Ever Since We have been building XJ's, its never been our goal to build the most extreme offroading Jeeps. We have always believed in building everyday vehicles that anyone can drive while enhancing its 4x4 abilities, overall performance and aesthetics and this Stage 6 XJ is no different. Our Customers want something they can drive, enjoy, show off :) and hang with just about anything when hitting the trails. We set out to build the perfect mix of both worlds without compromising either offroading abilities or everyday city and highway driving.
STAGE 6 XJ BUILD
We started this build on a perfect platform, a 1998 Cherokee XJ with only 52K Original Miles. This Jeep was all original with no modifications, body or paint work. We went through the Jeep from top to bottom and it was the perfect foundation. We have built well over 150 XJs since 2005 and knew we needed to do something different cosmetically. We decided to strip the Jeep down and do a partial Kevlar finish. We did about 2 days of body work to get the body 100% straight, all panels were smoothed out and any and all dents or dings were removed. Below are a few pics of the Prep Work! The windows on this XJ didnt have factory tint, so 3M tint was quickly installed.
After the Jeep was prepped and masked off it went in the booth to receive its super aggressive Kevlar Finish. When it rolled out the booth, we paint corrected all the paint on the vehicle to give it that brand new look. The entire roof was also finished in Kevlar. After paint and body work, we installed flat style bushwacker flares and onto the lift it went. We drop EVERYTHING from under this XJ so we could start from scratch. Even though this XJ was 100% rust free, we sandblasted EVERYTHING to give it a fully restored like new look. There was nothing under this XJ but the floorpan. First pics will show old oil pan before sandblasting. All parts were sandblasted outside or in our blast cabinet, surface cleaned, primed, and painted. The front and rear end below are shown before paint.
After all parts were sand blasted, prepped, primed, painted and installed, we proceeded with our Long Arm Suspension, Full Brake System, and More
After all the Suspension and Braking System was installed, we continued with Custom Gears, Diffs, and Drive Shafts
After Spending weeks under this Jeep, we just had the SYE for transfer case and 1 Ton Steering to Install. Time to make some ground on the exterior. Photos below show new front bumper, synthetic rope winch, 3 LED lights bars, rear bumper with tire carrier, heavy duty top rack, Truck Lite LED headlights, Nitto Trail Grappler Tires, Davis AutoSports Custom Finished ATX Wheels and more.
Next, we were off to intalling a FULL exhaust system, including Headers, New Down Pipe, High Flow Cat, All New Tubing, Performance Muffler, Tail pipe and Custom Diamond Tip. We also added Billet Aluminum JKS Bump Stops...Enjoy the updated photos of the front end too
1 Ton Steering, DriveShafts, SYE, High Flow Cat, Muffler, Exhaust Pipes, Down Pipes, and rest of undercarriage.
Here are the completed photos and videos.
