The Jolly Green Giant

I have this sweet cracked mirror that's gotta go.  It's hard to tell from this pic, but when I check this mirror while driving, it looks like there are 4 cars instead of 1.

The headlights are so hazed, there's no amount of cut polish that will help.

Some of the interior panels are starting to peel back.

The seats are tan leather and the front ones came with these hideous seat covers.  I'm afraid to look what's underneath them.  Anyway, one of these days, I'll have to get out to the wreckers and find a black or charcoal interior.  I don't care if I have to go to cloth seats, the tan has got to go.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Well, it didn't take me long to get into another Jeep.  Not long after the blue monster died, my buddy Jay told me his parents wanted to get rid of their 96 Grand Cherokee.  The same day i got the payout from the insurance company, I went over to Jay's and picked up the "Jolly Green Giant". 

This truck is a '96 I think, and it was a lot cleaner on the outside than the blue monster.  The paint is in way better shape, the windows are tinted, and all the light lenses are intact, however the headlight lenses are very yellowed. and the driver's side mirror is cracked.  The seats are leather, and a little cracked in some places, and the carpet isn't quite as nice as the carpet I had in the blue monster (the new carpet that is).

This truck is in really great shape overall, and I even went to the trouble of washing it......something I never did with the blue monster for the entire 8 months she was with me. 

Plans with this vehicle?  I'll shop around the yards for the blue monster's interior, or equivalent of it.  The only reason I got a decent amount of money for the blue monster is the practically mint interior.  I want that interior back....the seats, and the carpet anyways.  I'm not a big fan of the tan interior in the Jolly Green Giant, and the carpet smells a bit.  So, at the very least, new carpet (black or grey), and new seats(black or grey).  If I find a cheap centre console and some cheap and clean door panels in black or grey, I'll get those too. 

Jay's already helped me lift the truck 1 3/4 inches as well as space out the wheels.  I've got a set of wheels and mud tires waiting to be mounted, Jay's going to help me build a steel front bumper, and some time this summer, we're going to paint our trucks olive drab and desert tan(his).  It's kind of a shame to paint over the Jolly Green Giant's pristine green paint, but hey, what the hell, it's not supposed to look pretty.

R.I.P. 1J4GZ58S0PC627792

Had to say goodbye to this mint interior, what a shame.

My blue 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee has passed on. I got t-boned a couple of weeks ago, and because the truck was already a rebuilt status vehicle, the insurance comapany wrote it off and paid me out.

Fixing Jeep

Well, it turns out that it was the coil that was pooched. I have no idea why, but Justin said it was gone. I beleive him because after we swapped in a new one, the truck started no problem.


Here's the old one....I should have taken a picture of the shiny new one, but I was too preoccupied with trying to put the new one in. After a lot of cursing, I was able to get it in myself (with Justin's supervision).

Broken Jeep

Daytrip to Whistler goes wrong. Driving up the Sea-to-Sky, condtions were rough - wet roads, low visibility, lots of traffic, narrow lanes, bad suspension. We were heading up the hill just past Furry Creek when the truck started to sputter. I managed to pull off just in time and get off the highway. There was obviously power because the lights were bright and the engine cranked no problem. Also, there was definetly fuel getting to the engine (fuel sprayed out after pushing the schraeder valve on the fuel rail so there was pressure). But no matter how many times I tried, it just wouldn't turn over.

My friend Simon was with us and it was a good thing he had Roadside Assistance or we'd be really screwed.
We got the truck back to my friend Justin's place and this is one of the things he found.....bad plugs...a little past the best before date. The plug wires and distributor cap were pooched as well.
The Boys were working on another Justin's first gen Civic at the time and there was a smoke show in the garage. The diagnosis from from a 3-year mechanic apprentice was "I think there's something wrong". Thank God he wasn't working on my Jeep.
Justin was going to have me swap out the plugs, wires and cap, but then decided against it because if I screwed it up, he'd have to fix it anyways.

So, the truck started right away after all the new goodies were installed, but an hour later, the truck was dead again. After searching for some solutions online, Justin figured it was either the coil, or the distributor itself.

New Interior- Part II

Finally, I have shots of the updated, and cleaner interior. So, here's what's been replaced inside the truck: Carpet, seats, door panels (with wood trim!), centre console, steering column cover, and several light bulbs in the console. I had this silly idea of updating the dash and door panels to the '98 style, but decided against since I wouldn't have a clue how to do it and it was something I could not ask my friends to do. But what has been replaced has in my opinion increased the value of the truck by ten times. It doesn't feel dirty when you get inside, you don't have the urge to sanitize yourself after you exit the vehicle, it doesn't stink anymore, the door panels don't come away from the door when you pull it closed, and cops probably won't question if the truck is stolen anymore. I really like the '98 seats. The seperate adjustable headrests really give the interior an updated look.
I still can't believe how clean the new carpet looks. The old carpet was a loose-knit fibre that almost looked like shag carpet. The old carpet was supposed to be gray, but looked brown because it was caked with dried mud, crud and whatever other crap that was growing in it.
The '98 donor truck was missing the head-rests for the rear seats, so I nicked a pair out of another Cherokee. Unfortunately, it was a leather interior so I have a pair of leather head-rests for the rear seats....looks kinda weird, but they work.
Recall a similar view from my older posts? This carpet is so awesome, I can hardly believe it. I love this new carpet so much that sometimes I like to sit in the car with bare feet just to feel the incredibly awesome new carpet. Other goodies I found at the wreckers include a tire cover for the spare and a tonneau cover.
My fancy new centre console. I noticed the cupholders were bigger than the previous model, for those extra large Big-Gulps. The armrest is in great shape, and more importantly - clean. The inside of this console was lined with felt and cup-holders could be pulled out for the rear passengers.
My friends helped me do most of the work swapping out the carpet and seats. They even managed to maintain the power seats (which were not in the '98 donor truck). They pulled the seat base and mounting rails from my own truck, and mounted the newer seats on them. The front and back seats were a real pain in the @$$ because some of the bolts sheared so they had to drill out the sheared bolts and they finally managed to make it work.
Shiny new lenses. Note that there are no more gaping holes, and the coloration in the clear plastic is, well....clear. The headlamp lenses are still yellowed though and I probably won't bother with those unless I manage to find a nice pair for cheap.

My new carpet is practically mint, and so are the new floor mats. But this winter, I want to protect my floor mats, which are supposed to protect the carpet. I got myself some all-weather floormats from Walmart.
Gold Emblem
Silver Emblem.....WTF.
Some sweet overspray.
Well, after my buddy Jay replaced the front driver's side coil, the truck is no longer lop-sided. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it is definitely straighter, and taller. Jay put in the Rubicon Express budget boost which lifted the truck by about 2 inches.

The truck now has a nice new clean interior that doesn't make you want to vomit when you get in it. It feels new inside, but the outside still looks relatively crappy. I guess I should wash it sometime....maybe next year.

New Interior

As I posted before, the carpet that came with my Cherokee was nasty. It was moldy, and smelled like stale, wet gym clothes, with a hint of dead animal and chemical cleaner. The seats weren't much better. After my friends got the heater working, I had it on full crank with the windows down, hoping to dry off whatever mold was growing in the carpet and seats.....it didn't work. I love the seat pattern and the one-piece bucket seats.....yeah, I'm kidding, they're fugly.
They really had a 1970's feel to the design, even though the truck is a '93.


My pals Justin and Jay found seats and carpet out of a '98 that were practically mint, as well as new door panels (with wood trim!). I couldn't believe my luck. A few days ago, they spent an evening outside in -0 conditions ripping out my smelly interior then spent another night helping me put the new stuff in. I swear, it is like driving a brand-new truck. The exterior just doesn't match the interior anymore, everything is so new inside. One of these days, I'll get some decent shots of the interior installed.

Night shots

I was just out messing around with my camera and snapped off a couple of shots of the Jeep. It's hard to tell from these pics, but this Jeep was unusally low. Everytime I pulled up to another Cherokee, it felt like I was looking up at it.

New Heater Core!!!!

The previous owner was driving the truck all throughout summer and I guess there really wasn't much need for a heater up until then, but shortly after I got the truck, the weather got a little chilly and a working heater was going to be essential. My friend Justin and Jay had a look at the truck and noticed right away that the heater core had been bypassed. We plugged it back in and the next day, the passenger side carpet was soaked with coolant. Justin gave Lordco a call and I got myself a new heater core.The instructions we found online showed a simple diagram for us to remove three screws and the whole dashboard would come out. Not so easy, as you can tell on my buddy Jay's face. He was not amused. It was a nightmare to remove the dash, as well as the hoses in the engine bay (which I tore by accident whilst trying to remove them from the core). So, we got the dash out, and then came the casing that contained the core. We found no clear instructions on how to open this casing.

Well, it's been several weeks now and I have nice, hot air coming out of the vents and the carpets aren't soaked with coolant. I am a happy camper.