New to me TJ

My two hundred dollar 1999 jeep TJ Sahara well here goes.
Got it from a local guy on base it had a sputter he went to change the plugs wires, cap, and rotor, but he broke the distributor cap bolt off in the distributor. So he then pulled the distributor realized he did not want to deal with it and let it sit for about 2 years now. I stopped and talked to him he said he would take whatever I give him for it. So I called and offered $200.00 and he said come get it. I spun it a few times and it is not getting spark to the distributor so I traced back tested and confirmed it to be a bad coil. Jeep came here from Texas so as far as rust it has none.

SO the TJ has a Fabtech 6” Long arm (Not a fan)
A set of 5 33x12.50x15 Dick Creep A/T’s 80% tread one is new.
With 15x10 Mickey Thompson aluminum wheels (no rock rash)
For modification that is all I am aware about going to pull diff covers soon and check gear ratio.

Some background.
Well the Jeep came up from Texas, was at one point laid over on its passenger side while rock crawling. The roll cage damage, windshield frame is damaged but not beyond repair, windshield was never damaged. Passenger front fender has been replaced and is rusted. Tailgate is bent, and Body seams are not right has a crease under driver door. All the sheet metal work is fixable.

My plans are toss on some GenRight rear quarto panels and rockers Might do front ones to. Kinda want to stick with stock flares .

Soft top was garbage so I am looking at a used one but thinking I may run frameless top not sure yet. Depends on what I do whit the roll cage might replace it might straighten it.
So now for some pictures.


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Roll cage is damaged pretty good i am going to search for a Junk Jeep locally and try to pick up a cage.
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Welcome to NSJ,,
If those are 10 inch wide rims they must rub on the inside at the frame at full turn, it should have 8 inch rims especially if you plan to rock crawl with it.
Too wide of a rim makes the rim susceptible to rock rash and is not good,, and when you air down the tire foot print won't wrap around the rocks and such very well.
15X8 rims with 4 inch back spacing (common size) won't rub on the frame but you will need 7 inch flares to cover the tire.
Crown makes a set of 7 inch flares that you can purchase for under 200 dollars and they take alot of abuse.
Loosing the :BARBIE BUMPERS, LOL: and installing a winch and bumpers would be a huge improvement.
Mark,

Nice find. I picked up a $600 dollar one for my wife. Yours looks in better condition. Good wrenching!

Well I don't really know what kinda wheeling I am going to do with it but as far as flares I am not concerned with them. Looking at some steel flat fenders undecided. Once I bolt on the corner panel armor I might have to roll fender less for a bit. It is unlikely this will se much highway time in the near future though.

But I did find out today it has the rear D44 that is a plus, and found a roll cage for it as well.

I don't guess I can edit the last post but yes the Barbie Bumpers are going to recycle. Found a front bumper I may go pick up but if I can tolerate these for a while I will just have something made.

Just swapping out the bumpers will make a world of difference. And A d44 is a bonus.

When I first saw the thread, I was going to ask what made you pick up the TJ in addition to the JK, but $200? Holy crap. Not bad.

Any definite plans for it yet? Beater, flipping it, mild wheeling it?

If you're planning on keeping it and beating on it, it might definitely be worth not bothering with buying an OEM replacement cage and just getting a full new (upgraded) cage for a bit more.

Would save you needing to worry about windshield/stock cage mount integrity.

Same for the fenders. Just replace with comp-cut rears and TNTs or something in the front instead of worrying about the damaged sections.

Well my intent is to bring it back as close to new and nice as possible. Seeing what I have invested I can spend some and if I can find a paint booth I will paint it most likely will stay the same color as I don't want the hassle of a color change that is to much work. As far as wheeling it might see some very light trails but nothing major.

new ignition coil and new crank position sensor some fresh fuel, she is ALIVE and running.

Awesome man, it's impressive how damn resilient these 4.0's are - is it running smoothly? How many miles on it?

Tonellin wrote:Awesome man, it's impressive how damn resilient these 4.0's are - is it running smoothly? How many miles on it?

Running smooth will run better with full exhaust but that is on its way.

Catalytic converter was starting to glow so I did the removal mod *L* all new exhaust going back in thought.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88yJJvdtuAo&feature=youtu.be

So I got it a little better off today. Look like it at least has some potential now.

Short video of it running, the muffler has a hold and got dropped so it sounds a little ruff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qPWaORvlzw&feature=youtu.be







I think once I get the steel flat fenders it will be a lot nicer looking. Should have the roll cage tomorrow morning.

Man, I wish safety wasn't a thing, because that just looks *awesome*.

Last convertible car I seen had no roll cage. Of course they sit a lot lower to the ground and the seats sit deep in the tub. Looking into a few options I may do just the center roll bar with a sports cage up front and run a Cab top soft top. Also really thinking about a drop down tailgate over the swing gate.

Haficon wrote:Last convertible car I seen had no roll cage. Of course they sit a lot lower to the ground and the seats sit deep in the tub. Looking into a few options I may do just the center roll bar with a sports cage up front and run a Cab top soft top. Also really thinking about a drop down tailgate over the swing gate.

Oh, that would be *awesome*. Very unique especially.

In terms of the dropdown, there's a couple really neat kits from Swag Offroad and Poison Spider. I originally *really* wanted one, but I'm thinking it might be less useful because of my swing-out bumper.

Well I placed it on Craigslist for 4K and it took about an hour to get 5 calls. Pending Sale. *L*