pacman

Not really a build thread, but more of a moderate renovation of a 91 XJ as a daily driver for my youngest (16yo) son. He said he wanted an old Cherokee, and I said as long as he's willing to work I'll help him get it into shape. I'm very much a car, truck, and motorcycle enthusiast but most of my mechanical experience has been on motorcycles and older imported cars. This is my first Jeep project and my son's first project on any kind. He never had much of an interest in tinkering in the garage with me when he was younger, but this Jeep has quickly shown him that an old project car can be lots of fun.

Details:
1991 Cherokee XJ Sport
Basically no options, not even a roof rack or rear wiper/defroster
4.0 I6
AW4 automatic
2WD
8.25 rear with 3.55 gears
E9 Dark Red Pearl Metallic - (at least it used to be)

Plans-
Clean interior - carpet and seats have come back decently
Weatherstripping - all doors and tailgate are shot
Fender liners crumbling - looks like it'll be the salvage yard for those
Replace headliner
Clean/lube window regulators
Brakes/flex lines/fluid
Tires
Paint (tractor paint or bedliner - whatever color(s) the kiddo decides)
And a million other little things as they present themselves.

Mechanically it doesn't need much, just basic maintenance, engine oil, trans fluid, filters, belts, hoses, brakes, etc.

The possible exception is the cooling system. The PO said it tends to run hot, but so far I haven't gotten it to go past 210 on the gauge. Of course it may not be accurate, so I'll try to get an IR thermometer on it to verify. If it's hot, I'll do a good flush and pop a in good quality thermostat. Pretty sure the PO went with the cheapest parts he could get since it was just a farm rig for him.

Electric fan works when the AC compressor turns on. Is it supposed to come on at a certain coolant temp as well?

Everything electrical seems to work, amazingly. I plan to go through as many grounds, connections, sockets, and terminals as I can find to clean them up. I've read grounding points are very suspect on XJs.

Here's some pics from picking it up and a little bit of work over the last couple of days.

There's my little guy getting the trailer ready. All 6'3" of him. I warned him he might not like the Cherokee so much after sitting in one, but so far the size doesn't bother him. Ah, to be young again...


Quick pressure wash before we returned the trailer. Ran out of quarters halfway through. It was way worse than we thought.

Still filthy, and still purple.



He wanted to attack the interior first, so out it comes.

Sorry for the graphic photos, but it had to be done.

What a horror show. After seeing this I was positive we'd need new carpets.


We new it had some rust, but still no fun actually seeing revealed like this. New floor pan on the way. This is the rear passenger side.

All the other floors look great.

Here's the carpet out of the Jeep

And here it is after a good scrub and pressure wash. It actually came back pretty well.

Headliner out. Looks like a herd of cats had a fight inside the Jeep.

Cloth/padding removed. Planning to glue some gray fleece to it and call it good.

Washing dishes.


That's it for now. Hope to get a lot more done this weekend.

Red1992XJ

Congrats on the Jeep purchase! All things considered it looks pretty darn good. If that is the extent of the rust, it could have been much worse.

It's good to see you are getting your son into fixing and maintaining the Jeep. There is a big difference from getting something turn-key, and having a vehicle that you put your sweat into to. Makes you really appreciate it.

pacman

Thanks for the kind words!

It's really in pretty good shape considering it's been a farm truck and baking in the Texas sun for 30 years.

It's been great having my son out in the garage with me. I wish I had pushed my other kiddos a little more to get out there with me. It's a fine line between pushing too hard and not pushing enough.

We got quite a bit more done over the weekend. I'll try to post some pics tonight.

Spencer_P

Another build thread! Looks like a great platform to start with.

pacman

Aw man, I had a update with new pics all done last night and thought I posted it, but it didn't go through apparently. Bummer. I'll try again tonight.

pacman

Ok second attempt at this update.

We didn't have a ton of time to work this pas weekend, but we got a bit done on Saturday morning.

I left the last post at stripping the material from the headliner backer board.


First project of the weekend was to recover the headliner. The factory material wasn't available locally so we just went to the craft store and bought 3 yards of fleece. This gave us plenty to do the headliner and sun visors (which we haven't tackled yet). No padding needed as the fleece is almost as thick as the factory cloth with padding under it. After stripping the old material from the headliner backer, we laid fleece over it and trimmed it down to fit. About 3" of extra material all the way around.

After trimming we glued it to the backer in sections using 3M 77 spray adhesive. We just used our hands to smooth it out and it laid down very nicely. No tools necessary. Be warned, 3M 77 makes a mess. Use plenty of drop cloths to protect Mama's kitchen. ;^)

Here's the flip side with the extra material stretched out and glued. The holes for the light, sunvisors, and were marked with sharpie to be cut when we install it. For now this got tucked away in the dining room for safekeeping. The backer feels like it could fall apart if you breathe on it wrong!

Next up was rust removal. I broke out the death wheel and got to cutting. I let the kid watch at first, so see how angry the death wheel can get, then let him have a go. He didn't like it much, but he hung in there and got it done.

Scrap. I tried to keep it straight for pattern making, but it put up a fight coming out and we have to get rough with it. It's still mostly usable for a pattern.

Now instead of small rusty holes, we have big rectangular holes.

Quick clean up and we packed it up for the day. We ran out of time but should be able to get it welded up next weekend. I'm not a welder but have a good friend who's willing to teach us on this project. Looking forward to it! We still have quite a bit of flap wheeling and wire wheeling to get it ready for welding, but we got it a lot closer.

Time was up for Jeep stuff, but we'll get more done this next weekend. Hopefully the interior will be back in it by Sunday. Fingers crossed.

Spencer_P

Make sure you get under it and check real good for any rust that you can't see through the seam sealer, especially where the leaf springs mount and the front floorboards where it turns into the firewall. You don't wanna be like me where you find more rust holes after you've already welded the others.

pacman

Yep gonna dig in there really good with the flap disk and wire wheel next weekend. If more needs to be cut out we'll tackle it then. I'm not trying to do a full restoration, but I want the floors solid and as far as I can tell this is the only rust on the vehicle. It's super clear otherwise, and I'm pretty sure if the PO had replaced the door seals a few years ago it never would have rusted. One great thing about old Texas cars.

DonovanAmadeus

I feel inspired to tackle my headliner this week. BTW I got the same wheels... Been trying to find a 5th one as my matching spare. Sweet build! I got one going on as well with my 91 two door. Glad im not dealing with rust!

pacman

That's awesome! The headliner really isn't bad. Just messy because of the old glue and foam, and awkward to handle because of its size. My son and I had trouble keeping the new material smooth so we recruited mom to help out. Good luck!

pacman

I got a new set of door seals from Quadratec (made by Crown) but these suckers are so thick the door will barely close. You have to slam it REALLY hard to get the door to pull in tight to the fully latched position. Anyone have any experience with them? I wondering if I got seals from a later year model? I have the parts manuals from all the years so I'm about to go on a cross-referencing quest to see if I can figure it out.

https://www.quadratec.com/products/55014_8110.htm

From my initial Google search it looks like OMIX and Sherman both offer door seals for early XJs. I wonder if they fit any better?


Here's the new seal compared to the old. The inner foam tube is only a few inches long and serves to seal the joint between the two ends of the weatherstrip after trimming. It doesn't travel the whole length on the seal so shouldn't be a factor in allowing the seal to compress when the door closes. It just seem like the overall size of the new seal is much larger than the old seal.

paulb359

First, it's great that your son is so into this, it adds an emotional element to ownership that a lot of people (especially teens) won't have.

Second, you're really making me wish I hadn't accidentally shredded the headliner when I removed it from my '96...