Project ZJ "my first jeep and I'm a cheap azz build"

[Morticon]

Looking good! Now just to remove the "I just got peppered by a shotgun" look from the drivers side! Hahan only kiding. But its amazing how a little lift and slightly larger tires will make it look. Or as I like to call it "super stock". The way it should of come from the factory

 

[ElCaminoManT]

lol, the only panels that dont have flaky paint are the hood and l/f fender! only because they arent original to the car, lol!

couple pics from this past wknd in glamis with the 31s on. still need to buy sway bar discos and im not about to drive this thing on the road without a front sway bar so its still all hooked up, in the pics and now. gotta say, im impressed as hell how well it did in the dunes, it was a blast!

the transmission keeps overheating, even on the street. i think either one of the trans cooler lines is plugged or there is a check valve somewhere in the system and its stuck. hopefully i can get that sorted soon

 

[88Xj]

Great progress friend. Glad its all finally working out & you got it out there and had some fun!

 

[ElCaminoManT]

ended up replacing the external transmission cooler, i think it was somehow becoming blocked when the transmission heated up. so far it has been keeping its cool since then, even after many miles traveled offroad in the mountains around owens valley last weekend. been having an issue where when going into drive from reverse or randomly when cold in drive at a very slow creep it feels like the torque converter is engaging and stalling the engine. going to clean the idle solenoid and see if that helps at all.

i replaced the stupid stiff riding white rocket shocks with a set of 5100 bilsteins and lemme tell ya, WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! the jeep rides amazing with those dampers! just need to freshen up the steering now, its a bit worn and loose so it wanders on the road a bit

last week in owens valley i trashed 2 tires and apparently finding used 31s is well, impossible! bit the bullet this morning and ordered a set of falken rocky mountain ATS from discount. the price was right and a lot of people i know are running them and are quite happy with them. was thinking of going with some treadwrights orginally but they are currently 3 weeks out and for only a little bit more $$ ill have new tires. opted for the replacement certificates as well since the likelyhood of tearing a tire up off road is quite a possibility and its a lot cheaper than having to buy a new tire each time.

some pics from last week with my brothers jimmy...

 

[jeep-N-montero]

Good progress, and that is a sweet Jimmy as well.

 

[ElCaminoManT]

Good progress, and that is a sweet Jimmy as well.

thanks, it was heck of a build but putting a HPd30 from an XJ under the front of the jimmy i think was the best mod to date. the looks we get in that thing are pretty funny, people do double takes all the time! not to mention its freakin capable as all get out now and goes anywhere

 

[jeep-N-montero]

thanks, it was heck of a build but putting a HPd30 from an XJ under the front of the jimmy i think was the best mod to date. the looks we get in that thing are pretty funny, people do double takes all the time! not to mention its freakin capable as all get out now and goes anywhere

I have seen a few of the S10/Jimmy rigs with the same swap, probably less common in CA though. As plentiful as the hp30 is in junk yards and the support for it, it's a no-brainer for swaps, myself and many others run 35's on it without issues.

 

[ElCaminoManT]

I have seen a few of the S10/Jimmy rigs with the same swap, probably less common in CA though. As plentiful as the hp30 is in junk yards and the support for it, it's a no-brainer for swaps, myself and many others run 35's on it without issues.

most of the swaps i see are leaf suspended but still very capable. my brother wanted something that would ride better and hence went with long arms/radius arms and coil sprung it. a company called Off Road Direct out of utah was making conversions for a while and came out with the radius arm kit. in the end, only 3 kits were shipped before they decided they didnt like the huge demand/work load and shut the whole business down. we were lucky enough to get 1 of the 3 kits.....only took 2 months to get the kit after ordering it..

it was worth the wait tho

 

[ElCaminoManT]

my new 31" falken rocky mountain ATS tires showed up today and mounted them up after work. gotta say, so far they ride great on the road! hopefully will get to give em a try on the dirt/rocks soon

 

[88Xj]

I used to run those, my only complaint was they weighed quite when compared to the same size all terrain, which wasn't an issue either way. They really are a great bang for your buck tire!

 

[ElCaminoManT]

thats better!

im diggin the look of these tires. they ride really nice on the road, hopefully ill get em in the dirt soon

 

[88Xj]

VEry nice Any plans for paint?

 

[ElCaminoManT]

VEry nice Any plans for paint?

eventually maybe, but after todays run, i was glad i had the worst paint of the group as the trails were NARROW! i think some edges of the peeling paint were removed out there no less :Wow1:

only 2 pics i took, if more pop up from the group ill post em later. there were 2 XJs and 3 ZJs counting me

 

[WKexpedition]

Looking good. What size tires did you go with?

 

[ElCaminoManT]

31x10.50x15 falken rocky mountain ATs