The ThunderJeep

[MrJereMoose]

I've had my Jeep Cherokee for about 10 years now, and never made a build thread on any site for it. I was thinking of posting in my old Jeep XJ forum, but I figured it might be more interesting if I made one here.

It's not the same stance as the crowd here prefers, but I'm sure people can appreciate it for what it is.

In November of 2000, my mom needed a new car and purchased a 2001 Jeep Cherokee Sport in Patriot Blue Pearl under my suggestion. I drove that to school my high school senior year. I put this picture in the yearbook...


The next year, I searched and searched for the same jeep, but with a 5 speed.
I had a Thule rack for my bike, and installed some driving lights in the grille.


I also had been playing around with the exhaust a bit.


What you can't see are the 2 12" JL Audio subs in the back, and the dixie horn under the hood

[MrJereMoose]

The next winter I lifted it with a 3.5" Rubicon Express lift kit, which sat more like a 4.5" and fitted 31x10.5s on the stock wheels. It also got 4.11 gears and a front ARB air locker. and a slip yoke eliminator.

[MrJereMoose]

Then I picked up some 15x8 chrome Cragers for 200 bucks locally and got some more aggressive tires






Then my engine blew, so I had it rebuilt as a 4.7 stroker with about 300hp

[MrJereMoose]

Then I picked up black wheels with a little gnarlier tire which were true 31s...



...and I got stuck for the first time...

[MrJereMoose]

Here is is a little cleaner and loaded with climbing gear

[MrJereMoose]

Then I created a program at my camp called the Thunderbirds, and I used my jeep to promote it. The name "The ThunderJeep" was born.

I got some of that washable spray paint and had my friend make some stencils.
You will also notice that this was around the time that Rusty made his appearance with just his rusty hood, and I payed a little homage to the VW and BMW communities by rusting my own hood.



Then I painted the wheels orange

[MrJereMoose]

Then started paying less attention to the jeep because it was getting about 12 miles to the gallon, so I threw on some old wheels on the rear end to get by...


Then I got some white vinyl for the summer. and a black grille and headlight bezels.


Then I was hit by a minivan, their fault... That money went towards getting my Mk4 tdi



I took off the bumper end caps and tied my bent front bumper to a tree and reversed. I relocated the plate to the damaged area. and took of the front valence.

[MrJereMoose]

[MrJereMoose]

Then I trimmed the front fenders and got some 33x12s on 15x10s





The rear flares came off while wheeling one night, well one night at a time...

[MrJereMoose]

My plans are to get a 6ish" long arm lift, bushwhacker flat fender flares, 35" tires, pre-runner bumpers, cowl induction hood, new nose, paint job, professional decals, and call it a day.

[AlexWilmot]

If I wanted to look at Dirt trail stuff I would'nt be on Stanceworks

[aLaFleur]

Pretty cool build. I've been out of the 4x4 game for a while now, but I can still respect a well built jeep.

[2l2ltq]

If I wanted to look at Dirt trail stuff I would'nt be on Stanceworks

Rusted hood!!!!!

[hinrichs]

i can apreciate this after getting a jeep myself, went with a wrangler however, deff always wanted to build one of these tho

[AFTRBNG]

brings back memories of my '87 cherokee, man i do miss that thing