You may have noticed from my last couple of trip reports that I’ve replaced my Jeep Grand Cherokee that was destroyed by a distracted driver nearly eight weeks ago. I’ve spent a lot of time since then dealing with insurance, shopping for just the right replacement vehicle, and putting the new Jeep back the way I want it. I documented some of the work on the original Jeep, and I’ve done similar work on the new one. So far I’ve installed a new stereo, crossbars for the roof rack, lift supports for the hood and liftgate, coil spacers, and tires.

The new Grand Cherokee just after purchase in SLC

Stereo install

New stereo

Installing crossbars for the roof rack

Before the coil spacer install

Coil spacers

After installing only the rear coil spacers

Front coil spacer install

After coil spacer install

New tires mounted

New tires mounted

I have a few items left to work on: drilling out the hinge pins so the rear seats will be easily removable (like I did for the old Jeep), replacing the radiator which has a tiny hairline crack, and installing fog lights. Although I’ve already sunk way more money into this Jeep than I received from the insurance company for the old Jeep, I ended up with a much nicer vehicle. The new one is in much better physical condition, with only 94,000 miles (compared to 138,000 on the old one). It gets significantly better fuel mileage, too. The old Jeep had a few issues that were going to be costly to fix–the transmission was beginning to slip and one of the CV joints needed to be replaced–so maybe this is all for the better.

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Photo Gallery: WJ2