Thanks bikerider for taking a look and the encouragement to post more updates. All is well but progress this winter has been slow with other projects distracting me from working on this '91. I will post a few updates soon.

I should have more time to dedicate to this project over the next couple of months so I hope to get back at it with some regularity. As luck would have it temperatures much below average for this time of year have now descended on the Midwest after a very mild December and January. As a result I will be working in a much less comfortable garage for a while. Objective is to be road ready by late spring and possibly in Colorado this summer.

Some items on the near term "to-do" list:

* Fender flare and bumper cap repainting in factory match dark silver
* Add additional sound deadening to rear cargo area. Minor rust cleanup and painting has been completed. Details & photos will be posted.
* Water leak test rear cargo area. The rear carpet pad was previously found to be wet but cause remains to be pinpointed. This will have to wait for warmer weather. Focus initially will be on the rear hatch seal, hatch hinge seals, roof rack mounting fasteners. Some of the water may have been from when the underside was thoroughly pressured washed.
* Address damaged rear seat bottom cushion. The dark sand (tan) interior is relatively rare and I have had no luck yet finding the proper year & color. The search continues for either a complete seat bottom or skin.
* Repair overhead console display
* Reassemble interior
* Radiator evaluation & possible replacement
* Obtain engine splash shield. A reproduction of the original is now available.
* Complete installation of front skid plate
* Complete front tow hook addition, front bumper reinstall
* Install replacement front inner fender liners
* Front end alignment and assessment of aftermarket lower control arms
* Obtain desired spare parts including starter and alternator

 

Ran across some photos I took of my 2000 XJ from the end of November 2020 after I had cleaned it up in preparation for winter storage. It is stock except for a replacement head and the powder coated wheels. Not at all related to this build thread but I thought I would include these here as I think the photos came out looking nice. Wish the weather was like that now instead of temperatures trending toward the negative degree F range.

 

I discovered damp carpet in the cargo area and wanted to take care of a bit of minor rust and preserve the area to prevent future deterioration. Leaking along cargo floor seams is a possible cause of water getting in although no obvious split seams were found. I resealed a few seams and body plugs with SEM seam sealer. I discovered that some paint had poor adhesion such that when scrapped or wire brushed bare clean metal underneath was easily revealed. This may be related to surface preparation issues at the factory prior to painting. Although a top coat of paint was not necessary I had some aerosol paint that is a rough match to body color so I spray painted the area to give it a close to factory look. This Spring I will thoroughly leak test for possible problems at seams, hatch gasket, hatch hinge bolt seals, hatch wire harness grommet and roof rack fasteners.

Materials used:
* Wire brush
* SEM 1K seam sealer #29372
* Rust-Oleum Rust Reformer
* Rust-Oleum self-etching primer aerosol
* Eastwood Rust Encapsulator aerosol
* Rust-Oleum Protective Enamel aerosol

Rust converter applied to areas with surface rust


Self Etching primer applied


Rust Encapsulator applied to areas of concern

 

Keep up the good work. Don't worry about posting pictures of unrelated Jeeps. I personally don't mind drooling over stock, beautiful condition XJ's.

It's nice to know that the Rustoleum is a close match to Colorado Red, since it's a hard to find color. (Mine is Colorado Red too)

 

I find the Colorado Red with the dark silver trim one of the best color combinations of any Jeep. I would not use the Rust-Oleum Regal Red for exterior body painting where it is directly against the original finish but for interior and underside where I attempted to approximate the factory overspray it works. It seems a bit brighter shade of red but then mine has had 30 years to fade.

I was surprised how the paint on mine had changed color from the original. It was especially apparent when I removed the fender flares. In the case of my 1991 the Colorado Red paint has darkened with time. I thought that was odd but a discussion with an experienced paint guy and some research shows that different pigments in paint change differently with UV exposure. Most paint colors are made up of a variety of pigments colors and types. Most red pigments lose their hue, or fade, faster allowing other more stable pigments such as blue to become more prominent. So the red did not get darker, it became less visible allowing the other pigment colors to show through. I find that interesting.

 

As I posted earlier in this build thread I need a new rear seat bottom in Dark Sand luggage cloth from a ’91 to ‘93. I removed the damaged skin from the existing seat bottom last night to understand what is involved. With a bit of care it is relatively easily done. There is no Velcro used on the rear seat bottom. After removing 6 plastic push in pins the steel retaining wire that goes along the front and rear edges of the skin can be gently pried out of the retainer clips that are part of the bottom of the seat assembly.

Now I need to find either a complete Dark Sand seat bottom in good condition or a just the skin plus the foam. Ralph77 located one in Connecticut that from a photo appreared to be in OK condition but it’s too far for pick up, shipping an entire seat bottom is problematic and the owner wanted what seemed like too much to remove and ship just the skin that might be a disappointment upon arrival. Too many risks. Then I would still need to pick up the foam cushion somewhere. I will start searching salvage yards again once the weather warms up. I have a Wanted To Buy posting on this forum if anyone is aware of something: https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f12/91...bottom-260898/


Seat skin removed, retaining wire end visible. A plastic push pin holds the end in place

Disengaging retaining wire from brackets in seat bottom panel

Using Lisle door upholstery remover tool to remove plastic retainer pins. I find that tool to be handy for many tasks.

 

I received an aftermarket engine splash shield last week and hope to test fit it soon. I am curious if it is going to fit properly. Once I get an alignment and am ready to install the front skid plate I will do a permanent install and document the process here. Here is what it looks like.

 

Today I did a quick test fit of the new engine splash shield from Detroit Muscle Technologies. I just set the splash shield in place for a trial. Photos show basic location. Everything looks pretty good with a few exceptions. Materials and fabrication look excellent. It is a bit expensive but I think it is worthwhile for engine bay splash and gunk protection, especially for the low mounted alternator.

The two holes with grommets along either side of the oil pan do not align with any obvious attachment points. The one shown in the first picture below is 1.5 to 2 inches towards the rear from an oil pan stud mounted bracket that is visible. I don’t see any evidence that the oil pan had ever been dropped on this 135k mile 1991. Maybe some models had a different location of the bracket? Or I may be missing a bracket. I have a vague memory of a larger bracket but that may have been on my 2000. It is a similar situation with alignment of the grommet on the left side – nothing there to secure to other than an oil pan stud that is more than an inch away. I hope to soon examine another '91 or '92 for location of potential mounting points and brackets. If anyone has an intact splash shield I would like to see a picture of how it mounted along the sides of the oil pan. Or even a picture of any brackets attached to the forward third of the oil pan even if you have a missing splash shield.

The protective stainless steel plate near the Pitman arm has two holes that would align with the OE front skid plate mounting bolts but the rubber material does not. This looks the same as the OE part that this reproduction shield was modeled after. Easy enough to drill holes through the rubber to accommodate the optional skid plate mounting bolts but odd that those would not have been punched out in the OE part. At least on this thick material without holes its not likely you could just push a bolt through it when installing the skid plate.

 

Great work! I'm a big fan of the restoration and mild mods you're doing. Hopefully you can get the rest of the skid plates soon.

 

I ran across this thread today before I reinstalled my splash shield and front skid plate.
i took a photo of the metal fitting on the drivers side. The flap of material folds forward then the holes line up for the bolts. They do not go thru the splash shield. Hope this helps

My XJ is a 1990 Renix. My bolts lined up correctlly when I reinstalled it.

 

I thought I had responded long ago to thank you for your post and photo. That is a big help. Thanks.

I have not gotten back to working on the front reassembly and splash shield but hope to do so soon.

 

Hopefully it goes back together without any issues
My last project was putting the factory tow hooks on the front bumper.
74Plb

 

Time for an update even though I have not accomplished much on this project since Spring. Other priorities have, well, taken priority.

I FINALLY got the rear bumper off. This took way too much effort and time. Bumper removal has been holding up getting the bumper, fender flares, bumper end caps, etc repainted in factory dark silver, to be followed by a bunch of reassembly. That rear bumper has been the biggest pain so far on this project. I would work to get it off, run into problems and give up for awhile. Two of the nut clips/U spring nuts used to attach the bumper to the bumper brackets broke and had to be cut off. The task was greatly complicated by the presence of an aftermarket hitch that was difficult to get off. It was as if you had to get the hitch off to get the bumper off but to get the hitch off the bumper had to be removed first. An objective was to get the bumper off without destroying it as I wanted the option to reuse it. It's in decent condition with a couple of minor dents that can be corrected. At this time I am not too interested in a heavy offroad type aftermarket bumper that would detract from the "mostly stock" look I want. After searching for months for a quality new bumper and checking salvage yards I could not come up with a great option for a replacement so I decided to preserve what I had.


Bumper bracket along with bolt & U nut remnant and cut off bolt head


One of the two U clips used for bracket to bumper attachment that did not break during removal. These will be replaced with new hardware and marine grade anti seize compound.

 

* If there are any new old stock Mopar bumpers out there they are a rare find

* Aftermarket OE type replacement bumpers for ’96 and earlier seem to be of questionable quality and have various extra holes to cover earlier models that may have had bumper guards, rub strips or hitch attachment points. I have decided to go with what I have as it is a known entity, no cost and it has held up without rust issues.

* Removing the 8 bumper bracket to body bolts is probably the best approach to get the bumper off. The bolts are metric, I believe 15mm socket. Note that the "nuts" for these bolts are welded to the sheetmetal and may break off. Go slow to avoid ripping them out. Using a 3/8" flex head ratchet and 1" extension seemed to work in most cases.

* If there is a hitch it has to come off in most cases for access to the 8 bracket to body bolts. I could get a few bolts out without removing the hitch but not all. I spent too long trying without removing the hitch.

* There are 2 bolts on each side that attach the bumper to the bracket but the nut clips used here have a tendency to break at the U section and then spin freely. This makes it impossible to get a bolt out without cutting it. (and they are tough bolts) Avoid breaking the nut clips if at all possible. The top bolt is also inside the confines of the bracket and if you are lucky enough to get the bolts turning free without breaking the u clip you can only turn a ratchet a few degrees. Getting a breaker bar and socket aligned with the bolt head and then having room to swing it to break a stubborn bolt free is nearly impossible.

 

I have a friend that has a stock rear bumper that came off of his rustfree 96Xj, but it's located in the Portland Ore area. I don't think he would want much for it. He has a pair of tan cloth seats too.
He went with a lift, new bumpers and Corbeau seats in the front of his XJ.
Sounds like you are making pretty good progress.
74Plb