New guy questions, will need parts, please help !

Chrisp929 · Dec 5, 2011

Hello,

This is my first post.

I live in upstate NY . I purchased my first new vehicle ( 1999 Dodge dakota, 318v8, 4x4 ) back in 1999 when i was 21 years old. I fell in love with everything mopar/jeep since. I sold my 1999 dakota with 135k on her in 2009 for almost $4k. I put that cash towards and purchased a new 2009 dodge ram sport crew cab with rambox ..

I have always wanted an XJ. I made the GRAVE mistake of not purchasing one sooner. I think i should have bought one in 1999 but i was a kid and didnt know any better. However the dakota served me very very well for the 10 years i had it ..
So since i have an almost brand new Ram that i still have a few thousand to pay off, this XJ i want would be a PROJECT TOY. Not to go crazy with, just get up to snuff, get REAL REAL CLEAN, fix up all scratches, replace parts that need fixin, and a light lift with nice tires and im done .. I'll keep it nice, clean, and off the salt roads in the winter .. it will be my TOY and nothin else ..

Last week, after having searched craigslist on and off for over a year, i decided to purchase an XJ. I began to do some shopping on craigslist and the local auto sales magazine/websites ... I have gotten very serious about buying one and started to go look at some XJ's this weekend. Needless to say, being in upstate NY, we have a LOT of salt, and most of the XJ's are JUNK and rotted out. It's quite frankly VERY SAD. Everyone i saw was a rust bucket UNTIL TONITE.
Tonite while driving home in the dark, i found a 2001 Cherokee Sport, Blue, 4 doors, 4x4, I6, in the best condition of about 10 i looked at this weekend .. 94 thousand miles .. dark grey interior .. best part ... no leeks from underneath and MUCH MUCH less rust than the others ..

It was after hours, and on a sunday, so the dealer wasnt there.. his original asking price was $7,200.. then reduced twice so far down to $5,795. Compared to what i have seen this weekend, this XJ is a gem.
I have yet to even hear it run, but if the engine sounds as good as the jeep looks, i should be all set. I hope to offer him $4,800 in hopes he takes it.

Here comes the bad part. The door bottoms are starting to rust out. Not real bad BUT, we all know where there is a little rust that you see on a jeep, there is a lot more you dont ..

Since these haven't been manufactured since 2001, factory parts are getting scarce .. i REALLY REALLY would want to find new doors, replace them all, and eventually paint the whole thing. That would be my plan.
If you guys knew me, you would know JUST how anal i am. I ONLY do things the right way, and if i cant do them the right way, i don't do them at all.
I love to work on things, and i LOVE to restore things. I recently this summer restored an old 1977 Starcaft Holiday. If anyone cares, please click the link to view my entire process and check out my finished work at the end. http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=471604

So this XJ will be a new TOY/FULL RESTORE process for me this winter and through next summer.
Please provide any insight you have, and tell me where i can get good aftermarket doors. I'm sure i'll need all four, and the rear hatch eventually also.
( remarkably, the rocker panels have no rust on them and sound strong with no hollow sounds to them ! yet )

Thanks all ! :clap:

Peteyg · Dec 5, 2011

They made over 2 million xj's. Doors shouldn't be all that hard to find. I may br a little spoiled out here in Cali, but still, a little bit of hunting should get you what you're looking for

tjmotter · Dec 5, 2011

texas is filled with good donor parts with no rust. In fact I see 3-4 new (old) ones every time I go to the local u-pick lot. Rear hatch on these are fiberglass so you shouldn't have any issues.

Btw, you should consider widening your search area. I bought a rust free '90 XJ a couple of weeks ago for $750. It was pretty cheap to fix (loose hose on the fuel pump and some new sensors). With your savings you could easily pay to have it shipped.

Chrisp929 said:
Hello,

This is my first post.

I live in upstate NY . I purchased my first new vehicle ( 1999 Dodge dakota, 318v8, 4x4 ) back in 1999 when i was 21 years old. I fell in love with everything mopar/jeep since. I sold my 1999 dakota with 135k on her in 2009 for almost $4k. I put that cash towards and purchased a new 2009 dodge ram sport crew cab with rambox ..

I have always wanted an XJ. I made the GRAVE mistake of not purchasing one sooner. I think i should have bought one in 1999 but i was a kid and didnt know any better. However the dakota served me very very well for the 10 years i had it ..
So since i have an almost brand new Ram that i still have a few thousand to pay off, this XJ i want would be a PROJECT TOY. Not to go crazy with, just get up to snuff, get REAL REAL CLEAN, fix up all scratches, replace parts that need fixin, and a light lift with nice tires and im done .. I'll keep it nice, clean, and off the salt roads in the winter .. it will be my TOY and nothin else ..

Last week, after having searched craigslist on and off for over a year, i decided to purchase an XJ. I began to do some shopping on craigslist and the local auto sales magazine/websites ... I have gotten very serious about buying one and started to go look at some XJ's this weekend. Needless to say, being in upstate NY, we have a LOT of salt, and most of the XJ's are JUNK and rotted out. It's quite frankly VERY SAD. Everyone i saw was a rust bucket UNTIL TONITE.
Tonite while driving home in the dark, i found a 2001 Cherokee Sport, Blue, 4 doors, 4x4, I6, in the best condition of about 10 i looked at this weekend .. 94 thousand miles .. dark grey interior .. best part ... no leeks from underneath and MUCH MUCH less rust than the others ..

It was after hours, and on a sunday, so the dealer wasnt there.. his original asking price was $7,200.. then reduced twice so far down to $5,795. Compared to what i have seen this weekend, this XJ is a gem.
I have yet to even hear it run, but if the engine sounds as good as the jeep looks, i should be all set. I hope to offer him $4,800 in hopes he takes it.

Here comes the bad part. The door bottoms are starting to rust out. Not real bad BUT, we all know where there is a little rust that you see on a jeep, there is a lot more you dont ..

Since these haven't been manufactured since 2001, factory parts are getting scarce .. i REALLY REALLY would want to find new doors, replace them all, and eventually paint the whole thing. That would be my plan.
If you guys knew me, you would know JUST how anal i am. I ONLY do things the right way, and if i cant do them the right way, i don't do them at all.
I love to work on things, and i LOVE to restore things. I recently this summer restored an old 1977 Starcaft Holiday. If anyone cares, please click the link to view my entire process and check out my finished work at the end. http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=471604

So this XJ will be a new TOY/FULL RESTORE process for me this winter and through next summer.
Please provide any insight you have, and tell me where i can get good aftermarket doors. I'm sure i'll need all four, and the rear hatch eventually also.
( remarkably, the rocker panels have no rust on them and sound strong with no hollow sounds to them ! yet )

Thanks all ! :clap:

Matthew Currie · Dec 5, 2011

In my experience, the doors are not the most rust prone part of an XJ, at least not of a 4 door. Of course there will be exceptions, but if I see one with rusty door bottoms, I'd take another very close look at the underside and at the rocker panels to see if there has been work there. You need to look hard at this in good light, because I've been seeing a lot of XJ's recently looking nice and shiny and good from a distance, but with patched rocker panels. It's far more common to see rocker rust than door rust, and most of the ones I've seen with door rust had a lot more elsewhere.

Still, if it's a good one otherwise, I wouldn't worry too much about the doors. They can be found used, perhaps attached to an entire vehicle.

As my poor old 99 gets shabbier and rustier and older, I have wondered also about what to do next, and I think if I were looking, as you are, for a really really nice one, and especially if I had a nice big hairy-chested Ram with towing capacity, I'd take a little trip down south, find something clean down there, and haul it back up. After all, if you're planning a project of a built-up pet Jeep, you're probably going to do a bunch of modification anyway. You might do better with a super-clean body needing mechanical work.

xjwisconsin · Dec 5, 2011

The Hatch on that 01 is actually Metal not fiberglass, older models had fiberglass... As to the doors, go replacement from a pick and pull. My two cents, take a magnet with you and check for bondo on the rockers and the bottoms of the doors, check the body lines for warbles. My 98 i got a few years ago was stealthly clad in bondo on the door bottoms and the rockers. I knew it had work done to it, just wasnt aware of the extent until this fall when I did some repainting.

New guy questions, will need parts, please help !

Chrisp929

NAXJA Forum User

Peteyg

NAXJA Forum User

tjmotter

NAXJA Forum User

Matthew Currie

NAXJA Member #760

xjwisconsin

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