The......"Rolling Felony" story.........

[DETOURS]

Some may find the content within this thread objectionable, if you're easilly offended, under 14, or don't have an open mind, please move on to a different build thread..........



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Alrighty, I've been asked.......I'll do my best, as this is an on-going 6 year build.......

Once upon a time.........no no......wait.......
There was once a black............no, thats no good either......

Lets try........and this is 100% a true...........
About 6 or 7 years ago, I got a call from a used car lot about a '94 Cherokee, it was black, it was hacked, abuised, semi lifted, & full of mud.......




Now, the used car dealer owner knew I was into XJ's........and I'd be most likely guy to buy this internet-forum mistake.....(sorry to some out there)....it was VERY evedent that "Daddy" had enough of jr's mudding and was towed for the last time, to this used car dealer....to be gone! I doubt it sat on the lot for 48hrs before I got the call....."Hey Mark........."
There I was....young, dumb, and full of..........'junk'?/??




Sooo, I obviously went over, cut the deal, bought it.........it was'nt good..

The wife rolled her eyes as I handed over the thousand bucks for this machine that sat on what looked like 3" of lift on stock tires, shifted like crap, and stunk like mud as she followed me back to the shop.......

I quickly turned the 3" lift into 5" with left over parts and ACO's up front, shocks included..........but, the previous owners damage was still evident,
the rear wheelwells were cut beyond the spot welds, & he/she liked mud....the interior wells SPEWED mud into the interior whenever it rained, like a gutter system........that sucked, the disco neon light pods had to go quick as well......"???????WTF????????".......I could'nt do much with the white faced insturment panel, did'nt bother me much until I found the switch which made it multible colors at night........Ummmm, is this an upgrade or further disco intervention??? The crappy shifting tranny turned out to be a shifter conversion which makes an automatic basically into a standard in some ways..........I have yet to use or need this....

So anyway.........ammong other upgrades, hurdles.... I got it to this stage:

[4.3LXJ]

Hey Mark, where is all the pics of the rig in trashed condition? Those rear wheel wells look pretty nice. Did you weld in some panels?

[DETOURS]

It was never photographed........
The rear quaters were clamped back together & stitch welded...and if you look close, both the front & rear flares have been raised.

[4.3LXJ]

Good Job. Nice and neat.

[DETOURS]

More to come! Thanks!

[DETOURS]

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5" of lift, 33" Maxxis tires, I had fun with it as is, added a snorkle for only god knows why.........because the one night it did get stuck in rebelous wheeling, slept over night, talked to frogs in the am.......stuck, 36 hours later was 12 feet under water............Sheriff was checking on folks in a canoe I later learned.....I recovered the XJ with a Hi~Lift & 3 hrs of grunt, the Hi~Lift now remanes worthless......it's junk.

Ahhhhhh, those were the days.............Party on Garth.....





....WHOOOPS.......wrong pic.......oh well........


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Then it began, the morphous......the no return.......the dare to be different..........



Well, not THAT different.........................but different...

And it started....

[DETOURS]

Alrighty, obviously......the Round Headlight Conversion is'nt n everyday thing and gets some attention, it's been said I suffered flashbacks from post High School antics inwhich I was'nt found for days..............NOT TRUE!
It's this guys fault...............
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I don't know him, never spoke to him........but the day I saw the picture of his Cherokee, I knew what I needed to do..

I was'nt out to copy his conception.....




But rather, create my own incorperating the round headlights.....a more street friendly version and so.......
It rolled of garage looking like this.......

[DETOURS]

The Conversion........

Most ALL of my old photo's of the fabrication have been lost, there were some in photobucket, but also lost......if I find somehow find some searching through old forum archives, I will edit & add them.

It's one thing to just install roundy rounds, but how do you make it all work? I decided I was going to introduce 1-1/4" (OD) tube at the same time, wrapping the nose & creating solid flares.



I removed the facia and removed the old headlight areas.....completely, the base of the facia was also removed.....
I whipped up a cardboard template, tracing the outter ring of the CJ light buckets....(gotta keep it Jeep!)....trim, hold them in place, trim....trim....I kept doing this until I found what I wanted....the pattern was then transfered to 1/8" steel, cut, smoothed, CJ buckets cut in, drilled, tapped....done..
Behind the facia is the steel (I say that lightly) header, after some light notching and a bend.....I found the sweet spot & tacked them in.
The tube was then introduced, it worked out really well, I sectioned it in and today.....6 or 7 years later, it's held up exceptionally.
The front fenders were trimmed WAY back to accept the tube, the front portion of the fender was actually rolled down and around the new headlight areas, welded & ground smooth.....



Having to stay legal, I needed side markers........I looked at my stock ones and decided I could work with them, I basically reshaped the light using a belt sander as much as possible, created a nest for them & mounted them up. The lower steel around the base & top of the lights is 5/16" stainless steel round rod welded in place.



End results have again, held up very well.......6-7 years later.....



Once the fabrication was complete, I primed all the bare steel, then went to my local Tractor Supply store for some black impliment paint & hardener.
End result in finished paint.....




It came out great, just what I wanted, I was happier than a tornado in a trailer park!!



Next.....the quicky bumpa'.....

[DETOURS]

The quicky front bumper........was pretty much that, I took a BackBone System, mounted it up, and built the around it........



Basically, I did'nt want to obstruct my tires, it's a stubby of sorts.
I incorperated Whalen LED's as turn signals, and just kept it to a minimum, coating is Duplicolor bedliner rattle can..........it's a crappy bedliner for a truck, but an excellent choice for bumpers, slyders and things of that nature......

From there.........I basically went wheeling again for the next year......



Back then, the list of mods looked something like this.......

Neon Disco free interior
Cowl snorkle
1" throttlebody spacer
Unibody Stiffy System with Slyders (Detours)
Slimline Rear Bumper/Carrier (Detours)
5" short arm lift (mixed parts)
Grandprix louvers in hood
33" Maxxis BigHorns (Nice Tires!)
Custom nose job
Superwinch Ep9000
Battery relocated to rear of vehical........

Otherwise, stock axles, 3:73 gears, open diff's........

Truth be told, I was loosing intrest in the XJ...............I had another dirty little secret I was working on.........

[DETOURS]

If you're getting bored, or awaiting further updates..........watch this to tie you over..................

[ame="http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f136/corncrawler/RollingFelony/?action=view&current=DOWNDIRTYTEASER.mp4][IMG]http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f136/corncrawler/RollingFelony/th_DOWNDIRTYTEASER.jpg[/IMG"]Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket[/ame]

[cantab27]

cheers mark ,, a build thread with humor ,,, will be watching for updates ....thanks mate

[DETOURS]

Life without humor................that would be horrible, Thanks and . . . . . it only gets better!!

[4.3LXJ]

Hey Spank, nice build. I love it when people fab up original stuff.

[alwaysxj]

I love this.... man I read through this and think of my self, I love the outrages down right useless jokes.... I was laughing pretty good. thanks for the laugh. cannot wait for more.

[DETOURS]

As I said.................I was loosing intrest in the Cherokee, it was okay and all but I felt I was missing something my previous Jeeps offered, which was just the door free, raw, open air feel of "Jeep"..........My wife and I had the his & her YJ thing going on at one time, but fell into XJ's somehow, again...his & hers.....and hers was better than mine for sometime....

Anywho.........I bought a CJ for short money (8 bills) .......not many folks around me knew what I was up to..........it was a dirty little secret, and thats exactly what I named it.........again with a bunch of left over parts, some used parts.......it could easilly do this........


I did'nt tell the wife I bought it at first, when she found out, she looked like this......


But........after a few beers.........


And a little........you know...............s m o o t h i n g over..........


She was kool with the new build.......

But then, HUH????
The new build all of a sudden became...............less than feasible..
Dead in the water.............