Project Pavement Pounder (2001 XJ Limited)

[2000XJ]

Well about a month ago I bought an '01 XJ Limited to take on daily driving duties. It had 94,000 miles on it, and was in mint condition. It's fully loaded with every bell and whistle availably in '01.

Since I already have a trail rig, I will be keeping this one as a street-only XJ. I figure since we have soo many build threads on building trail rigs, or DD/Trail Rigs, that I'd make a build thread on keeping an XJ primarily street-driven.

I'll run down the list of what it had on it when new:
- Patriot Blue Exterior
- Agate Interior (Black)
- Dual Power/Heated Seats
- Overhead Console
- Aftermarket stereo and speakers
- HID's Headlights
- WAAG Grille/Brush Guard (Removed, For Sale)
- WAAG Taillight Guards (Sold)
- 235/75R16 Goodyears
- Rock Ratz Roof Top Tire Carrier (Sold)
- Icon Rims (Stock)

The stuff that is in the works (no hard-set timeline, as my other XJ will still be my primary concern, when money allows):

- 2" Budget Boost (Homebrew)
- 30" or 31" Tires (Undecided which ones)
- Bilstein Shocks
- CB Radio (Cobra 75WXST) & Antenna
- Dynomat
- Rear Disc Brake Conversion
- Cold Air Intake
- Cat-Back Exhaust
- Sub
- Amp
- Remove and repaint the front seat brackets
- Repaint the front and rear bumpers

There are other things, but I can't remember them off the top of my head. There's no timeline for this stuff, just as it comes.

Pics of when I brought it home:




The first thing I did when I got the XJ home was to remove the tire carrier and the rear taillight guards. I didn't like the way they looked, so I wanted to get rid of them. I also wired up and mounted my radar detector.

[2000XJ]

Today I decided to finally start working on the BB, and so the first order of the day was to remove the rear tires so that I could start on the more difficult end of the BB, the rear.

Well, I don't know what beast put these lug nuts on, but they were nearly impossible to remove. Of the 20 on the Jeep, I was only able to loosen 5, using an 18" breaker bar, with a 5' pipe as an extension. I personally hate the cheapie Chrysler lug nuts that come on Jeeps because the chrome covers always break off, causing the actual lug nut underneath to strip. After trying every tool that I have for removing rounded lug nuts, I gave up.

I went down to my friend's shop, he works at Nissan, and he and I tried to loosen the other 15 lug nuts that I couldn't loosen at home. It took about 45 minutes, with their shop compressor, and an IR 1/2" gun to get them to loosen. We also tried everything he had to loosen the 2 stripped lug nuts, but nothing worked. Tomorrow I will be drilling out the studs.....

I'll have pictures of the mayhem up tomorrow.

[brooks_mcclintock]

Sucks to hear about your lug nut situation, but glad to hear you found a great looking xj!

[Doobie]

Why are you going to just keep it as a mall crawler?

[melissa]

It really is a good looking Jeep 2000XJ

[2000XJ]

Originally Posted by Doobie

Why are you going to just keep it as a mall crawler?

For a few reasons. First, I already have a trail-rig, so I'm not going to wheel this one. I need a devoted DD, that I'll never have to worry about breaking stuff on.





Second, I would honestly love to keep this for as long as I possibly can. I don't want to alter too much in terms of suspension and drivetrain because it really is just a perfect vehicle. It'd also be really cool to have one of the last XJ's ever made 20 years from now.

Third, cash. I can't afford to have two trail rigs, and there is no need. It's too expensive. I also drive alot for my job, and in the situation I'm in now of going on interviews, and possibly getting a job where I'd have clients getting in and out of my vehicle I don't want to show up in a lifted rig with huge tires and have them get dirty or have a hard time getting in and out.

Fourth - This is the 2nd creampuff of an XJ that I've owned. My current trail rig I bought in '05 with only 25,000 on the ticker. It was perfectly mint, and now it's a trail rig. I don't want that to happen to this one too.

Originally Posted by brooks_mcclintock

Sucks to hear about your lug nut situation, but glad to hear you found a great looking xj!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by melissa

It really is a good looking Jeep 2000XJ

Thanks!

[Belto]

you sir, are a lucky man, having the oportunity to have two awesome XJs

[1manarmy]

Looks like a perfect DD as is.

[2000XJ]

Thanks guys!

[OverlandXJ]

Beautiful XJ dude.

[2000XJ]

Thanks Overland!

First I have to give credit to this modification to FitchVA from JF because I pretty much just followed his example.

Well today I modified the taillights. I wanted to get rid of the orange part of the taillights, and just wanted them to be red and white. You can buy taillights like this for about $100 on ebay, but for $10 of hobby paint and shipping I did the same thing.

First a before shot. I already had mine taped up for the before shot, so I just got a couple of the taillights on my burgundy XJ.




Then I removed them. It's easy, three bolts on each taillight. Then you just remove the light bulbs in each lamp.




Next I used some painters tape and taped off the lamps. I left a small section of red exposed to blend them together, and made sure to completely cover the white reverse lights section because I didn't want to hit that by accident.


After they were taped up, I took a brillo pad and scuffed up the orange part so that the paint would adhere to something. After I scuffed it up, I used some brake clean and a clean shop rag to clean the surface and get rid of all the dust.

I then applied 3 coats of Testor's Candy Apple Red Hobby Paint. I barely used half of a 3 ounce can for this project. I let the lights sit for an hour between coats. The directions say to apply the next coat either within 3 hours of the prior coat, or after 48 hours. I didn't want to wait that long, so I did them an hour apart - worked just fine. I let them dry in the sun for about 4 hours, and then they were dry to the touch, so I reinstalled them on the XJ.

[2000XJ]

As promised, here are the pics of the busted lug nuts on the rear tires. One on each side. I went out and bought some cobalt drill bits, and went at it for about 4 hours straight. Unfortunately, they still look the same - these things are HARD!

So my probable next step will be to pop the diff cover open, and slide out the shafts. At least this is probably the only benefit of having the D35 c-clip. Once it's out, I'll try to cut the back of the studs off, and then hammer them out back to front. It'll probably wreak the least amount of havoc on the rims.

Driver side:


Passenger Side:

[01LimitedXJ]

nice find, reminds me of my first one...i miss the limited. (hence my name)
REALLY sucks about those lugnuts, hope you get that sorted out quick

[Belto]

nice paint job there 2k, and yeah it suck about those lug nuts,, I really cant imagine what would my reaction be if that happen to me

[2000XJ]

Originally Posted by 01LimitedXJ

nice find, reminds me of my first one...i miss the limited. (hence my name)
REALLY sucks about those lugnuts, hope you get that sorted out quick

Thanks! It took me a looong time to find these two Jeeps. The first one took about 9 months, and about 13 or 14 XJs. I really wanted what I was looking for because I knew I'd be driving it for a looong time. The blue one took me quite a while too. Both of them I got sick deals on and am really happy with the outcomes so far.

Originally Posted by Belto

nice paint job there 2k, and yeah it suck about those lug nuts,, I really cant imagine what would my reaction be if that happen to me

Thanks! It was alot easier than I thought, and they're holding up great to the rain we're getting today. I can't complain.

As for the lug nut situation. Due to the rain I didn't bother messing with them. I'm going to be gone for the weekend, so I won't be getting to them until sometime next week. It's driving me nuts (no pun intended ).