Wanted to start this thread to document the piddling I do along the way. Pops owns an independent repair garage so i grew up a car guy and love to wrench on whatever i get my hands on. I've drug home some clunkers that just needed some love, hence the name Ole Rusty, an ode to a previous 1985 CJ 6 cylinder, 3 speed automatic that drove exactly like it sounds. 60 mph downhill is about all you could get and sometimes more than you'd want anyways. Of course once I sold it i realized how bad i missed cruising around with the top off and began the search for something a little newer for a better cruising experience.
I was actually looking at 94 and 95 YJs because i liked the more vintage look of the interior with the improved 4.0 but ultimately settled on the TJ. Still a newer appearance on the inside than I wanted but the coil suspension over the spring leaf was the real selling point. After searching and looking at every rusted out junk that central KY has to offer I saw the future money pit I was looking for surface on Facebook marketplace. It was a short ad reading something like "do you want to build a rock crawler", which I didn't, for a 2005 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited with three or four pictures of the Jeep at a gas station. It didn't look bad other than the rocker under the driver door had been rattle canned in primer. The price was too cheap so I didn't immediately call him thinking it had to be rusted out and continued looking at other TJs.
After almost two weeks of looking at the ad I thought what the hell, it cant be worse than some of the other junk I've looked at. Turns out the guy just needed cash and a better vehicle for a long daily commute. The frame was solid, engine was quiet, brand new Bestop TrekTop, shifted good, and it actually steered straight down the road at 65 mph without any wobble. For the price he wanted what else could i ask for. It was high mileage, 198k. Guy had bought it at 85k in 2015 and put the majority of the miles on it, so it was in need of some obvious maintenance items but I planned to hang onto this one so a solid, non-rusted base was really all I was after. So we shook on it and agreed to meet at the courthouse the next morning.
On to the photo dump and I'll update as I go.
I was actually looking at 94 and 95 YJs because i liked the more vintage look of the interior with the improved 4.0 but ultimately settled on the TJ. Still a newer appearance on the inside than I wanted but the coil suspension over the spring leaf was the real selling point. After searching and looking at every rusted out junk that central KY has to offer I saw the future money pit I was looking for surface on Facebook marketplace. It was a short ad reading something like "do you want to build a rock crawler", which I didn't, for a 2005 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited with three or four pictures of the Jeep at a gas station. It didn't look bad other than the rocker under the driver door had been rattle canned in primer. The price was too cheap so I didn't immediately call him thinking it had to be rusted out and continued looking at other TJs.
After almost two weeks of looking at the ad I thought what the hell, it cant be worse than some of the other junk I've looked at. Turns out the guy just needed cash and a better vehicle for a long daily commute. The frame was solid, engine was quiet, brand new Bestop TrekTop, shifted good, and it actually steered straight down the road at 65 mph without any wobble. For the price he wanted what else could i ask for. It was high mileage, 198k. Guy had bought it at 85k in 2015 and put the majority of the miles on it, so it was in need of some obvious maintenance items but I planned to hang onto this one so a solid, non-rusted base was really all I was after. So we shook on it and agreed to meet at the courthouse the next morning.
On to the photo dump and I'll update as I go.