Lift Kit

[lumberjim]

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so.....I spent 14 hours on this project today, give or take.

up at 8 am, loaded the trailer up with the tires and wheels again......then off to Walmart to drop them off for mounting and balancing.

I paid $2.50 extra per tire for lifetime balancing and rotating. I had purchased 4 extra TPMS sensors and had them install them. You have to record the code from each sensor so they can be programmed. Dude at walmart was helpful with this...he put tape on the inside of each wheel and wrote the code in big numbers.

Next stop Dunkin Donuts for a coffee and gatorade. Then Napa in search of plastic rivets. FAIL. but I picked up some fiberglassing supplies. (I'm going to experiment with it a little...to see if fabricating my own fender flares is feasable)

Then, out to West Chester to visit Quadratec. I called them yesterday, and they have the heavy duty Pacer Flexiflares in stock.

You should see that parking lot. Jeeper heaven. only one XJ....a white ltd un modded. sigh.

I stopped at pep boys on the way home in hope of finding those elusive plastic rivets. FAIL2. but i got a few plastic push rivets and a pin for our hitch step. (I painted the jeep logo on it!)

Closer to home, I caved in and spent $30 on 12 plastic rivets (a bargain! they list for $7 each!! woohoo....not.) stopped and got my hair cut, and hit bLowe's for some aluminum strips to use installing the flares. I had envisioned using L brackets underneath and inward to mount the flares to. Turned out I had to go a different way, after all that......

So, then I picked up the tires and wheels, stopped and got my wife a latte and headed home. After 20 minutes convincing her that if this fender flare thing was ****ed, i could put it back the way it was. And that it wouldn't look like crap. And that these flares were a temporary thing until I could get the real flares made. they ARE...I MEAN it.

It's noon by now, and time to 'get busily'.(start saying that at work 'Let's get busily, people!'...it's catchy) so, out into the sun...unload the trailer, drag the floor jack out of the basement, and 20 minutes running back and forth getting all the tools I need together.

step one!
jack up the xj, and yank the first tire. drill out the plastic rivets along the edge of the fender flare, pull the two push rivets from the wheel well and then the last two rivets that are up in the top of the wheel well liner. The top edge of the flares are connected to the body with plastic clips that break or pop out as you pull.

step two!
Install the new tire and rim to see where the rubbing will be. That pinch weld was a sonfabitch, let me tell yoooo. I tried the vice grips and got no where. I had to remove the wheel again and go get the BIG hammer. The front was still rubbing on the lower air dam, too, so i trimmed a 4" square off of that with my sawzall. i also had to remove about 3" of the plastic rocker panel cover.....(I saved the piece and will be gluing it back over the end again.) It still rubs at full lock, so I think I'm going to take it to work ,and put it up on a lift where i can really get my hammer swinging. I got a blister on my thumb!!

see the rocker, lower right, and the battered pinch weld center:


a look at the wheel well without the flare:


I had begun to do the back wheel, but couldn't get the follyucking last lug un screwed. i went and got my torque wrench and set it to 150lbs, and snapped the damn drive converter clean off!......so then, I had to tighten the rest of the lugs back up, and spin the xk around, do steps 1 & 2 to the other front wheel, and take it back to the dealer to get that damned lug undone.......the VDC thing does not like having 32s on the front and 29s on the back very much.... and back home.......

the back tires went a LOT faster, since i didn't have any clearance issues, and didn't remove the flares yet.......