'98 Sport - A build of discovery and envy

Jaxon B. · Apr 26, 2021

I've thought about starting a build thread for a little bit, but thought I did not have enough things done to warrant one and being too poor to get new things. Decided that even little repairs and such make sense, and I have about 14 folders of pictures from major(-ish) things that I have done.

Here are some pictures as it sat on July 27th of last year when I bought it for $5651 (PO said minimum he would sell it for was $5650, cracked a joke and he accepted)
Witness the Florida rust B)

My brother drove it home, as we did not know what was in store for me in terms of driving. Picture taken moment we got into my driveway. No check engine light!

Jaxon B. · Apr 26, 2021

8-27-2020
Between the day of taking it home and this picture, I replaced the turn signal stalk as it wouldn't reset after turning wheel and replaced the breaklight switch since my rear lights just stopped working. I decided that I liked the tube bumper a lot, and bought a new one from Smittybilt just due to cost.

Jaxon B. · Apr 26, 2021

10-12-2020
Though it wasn't captured in any of the pictures, the seatbelts were frayed considerably, and therefore were a safety issue.
After looking around I found a company called safety restore or something along those lines that had a re webbing service.
I liked the blue belts a lot, but they made some small mistakes like flipping the buckle upside-down, and after sending it back they still sent it back flipped the other way, but I honestly did not care at that point. My passenger seatbelt doesn't reel up after taking it off anymore and consistently gets caught in the door, and the little buttons meant to stop the buckle from sliding down too far were cheap junk that fell of the belt, i'm using zipties currently to hold the buckle instead.

For overall look and function, however, they are pretty good quality, the stitching was thicker than OEM and held the same pattern. Got it for about $120 for the pair of fronts.

Jaxon B. · Apr 26, 2021

11-3-2020
When driving up any incline or when going too fast, my AC would switch vents to the defrosts and would not come back to the front blowers for a little bit. I posted about it here and was told it was an issue likely with the vacuum lines, and got sent a diagram of common breakpoints.
After searching for a bit, as I didn't have a smoke machine, I found the crack going into the firewall.

Asked again where I can buy replacement line, and was just told to buy some generic vacuum line out of autozone or something, so that's exactly what I did. Ended up getting like 3 feet of it for 5 bucks. I cut out the broken portion and coupled the new line over the old one and shrunk a couple layers of heat shrink over it. AC worked perfectly afterwards.

Jaxon B. · Apr 26, 2021

12-15-2020

A keen eye would have noticed it my first pictures of purchase that I had an aftermarket Tuffy console, and the PO actually got the subwoofer version and just left an auditorium sized one inside of it, completely unwired. I ended up buying and amplifier after doing some research, bought a cheap Boss one for 60$ with the wiring. Sub works fine and honestly I don't know why the PO cut it out. I'll probably find out later.

Jaxon B. · Apr 26, 2021

1-6-2021

No parts added here, but I took pictures of my steering components since I had a bumpsteer/wobble issue after hitting a watercover that was on my way home, and was not just a one-off situation. Brought it to our mechanic friend who checked everything and said that wheel bearings etc were all OK, but that the stabilizer was shot, and was likely the original that came with it 20-something years ago. He suggested one of those double ones, but I said I would rather not, mainly from a cost perspective, but also partly useablity. Ended up putting a double stab on because my dad said he would buy the part if it was double, and I can't pass up a free part.
These pictures were taken before the install.

Jaxon B. · Apr 26, 2021

2-7-2021
No big deal for this one, I posted about it in its own post as well. My older brother also has a 2000 sahara, and replaced the stock bumper a while ago. Since then, the stock bumper has been sitting in our garage, with the fogs still on it. I had a fog switch, unused. IT WAS MEANT TO BE!
Wrangled with the rusted mounting brackets and bought the KC tube bumper fittings, and now I have fog lights.

Jaxon B. · Apr 26, 2021

2-13-2021 and 2-14-2021

Speaking of my older brother, he left his TJ to be... babysat... with me and my dad. Naturally, that means that we completely took it apart, replaced the heater core, and repainted the interior just as a surprise for him.

Had to take a picture to remember the kind-of-funny fan speed switch wire orientation.
Taking pictures of his steering wheel and interior to send to him. Without any context to see his reaction, got what I was hoping for

Just going to be a picture dump of the dissassembly.

While the paint was drying, I also went ahead and fixed the foglights

He complained to me and my dad on a couple of occasions that he had a bug infestation. We were not thinking about this as we took out the seats and carpet. You can imagine what happened.

Jaxon B. · Apr 26, 2021

We noticed some surface rust by the rollbar on the driver's side, and decided to sand it down, repaint, and get rid of it before it got bad.

This is the Jeep at its most stripped-down point, the paint was still drying.

That exhausts my picture collection on this day, I never took after pictures; guess I forgot, damn.

Jaxon B. · Apr 26, 2021

2-18-2021

126,400 Miles!

Jaxon B. · Apr 26, 2021

Realized that I did not have any interior pictures, and took these and also used them in a reply to a thread
Since buying I also installed a new lock on the Tuffy console as well as added the pad back on.

Jaxon B. · Apr 26, 2021

3-14-2021
I detailed this in one of my posts, I swapped tops with my brother's girlfriend since I wanted a hardtop and she wanted a softtop. It wasn't as simple as that, and again I detailed it in one of my more recent posts.

Baseline is, I have a hardtop now!

Jaxon B. · Apr 26, 2021

4-2-2021
Last photo album I have as of now, my other brother had full doors when he first bought his '02, but since then swapped to half doors. Before doing so, he bought a new set of paddle handles and never put them on. I colonized them and took them for my own.

Nice look and doors open smoother than ever, like new!

Jaxon B. · Apr 26, 2021

All caught up now, I will add more pictures as I scrape together money to buy more things!

Edit: Not completely exhausted yet, just found these pictures of when I hit 126,500 miles in a McDonalds drive-thru, they also reminded me that I changed the cluster lights to LEDs

Jaxon B. · Jun 16, 2021

Promoted from learner's permit to drivers license today! I am finally able to really start driving this thing!

I recently got a set of Bedrug, and I plan to put that in over the weekend, weather allowing.

Irun · Jun 17, 2021

Congrats on the license. Now you have freedom!

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'98 Sport - A build of discovery and envy

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A vicious cycle of doing, undoing, and re-doing!