Bought Another LJ 2004 Patriot Blue

[NJW]

Well. I deleted Facebook and all of sudden, I hadn’t bought a Jeep in almost 6 months.

Finally have my Red LJ to where it’s functional and a good place to enjoy for a while. Very content.

My Father in Law (Not to be confused with my wife’s step dad who just bought my yellow LJ) decides he wants me to find him a Jeep.

Back on marketplace and this baby pops up 2 hours away.

69k miles. Clean carfax, questionable modifications and a reasonable price. We decide to pull the trigger, and get things going on fixing it up to be a daily driver.

I’ve ordered a tailgate, and some carpet so far. Replacing a lot of parts with take offs from my red LJ. Changing fluids and developing a game plan. Previous owner had plastidipped almost the entire Jeep. Been busy peeling that crap off for two days. Frame is surprisingly clean, solid on the inside. The Jeep spent two years in Hawaii and the rest in VA and NM according to carfax.

I was getting ready to remove the body lift and TC drop and change the shocks and springs and drop down to a 33” tire.

That was the plan until my FIL just let me know he bought a JKU. He no longer wants to be a part of this project. Do you think it’s worth my time to finish cleaning this up to sell for cheap, or just install the little things like carpet and abe a new tailgate and let it go as is? It rides down the road incredibly smooth as is.

Here’s the monstrous body lift and tc drop, and some shots of the underside.

Anyway, what would you do?

 

[DavidBT]

Poor thing looks like it's been rode hard and put away wet. Since you ordered the tailgate and carpet, sounds like just install the parts, clean it up and then get your money back if you can. Looks like it would be a nice jeep for someone once cleaned up.

 

[Apparition]

@lBasket it’s an auto

 

[lBasket]

@lBasket it’s an auto

I can't buy another jeep too I keep buying other cars I have 2 cars that don't run now

 

[Apparition]

I can't buy another jeep too I keep buying other cars I have 2 cars that don't run now

Sure you can

 

[lBasket]

Sure you can

Manuals are fun

I sold my running VW and bought a non-running Audi. I have enough headaches

 

[bbaldwin237]

That BL is rough! Would probably be more marketable without that?

 

[bbaldwin237]

Sorry, double post!

 

[06TJ35's]

Swap out the body lift to a 1.25” body lift, new all terrain tires, possibly changing the wheels if you find a good tire/wheel combo maybe from like extreme terrain and shocks.

 

[RINC]

That hood looks nice.

 

[psrivats]

Since no one is going to say it, I will be the a*****e and say this out loud.

1. You have a jeep buying problem. Take your time, don't chase the buying high, pick and choose good vehicles to start with next time. I still haven't recovered from seeing a coilover shock mounted to a knuckle from last time.
2. You need a new FIL.

Do what you need to do to sell this jeep and hopefully break even.

 

[NJW]

Since no one is going to say it, I will be the a*****e and say this out loud.

1. You have a jeep buying problem. Take your time, don't chase the buying high, pick and choose good vehicles to start with next time. I still haven't recovered from seeing a coilover shock mounted to a knuckle from last time.
2. You need a new FIL.

Do what you need to do to sell this jeep and hopefully break even.

It’s not so much a Jeep buying problem as it is the thrill finding a good deal. I’d begin calling it a problem if I was losing money. Out of every Jeep I’ve purchased in the last 7 years, I’ve not lost money on any Jeep.

Did my red LJ need more work than I had hoped? Yeah. But I’m still not outrageously upside down in it, even after everything I’ve done to it.

Does this one need work? Yeah. I knew it needed a lot of minor stuff, and paid accordingly for it.

This wasn’t supposed to be a flip it kind of project. But now it is, just trying to judge how far to take it or do the bare minimum to make it marketable.

 

[NJW]

Just curious.

What would you guys consider something like this worth to you? At what kinda price would you not pass up a running LJ that needs some love?

 

[TheBoogieman]

Just curious.

What would you guys consider something like this worth to you? At what kinda price would you not pass up a running LJ that needs some love?

I can see $10,000 where I live. $12,000 with some minor mods/cleanup.

 

[psrivats]

It’s not so much a Jeep buying problem as it is the thrill finding a good deal. I’d begin calling it a problem if I was losing money. Out of every Jeep I’ve purchased in the last 7 years, I’ve not lost money on any Jeep.

Did my red LJ need more work than I had hoped? Yeah. But I’m still not outrageously upside down in it, even after everything I’ve done to it.

Does this one need work? Yeah. I knew it needed a lot of minor stuff, and paid accordingly for it.

This wasn’t supposed to be a flip it kind of project. But now it is, just trying to judge how far to take it or do the bare minimum to make it marketable.

I think we have very vastly different opinions about "good deal".

It's still a problem even if you are profiting or even breaking even. Losing money just makes the problem worse. But looks like you are aware of it atleast, so I'll get off my soapbox.

Try not to rush into a buying decision next time and see how that goes. If you enjoy buying and flipping, or if you quickly get bored with one car, it's a different story.

Thanks for taking what I said in the right way and being logical about it.

 

[AndyG]

It’s not so much a Jeep buying problem as it is the thrill finding a good deal. I’d begin calling it a problem if I was losing money. Out of every Jeep I’ve purchased in the last 7 years, I’ve not lost money on any Jeep.

Did my red LJ need more work than I had hoped? Yeah. But I’m still not outrageously upside down in it, even after everything I’ve done to it.

Does this one need work? Yeah. I knew it needed a lot of minor stuff, and paid accordingly for it.

This wasn’t supposed to be a flip it kind of project. But now it is, just trying to judge how far to take it or do the bare minimum to make it marketable.

I can relate- unless you get careless you will always come out good. I love the fun of turning them around.

Father in laws. Mine is a jewel. Anywhere you see a wall he sees a door- and wants me to install it. Which means siding work,etc ....today. Rurnin’ my life.

 

[NJW]

I think we have very vastly different opinions about "good deal".

It's still a problem even if you are profiting or even breaking even. Losing money just makes the problem worse. But looks like you are aware of it atleast, so I'll get off my soapbox.

Try not to rush into a buying decision next time and see how that goes. If you enjoy buying and flipping, or if you quickly get bored with one car, it's a different story.

Thanks for taking what I said in the right way and being logical about it.

I agree. We must have different opinions on what constitutes a good deal.

I guess Jeeps are my thing. I could be cycling through women or drugs, but seems to be fairly harmless as far as “problems” go. I’ve done the same thing with boats and snowmobiles as well, so I’m sure there’s some underlying psychological crap going on too.

I purchased my 2022 Tacoma flat out with what I made from jeeps the last 3 years. Almost all of them were rushed decisions when I saw something post on marketplace for what I would consider a buy now, think later kind of price.

The only one that I admit to not taking enough time on was my most recent red LJR.
It was the best deal I could find after a month of looking and I was growing impatient. But yeah, definitely should have waited. All the killer deals seem to pop up when I’m not actively looking, like this most recent blue one.

Heck, at least I can say I’ve owned almost every color…

 

[psrivats]

I agree. We must have different opinions on what constitutes a good deal.

I guess Jeeps are my thing. I could be cycling through women or drugs, but seems to be fairly harmless as far as “problems” go. I’ve done the same thing with boats and snowmobiles as well, so I’m sure there’s some underlying psychological crap going on too.

I purchased my 2022 Tacoma flat out with what I made from jeeps the last 3 years. Almost all of them were rushed decisions when I saw something post on marketplace for what I would consider a buy now, think later kind of price.

The only one that I admit to not taking enough time on was my most recent red LJR.
It was the best deal I could find after a month of looking and I was growing impatient. But yeah, definitely should have waited. All the killer deals seem to pop up when I’m not actively looking, like this most recent blue one.

Heck, at least I can say I’ve owned almost every color…

The way I see it, it takes a stupid amount of time and energy to buy and figure out how to properly build **one** good Jeep. For me, I would buy a good stock vehicle rather than trying to figure out how to do undo PO stupid decisions. And I would build that the right way, and keep it for a very long time.

Deal hunting (whatever you consider to be one) is a "thing" and if it makes you happy, so be it. You aren't the only one. Try not to let it cloud your purchase decisions (ie don't buy junk). Not all "deals"are what they seem to be from the outside. As I've gotten older, I have become very wary of "deals" in general.

 

[NJW]

When it all was said and done, I nearly tripled my monetary investment - if I don’t account for time, which I’m estimating to be about 8 actual working hours, plus 4 in travel.

Never even listed it for sale.

Taking the profit and buying another project to keep me busy. Picking it up this morning.