Talk me off a ledge with this LJ Rubicon Sahara

What's your plan for the Jeep? You keeping it stock, minor mods, or party time?

I feel like most people who care about the Rubihara as being special (ie more valuable) are looking for stock-ish Jeeps. If you're going to put armor, tube fenders, and 35s on it, I wouldn't pay the Rubihara premium and would just find me an LJR down south where there's no snow and call it good.
 
What's your plan for the Jeep? You keeping it stock, minor mods, or party time?

I feel like most people who care about the Rubihara as being special (ie more valuable) are looking for stock-ish Jeeps. If you're going to put armor, tube fenders, and 35s on it, I wouldn't pay the Rubihara premium and would just find me an LJR down south where there's no snow and call it good.
Minor mods to start. Nothing extreme. The interesting thing is there really is no premium here. Doing Craigslist autotrader cars.com etc it’s under market with one or two exceptions.
 
Nice looking rig. I'd be very tempted too. Don't cut it up or mod anything that can't be undone, take care of it, and it will never be worse less than what you are looking to pay for it.
 
Heres the deal ..if it has a little rust , its got more .

If it's got a lot of rust, it's ate up.

If the windshield is coming out , it's got rot in other places
 
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Heres the deal ..if it has a little rust , its got more .

If it's got a lot of rust, it's ate up.

If the windshield is coming out , it's got rot in other places

I appreciate this feedback and all the rest as well. Got burned on my first TJ by not doing enough due diligence on the frame and definitely want to avoid a repeat. Basically I have first right of refusal on the Jeep with the refundable deposit. Thursday I go back where I can spend quite a bit of time poking around. I also have a fiber optic inspection camera from work to look inside the frame. My initial impression is the handful of spots underneath were minor surface rust that I would expect to see from a vehicle driven in the Mid-Atlantic. It's not a Southern Ca or Arizona Jeep but orders of magnitude better than the New England specimens I've seen. Keeping my hopes up and we'll see what a more in depth inspection shows.
 
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I appreciate this feedback and all the rest as well. Got burned on my first TJ by not doing enough due diligence on the frame and definitely want to avoid a repeat. Basically I have first right of refusal on the Jeep with the refundable deposit. Thursday I go back where I can spend quite a bit of time poking around. I also have a fiber optic inspection camera from work to look inside the frame. My initial impression is the handful of spots underneath were minor surface rust that I would expect to see from a vehicle driven in the Mid-Atlantic. It's not a Southern Ca or Arizona Jeep but orders of magnitude better than the New England specimens I've seen. Keeping my hopes up and we'll see what a more in depth inspection shows.
That's key ..to keep your head , and be objective.
 
You really need to move the sand and dirt out of the way in those middle frame rails so you can do a thorough inspection. Sand and dirt definitely holds moisture.
 
LJ/Rubi's are obviously rare and are likely to become more so with time. Popularity doesn't seem to be going down, so I think if you find any at a fair price and with healthy bones, you'd have a pretty safe investment on your hands. Hope you pull the trigger on a clean one!
 
Bunch of enablers here. Even if we push you off the cliff, you have a better than average chance of making it back up: even stock.

iuG9T7DC8H.jpg
 
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Minor mods to start. Nothing extreme. The interesting thing is there really is no premium here. Doing Craigslist autotrader cars.com etc it’s under market with one or two exceptions.
Just drop the coin for a savvy mid arm and tummy tuck, outboard the shocks and you are good for anything you could ever want, once and done.
 
Just drop the coin for a savvy mid arm and tummy tuck, outboard the shocks and you are good for anything you could ever want, once and done.
Tummy tuck for sure! The LJs are notorious for getting hung up on the shovel. My short arms have enabled me to get into enough trouble! ;)
 
See if you can get the placard number from the dash. I can't read it in the pictures. We might be able to track down the PO for you.

And feel free to modify the Rubihara as much as you want :cool:
IMG_0600.jpeg
 
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