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The 97 conversion

tim500

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Englehood, CO
So I took a 89 MJ and got my obd2. almost feel bad destroying a cherokee, but it was totally worth it.
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pretty bland, found this unit in a barn, haden't run in ten years. But fired it up and drove it out...... lady was pissed!
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Pioneer status, used some old signs to patch the holes in the floor.
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nice and clean under the hood minus the 4.0
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odo stopped working at 270xxx this hunk of trash was beat
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stripped out the dash had to modify the fire wall.... mostly with a hammer and cut off wheel
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biggest regret is not insulating the fire wall when the dash was out, cars like an oven at this point.
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97 xj sport two door, 141xxx miles
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poor car...... it was in good shape, other then some rust.
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kinda failed at taking in betweeners, some holes in the fire wall for the steering coulmn bracket, had to adj the size of the hole for the steering shaft, make a few mods to the under hood wiring harness due to locations of grommets, ect.
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every one needs some Rhino liner
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pretty basic same piece of heep
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took a couple beers and a whole lot of white spray paint.
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so yeah there she is for the time being, other car got wasted and now im drivin it at least 60 a day. front end needs some help, swapin in a non disco soon, prolly spring over and long arms, the works..... more pics to come.
 
Heck yea! You went that far, do the sheet metal too!

Nice conversion! You thinking of doing the bucket seats eventually, or sticking with the bench?

Most of your cabin heat is probably coming from the floor and trans tunnel.Grab the insulator pads out of the '97 and throw the carpet back down. It'll make the commuting a lot more tolerable. At the very least, throw a floor mat or a piece of anti-fatigue mat down on the floor under your feet. Getting your feet of the metal(even with the rino-liner on it) will help a lot more then you think.
 
I don't know why but i like the look of the older xj\mj's. got some dynamat and im thinking because of the adjustment to the hole that the steering shaft goes through(air hammer) im going to rip the dash back out one of these days and make a sandwich plate for the fire wall, im a little concerned it may stress crack, and id rather not find that out when slaming on the brakes. thats a good time to add some insulation. and a cage.
 
That looks really good I am in the process of doing the same thing but with a 2000 I've got the comanche all stripped and going to start taking apart the 2000 today :) we will see how it goes
 
Looks great! I just started fitting a '99XJ dash in my '88MJ last night. Not a single hole on the upper part of the '99XJ dash lines up with the old holes. You'd think that at least one would be close!

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I like the look of the older sheetmetal too, but You gotta do the doors so you can ditch the wing windows for full windows.
 
Terrawombat are you going to insulate? I went to home depot and got a roll of the reflectix stuff for like $20 so I am going to set the dash pull the dash lay the instualation down carpet and pad down then the dash and rest of interior back in again
 
I'm going to spray the interior with QuietCar sound dampening paint. Then I'm going to use the XJ insulation that goes on the firewall and the XJ carpet. That should be enough for me. My '92MJ has all of the stock insulation taken out and it's pretty loud on the highway - don't want that in this MJ...
 
Here's mine. Just exterior no interior. Did the doors, strikers and put manual window regulators in.

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I would say the hardest part of the dash install was the main steering column bracket. after cutting the old bracket off of the fire wall, i took it and bolted it up to the master cylinder, drilled some holes through the left a pillar took the fender off and bolted it all the way through both layers of sheet metal. I have noticed some flex in it though so seeing as its parked right no im pullin out the master and making a sandwich plate to go behind the brake booster. and help clean up the hole for the steering shaft seeing as they are at different angles. I LOVE my wing windows, mostly because the a\c compressor is getting a tank hooked up to it. I would say the best stuff for blocking heat and noise is dynamat, i got two four by two foot rolls at best buy for 100ish Goal: Go anywhere do anything rig for my twenty's. oh and its time to get the lift.
 
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