Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - Cherokee XJ - Updates!

BigKidsToyCo

New Member
Hello RPF Members!

My name is William. I'm a huge fan of sci-fi movies and shows, as well as my wife Shana and my brother Jason.
(Of course, my daughter (2) Tiera, and my son (6 months) William, are also big fans of this vehicle build and sci-fi haha.)

(Please be understanding that this initial post will be a bit lengthy. I want to use this as an opportunity to introduce myself and my family.)

We've decided, after a lot of thought and talks with DragonCon as well as with time taken for proper design, both via decal work and taking proper time to plan out the vehicle build, that we needed a reason to step up our game as well as find a fun way to make use of our family business in a way that benefits us as well as others who will enjoy seeing a movie theme designed vehicle running around.

We have worked out all the logistics, and will be in the 2014 DragonCon parade in August!

Below will be the start of my build thread. I plan to post all of the build on RPF as well as a summarized version on the DragonCon forum as well as potentially another forum or two so that we can try to get feedback response and make connections with people who may be at DragonCon this year. All in all, we plan to have a Lot of fun building this vehicle, and we hope it receives good response from the massive internet crowd. If we're lucky, it'll go viral (as much as a themed vehicle can go viral) and we conclude based on a lot of research online, that our specific fleet build (Based specifically on being a U.B.C.S. fleet vehicle) has never been done, and will be the first in existence. (At least, a first fully-themed Umbrella type vehicle. Not just a couple decals like the 'kits' they sell on eBay for your front doors.)

We will be designing the majority of these decals completely from scratch. We will be doing multiple-color single layer decals for the majority of the decals as well, so as to make it look as fun and/or legit as we can.

We have already designed and currently have in possession, as far as we're concerned and have found online, The most realistic UBCS logo that exists. We will also be making a few of our own decals from scratch, and of course certain decals/designs like the traditional Umbrella Corporation 'banner' logo will be incorporated as well.

So... I guess that's Everything that we're currently working on as far as this specific project is concerned....so to wrap things up:

My name is William. A previous 7 year web designer and graphic designer working in suspension technology industry, followed by becoming a certified TIG/MIG welder with tube-chassis experience. I also spent almost 3 years directly involved in window tinting and vinyl type art work. I have a total of 14 years of mechanical experience as well. Consider me a self-made 'jack of all trades'.

My wife Shana is an experienced photographer and will be taking all 'finished' photos of the vehicle once it's prepared for its photo shoot that we plan to send to a handful of potential magazines and marketing companies to see if we can stir up some fun additional coverage for the vehicle. She also runs our business during normal day hours and has experience in eCommerce. She is also a big sci-fi and overall vampie/werewolf dork and, of course, mother to our two children haha.

My brother Jason is a highly experienced graphic designer, adobe illustrator vector designer, an Excel database manager, and handles complete integration of eCommerce solutions on a variety of platforms. He also has over 10 years of self-taught mechanics, suspension geometry experience, fabrication, and a big sci-fi dork hah!

This is who we are, and this is the kind of fun we hope to have this spring/summer. We're a family of 5, the older of us being 31 and the youngest of us almost 23. We run a pretty extensive online decal business as well as fun replica-prop print media we hope to launch starting in the next few months.

Moderators please note: I'm not directly linking to nor referencing anything about our business. This is not about trying to expand or plug our business. This is just us having a lot of fun with a vehicle and wanting to find the best place to share this build thread.

I hope RPF is welcome to our post and plan. We ask that you PLEASE give us your input. We want it! And although I'm self-admittedly stubborn in the aspect of thinking the combined experience between the three of us will result in an awesome completed project, we truly want input from those who have interest.

Pictures will start on the next post. I wanted to get all the introduction and project idea out of the way first.

Thanks!,
William, Shana, Jason and the kiddo's!
 
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Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

Picture Post 1:

This first post with pictures will show the changes the vehicle went through during its first few rounds of modification.

Starting as a completely stock Jeep Cherokee XJ with the Chrysler 8.25 rear axle and the NP231 transfercase.
Also equipped as a sport package, with the updated 97+ front end, and the inline 6 4.0 motor, 4 wheel drive.

Stock%20XJ.jpg


Round two involved a complete new suspension, tires, and fender flares.

The vehicle is now equipped a 4.5" X-Series Rough Country suspension, black steel wheels, Mud Country 33"x12.50" tires, and Bushwacker fender flares. The X-Series suspension replaced the coil springs, all 4 shocks, replaced the entire rear leafspring pack, break lines, fully adjustable control arms upper and lower, differential guard, heavy duty tie rod, adjustable track bar, stabilizer etc.

1.jpg


Round 3 Involved ensuring the vehicle was becoming more functional and aggressive looking.

During Round 3, the vehicle received a completely welded replacement front bumper, stinger bar, d-ring mounts, 12,000lb winch, and 12" L.E.D. light bar. This concluded the majority of suspension and off-road capable modifications for now.

XJ%20Build%201.jpg


This concludes the first picture post.

The next post will include pictures of the additional upgrade components, as well as most of those components installed.

Thanks!,
William
 
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Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

Very intrigued by this :)

Tell me, are you leaning more toward the movies or the video games?
 
Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

Very intrigued by this :)

Tell me, are you leaning more toward the movies or the video games?

Mike,

Considering an official U.B.C.S. fleet vehicle doesn't really exist in the games or the movies, mostly just black generic suv's, and with honestly having a lot more familiarity with the movies than the games (I just haven't had the time to play any of the games, much less any of the most recent ones, in years) the vehicles build and final theme/end product will be loosely based on the overall franchise lore.

This vehicle is going to be designed based on what we envision a potential UBCS vehicle could have looked like. It will resemble decal work that would make it look like the amount of decal work on modern day police vehicles, but based on UBCS and Umbrella Corporation information and logo's. I hope it ends up resembling a modern day police or trooper SUV but with more military aspects and overall capability as well.

Thanks for your interest, feel free to ask any other questions as well.

-William
 
Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

Picture post 2: (Some posts may become picture heavy!)

In this post, I'm going to share pictures of some of the parts we've purchased and already received.

Some like to know the build costs involved in a project like this. If anyone would like me to put pricing on some of these parts or keep pricing tabs for the total project, feel free to ask and I can start keeping a log of this information.

New Parts! - Enjoy! :D

Ipex brand 1-piece complete headlight bucket replacement headlights. Long story short, we had to have these. They give the front end an entirely new look but also give it a combined military/future look that still fits in place with the entire theme of the vehicle due to having chosen to go with the black inner and out version of the headlight.

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Rough Country 2" Square L.E.D. lights: We were initially going to use 4" round L.E.D. lights, but these became available and we decided they matched the front L.E.D. light bar, and overall square design of the vehicle better. Shana had the fun idea of using them in four corners of the roof rack I'll be building for it, so that we have full lighting around the vehicle at night.

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Walkie Talkies: Because theme vehicle hah. This is just one part of a few fun gadgets the vehicle will feature including a completely functioning CB radio, dash or windshield mounted portable police scanner as well as a tablet mounted to the face of the glovebox. We purchased a black cage style pet barrier to give the appearance of a rear cage section like police vehicles. We will be using the cage to clip items on like the walkie talkies, first aid kit, a few MRE's, etc.

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6" Round Hella Lights: We don't know if we'll use these yet, but they were a freebie from work, so we couldn't pass them up.

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Pet Barrier: This is the black version of the pet barrier we purchased to simulate the cage look in the rear. As referenced above, we'll also be using it to clip fun things onto for show and actual use if out having fun or camping in the future.

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Tail lights from Germany!:I believe these are European spec lights that aren't available in the U.S. I haven't completely confirmed this, but I know I had to purchase these from Germany, and impatiently wait 2.5 weeks for them to arrive haha. They were not available from anyone in the U.S. at the time of purchase, and feature a factory-made black turn signal lens and overall slightly darker tinted lens than the U.S. OEM spec lights.

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This concludes the current purchases. The next post will include pictures of most of these items installed. We've also received the black step bars we purchased but I haven't taken a picture of them yet.

New post tomorrow! -William
 
Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

Picture Post 3: (This post will begin the installation of the new lights as well as the pet barrier)

Market lights and stock front end: This picture shows the marker lights removed from the front fenders and the factory headlight buckets, lights, and lower blinker lights. The fender marker light covers were as bright orange and nasty looking as the front lower turn signals. I couldn't handle this anymore. With the body being burgundy and everything else being black, it was time to continue the transition.

IMG_1554.JPG


This picture shows the marker lights being spray with VHT:

(1) Removed the marker lights, clean them off, and wet sand them with 2000 grit.
This will ensure they are fully clean and prepped to be sprayed for best adherence.
(2) Spray a few light coats of VHT light tinting.
(3) Let them fully dry, then again, for a smooth finish, lightly wet sand the first layers of VHT. Clean the lights and let them dry.
(4) Spray your final layer of VHT and let dry completely.
(5) Bolt-in your new, now blacked out, marker lights!

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While the marker lights are 'drying' let's move to the rear lights. Here is what they looked like from the factory:

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Nothing fancy, pretty boring. I will blur out the license plate in future updates.

Yes, That's a Basset Hound. Her name is Daisy, and she is the laziest and most adorable floppy ear'd dog ever haha.

Here is a picture of both lights fully removed:
(Thought not mentioned, the rear lower corner plastics had to be loosened and removed for the lower clips of the new and old lights to be removed.)

IMG_1557.JPG


The finished lights! Here is a picture of just one corner of the lights installed. It was dark out at this point, so I only took a picture showing one so that it was close enough to really show the improvement. Again, for the cost, they're not a giant improvement, but that was the point. I wanted them slightly darker and more aggressive looking than the OEM lights, but I also knew that 'clear euro tails' wouldn't look right at all.

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This concludes the next post. I have pictures ready to make a post of the headlight installation and pictures showing the blacked our marker lights installed back into the vehicle. I will make another post this afternoon or evening.

Thanks everyone!,
William, Shana & Family
 
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Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

You are going to paint the Jeep black, right?
 
Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

Nice looking Jeep. and very nice project. You started off with the perfect vehicle. the inline 6 is one of the best engines out there.
 
Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

Picture Post 4: Installing new headlights and blacked our marker lights.

I'm running low on pictures and information I can post about the project as I'm currently starting to find myself 'caught up' on modifications until the weekend. I still currently work a full time day job as well as a full time business at home with my family, so, time to modify the XJ and work on installing parts, fabrication parts, etc., is usually only possible on weekends.

With that said, business has shown much hope that I hope to leave my day job and work full time from home so as to be around my kids and wife more often. My current position and scheduling is damning my time with my family on weekdays as well as time necessary for basic every-day-life obstacles like paying bills, running errands, etc. I haven't received a lunch break for 3 weeks now, we work 9+ hours a day with no actual breaks and scattered hours.

#taxseason (hah...)

Headlights!

This is a picture of the front-end prior to tearing down the headlights.

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This picture shows the drivers side headlight removed. This picture is technically out of chronological order. I wanted to show though, although hard to see, you DO have to lightly modified the inner fiberglass headlight bucket to allow proper fitment. A small area of the lower inner bucket has to be trimmed out to allow enough room for the one-piece replacement headlight to seat into proper place.

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The next photo shows one of the new headlights installed, safety plastic still covering the headlight during installation so as to not scratch anything.

Besides the slight inner headlight bucket modification, everything else involved in the installation was straight forward. They bolt directly back into the stock location, and include a small converter box for the vertical L.E.D. running lights. These can be safely and easily tapped into the factory running light wiring for a clean install. I figure we have 1.5 hours of total install time due to having to figure out what needed to be notched in the inner grill housing.

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Comparison shot! I figured this would be a fun photo so that others can honestly compare the two light options side by side. Aftermarket complete replacement housing option versus factory two piece design.

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Both lights installed:

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Completed install photo showing the marker lights bolted back in as well:

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That's it for now! As always, please chime in with feedback and/or suggestions, questions, etc.

Thanks!,

William, Shana, Jason & Kiddo's.
 
Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

Those are some cool headlights, haven't seen them before. I'd be real interested to see how they work in the long run!
 
Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

Two updates planned for today:

This first update is a single picture. The pet barrier kit was installed at night, so this isn't the best picture in the world, but I wanted to share it. This picture shows the black pet barrier kit installed behind the rear seats with out first of a handful of clip-on devices planned for it for fun, the set of 4 matching Cobra brand walkie-talkies.

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I am already in communications with a few sellers online to ensure I can get my hands on a Black and Digital version of the Cobra 29 classic to match. The interior won't have many modifications, but I want the radio equipment to all be primarily black.

-William
 
Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

Picture Post 5: Testing the U.B.C.S. Main Front Door Decal Design

In this post I will be showing the layering process of our self-designed and made U.B.C.S. decal design. We will be using these on both front doors of the truck. They fit between the body lines at 11" x 11". This is a 5-layer decal design and application process.

This first picture shows the 5 layers of the decal design. Black has no backing tape applied, as it is the first layer, the background layer of the decal. The design was built with cutting in mind and therefore has a minor spacing between each layer, shown by the solid black background. There is a purpose to the white backing tape material chosen for this project. It's a lower tacky rate than most clears, and works much better when using soapy water as part of the process.

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This next picture shows white being applied, with red having already been applied first. I skip steps occasionally to try to keep some of these posts a bit more manageable, but I'm trying to give tips and tricks during these processes for other members to keep in mind. The trick to creating a layered decal like this, is to keep the layers wet and soapy between each layer is applied so that you have a moment to play with the decals location. We chose to start with red and white as to fill the body and give us a good feel to positioning the next layers. (The tip to making the proper water and soapy solution is: 1 tablespoon Baby Shampoo/Wash(Johnson & Johnson's is best) to 1 filled water sprayer container. Leave some room at the top for the suds that will pressurize some when shaken.)

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This is the finished look of the red and white layers applied.

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The next layer I applied was the gold shield and sword handles. I figured this would be best so that I would know exactly what spacing I had for the silver in the swords, as opposed to having to potentially offset the shield and handles to accommodate slightly for potentially offset silver inlays.

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And...Kaboom! The finished 5-layer die-cut U.B.C.S. shield logo design. The finished version for the truck will have our deep matte black vinyl as the backdrop color instead of the traditional gloss black used during testing.

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Hope you enjoyed following the process! The final vinyl work won't start for another 4-8 weeks until we finish building the roof rack and mounting the 4-corner L.E.D. lights and whip C.B. antenna that will mount to one the side like military vehicles. We want all major exterior modifications completed before we vinyl it out.

-Willam
 
Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

Picture Post 6: Step Bars

In this post I will show the basic steps to the step-bar installation.

In photo one, we show the step bars laid out with the mounting brackets attached:

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The step bars mount to the rear leaf spring hanger bracket, then allowing you to swing the front bracket up to the uni-body rails in order to mark them for drilling.

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The above and below images show us drilling the marked holes with a standard 3/8" drill.

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The kits use self-tapping bolts to secure the step bars. If you plan to use the step bars quite frequently, or to support weight long-term as far as people hanging on the sides as we plan to do during parade events, you may want to consider welding the brackets as we will do soon. We will maintain the self-tapping bolts, but will run a few simple vertical downhill MIG welds to secure them more permanently.

And..... TaDa! The completed install! The final picture below shows the step bars fully installed on the vehicle.

IMG_1590.jpg


It was getting dark when this last picture was taken, but they look much better in daylight. They flow much better than previously thought, but the wide fender flares and 12.5" wide tires keep the stepbars within the total width of the wheel-wells, therefore blending in quite smoothly.

That's all folks! As always, questions, feedback, etc., appreciated and wanted.

Our next update will include the beginning of the vinyl work as we await roof-rack mounts and materials to build the rack, as well as an antenna to finish installation of the CB radio. Vinyl work will begin with the hood, and will be a 5-piece black-out hood kit that we will offer as a kit in the future for all Jeep XJ owners. Our kit will be slightly more specific for our project.

-Will & Family
 
Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

Wow, cool idea and coming together nicely! Love that stance with that lift combined with the whee/tire combo.

You mentioned other forums, are you a member over on Cherokeeforum.com? They're a great community of XJ/ZJ/WJ enthusiasts and would like this type of build for sure. They've also got a vendors/for sale section if you wanted to promote your decal business there as well. Good luck on the build!
 
Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

Wow, cool idea and coming together nicely! Love that stance with that lift combined with the whee/tire combo.

You mentioned other forums, are you a member over on Cherokeeforum.com? They're a great community of XJ/ZJ/WJ enthusiasts and would like this type of build for sure. They've also got a vendors/for sale section if you wanted to promote your decal business there as well. Good luck on the build!

Zodiak: We do plan to make a version of this thread on Cherokeeforum and/or Naxja forum. I will be switching to part time from my current full-time day job in a matter of a couple weeks, in the mean time, I will focus the build thread on this forum. The Cherokee originated as a known vehicle build from a known suspension parts company. It was used in a few youtube videos as well as a few product advertisements, therefore, until I leave my full time employment here, I'm trying to keep the build off other forums for the most part.

Mitch and StinkApe: Thanks for the comments!

Parts Update - Picture Post 7:
(These are the eBay purchase history pictures - Opened all the new goodies but haven't had a chance to lay them out for pictures.)


Parts Received:

Cobra CB Radio - Black and Digital Edition:

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Dual Black 4' Antenna Kit:

$(KGrHqNHJFQFGuIyNOt4BR)KjhTKk!~~60_1.JPG


Tablet Case Cover - This was actually a bit of a pain to find...a generic clear snap-on cover designed like a standard phone case. This was purchased so that I can apply velcro to the case and not permanently have velcro or adhesive on the tablet itself. This will allow me to mount it on the air bag flat portion of the dash.

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JCR OffRoad Roof-Rack Mounts - Purchased these for the roof-rack I'll be building my self - I chose to purchase a total of 6 instead of the standard 4, I want to make sure it has plenty of grip for mounting.

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This is the first post I've made where I didn't upload the images to my personal server. I'll update this post later so that these images have no chance of disappearing or being taken down, link address changed, etc.

That's it for now! I'm super-excited to post how well our vinyl hood kit came out this past weekend. I hope to make this post tonight!

-Will & Family
 
Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

Picture Post 8 - Cherokee XJ Vinyl Black-Out Hood Kit (Picture Heavy!)

Alright RPF members and all those stumbling across this thread from other parts of the web....time to turn things up a bit! I'm extremely excited about this post. This is one of our newest 'product' concepts from BKTC that we hope to launch and offer to the public within the next week or two. Due to still working out the last few weeks of my full time day job and running a very active web-based business, we had to take our time in producing this. We have a total of about 7 hours in the design, cutting, and applying of this decal kit.

This first picture shows the finished individual vinyl pieces for the kit. This kit ended up being a complete 5-piece kit designed to cover more than 80% of the hood. It consists of outter simulated vent pieces, center body line filler piece, and main hood black-out pieces. All pieces were designed to follow the contours and shapes of the hood with 1/4" gaps and smooth rounded edges.

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Since the initial finalized design of the kit above, we kicked the vents 20 degrees and shortened them to 3/8" to look more realistic.

This first picture shows us testing the finalized outer and center hood pieces in scrap blue we had laying around.

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We use hobby magnets to hood pieces in place for photos and fitment testing.

We now jump to the installation of the main hood pieces.

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UBCS 129136 has a specific personal meaning. UBCS of course standing for Umbrella Bio-hazard Countermeasure Services but 129136 references the birth month and days of my two children, Tiera and William.

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This is the finished picture of the main hood pieces. The large black-out pieces and the center strip filler.

What I love so much about this project so far, is every modification seems to fit in place. With all the aftermarket satin black accents, the satin matte black vinyl blends into the hood and overall theme of the vehicle as if it should've been there the entire time.

Now we show the pictures and installation of the outer vinyl simulated vent and panel filler pieces:

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Oracal 651M Matte Black 6-7 year outdoor rated vinyl coupled with Precision Series 6-7 year outdoor rated dark carbon fiber vinyl. To eliminate the ghost lines of making the vents or a smaller box large enough to contain the vent space, we decided to make the carbon fiber layer a solid piece that we overlay with the matte black vent simulators.

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Here we show all the decal work laid out on my fancy work table. We have turned our dining room into a 3-station business setup with multiple plotters, printers, tables, computer stations, etc. We have done all of this within 1 year of going live online, starting this as a fun part-time business/hobby.

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Here is one of the finished vents. I applied clear backing tape with medium tack to the matte vent design. I soaped it up slightly so that I had room to play with the vinyl until it was lined up properly, then pressed all the water out of the two decals and let them dry.

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Here we show the finished decals laid out on the hood ready to be applied.

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Here we show the drivers side vent simulator applied. With just a little soapy water, these slid into place quite easily.

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A closer view of the finished driver side vent with the UBCS silhouette text.

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And.... Tada! Finished BKTC - UBCS simulated universal hood kit for Cherokee XJ!!

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I hope you guys enjoyed this install/design. It's a very subtle improvement IMO, due to the color choice. If this kit were to be put on a white Cherokee though, I think it would look absolutely amazing in contrast.

As always, please chime in with input, questions, etc.

Thanks!,
Will & Family
 
Re: 2014 DragonCon Umbrella Corporation Fleet Vehicle Build - 2000 Cherokee XJ

Pictures do not do it justice the hood looks so much better in person!
 
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