Project cheap jeep.

Me and a buddie decided to see how cheap we could buy and lift a cherokee. He had some parts lieing around and so did I so we set out to buy and build a xj as cheap as possible and as fast as possible. He bought the xj for a whopping $300.00 a 89 2dr with leaking injectors and no tail pipe and lots of original rust. Be advised that we are building a trail rig not a DD so some of are lift parts might make some snarl there noses. This is a test just to see how cheap it can be done. Here she is when she came in. She has been dubbed "The cream puff".



The front lift is 2 inch lift springs off a F150, Gave us about 7inches of lift and we used lift shocks from a prior Ranger project. We redrilled the track bar and extended the swaybar links with pieces from the rear swaybar before we junked it. Total cost for front lift was $0 because we had it all laying in one shop or the other.



The rear we used 2 leafs (per side) from some old 1/2 ton chevy rear springs he had laying around and 3 inch blocks from Advance Auto. We made a homeade T-case drop from some 1inch box tubing and we cut off the rear shock mounts and welded them back on the top and reused the stock shocks. We took the rear brake block loose from the axle and made a homeade extender to make the rear brake line long enough. With the rear done were at $330.00. I also relocated the flares and folded the quarters so we needed bolts and some undercoating. Notice the front pics after I move the flares up. This time I used the right front flare on the left side and the left side on the right. I actually had to cut the notch in it by flipping them instead of having the hole where the body line is.





We topped the build out with a set of half bald 31 swampers he had in the back room and now were ready to build bumpers. After new injector O rings and plugs and some new oil and filter were at a whopping $390.00 on this build. I have read alot on cheap xj lifts but just had to try it myself, Were digging up some metal for the bumpers now so we don't throw are selves overbudget, so hopefully we stay under $500.00 and have it on the trail this weekend to do are own test on it's strengths and weaknesses.