BlueGerbil 2.0

[BlueGerbil]

Some of you may or may not remember my former rig, a blue XJ from Germany, quite built, not too extreme, for travelling in Europe. It has been totalled on my way to the largest offroad expo in Europe where it should has been displayed in the booth of Global Offroad (http://www.global-offroad.com), a reseller of LED lighting systems I´m working with.

Last saturday I bought a "new" XJ and this should be the build-up thread for it. It´s stock as stock could be (minus the tinted windows), blue again, has the I6 4.0 HO in it, about 100k miles on it and is a ´99 Limited.

Plans include, but are not limited to:
6" lift, 285/70R17 MT tires, built Dana30/Ford8.8, huge amount of LED lights, winch, fridge, two seater, roof rack, bumpers, two GPS systems, nice stereo, yada yada...

That´s how I bought her:

http://www.liska.de/bilder/bg2_001.jpg

http://www.liska.de/bilder/bg2_002.jpg

http://www.liska.de/bilder/bg2_003.jpg

http://www.liska.de/bilder/bg2_004.jpg

http://www.liska.de/bilder/bg2_005.jpg

http://www.liska.de/bilder/bg2_006.jpg

http://www.liska.de/bilder/bg2_007.jpg

http://www.liska.de/bilder/bg2_008.jpg

http://www.liska.de/bilder/bg2_009.jpg

http://www.liska.de/bilder/bg2_010.jpg

http://www.liska.de/bilder/bg2_011.jpg

http://www.liska.de/bilder/bg2_012.jpg

More to come...

[mike94yj]

Off subject, but do you know if the rear headrests were standard for the limited trim pack or is it a euro requirement?

[BlueGerbil]

Off subject, but do you know if the rear headrests were standard for the limited trim pack or is it a euro requirement?

They were quite rear on the Pre-Facelift modells (84-96) and even rarer with three headrests (like I´ve got in my daily driven black XJ from 94), but I´ve got no clue, if all Limited after the facelift (97-01) came with them.

[Root Moose]

Whoa, Jan, totaled the Gerbil? Backstory?

What's the weird box on top of the throttle body? Resonance chamber?

Rear headrests are Eurospec only.

[BlueGerbil]

No story, no pics, sorry! Just too sad.

Don´t know what that flat black thing is, yet. But it should be gone when we´re done with the intake...

[ExpoMike]

Rear head rests were never available in the US. Interesting that Euro spec ones got them but they also got other optional things like hood vents that never came on US spec ones.

Nice XJ BTW.

[alexfm]

Very nice. :) Im interested to see how this build goes.

[BlueGerbil]

Some small upgrades... first, the above mentioned Jeep now belongs to my wife. I got myself a silver 2000 XJ.

http://www.liska.de/bilder/gg2_001.jpg

Beside that, my ´94 black daily driven XJ had close to 200000 miles on the clock and then there came another pristine ´99 blue XJ with only 35000 miles on the clock - so we bought a 3rd XJ. Now I am as broke as one could be, but what the...

That´s my new daily driver, it´ll get converted to LPG again to cut the costs of driving into half. Got a 1.5" budget boost and some 265/70R16 tires on moab wheels (taken over from my black one).

http://www.liska.de/bilder/blg2_003.jpg

But now back to my trail rig...

Two mounts from Brodit and DashMount found their way into the cockpit - for GPS, phone, stuff...:
http://www.liska.de/bilder/bg2-cockpit1.jpg

Clear cornerlights and sidemarkers with Sylvania bulbs (chrome-coloured) bring the bling...
http://www.liska.de/bilder/bg2-clearsignal3.jpg

Tires and wheels are bought and are waiting to be mounted. The Currie parts and the Reflexxion hood are on their way from the US and I hope we can start installing these things ASAP.

A new 260W LED lamp bar and some smaller LED lamps are ordered as well, the new rig will be used as a promotion vehicle for a friends company who is selling the fancy LED stuff.

[BlueGerbil]

The daily driver got a chrome fascia from a ´00-´01 XJ Limited, some maintenance and a LPG conversion with a 160l tank in the trunk. No pics of the LPG yet, but buying fuel for half the price is cool!

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/206472_10150177698036489_696341488_6519486_5836169 _n.jpg

[BlueGerbil]

The trail rig sits on it´s "new" axles (D30 HP and Ford 8.8), has been lifted, yadda yadda, no pics yet, because the shop did it while I was away. Hope to have it ready for the "Abenteuer Allrad" fair by end of July.

The new LED bar has been mounted under the Hannibal roof rack where it´s better protected from shady people...

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/199895_10150147451726489_696341488_6379236_2479756 _n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/197214_10150147451646489_696341488_6379234_4380510 _n.jpg

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/190783_10150147451806489_696341488_6379237_6221428 _n.jpg

[bldeagle10]

man, looks like i'm going to have to do some research on the Euro model's and see what cool little non US stuff i can have shipped over i.e. rear headrests and other little stuff shown... looks like a pretty sweet build!

[BlueGerbil]

4 Switch console instead of three switch console in the US modells
Rear spoiler from the UK Orvis modells
5.9 ZJ hood vents from the UK Orvis XJ modells
Rear headrests

[BlueGerbil]

Some progress... the front coils are too large, shocks and currie antirock is missing, front bumper is missing, emergency brake cables are missing...

http://liska.de/bilder/bg2_13.jpg

[alexfm]

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/190783_10150147451806489_696341488_6379237_6221428 _n.jpg

What LED Lightbar is that? I've been looking at getting one for my XJ, although not as big as that one. Your rig is looking great! Im diggin those new wheels!

[BlueGerbil]

That´s a 42" LED bar from Vision-X. It´s similar to
http://www.visionxusa.com/LED-Evo_Prime-42%22_Evo_Prime/c1_109_157/p642/42%22_EVO_PRIME_%7C_20_DEGREE_NARROW/product_info.html
but it´s custom built, so the outer 4 LEDs on every side have a "flood" type beam pattern whereas the inner 18 LEDs have a "spot" type beam pattern.

Yeah, I like the wheels to, found them very cheap in a german online shop. I´ve thougt about the 17x8" Rubicon knockoffs from Mamba but shipping would from the US would have been expensive.

[BlueGerbil]

Currie Antirock, Fox 2.0 shocks, coils from german K&S company, Currie steering

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[BlueGerbil]

September 2011: Germany, Austria, Italy - the first day of our annual trip to the franco-italian alps, somewhere between Milano and Torino: BOOM goes the engine. Road assistance was called...

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[BlueGerbil]

I spent the rest of the trip riding shotgun in a friends TJ or in a rental Seat on tarmac (with a lovely young lady, but that´s another story) - then the rig sat for 3 months until the end of the year. A friend called me and had a nice 4.0 engine with only about 40.000 miles on it. Couldn´t let this go, so I bought it.

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This is how the rig sat for the last months - now the new engine is going in and some work will be done...

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[BlueGerbil]

I sold the 26x 10W LED bar to a friend and got me a 78x 5W LED bar from Vision-X again - sure, the german reseller is a good friend of mine. Now we´re talking about 38.000 Lumen, should be plenty of light to find the local mall!

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[AFSOC]

Jan, good to hear you got a replacement engine. Your XJs and exploits are legendary.

[88Xj]

We need output pics:drool:

[BlueGerbil]

While a friend of mine will be doing the engine swap (hopefully this week) near Frankfurt I live and work about 150 miles away - but nevertheless I got some stuff on the way.

A silver-coloured 2m aluminium roof rack made my Frontrunner and outfitted with 8 instead of 6 feet is being modified so the new LED lamp can be mounted in the front and 4 Vision-X Solstice Prime LEDs will be sitting rear, right and left to illuminate the camp in the evening. It´s an updated copy of the last setup with a Hannibal roof rack and the old square style Solstice LEDs, which were sold today. So was the Hannibal camping table which fits into the old roof rack, the new rack will get a similar setup.
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Since I sold my ARB front bumper as well and my winch won´t be doing any good sitting around in the trunk I had to order a new front bumper. Oh well, a new rear bumper did sneak into the shopping cart as well. And so did a set of their new Ultimate Sliders and a Gas Tank Skidplate - I´m talking about JCR Offroad. Eric there could give me a nice discount so it didn´t hurt so much :)

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[FlexdXJ]

I'm 5 hours away from JCR and shipping cost me a bit but you will NOT be disappointed in their products. Been beating on my rails for over 3 years and the bumpers for a solid 2 years with out issue. I even have their Transfer case skid and quarter panel guards. Cant say enough about those guys! :)

[BlueGerbil]

Since I´m going to sell my Tentrax trailer (I´ll be travelling alone in the future) I need a place to put my slightly drunken head in the evening. And since the 4x4 shop I´m working for is starting to sell Maggiolina roof top tents I ordered myself one of their finer products, a 130cm wide Maggiolina Carbon Fibre - which is made of - can you guess it? Yeah, that´s why it´s about 8-12kg lighter than the normal version made of fibreglass. Since the whole rig should be on display on the upcoming offroad fair in Bad Kissingen in June for the 4x4 shop I got a very good quote on it, otherwise that wouldn´t have been possible since the MSRP is like 4800$ in the US of A.

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[BlueGerbil]

While I wasn´t looking, a set of J.W.Speaker 8900 LED headlamps (ECE approved, so street legal over here) found their way into my XJ. Well, they didn´t find their way all by themself - read: no plug&play installation. My buddy which is doing the install had like 2-2.5 of work to make it fit - the rear bucket has to be modified. Beamshots will follow...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/392421_10150882003276489_696341488_9511255_1698866 791_n.jpg