CrzRsn
So long, and thanks for all the fish
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2005
- Messages
- 17,444
- Location
- Motor City, Michigan
- Car(s)
- 13 Ford Mustang GT, 17 Ford Fiesta ST
As some of you may already know, I picked just picked up a 1996 Jeep Cherokee XJ since I've decided that I don't want to drive the Mustang or Miata through the winter - especially if it will be as bad as last year's, as some experts are claiming. Initially the plan was to pick up some beater XJ for the winter then resell it in the spring, but every one I looked at had frame problems. The first one had a frame so rusted it actually split in two and the second one was hit from the side hard enough to bend one of the rails. After that I started looking at slightly more expensive ones in better condition that I'd consider keeping longer than one season - willing to accept one with some door and rocker rust (seemingly unavoidable) as long as the frame and floor was solid. Looked at a bunch of manual ones but the ones in my price range were total shit buckets while the ones in half decent condition were way over priced - one guy wanted $10k for a '95 4.0 manual with quite a bit of rocker rust and 323k miles on it. Yeah, good luck with that buddy.
Having reached out to all the reasonably priced XJ ads on my local Craigslists with varying degrees of success, one day I got a crazy long reply from a guy going into very fine detail about absolutely everything. I wasn't expecting sellers to reply to my in good unbroken English, let alone a novel. The guy told me to text him if I wanted pictures, so I did, and he replied back with 60-70 photos of the Jeep, every little rust spot, the lift kit in full detail, the tires and tread depths, and absolutely everything. This guy really knew how to properly sell a car. I arranged a meeting with him, went to be bank to have cash on hand if I liked what I saw, and drove out to meet him with jibduh (whom I've taken on other XJ scouting trips). The Jeep was in the exact condition he described it in. He told me a bit more about the truck, its ownership history, showed me all the paperwork he had for it. I was happy with what I saw. Idling there in the lot, it sounded and looked great, so I took it out for a quick spin. Drove absolutely perfectly. No steering wobble that's normally associated with lifted trucks, relatively quiet, no funny noises, 4x4 worked fine. I came back to the parking lot, kicked the tires a bit while I shot the shit with the guy, then threw out an offer I thought was reasonable. He accepted, I counted out the cash, and drove away in my new XJ!
First shot after I bought it
And now more pictures from today, when I finally had time to see it in the daylight in all its majesty for more-or-less the first time (thanks winter daylight hours :shakesfist
.
First a family shot of the Jeep with her new sisters!
And the Jeep itself (yes, I got it a little muddy on purpose for the photos).
And proof
So what are my plans for it? Nothing all too crazy for now, all the things I can find wrong with it are really minor. It seems like the air/heat only come out of the window defrost grille, so figuring out why and getting the dash vents to work again is at the top of my list. The headliner is sagging a bit in the cargo area, so I'm going to tackle that soon. The aftermarket radio install is a bit messy (you can see where they broke the plastic bezel to fit it), so I'm going to try to clean that up and find a replacement dash panel. Other than that, shes more or less perfect. The front bumper is a bit dented, but its all plastic, so should be relatively easy to push that out. The rear wiper sprayer seems to spray the traffic behind me instead of the glass, so will need to correct that. Will need new tires somewhat soon (probably late spring/early summer), but the 31" Mickey Thompson MTZs on there right now have enough tread on them to last me the winter and through my first few offroading attempts in the spring.
Having reached out to all the reasonably priced XJ ads on my local Craigslists with varying degrees of success, one day I got a crazy long reply from a guy going into very fine detail about absolutely everything. I wasn't expecting sellers to reply to my in good unbroken English, let alone a novel. The guy told me to text him if I wanted pictures, so I did, and he replied back with 60-70 photos of the Jeep, every little rust spot, the lift kit in full detail, the tires and tread depths, and absolutely everything. This guy really knew how to properly sell a car. I arranged a meeting with him, went to be bank to have cash on hand if I liked what I saw, and drove out to meet him with jibduh (whom I've taken on other XJ scouting trips). The Jeep was in the exact condition he described it in. He told me a bit more about the truck, its ownership history, showed me all the paperwork he had for it. I was happy with what I saw. Idling there in the lot, it sounded and looked great, so I took it out for a quick spin. Drove absolutely perfectly. No steering wobble that's normally associated with lifted trucks, relatively quiet, no funny noises, 4x4 worked fine. I came back to the parking lot, kicked the tires a bit while I shot the shit with the guy, then threw out an offer I thought was reasonable. He accepted, I counted out the cash, and drove away in my new XJ!
First shot after I bought it
And now more pictures from today, when I finally had time to see it in the daylight in all its majesty for more-or-less the first time (thanks winter daylight hours :shakesfist
.First a family shot of the Jeep with her new sisters!
And the Jeep itself (yes, I got it a little muddy on purpose for the photos).
And proof
So what are my plans for it? Nothing all too crazy for now, all the things I can find wrong with it are really minor. It seems like the air/heat only come out of the window defrost grille, so figuring out why and getting the dash vents to work again is at the top of my list. The headliner is sagging a bit in the cargo area, so I'm going to tackle that soon. The aftermarket radio install is a bit messy (you can see where they broke the plastic bezel to fit it), so I'm going to try to clean that up and find a replacement dash panel. Other than that, shes more or less perfect. The front bumper is a bit dented, but its all plastic, so should be relatively easy to push that out. The rear wiper sprayer seems to spray the traffic behind me instead of the glass, so will need to correct that. Will need new tires somewhat soon (probably late spring/early summer), but the 31" Mickey Thompson MTZs on there right now have enough tread on them to last me the winter and through my first few offroading attempts in the spring.
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