Quick Update

I'm sorry for the lack of new posts for the last year or so. I hope to get back to actively blogging in the next few months. It's just that I've been devoting most of my time to my house and property for the last year. It's been long overdue, and we're getting a bit closer to the end of the major projects. I wish I could say one of the projects was a big new garage, but I don't have the room for that, and other things became more important. I still have Gorilla Garage Tampa, though, where I have plenty of room for my workshop.

I will give a quick update on each of my project cars.

• 
  2004 BMW M3: has been pretty bullet proof, but has 127,000 miles on it now and I feel the need for some pre-emptive maintenance. I plan to go ahead and replace the radiator, water pump, and a couple of hoses that I have not already replaced once. Then it needs new shocks as it still rides on the originals. I have a fuel filter waiting to go in it, and the brakes need to be bled. I'll install a new/reconditioned steering wheel as the leather on the original one is getting worn, and the B and C pillars have some of the cloth lining peeling off, so I'll replace those with new. All of that adds up to a couple thousand dollars, but this BMW has been pretty easy on me so far, so I'll treat it right and get what it needs to be 100%.
• 
  1994 Mazda Miata: as always, my reliable daily driver. It's been over 2 years since my major reconditioning of it, and I've hardly done so much as wash it. It would benefit from new shocks as the Tein suspension is now 10 years old, and it needs brake pads all around. It's still a joy to drive and looks pretty decent considering my amateur painting skills.
• 
  1992 Jeep Cherokee: As primitive and unrefined as it is, I love this vehicle. I've been using it for almost 2 years as a utility vehicle and occasionally driving it to work. Other than the initial tune-up I did on it and a little cosmetic restoration, I've not done much to it. The brake lines still need replacing, the shocks are still dead, the tires are hard as rocks, the driver window is still balky going up and down, the A/C still (despite my best efforts) does not work. I have replaced the entire A/C system, with the exception of the evaporator, and it still isn't cooling. So I have a new evaporator ready to go in, just waiting for a free weekend to pull the dashboard out and install it. If that doesn't work I give up. I plan to install new shocks and maybe a minimal lift kit, get new tires, and get the thing painted. If the A/C works, it'll be a decent vehicle. If it doesn't, I'll probably end up selling it.

I also hope for the garage at the house itself to be a project in the next year or so. It just needs some cleaning up, paint, and I'd like to put down a new floor. I don't expect we'll be in this house for more than 5 years or so, but I also know how 5 years can suddenly turn into 10, so I need to keep it together.

Jeep Cherokee XJ - Rusty Floors, Bedliner and Interior Recolor

So I finished pulling the nasty carpet out of the XJ the other day. The driver side floor is perfect, but darned if I didn't find a bunch of rust on the passenger side. The carpet went straight in the trash. I'd never reuse it. It was really nasty.

The rust went all the way through the metal in a few small places. It was not so bad that I needed to replace the whole floor pan, so I went to Home Depot and bought a few small pieces of sheet metal, trimmed them to size to cover the holes, and riveted them in place.

Here's the floor with the metal patches riveted in over an initial coat of Chassis Saver paint (POR-15 is a similar product).

I spent a couple hours with a wire brush on my die grinder and then slathered on another thick coat of Chassis Saver paint all over the floor and right over the patches I riveted in. It should neutralize the rust and keep it from progressing.

I then covered the whole floor with Desert Tan Monstaliner (truck bed floor liner) and it looks pretty good. It took an entire gallon to do the whole vehicle.

I used Duplicolor plastic and vinyl paint to recolor the interior from gray to black. It worked pretty well. In this photo you can see the original gray color on the door panel.

The fabric soaks up a LOT of paint and it leaves it feeling a little crispy, but overall it looks ok. I did the seats as well and the color has held up for a while now. It might need to be re-done every year or two if you sit on them a lot.

Jeep Cherokee XJ update

Progress on the XJ has been slow. I've just not had the free time to work on it. I do have the engine running nicely now and it starts right up on the first try every time. Unless I disconnect the battery for any reason, that is. If battery power is interrupted for even one second, the ECU seems to completely lose its mind and the Jeep will barely start. Once it starts, it runs really rough for a few minutes, idles high, shifts hard, bogs on takeoff, and several other bad habits. This continues for a couple days and then everything is hunky-dory again. If anyone can tell me how to get around this, I'd love to learn about it. (Edit: I replaced the ECU and it fixed all the issues. Should have just done that first.)

Now I do have a few pictures for you.

My next task is to strip out all the carpet and install Monstaliner throughout the inside of the truck. I got a kit in desert tan.

Quite a bit of rust under the carpet! It was really nasty. Bugs living in it and everything. The rust is pretty minor, but I'll clean it up and stabilize it with some rust sealer before I put the Monstaliner over it.

I used a wire brush on my angle grinder to clean up the rust and take off a lot of loose paint.

Pretty much all the rust cleaned up. Next I have to pull out the front seats so I can get the rest of the carpet out.

The next post in this series is about the rusty floors.

$1500 Jeep Cherokee XJ Makeover, Stage 1

So for the last couple weeks I've been getting to know this '92 Jeep Cherokee. I've never had a Jeep before and I really don't know anything much about 4x4 vehicles in general. I've got a lot to learn. But first things first - this thing has 174,700 miles on it and needs some TLC.

As usual I'm not terribly disciplined when it comes to taking pictures of my process. So this post is a bit random in nature. I've not done anything complicated or difficult, though, so there's not much to document. This pic shows the engine just after I started pressure washing it, which was the first thing I did. It improved the grime situation considerably, but there's still a lot of filthy areas I haven't got to yet.

I installed an Amsoil EaA air filter in place of the old filter, which looked to be a K&N oiled gauze filter. The Amsoil will filter much better in potentially dusty environments. The same day I did this I also installed all new hoses and flushed the cooling system. I pulled off the valve cover and painted it and put it back with a new Felpro gasket because it was leaking badly and making a big mess of the engine. I also changed the oil and filter, using Amsoil ASL 5W-30 and an EaO filter.

The instrument surround panel was silver and quite ratty looking. A few coats with some Duplicolor plastic/vinyl paint and it looks 100% better! I'll probably do a few other bits of the dash as well. Overall it's in decent shape. I got some LED's for the interior lights but they don't fit quite right. I'll have to modify the housings a bit. I also plan to strip the carpet and coat the floor with bedliner, recover the seats and redo the door panels with something less stodgy looking.

The front brakes were almost down to the backing plates and the rotors quite scored. The first time I drove this Cherokee I was startled by how bad the brakes were. So a set of Bendix CT-3 pads and a pair of Centric rotors went on the front. It definitely has helped, but the brakes are still not great. I discovered a big bulge in the side of one of the brake hoses, which would definitely ruin the brake feel and limit performance, not to mention the obvious safety issue, so new brake hoses all around will be installed in the next week or so. I haven't even looked at the rear drum brakes yet. I'm sure they'll need attention.

I drove the Jeep to work one day last week and my nose alerted me to a coolant leak. A quick inspection underneath revealed a leaking radiator. That explains why the cooling system had no antifreeze whatsoever in it - the previous owner had just been keeping it topped up with water. So a quick trip to NAPA yielded a new radiator for just over $100 and I installed it today.

I also cleaned up and painted the radiator support bracket and the fan surrounds. I used Eastwood Chassis Black on the radiator support and it came out nice enough given the limited amount of prep I did on it.

Also today I installed all new battery positive and negative cables that I got from a guy on the Jeep Forum. They're made with big 4 gauge wire and sized exactly to fit the XJ engine layout. I also threw in a new Optima Red Top battery to replace the pathetic Advance Auto "Economy" battery the XJ came to me with. Finally some gold plated terminals tie it all together and replace the old tired lead clamps that were original to the Jeep. They were so worn they would hardly tighten down on the posts anymore. I also installed a set of new 8mm silicone plug wires and a distributor rotor and cap from Summit Racing.

Here's an external shot. I haven't really done anything to the exterior yet. After this photo was taken I yanked off the rubber moldings on the lower panels. I'm going to clean that area up and coat with a bedliner type material.

I took the XJ out for a 45 minute drive this evening and it's definitely running better than it was when I got it. I certainly can't trust the brakes yet, but they are better. The ignition system seems to be working nicely now as well. It's been a bit hard to start a few times, especially after sitting for a while, so I'm suspecting it may have some leaky injectors. The truck drives just fine. It just needs a whole new suspension. On smooth pavement it's fine, but on bumps or broken pavement it just comes completely unglued. I figure the shocks are long gone. I'll be installing a mild lift kit with new shocks before too long anyway, so it's not a problem.

New Toy - 1992 Jeep Cherokee XJ 4x4

This is going to be a lot of fun. There's a lot of room to apply TLC to this vehicle and make it a lot better than its $1500 purchase price would imply. More to come...