Project Bluenose: 2000 Jeep Cherokee

[Kevin108]

Hello, neighbor!

I had an 00 XJ as well.

Watch out for the 0331 head! The rear sway bar can simply be discarded. You'll never know it's gone.

eBay is a good source for fixing up the front. I smashed up mine and bolted on a new header panel. It blended in pretty well with the Patriot Blue as well. http://ebay.to/2BKbXFR Just have to rename it to Project Blacknose, which is what we call our cat. lol

 

[NiXJ]

Hello, neighbor!

I had an 00 XJ as well.

Watch out for the 0331 head! The rear sway bar can simply be discarded. You'll never know it's gone.

eBay is a good source for fixing up the front. I smashed up mine and bolted on a new header panel. It blended in pretty well with the Patriot Blue as well. http://ebay.to/2BKbXFR Just have to rename it to Project Blacknose, which is what we call our cat. lol

Thanks for the optimism. I got a lot of stuff to get fixed, and well I doubt I'll be on the forums at all now till I do. The Halifax trip is off. I'm going to spend all of the money I was going to use for the trip on this now.

 

[NiXJ]

So as a further update. I'm not making a claim on this. I've got very little history with the insurance company so they will most likely drop me. Which is what my dad is doing, we had a deal I could stay on as long as nothing happened. Well something happened.
So since this is a forum of vehicle dependant travel, and I have no vehicle, i will be lurking for awhile. While I figure this out.

,Aaron

 

[Kevin108]

Let me know if you want me to come look it over with you. Like I said, I smashed mine up too. The pic above on the gravel road was after I'd made my shadetree repairs. It looked like hell, but I didn't hurt anything substantial.

 

[NiXJ]

Let me know if you want me to come look it over with you. Like I said, I smashed mine up too. The pic above on the gravel road was after I'd made my shadetree repairs. It looked like hell, but I didn't hurt anything substantial.

It's up here in PA I'm stationed down there, my home is up here.

 

[Kevin108]

Yeah, that changes things somewhat. lol

Well, when you get to messing with it, should you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

 

[Jason Mainville]

i agree with Kevin. It looks bad, but without digging into it, it looks superficial and you should be able to source most of the parts on ebay or a local junk yard. Granted getting the color to match may take a while but I think it could be done.

 

[Vertigo]

To the OP, I am a Bluenose, so I'm guessing you wear dolphins on your chest. I run a Jeep dealership, and have a huge parts network. If I have it, its yours at cost. XJ will always be (in my opinion) the cheapest and nearly best platform to build. Any questions about your repair, hit me up. I fixed my old 01 XJ after a deer strike 2 winters ago. For like, $100.

 

[NiXJ]

To the OP, I am a Bluenose, so I'm guessing you wear dolphins on your chest. I run a Jeep dealership, and have a huge parts network. If I have it, its yours at cost. XJ will always be (in my opinion) the cheapest and nearly best platform to build. Any questions about your repair, hit me up. I fixed my old 01 XJ after a deer strike 2 winters ago. For like, $100.

I don't wear dolphins. Im on a cruiser, working on my esws.
Thank you so much I'll keep you in mind. Im hunting for a towing package radiator right now. The rest I'd have to get with my body guy to see what he doesn't have.

 

[NiXJ]

So Im happy to say that there is no frame damage. Still going to be expensive as hell, but at least I dont need the frame straightened. On a lighter note I decided I might as well upgrade the radiator since I needed a new one anyway. So after some research I went with a Mishimoto 2in aluminum rad. Which should prevent any overheating problems with the engine. After I see what I have left I can see what I can do. Might need to go do some junkyarding and what not to make it a bit cheaper. But this time I had while it was in the shop was not wasted, I read up more on XJs. Also did some research on more parts.
Aaron,

 

[Nomad00XJ]

Glad you're keeping your XJ. Like everyone else said, there's a ton of parts out there and they're pretty cheap. I'm in the middle of upgrading/updating a White 2000 XJ that I drove home from PA a few years ago. I saw that you mentioned the OME kit in an earlier post, I've had mine on for about a year and have been pretty happy with it so far. The one thing that stood out is how stiff the rear springs are, especially on a fairly stock rig. They do break in over time. I'm happy to answer any questions and share experiences with the upgrades I've done so far.

 

[NiXJ]

Glad you're keeping your XJ. Like everyone else said, there's a ton of parts out there and they're pretty cheap. I'm in the middle of upgrading/updating a White 2000 XJ that I drove home from PA a few years ago. I saw that you mentioned the OME kit in an earlier post, I've had mine on for about a year and have been pretty happy with it so far. The one thing that stood out is how stiff the rear springs are, especially on a fairly stock rig. They do break in over time. I'm happy to answer any questions and share experiences with the upgrades I've done so far.

Wouldnt trade it for the world. So where did you get your OME lift from? I'm looking at a 2.5 from DPG off road. He has the most complete kit I can find. Just going to pick up some JKS shackles and I should be good.

 

[Nomad00XJ]

I had it installed by a local shop in Denver. I try to shop local when I can. The OME kit I bought had everything in it, at least I wasn't charged for anything additional. I did add the steering stabilizer since they were ripping the suspension apart anyway. I've bought a lot from Quadratec, but definitely shop around because they're not always the cheapest. Here's a link to the kit I bought. https://www.quadratec.com/products/76090_800.htm .

I would ask the shop or company you're purchasing the lift from to see what springs you're getting. I'm pretty sure I wound up with the medium duty springs which have softened slightly and should be just right once I put my tire carrier on and some storage boxes/camp kitchen in the back. The other thing I noticed with this lift is there was a pronounced tail to nose slant. Some of this could be do to the new springs being stiff, the old springs were worn out, etc. I finally put some new adjustable control arms on and since they were slightly longer than the OEM it lifted the front a little and leveled everything out.

 

[Gregg]

I hope things go well with your repairs, i also have a 200 Cherokee classic and I to was stationed at NOB Norfolk

 

[NiXJ]

Well she's back to normal, and I had an excuse to upgrade to a mishimoto 2in alum rad. Got a CB and a JCR off-road CB mount to install once I get back too.

 

[Nomad00XJ]

Nice! how did the radiator install go? Did everything line up like it should?

 

[NiXJ]

Nice! how did the radiator install go? Did everything line up like it should?

Well it bolts up fine, but the hoses and fittings were a bit of a challenge.
For one the transmission line is very close to the body. We had to massage it with a crowbar to give it some room.


Also that same elbow fitting has the ring to far back to use the factory quick connect. So we went to a hydrologic line co and had them crimp the hose onto the fitting. This was so that the hose didn't slip off and fry the transmission.
Other than that it's running cooler than ever. I haven't been able to test it thouroly, but this weekend it's coming back down to Va. So a 370mile run should give me enough time to see how it performs.

I got sponsored by mishimoto, so I'll be putting a transmission cooler in and possible a dual electric fan set up. But this really depends on how they treat me after I let them know about the changes that could be made to the rad. It's only been a year since they put this out, so I expected some growing pains.

 

[NiXJ]

Had a great time this weekend up at crabtree. Really put this thing through it's passes. With snow and mud covered rocks, it was the first time I have HAD to use my 4 low. Got my kit more or less down. But this weekend didn't go with out it's price... my deathwobble is back, and my tires are worn down even more.

Sent from my SM-G930V using OB Talk mobile app

 

[Paul Daniels]

Nice looking rig, got a 97 myself, for my money best camping rig out there

Sent from my SM-N920T using OB Talk mobile app

 

[Vantams]

As has been said previously, for the money, both in parts and the actual vehicle itself, the XJ is reeeeeeeal tough to beat! Here's my 2000 in it's natural habitat.