I'm looking at this jeep again today I'll post more pictures later. Originally they guy was selling for 7600 talked him down to 7200. There is a lot of rust on here. A lot. But I cant tell if its surface rust or worse. It has 176k miles. Manual and it drives good took it on the parkway and all. Any tips would be appreciated!
Need pics of the frame. That is the rust that matters. That suspension rust is meh, but indicative that it's spent its life in the rust belt. Send pictures of the frame where it attaches to the skid plate, and where it begins curving up over the rear wheels. Feel around inside the frame holes for loose chunks of rust. You don't want to pay $7200 for a New York Jeep that needs frame repair. Ask me how I know.
I'll just warn you, if that Jeep has spent its life in New York as a commuter, it almost certainly has frame rust. Jeep made a huge design mistake and never added drain holes to the frame, so salt and water and crap just sits inside, slowly rotting it away. If it's a later model (2003-2006), you might be in luck because the manual models were inadvertently given a drain hole because there was no transmission skid plate, just a hole for the bolt. There are frame holes around the skid plate and one big one at the rear trailing arms. Feel inside there—you want to feel smooth metal, not chunks of rust. If it's not smooth, just walk away.
There is a lot of surface rust but the inside felt relatively clean. I am a first time jeep owner so my plans with it as of now are unknown. As long as it is worth the 7000. I dont mind putting in work over time. I just dont want to get hit with a large repair bill
Did you feel around inside at the skid plate? That is a notorious spot for rot, and it doesn't look great from the pictures. I've seen cases where people removed the skid plate on a Jeep that looks like yours and there was almost nothing left.
Personally I would not pay $7,000 for that. I understand the market is insane right now, but that's a lot to pay for a lot of rust—even if it isn't too bad—and 176,000 miles. You're better off budgeting a little more and buying a clean one.
Personally I would not pay $7,000 for that. I understand the market is insane right now, but that's a lot to pay for a lot of rust—even if it isn't too bad—and 176,000 miles. You're better off budgeting a little more and buying a clean one.
For reference, the frame in my Jeep actually looked better than this. The problem you run into are with the nutserts holding up the transfer skid. Just a little amount of rust in that highly vulnerable area can break them free. Because of that, I had to have center caps installed. I would expect this to have similar issues and would look for a southern Jeep as many here will say.
past surface rust point, pass it, dont think twice, dont look back
or give him 3500 and make it a restoration project ... if you are into self degrading, mental abusing and physically harming fetish
or give him 3500 and make it a restoration project ... if you are into self degrading, mental abusing and physically harming fetish
I feel your pain being from NY. I was lucky and got a garaged one out of Ohio. If I do it again, I am looking down south or out west.
