Clifford: dzJeepChic's '92 XJ [ongoing project]

[dzJeepChic 2,897]

Here's the bolts in the sleeves:

 

 

Here's the bracket re-installed and torqued down:

 

 

 

Back to how this whole mod started, he's got the nut in there and is tightening down the cross member. Note: this was a 3 day journey, just to get this bolt tightened!:

 

 

While under the truck George happened to notice that the Rock Krawler lower control arms were in backwards

!

 

 

Notice how well used the control-arm brackets are:

 

 

After taking the control arms off, he saw that the old metal spacers were crushed. He called Rock Krawler and found out that it was an old kit that they had upgraded, so he ordered the new one-piece sleeve/ball units:

 

 

Here's the arms re-installed the right way with the new hardware on the flex-joints:

 

 

George pushed the front axle forward a half-inch:

 

 

George took Clifford for a test drive then, and found that the homemade trackbar bushings (shown on the left) that he made from OEM rubber sucked; it made the steering sloppy. The ones on the right are actually from Grunt's control arms that we bought for e! (our former XJ), and had cut up. George had saved the cut-off ends, and the bushings happened to match for this application:

 

 

 

Continued

V

V

V

 

[dzJeepChic 2,897]

In this picture, the bushings have been shortened, and George found an OEM sleeve that fit perfectly. Tight track-bar! Viola!

 

 

In his spare time, George got the antenna mount fabbed. He was glad he'd saved all the bracketry from the Mazda 323 seats!

 

 

Welded to the XO Cage:

 

 

Cable out of the plug next to the rear taillight, glued in with clear acrylic caulk:

 

 

 

The front driver's side tire kept going flat, so George threw it in the pool. Here he is yelling at me to get the camera and take a picture:

 

 

It turns out that the wheel weights created a very slow leak. 1st time we've seen that, now he knows why he HATES hammered-on weights, not only do rocks sheer them off, but it turns out that they also leak.

 

 

 

So anyways, I've been driving him daily, the CB works as far as we can tell, and some new front shocks are on the way, along with another huge front-end add on surprise!!!

 

Patience Grasshopper. d

[dzJeepChic 2,897]

Clifford came with a rear bumper that has a swing-out spare tire carrier, which we want to use so the tire's not inside with us, or on the roof where it's so hard to get down if you need it. Before he re-mounted the swing out part, George added a receiver hitch into the bumper itself, and then found that the swing-out part partially covered the opening. So he had to modify the swing-out piece with a notch to uncover the receiver hole:

 

 

 

 

He also re-fabbed the actual tire carrier mount to be at a slight angle that matches the back window and beefed up the frame:

 

 

This is definetely going to take some getting used to as now there is a HUGE blind spot directly behind the Jeep:

 

 

With the spare tire mounted it became apparent that the license plate needs to be relocated, not to mention I completely wasted an Offroadpassport.com decal. Aggh!

 

 

 

Some paint and move the license plate and we'll be good to go as far as the spare. One more thing down.

 

 

Next up the front shock install and that front-end special I mentioned! d

[Ladybug 699]

Looking very very sweet!

[dzJeepChic 2,897]

George relocated the license plate from behind the spare tire and installed this cute little LED light for it:

 

 

This neat little LED light & mounting frame was in the box of stuff DesertDawg Mike gave us with the Jeep. Sure came in handy Mike!!!!

 

 

Tada!

 

 

Now at least I can drive him again until George has time between jobs to dive into the next BIG project slated for Clifford. Stay tuned! d

[dzJeepChic 2,897]

George was messing with my rack all day. Not sure if the photos are postable - will update soon. d

[dzJeepChic 2,897]

Well it turns out that the reason it took him all day is because it's a 'Roof Mounting System' he's working on, not just retro-fitting the rack to the cage. The rack will be interchangable with a storage box. So, this is as far as he got:

Nice work though, don't you think? He's going to paint the roof AND the cage again next.

d

[ob1jeeper 849]

Ah-HA ! ! ! ! ! NOW I understand what you were trying to say when you mentioned G was messing with your rack all day...

 

And that um... You would get back to us with an update later...:rolleyes::D;)

[Number7 89]

Ah-HA ! ! ! ! ! NOW I understand what you were trying to say when you mentioned G was messing with your rack all day...

 

And that um... You would get back to us with an update later...:rolleyes::D;)

 

You hound. George:cool:

[dzJeepChic 2,897]

Me & Clifford just got back from a 400 mile test drive. He did really well! He got a little hot Wednesday on the way there on the hills. I had to turn off the A/C and even moved the A/C Temp Control to hot once trying to bring the engine temp down. He cooled off as soon as we crested the hill. Today on the way back the Temp stayed right around half the whole way even running the air, except I did turn it off on a couple of long climbs. Handling & suspension are perfect, no vibes, cruises nice at speed. Excellent stereo. I got a little less than 16 mpg, which I think is not too bad. The wind really catches the vehicle because of the cage, but you can feel the cage keeping it on the ground. d