You know, everything went so fast last time, I didn't really get to say goodbye properly to my baby... now that she's home, I'm going to document a bit before she leaves again. It was shopping for this vehicle that crossed my path with HigherGround4x4, so I'm going to give her a proper thread for historical sake.

The day I brought her home, she was a pampered, Scottsdale mall crawler. 6" lift, 33" tires, all the trim, and a big 'ol ARB Bullbar front bumper (which eventually found a home with Virgil before moving on)

I got her in the fall of 2007 (before Mike started yelling at me about leaving the date on my camera so it shows on pictures...

The first trail set with HG4x4 was Broken Arrow up in Sedona. Man, was I livin' large and (for the record) that was the day the XJ infestation began.










and my favorite picture from that run...

The first upgrades I did the rig included AJ's Rock sliders (awesome upgrade, so glad I did it) and a roof rack (because every XJ has to go through it's Roof Rack phase... you need a place to put all the lights you will never use...)

Now that I was a big boy with rock sliders and roof rack, I would run "big boy" trails. I signed up for the 101 classes Lance holds out at TM and ran Judgment Day.

A couple of interesting side note: Chris Brewer was my co pilot, Paul ran JD without too much carnage, and Kevin (ski4x4) was my trip leader...





ah... short arms. LOL




Kevin was always right there to pull me back over. It was so much fun to learn my Jeep...

2008 brought with it some changes to the XJ... hood vents (in my search for a cooler running XJ that finally ended with a better radiator) and moving up to 35" tires after being shamed by Jonathan and Geoff.

Here are some pics from a few of my favorite runs in 2008:


















Ivan still talks about this day... LOL

I learned a lot about my Jeep in 2008 and learned a lot as a wheeler. I started leading my own (albeit small) runs and getting move confident with what my rig could do and the upgrades I needed to make it do what I wanted it to...

2009 was hands down the peak year for the XJ, how she was built, and what we could do together...
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Long Arms were added, Lucy joined the family and became an iconic part of the rig, the ARB Bullbar went bye bye and I upgraded to a Larsen Built special, and...MOAB happened...

All in all 2009 was simply fantastic and should be a Hall of Fame wheeling year. We wheeled Dirty Sanchez and Collateral Damage before they were closed, and just generally spent as much time out at Table Mesa as possible.... Did I mention Moab happened? LOL

2010 didn't bring too many more changes from a build up, but I was able to get more and more aggresive in learning what the XJ could do. One significant upgrade that 2010 brought was a custom "Larsen Built" high steer setup with even beefier tie rod. The Rugged Ridge setup I had used was dead and Geoff drilled out a knuckle and set the rig up with heims and a high steer set up. We also added new rear leaf springs after getting rear ended by a Prius (I won, they lost) as well as re-enforced the steering box welds with steel plating and new steering box bolts.

I also started running without the roof rack more after getting hung up on Anaconda and other right sqeezes out at Table Mesa...and Lucy had to be given away at the Christmas Party. The Roof Rack just looked so empty without here angry dead head on it. :(

Elvis, Axle Alley, Cottonwood with HCR, one EPIC Judgment Day run also added to the "character marks" and battle scars. 2010 brought my first real flop... LOL

In January of 2011, I bought a 97 TJ and the 93 XJ was going to live with Caleb. She sat on the side of the house until April of 2011, then she went to Calebs for a little bit and got a make over.

She received an updated paint job (the tan/gold is finally all gone), different stickers, "new" front quarter panels, blacked out grill and rims, and all traces of my wonderful red accent colors went away. 8)

Here how she stands as of May 2011:













So, she's back home for a bit. I replaced the transfer case with a different np242 this weekend, bought 5 black steelies to replace the beat to pieces rims on it, will work through a couple of other things I wanted to do before she went to Caleb's house.. and she'll be back on the market in a couple of days.

This time, however, I've been able to give her a proper going away thread... 2007 - 2011 and she never let me down... even as she grew up.

2007 new to me:



2008 after mods:



2009: the golden year:



2010: wheelin' hard



2011: as she sits today:

I love build threads. This one is done right!
Thanks for the progress pics, the memory lane stroll, and the calendar worthy XJ

i showed tanner this thread and he is drooling even more he said his wife is liking it also.

Love the thread and the jeep!

Sad to see it go, hopefully someone with in the club will BUY it and keep it alive!

As long as she goes to a good home with someone who will love her and wheel her... I'm happy! I would love to actually wheel WITH it one day. LOL

Bill88xj wrote:Sad to see it go, hopefully someone with in the club will BUY it and keep it alive!

Wish I could, would love to have a big boy rig

Bill88xj wrote:Sad to see it go, hopefully someone with in the club will BUY it and keep it alive!

Easier said than done, though I suppose it's easier done depending on if you're ready for such a vehicle. I was not.