The Evolution of a Jeep Grand Cherokee

[magaw]

Alright, so i have been putting this off for a while, but I guess now is the time. This build is currently a long way, from where it began. It all started about two years ago when I decided to sell my completely dependable but extremely mediocre 03 Nissan Sentra 4dr. With $2000.00 of that money i decided to buy this guy:

1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited w/5.2



Sorry for the sucky pic, its the only one that i could find, when it was completely stock. Anyway the first thing on the agenda was to get things up to date on the dependability meter. First things first: an oil flush, oil change, all fluids topped off along with transmission filter and fluid change, new wipers front and rear and a thorough cleaning, inside and out, also the installation of a new steering stabilizer and complete tire rotation, moving the worst tires to the rear. Luckily the previous owner had very recently replaced the front and rear brakes, spark plugs and wires. So that saved me some cool $$$. Since everything was up to par, it was time for a little test drive. I decided that a drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway was in order. I entered the Parkway at Fancy Gap VA and drove all the way into GA. The Jeep did great, a little over 1000 miles were logged. Here are a few pics from the test run.







Since this isn't a trip report, enough with that stuff and on to the application of off-road swag. First up, I ordered a Yakima Load Warrior roof basket and then fashioned a custom shovel/ax/fishing rod mount, out of an old hitch mount bike rack. Along with the roof rack purchase I also ordered a RotoPax fuel container and a Cobra 18wxst II with a Firestik antenna.





here you can see it in action on my next adventure: OBX three days after hurricane Irene ravaged the place







More pics will have to wait until later. Its getting late

 

[jeep-N-montero]

We desire trail pictures. What are your future plans for the Jeep?

 

[magaw]

We desire trail pictures. What are your future plans for the Jeep?

I have some trail pics, but they are a little further along in the build and I'm not quite ready to let the cat out of the bag, just yet. As far as future plans go, I see long arms in my future. (if everything go's well, anyway). I'm gonna try and work on the thread some more tonight, to get things a little more up to date. Thanks for taking a look

 

[magaw]

Ok, here is just one mounting option for my rotopax that came as kind of a freebie.



since i relocated my spare to the roof I found that the spare tire mounting hardware worked perfect for a rotopax. I haven't tried yet but I'm pretty sure i can stack two. It works great, however, I am not crazy about carrying a container full of extremely flammable liquid around with me in the cab of my vehicle. So I'm thinking about other options, but it would work great for the rotopax storage containers (black) or the rotopax first aid containers (orange) or the rotopax water containers (white).

Next on the list was taking care of a very sagging head liner. I looked into a few different options, but most seemed like kind of a pain in the *****. So upon pondering for a bit, I decided to just take it all out and see what I was working with under there. Unfortunately, i didn't take any pictures of the before, but I think most have seen a saggy headliner before. Anyway here is the solution that I came up with.







I found this truck bed cargo net at Walmart
It works great for stowing lighter things like pillows and what have ya. The sections above the front and rear seats are pulled tight and fastened on the edges with large headed self tapping framing screws. Up front you place maps or atlases over head and out of the way. I usually don't keep anything up there unless I am traveling but has been a very handy mod. You can also fold the rear section of the net down like so. Just connect the hooks into the factory hold down locations





When used this way, I'm not sure how much protection it would really offer, since anything with any real weight or sharp edges should be lashed down, but it may offer a little piece of mind. It's getting late....more pics in a day or two.

 

[jscusmcvet]

Cool headliner idea... never seen that before.

John

 

[magaw]

Cool headliner idea... never seen that before.

John

Thanks. I have seen something similar in a G wagon, but not until after. I really just lucked out, and the planets lined up for me on this one. Haha

 

[Rider_WV]

More pics dork...FYI Jim has a set of TJ d44 alloy shafts for sale cheap, you should grab those and pick up a TJ d44 to swap in. I will do any welding on the housing to do the swap. I'm not sure if the Zj/TJ brackets and geometry are the same. I prefer leaf springs.

I also need to talk to you about some roof rack ideas. I might buy a 1" die for the 105 bender and make a low profile modular rack for the xj and Nissan. Well definitely for the xj. We can make one for your Zj too, get the rotopax out and a sturdy spare mount on the roof

 

[jeep-N-montero]

More pics dork...FYI Jim has a set of TJ d44 alloy shafts for sale cheap, you should grab those and pick up a TJ d44 to swap in. I will do any welding on the housing to do the swap. I'm not sure if the Zj/TJ brackets and geometry are the same. I prefer leaf springs.

I also need to talk to you about some roof rack ideas. I might buy a 1" die for the 105 bender and make a low profile modular rack for the xj and Nissan. Well definitely for the xj. We can make one for your Zj too, get the rotopax out and a sturdy spare mount on the roof

I believe the TJ rear upper axle brackets are angled different than the ZJ and will not bolt up, I have heard that you can make it work with jointed ends on some upgraded arms but don't quote me on that.

 

[Rider_WV]

I believe the TJ rear upper axle brackets are angled different than the ZJ and will not bolt up, I have heard that you can make it work with jointed ends on some upgraded arms but don't quote me on that.

Thanks for info, I wasn't sure about the angles on the control arms. Not a big deal to Weld up Zj brackets on a d44.
Sorry to butt into your build thread Magaw. I know you mentioned an axle swap last week, I know Jim's axles were his spares, they were never installed. Might be cheaper to dig up an 8.8. Most people ask too much for a TJ d44. Let me know if there is anything i can do to help.

 

[magaw]

More pics dork...FYI Jim has a set of TJ d44 alloy shafts for sale cheap, you should grab those and pick up a TJ d44 to swap in. I will do any welding on the housing to do the swap. I'm not sure if the Zj/TJ brackets and geometry are the same. I prefer leaf springs.

I also need to talk to you about some roof rack ideas. I might buy a 1" die for the 105 bender and make a low profile modular rack for the xj and Nissan. Well definitely for the xj. We can make one for your Zj too, get the rotopax out and a sturdy spare mount on the roof

Thanks for the intel. I have a few ideas for roof racks. Some thing low profile and strong enough to stand on, without being too heavy and maybe a cut out for the spare to get it as low as possible. A ladder would be cool too. I drew one up not too long ago. I'll have to see If I can dig that up. I like the rack on the Nissan, I wouldn't change a thing. As far as more pics go, I haven't had time. I filled in some more blanks on the Gazetteer yesterday. You were right. Bee Run is nasty, it's straight up ATV trails with nasty washed out water breaks. it was fun though. We turned around when it got too bad because we had the baby with us. Definitely need another vehicle with us. I do have a pic of the outline of my next project:



Bahahahah

 

[Rider_WV]

I believe the TJ rear upper axle brackets are angled different than the ZJ and will not bolt up, I have heard that you can make it work with jointed ends on some upgraded arms but don't quote me on that.

Thanks for the intel. I have a few ideas for roof racks. Some thing low profile and strong enough to stand on, without being too heavy and maybe a cut out for the spare to get it as low as possible. A ladder would be cool too. I drew one up not too long ago. I'll have to see If I can dig that up. I like the rack on the Nissan, I wouldn't change a thing. As far as more pics go, I haven't had time. I filled in some more blanks on the Gazetteer yesterday. You were right. Bee Run is nasty, it's straight up ATV trails with nasty washed out water breaks. it was fun though. We turned around when it got too bad because we had the baby with us. Definitely need another vehicle with us. I do have a pic of the outline of my next project:

View attachment 130372

Bahahahah

I want to use my spare tire mount clamps as a template and make us both low profile clamps for a roof rack. I can bust them out on the mill pretty quick. I want super low profile as well.

Xj will get used after I over haul it a little. I am going to build some leaf packs and scrounge up some shocks. Need to weld up a winch bumper too. I will start my own build thread when I gather parts and start a build.

I warned you about Bee lol.

More pics ya poser...

 

[magaw]

More pics

Here are a few simple mods that I did on the cheap:

fire extinguisher



I only had to drill two small holes, down low, on the back side of the center console

Extra factory cross bars



I picked them up at a local junk yard, along with a non-power antenna for $20

CB and inverter



I used industrial Velcro to attach the inverter to the bottom of the CB. Similar to what is used to mount Headlight and taillight covers (Flash Back to 93)
The inverter is mostly used for charging the batteries for my cordless power tools and laptop.



I used the two factory screw holes under the glove box. It was a direct fit with the CB mounting bracket.







I'm 6' 3" and still have plenty of room (please excuse the London Fog fashion attire)



More in a Day or two, Thanks for Looking

 

[magaw]

Bumpers, flares, and other things

I needed some extra clearance so I locked down a couple sets of 1-3/4" spacers, easy install for the most part. A little extra clearance never hurts. I didn't want to push it on the spacer size. The previous owner, had just replaced all of the shocks a few months before so I wanted to try and keep those.



Here is a pic with only the rear spacers installed. A noticeable difference.



Next up was installing a winch mount and and front bumper from Iceland off-road



While I had the grille and header panel off i installed a larger transmission cooler (didn't snap a pic though). Had to do a little fab work to raise the charcoal canister, but nothing too crazy. Over all the bumper and winch mount went pretty smooth. If you look in the lower left hand side of the pic you can see my choice for wheels. There will be many chances to get a better look as the thread goes on. Just a little foreshadowing.

The flares were a little tougher, the front went ok but the rear flares were a lot of work. All in all I removed about three inches of metal, most of the way around the fender wells.



most of the body cladding had to be removed and trimmed to fit up to the new flares.



I did splurge on the flares and bumper but for the most part this is a budget build (as you can probably tell). I didn't want to drop a whole lot of $$$$ on paint, that would just end up getting scratched. After all this thing would, and has seen a lot of bushwhacking! So I thought I would give some of this stuff a try.



more in a day or two

 

[billyzj]

how did you get iceland bumpers and flares,on jf i kept seeing that they woundnt ship order or was going out of buisness??,i love there bumpers and flares,they really fit the zj good,plus zj are bad enough on gas so the weight helps

 

[magaw]

I won't beat around the bush. It took nine months and several phone calls, before they arrived. In the end, I have to say that they make a quality product. They did offer to take $100 off of a set of sliders