Z-TARD

It's official, someone call Guinness... My mileage has increased from 18.5 MPG to a healthy 18.7 MPG. I'll try one more batch in my tank before I discount this theory entirely. It's possible that the 98 Cherokee has a perfect combustion process, that cannot be improved upon. 100% efficient. But I kinda doubt that. It might be possible that any further gains in fuel efficiency will have to be made on the exhaust side of my engine. I'll most likely end up lifting this thing and putting mud tires on it anyway, so I guess striving for fuel efficiency will be a lost cause of sorts. Peace out, Mike

Day one of acetone testing complete. Engine still intact, no flames visable from under hood. It appears to be consuming fuel at a slightly slower than normal rate, but I don't trust my gas gauge very much as it displays the typical eratic manners of most Chrysler Co. electronic devises. Empty-Full-Empty-Full-Full-3/4-Full-Empty-Etc. I think about the fuel consumption a lot as I drive now, which surely must have an effect as well. I'm driving like there are little baby skulls under the gas pedal (Egg shells is such an over used term....) Anyway, I'll post results as soon as I fill up again, probably on Thursday if I havent caught on fire by then. Mike

It's about time someone finally built a better mousetrap.......

I just added the acetone tonight, I'll have figures after I fill up again in about 2 days. The tornado thing didn't do crap, I'm still between 17 and 18.5 MPG after installation. It may be non compatible with my TB spacer, or perhaps I'm getting as much efficieancy out of my intake as is humanly possible. For the purposes of testing, I'll leave all the bolt on stuff installed. If I get anything better than 18.5, then we'll know the acetone works. The So Cal guys might want to watch the news for the next few days, if you see a green Jeep Cherokee burning on the side of the freeway, thats probably gonna be me Mike

I'd like to give this a try with my Cherokee once I establish a baseline for it's current MPG. It was running at 15MPG when I bought it, 17 MPG after tune up. 18.5 after adding a K&N intake and PowerAid TB spacer. I'm waiting now to fill up again and run another tank after I added one of those Tornado insert thingies (As seen on TV) Results so far are promising, It seems to be doing better now, probably at 20MPG or more. Once I find out for sure I'll try the acetone and see how well it works. If nothing else I should have nice clean injectors afterwards. Mike

I figure that anyone can send just a plain dog turd. It takes an extra special kind if person to take the time to feed a dog corn and follow it around for a day or so. The person opening the box might not register all this at once, but later when all the crying has stopped and they have time to reflect on it..... "Was that....Corn?" Truly the gift that keeps on giving. Yeah, I'm a sicko Mike

Why does he have to check to see if you have the funds to cover the payment if you send a money order? Money orders are bought and paid for, yes? Chances are that the guy just wants your half of the $500 for shipping. After sending your $250, you'll probably never hear from him again. send him a corn filled dog turd instead of $250 Mike

Sounds too complicated to me. Even if it is legit, I'd still tell him to go pack sand. Mike

Owen, all I can say is "Holy $hit!" I had no idea you had all that stuff under that dash cap. This whole time I thought it was just covering a standard dash! I like the modular design of yours, a lot like Terry's dash except not quite so radical in appearance. The gears in my head are turning again, thinking of ways to replan my dash without having to modify the mold at all. I'd love to be able to take my car to MSA this year, but I'm still too far away from completion to try showing it off. My engine block is still sitting at the machine shop, where the worlds slowest cylinder hone is scraping away metal at near glacial speeds. Still have to fab and weld in new floorboards, etc. Probably will be able to make the 2006 MSA show with it I hope. I'll be there this year as a spectator yet again though. Mike

I got the foam at Michael's. It comes in large 36X12 sheets in 1/2, 1, and 2 inch thickness. It's really easy to work with as far a shaping, but is a pain to glue together with contact cement. I ended up using the contact cement to hold it together long enough to run a bead of spray foam insulation along the back edge of all the joints, which seems to work pretty well for making a rigid structure. Spray paint and polyester resin will attack this foam very aggressively, which neccesitated the use of water based DAP drywall spackle compound for the final surface prior to painting and molding. After wet sanding and repainting, there is less crap imbedded in the paint than before, but some new stuff managed to settle on it during and after painting, including what appears to be a small spider that now looks like Han Solo encased in carbonite. I'm going to do some spot touch ups on it and call it good I think, I'll be at it all month if I try for a flawless finish. It should be ready to take a mold off of it within the next week or so, but the way things have been going lately dont be surprised if it ends up being more like a month or more. I'll post more pics as soon as I have some worth posting. It seems like a lot of people are having a difficult time viewing the pics I post from image station. Can anyone recomend a free photo server that actually works? Mike

Were they gold, with elvish writing around the outer edge? Might have been the Bilbo Baggins edition...... J/K, I honestly have never heard of BILBO wheels. Mike

My engine machinist was cleaning out his shop when I dropped by last week, I asked about a drill press he had sitting unused in a corner of his shop and he said it had smoked the motor, and it was mine if I wanted it. So after replacing the burned out 1/2 HP motor with a new 3/4 HP motor, I have a perfectly functional drill press. I also added a 6" cross slide machinist vise so I can use it as a crude milling machine. The table also spins 360 when unlocked, so if everything is centered right, it could be used for indexing and drilling hubs for 5 lug pattern. Total cost for the motor and vise was $165. I love free stuff Mike

Well, I finally managed to work up the motivation to go throw some more paint on the dash today. Final coat of primer (Red) followed by a coat of black appliance enamel. The finish is pretty smooth, but there are areas that looked good when primered that now look wavy under a coat of gloss black. I've also learned that my garage is not a dust free environment, I left my garage door open and tons of nearly microscopic crap blew in. I think ALL of it ended up in the paint. Looks like I'll be doing some more wet sanding, followed by another coat of black paint under less windy conditions. Due to the surface imperfections, and my unwillingness to go back and fix them, I'm going to go with my earlier plan of using fiberglass covered in bedliner paint for the final product. Seeing Terry's dash finished this way also was swaying me back towards using bedliner as well. Anyway, pics: Mike

I'll definitely be attending, but as a spectator yet again. Maybe I can throw some 240Z badges on my Cherokee...... Pre show gathering sounds good, just name the time and place and I'll be all over it like stink on pooh. Mike

I'll have to look into the Sport edition dash, It really sucks not having a tach, I feel like I'm driving a hyundai without it. I did a quick tune up on it tonight, new plugs, wires, cap, rotor, and air filter. No more stumbling going up hillls at all, and the gas mileage seems to have improved quite a bit. It was eating up gas at a fairly alarming rate, I could actually watch the needle move, but it seems much better now. I had used the Bosch platinum 4 plugs on my old jeep, and they made a huge improvement, and used them on this one with the same results. Jeep 4.0 engines like the platinum 4's a lot for some reason. I also took the time to crawl under it tonight and check all the motor and trans. mounts, drive shafts, etc. Everything appears to be in very solid condition. I cant wait to get some decent tires on this thing so I can take it out on some trails. Since my car payment is so low now, I can afford to spend a lot more on the Z now, and let's face it, thats the ultimate goal in most of our lives, right? Mike

Aaaaaaaaack!

I still miss my 89, this new one is pretty close though. I'm kinda bummed that the only gauges it has are fuel and speedo though. everything else is idiot lights. I miss my tach most of all. On a positive note, I did get to test out it's cargo carrying capacity a little today. I loaded it up with a drill press I got for free from my engine machinist. It was a hell of a lot easier to load than it would have been in the Eclipse. I've also noticed that when I'm driving on the freeway, I don't have Excursions and F-350's trying to change lanes over the top of my hood, which was a fairly common occurance when I had the mitsubishi. Mike

Thanks Aaron. Maichor, that is a sweet looking XJ! The tranny on mine is an auto, but the door locks and windows are manual. When I got my Eclipse, I traded in my 89 Cherokee for it, and have pretty much hated life ever since. The Eclipse was a good car, but just not a Jeep. Not sure what the hell I was thinking. I was debating on getting either a Scion XB (Go ahead and flame me, it's OK ) or a post 94 Cherokee. I saw this 98 on Autotrader.com for $5995 and jumped on it. I haven't planned any serious mods for this one as of yet, since I use it for driving 90 miles round trip to work every day. I'll probably end up getting a 3" lift, 30" or 31" mud or A/T tires, and probably some evil looking home built bumpers. I have noticed one slight problem on this since I bought it, it tends to hickup or stutter when going up hills, occasionally accompanied by a clunking noise. I'm thinking it may have some transmission issues, but perhaps it could be as simple as needing new plugs/wires/distributor cap. I know the earlier cherokees had some transmission problems, but I was under the impression that the later models had been fixed. The trans fluid does smell a bit burnt, so i'll probably get it flushed this week. I'll do a tune up as well and see if the problem persists. Mike

Just traded in my Eclipse on this today: 1998, 4.0 liter, 4WD. It's the cheapo version with manual windows and locks. It runs pretty strong, but smells like a dogs hind quarters for some reason. Looks like I'll have to invest in some heavy duty upholstery cleaner.... This may eventually spiral into it's own project, I've been thinking that a Mad Max inspired vehicle would be awesome for the commute to work every day. Mike

The more I look at it, the more stuff I see that I don't really like. Check out the exposed flex plate and tourque converter, I could picture that ingesting all kinds of crap from the road. The front suspension looks like a hybrid of stock Z and mustang II parts, it might work very well, then again it might not. I think I'd be willing to place more trust in the original design. The hood latch mounting on the glass hood looks kind of precarious. You can see the reinforced area where it is originally supposed to be mounted at, yet it is mounted off to one side, and not entirely backed by fiberglass. Several pictures show items that look like they were removed when the car was painted, and then put back on without even brushing the rust off of them, like the alignment pads for the rear hatch. Having said that though, I still consider this to be one of the cleanest looking Z's ever, a definite cantidate for new desktop background on my computer. I think they could have spent a little more time on details. Then again, not everybody has the luxury of spending 4+ years on their hybrid like I have. I guess I shouldn't talk crap until I can at least get mine off the jackstands..... Mike

The side markers look like the small oval ones on the rear fenders of the newer Ford trucks with dual wheel setup. I've been eyeballing these for a long time, but haven't found any for sale yet. The front grill on that car is friggin sweet! I really like how well he blended everything together. Looks like he might be running solid rear axle or some other type of IRS setup than stock, pretty large tubs in the back, running 11" rear wheels without flares. I really dig the overall look of the car, but wouldn't pay over $10,000 for it. Lots of really great bodywork over a pretty tame conversion. Mike

Thats digusting.

Polyester resins normally wont fully cure on the surface, because the oxygen inhibits the chemical reaction at the very surface. If you mix resin with bondo, it's likely that it will seem uncured because it will remain sticky. Spreading out a plastic painters dropcloth over the surface right after you apply it will allow a full cure, and will let you do some sculpting with your bare hands to a certain extent. Once the resin/bondo cures, the drop cloth will peel right off. Hope this helps a little, Mike

I think this one is a bit dated, but still pretty cool. My girlfriend found this for me cuz I'm all retarded about Van Halen and stuff. I'm not quite sure, but I think Mr. K is in the end of the commercial.http://yadamnfool.com/Z_Commercials2.htm Mike

Terry that looks awesome! You've lit a fire under my *** to go finish my own dash project which I've been neglecting for the past few weeks. I only hope mine comes out half as bitchin as yours. You da' man! Mike