the SYE and built a new rear driveshaft. Still have to build the front shaft. THe linkage is slightly diferent so I need to work on that as well. Put Skyjacker soft ride rear springs under it and Rough Country shackle relocators on the rear and a gas tank skid plate. Did a new Cat back exhaust off of a 4.0 with a Flowmaster which upped the pipe size a bit. Spent the weekend puting together the front bumper and winch and then yesterday finishing up my seat swap. Was able to swap in seats out of the rolled 98 XJ donor, that took quite a bit of work since the original were flat floor mount and the 98 has what most vehicles have where the front seat bolts are on a raised part of the body. I drilled out all the spot welds from the body of the 98 and welded into the 85 for the seats. I also took the carpet from the 98 but the ebrake doesn't cover the hole so I need to figure something out. Also incorperated the Currie Antirock sway bar into my bumper build. Works well and should change ofroading.

 

[Chris]

More pictures of recent activity.

 

[Barrie]

Looking great Chris, I love the XJ's.

 

[Chris]

So I just picked up a 2001 Suburban with the 5.3 for a motor swap. Nothing wrong with the sub except some registration issues that keep it from being registered so I think it is a good time to start a swap.

 

[Barrie]

That's a nice swap Chris, be sure and take pictures. LOL

 

[krazedav]

Update! ??