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Today I?d like to introduce myself and my running project. My name is Andy, I live in Wiesbaden, Germany and used to have a GW a couple of years ago. At this time I was active in this forum but then I had to sell her and was gone until 6 months ago, ready to finally get the car I really like to drive ? a Cherokee. I always liked the 2 door widetrack more than the 4 door waggie.[/font][/size]
Like everyone else I spent hours in reading here and now I want to share my story with you.
Please don?t blame me for doing this project not myself.
So back in June my friend Tony bought this 83 WT Cherokee Laredo I found here in the forum from a guy in Atlanta area who is a member in this forum. (I am terribly sorry but I forgot his name) So Tony brought her to his house in Charleston on June 24th and was very excited because body and frame are almost perfect, rustfree with just some minor spots.
In Tony's driveway beside his Discovery
First thing Tony did was to add new spings (BJ?s 2 inch lifted) and shocks I got from BJ?s and tires he bought locally.
Next step would have been to rebuild the 360 and then ship it to Germany. This was my planned budget. As everyone knows a planned budget is completely different to the final spend budget, but I didn?t realize it at this point. I now started to investigate the 360 rebuild.
Well, as weeks passed by and everyone told me once you do this rebuild and the engine is out, get it done right and complete and restore it frame of - the truck is worth it, I started to like this idea. Inspired by television currently showing Overhaulin, American Hot Rod and some others (I know it was shown a couple of years ago in the US, but in Germany it?s brand new and shown the first time) I got really hard infected with this idea but ignoring what I would have to spend.
At the same time I finally changed my mind to follow the new idea to swap to a modern fuel injected and more economic engine. We also had to find someone in Tony?s area to do this job. So luckily one of his neighbors is a Jeep maniac and he led us to B&R Off Road in Charleston. He said Randy is the guy to go to.
It finally took until October to get to this point and then we started to figure out what needs to be done. I finally fell in love with Randy?s idea to swap to a 6.0 L Vortec drivetrain out of a 2006 Sierra.
This decision made, next step is frame and body. Preparing for the new paint job.
Taking the body from the frame
Next steps:
The body will be lineXed on the floor inside and outside.
The frame will be stripped and lineXed black.
The new paint job ? colors will be Range Rover colors: Arctic white and Bourneville metallic
Drivetrain swap
Interior gets a new complete carpet set, new leather upholstery for all seats and armrest
Rhino grille conversion
These steps will be done in the next 3-4 weeks and I really hope it won't be later than that. Shipping it in a container to Germany will take another 3 weeks or so.
Once in Germany all the worldwide known german bureaucracy will hit me. To get it legally onto the street it has to pass the "TÜV" which is on one hand very expensive and on the other very, very frustrating because they complain about almost everything. For those guys don't know what I'm talking about: Most of your modified rigs wouldn't meet the regulations and would not be allowed to be legally driven on the roads.
So with my tiny 31's and slight lift I hope I won't have any issues.
Once I'm allowed to drive it the final step will be a LPG conversion, so I can run with gas and propane. With my mileage it will take about 2 years to pay off.
I will continue with new fotos and reports on this project shortly
Like everyone else I spent hours in reading here and now I want to share my story with you.
Please don?t blame me for doing this project not myself.
So back in June my friend Tony bought this 83 WT Cherokee Laredo I found here in the forum from a guy in Atlanta area who is a member in this forum. (I am terribly sorry but I forgot his name) So Tony brought her to his house in Charleston on June 24th and was very excited because body and frame are almost perfect, rustfree with just some minor spots.
In Tony's driveway beside his Discovery
First thing Tony did was to add new spings (BJ?s 2 inch lifted) and shocks I got from BJ?s and tires he bought locally.
Next step would have been to rebuild the 360 and then ship it to Germany. This was my planned budget. As everyone knows a planned budget is completely different to the final spend budget, but I didn?t realize it at this point. I now started to investigate the 360 rebuild.
Well, as weeks passed by and everyone told me once you do this rebuild and the engine is out, get it done right and complete and restore it frame of - the truck is worth it, I started to like this idea. Inspired by television currently showing Overhaulin, American Hot Rod and some others (I know it was shown a couple of years ago in the US, but in Germany it?s brand new and shown the first time) I got really hard infected with this idea but ignoring what I would have to spend.
At the same time I finally changed my mind to follow the new idea to swap to a modern fuel injected and more economic engine. We also had to find someone in Tony?s area to do this job. So luckily one of his neighbors is a Jeep maniac and he led us to B&R Off Road in Charleston. He said Randy is the guy to go to.
It finally took until October to get to this point and then we started to figure out what needs to be done. I finally fell in love with Randy?s idea to swap to a 6.0 L Vortec drivetrain out of a 2006 Sierra.
This decision made, next step is frame and body. Preparing for the new paint job.
Taking the body from the frame
Next steps:
The body will be lineXed on the floor inside and outside.
The frame will be stripped and lineXed black.
The new paint job ? colors will be Range Rover colors: Arctic white and Bourneville metallic
Drivetrain swap
Interior gets a new complete carpet set, new leather upholstery for all seats and armrest
Rhino grille conversion
These steps will be done in the next 3-4 weeks and I really hope it won't be later than that. Shipping it in a container to Germany will take another 3 weeks or so.
Once in Germany all the worldwide known german bureaucracy will hit me. To get it legally onto the street it has to pass the "TÜV" which is on one hand very expensive and on the other very, very frustrating because they complain about almost everything. For those guys don't know what I'm talking about: Most of your modified rigs wouldn't meet the regulations and would not be allowed to be legally driven on the roads.
So with my tiny 31's and slight lift I hope I won't have any issues.
Once I'm allowed to drive it the final step will be a LPG conversion, so I can run with gas and propane. With my mileage it will take about 2 years to pay off.
I will continue with new fotos and reports on this project shortly
)
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