Good to know that yellow is the new green.
LOL.
Keep me from driving myself nuts when I need more.
I keep both in "stock" and use the green for the more important things.
Yellow is pretty much just the substitute for masking tape for me.
At least that is the way it used to be.
LOL.

 

I was watching *****in Rides this week and all their projects now have the yellow 3m tape being used as well.. But I am hoarding two full rolls of the green...... Anyhow I'm done with the sanding and have moved on to the completion of the taping ceremony... What a job... Just to put it in perspective I started sanding about 4 weeks ago... And the taping probably took up only 4 days total hours{8 man hours} but I did end up taping ALL the jambs and the complete undercariage to keep the suspension nice and clean...

 

Ended up taking a few days to clean up the shop, get some winterizing done around the house before the cold weather snap happens.. It's getting to be that time of year...Looking at the taped up front end gave me visions of an integraded grille/hidden headlight set up for the front end.. Keep dreaming... I don't have time for that right now...LOL...

 

So with the shop somewhat clean{er} I can get away with shooting the epoxy on all bare metal/body work areas...

 

Followed by 2-3 wet coats of the 2K primer/surfacer within the epoxy's recoat window... This will set a few days before sanding just to be safe with the multiple coats from one days work...

 

Next up is sanding the 2k primer/surfacer... The procedure is sanding with 320 initially {remember the body is already prepped and straight } and the key to that is using a guide coat to see where any imperfections may be... There really aren't many that I've found and the sanding goes quickly.. About 5 hours in and I'm around 3/4 done on blocksanding the 320 grit...I use sems brand guide coat it sprays a nice pattern and does the job nicely... And just to be clear.. I'm block sanding every area... No hand sanding that could make waves...

 

I have to admit... The cherokee is like a brick as some have suggested... The body lines, ribs in the roof, and steps in every panel make the process longer than usual... Heck I've got almost twice the time in this Jeep as I did this Durango that I painted a few years back...

 

Wonder how one of those 90's phantom billet grill would look on it.

 

I bet it would look pretty darn cool on there... I was looking at old hidden headlight set-ups to see if there was something easily adapted to the grille area but I'm guessing there isn't enough room to fit without major modifications which I could do but not at this stage of the build...lol... Something like the 66 charger could be modified to fit ....

 

Here you go the quick and dirty version...

 

Would be interesting and I certainly think it would be a definite first. You'd want to replace those vacuum driven motors with electric of course.

 

The panel prep before the 2K primer/surfacer paid off... The panels are straight with just a few imperfections ... Some will get spot painted and sanded again before the 2nd coat of 2K goes on...

The weapons of choice at this stage are a sanding board with paper for the long runs, sanding block{and adhesive backed 320 roll} for the small areas, red scotchbrite for those hard-to-reach areas.. And lastly, if all else fails, a piece of 320 grit..It's a long process getting the panels straight.. My wife reminded me this is supposed to be a winter vehicle not a show vehicle...lol... I always seem to get carried away on panel straightness no matter what the project...

Anyhow I shot another coat of 2K on the body panels where needed... I'm feeling pretty good about the panel prep at this point.. It'll get sanded again but not so aggressively this time.. No sand through areas just prep for the next phase {basecoat/clearcoat}.. But for now I'll move on to some other pieces to prep to complete the list of items needing paint...This will give the 2K time to completely dry ...

 

you might as well do it as perfect as you can. Made this much effort in doing a good job, it doesn't take much to take it to the next level. Going to be special!

 

Giving the 2K primer time to dry {some higher end shops wait at least a month before the final sanding} allows me to get another aspect of the build under progress...
Now, the method of letting the hot air out/cold air in through the hood on the XJ is as unique as everyone's imagination.. I've seen all kinds of hood scoops,vents, hood raised in the rear, etc... on this site and some are pretty cool... Some are simply a matter of necessity with no regard to how pretty it ends up...
For me , I wanted the system to be waterproof, functional, look great and most of all UNIQUE...As in something that might have been used at the factory.... I wasn't thrilled about adding vents that let the water pour in on to the engine bay components..I like the look of the cowl hood modification that seems to be popular.{sectioning the hood and raising the center. But to me no matter what vehicle gets the cowl induction style hood it still seems out of place to me being a chevy part on a ford, jeep, whatever...It reminds me of my 70 Chevelle SS I had.. Even my RS Camaro has the cowl induction hood...I didn't want the XJ to have one too...
I kept my mind open to anything that fits the shape of the XJ... Yep, somewhat square...lol...
So after many hours of searching, dreaming, I settled on a hood scoop that will fit the XJ nicely...Now for the game : Can anyone identify this scoop ???

 

Did anyone guess the scoop ??? Well, it's an 84 Mustang GT hood scoop !!

Unfortunately I remember these things when they were new...LOL... So I started the search for an 84 GT scoop...I figured it would be relatively easy ... I was wrong..LOL...
After locating one at a mid-west Mustang wrecking yard and paying twice what I thought it was worth it arrived well packaged and intact..Now here's the thing... The scoop is closed.. The back has a vent panel that's solid so it's strictly for show...And it's hardly " unique" in it's as cast form for use on the XJ...
So here's what I did..
First up I located it on the XJ hood..It looked best at the rear of the hood close to the rear edge ...With the location in place it was time to make the scoop unique to the XJ... The most prominent feature of the XJ hood is the center valley ... I want to transfer that feature to the scoop so with careful measurements I marked the scoop {front and back} so as to continue the valley onto the scoop...Basically the wedge shaped valley will continue exactly as the hood profile runs...
Secondly, I need the scoop to be functional... I could simply leave the solid vent panel off the rear of the scoop...Nah, that's too easy, predictable, and boring.......How about some vent flaps that can be opened when needed ??...Now we're talking...So after careful measuring again I actually got to work...