Your First / Old Jeep Thread

seabass

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Thought it'd be fun to post pictures of your first (or just previous) Jeeps. I was looking through old pictures and found some of my first Jeep TJ and my second Jeep, an XJ.

Bought my first Jeep the summer before my senior year up in Michigan, and my Burger King salary only allowed for a cheap build 😂. RC Budget boost, 1.25 BL, 33" Duratracs and for the summer a really crappy, leaky, loud $100 soft top from Craigslist. I loved it. But Michigan rust didn't. It made the journey with me to North Carolina though and saw some decent wheeling in Uwharrie.

Second Jeep, my $500 98, 5 speed, 2.5l, 2wd XJ with 234,000 miles, rusted to hell from spending time on the coast. Put some money into it and got a good 3 years out of her. Picked up my now wife in it for our first date! It didn't run when I bought it, needed a distributor, wires and plugs, battery, water pump, and the the EGR delete plate (apparently some 98s didn't have them?) was loose (subsequently it was obnoxiously loud) and handy me put a pair of vice grips on it that lasted the entire time I owned it. Eventually the exhaust manifold cracked in half after a bad bout of death wobble going 75 down the highway and the rust was just too bad. Drove it to a scrapyard where hopefully it's been stripped of what could still be used.

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1991 time to head off for college, f250 and the folks camper all loaded with my stuff- it wouldn’t move the day we were leaving so they handed me the keys to a 1985 Jeep Cherokee with 2,1 liter Renault turbo diesel with 140k mikes on it my sister put it in the ditch and tweaked the unibody, my parents bought it back and had a local guy rebuild it, it couldn’t get out of its own way, ant mountain pass was a 35 mph affair, we had spare starter and alternator because the sucked, it got 30 mph, and had that lovely puegot manually tranny, had some good times in that but fixing it sucked

fast forward to today I,ve got a KL and 2006 lj rubicon, and I have lost counts of the yj,tj,Xj,wj,mj, rigs I gone through over the years
 
1991 time to head off for college, f250 and the folks camper all loaded with my stuff- it wouldn’t move the day we were leaving so they handed me the keys to a 1985 Jeep Cherokee with 2,1 liter Renault turbo diesel with 140k mikes on it my sister put it in the ditch and tweaked the unibody, my parents bought it back and had a local guy rebuild it, it couldn’t get out of its own way, ant mountain pass was a 35 mph affair, we had spare starter and alternator because the sucked, it got 30 mph, and had that lovely puegot manually tranny, had some good times in that but fixing it sucked

fast forward to today I,ve got a KL and 2006 lj rubicon, and I have lost counts of the yj,tj,Xj,wj,mj, rigs I gone through over the years
Sounds like you've had a few more than me. Something about those older Jeeps, maybe frustrating but they all have character. I've got an 05 LJ currently, but I miss the XJ like you wouldn't believe.
 
I wish I could post pics, but what old pics I had were in photobucket. 🤬

I owned 3 XJs previously. A 1990 XJ Limited which was my first car at 16, and then 2 2000 XJ sport 4doors one after the other. The last 2000 XJ I had the longest for around 10 years, and it served as a daily driver. All 3 of them were bought bone stock and modded to various degrees with lifts, tires, etc. I always wanted a TJ, and when my last XJ rusted away, the search began for either another XJ or a TJ. Living in the salt belt, XJ prices have become insane for clean ones, and a TJ just seemed to make more sense for the money, where before XJs had always been much cheaper than TJs.
 
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First one: 1976 CJ5 Levi's Renegade. Here's a pic I found of me taking the top down on my Levi's CJ5 (it snapped onto the tub, no Velcro). Picture taken shortly after I got it, I was about 45 pounds lighter and 45 years younger than I am now. Bought it new for around $3,750. Wish I still had it.

Had another CJ, a YJ, a Cherokee, and now the TJ.
RenegadeS.JPG
 
My second drivable CJ5 that included a lot of the first. I wish I had repainted the glass packs before this picture in 1991:
Mosier 045.jpg


The third Jeep, bought new in 1996:
20030323.JPG


4th Jeep, another 1996 some time in 2012:
2012520 (10).JPG


5th Jeep (was second CJ5) after buying it from someone that raced it for 18 years. I'll be honest and say it only looks that good because I used "matching" latex paint to do the touch ups:
IMG_20200313_175630585_HDR.jpg


Here's how I ended up on this forum, Jeep #6:
IMG_20200502_181344980_HDR.jpg


And what the heck, Jeep #7, my wife's recently purchased 2017 JK. Not a Rubicon but those stickers are gone now:
IMG_20200720_204039365.jpg
 
I started off with a '76 CJ-5 back in 1985, drove it all over the place, survived three cross-country moves from Florida to California to Oregon and lots of trails in between. It got totaled by a drunk driver while parked in front of my house. Second one was an '88 XJ 4-banger, primarily a family truckster. Traded up to a '98 XJ, built it up some, lots more trails, then gave it to my daughter when I bought my '06 LJ.

I have better pics somewhere, but it's late and I'm too lazy to track them down,

My first love. Stayed basically stock and went everywhere I pointed it.
cj5-7.jpg


First XJ. Also stock for the whole time I owned it (just starting out as a low time helicopter pilot with zero disposable income). Nothing special, but great, reliable transportation.
1995 Seaside OR.jpg


Second XJ after I turned it over to Jeep Girl Jr. I was just getting started on my LJ. Her tires are the ones I took off the LJ when I bought the MTR/K's and she had just blown up one of the Duratracs that came with the XJ. She wheels hard...
IMG_2848.JPG


Where I am now.
20200430_125832.jpg
 
My first Jeep is my current Jeep. (Not that exciting.). I started off with a Scout 80, then moved into Landcruiser land for a long time, up until I bought this 2006 a couple months ago.
 
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I wish I could post pics, but what old pics I had were in photobucket. 🤬

I owned 3 XJs previously. A 1990 XJ Limited which was my first car at 16, and then 2 2000 XJ sport 4doors one after the other. The last 2000 XJ I had the longest for around 10 years, and it served as a daily driver. All 3 of them were bought bone stock and modded to various degrees with lifts, tires, etc. I always wanted a TJ, and when my last XJ rusted away, the search began for either another XJ or a TJ. Living in the salt belt, XJ prices have become insane for clean ones, and a TJ just seemed to make more sense for the money, where before XJs had always been much cheaper than TJs.
I've noticed XJ prices have gone way up down here too. I've seen some in much worse condition than the one I bought (which was rough) for 2-3x more than what I paid. Sad. I blame cash for clunkers too
 
First one: 1976 CJ5 Levi's Renegade. Here's a pic I found of me taking the top down on my Levi's CJ5 (it snapped onto the tub, no Velcro). Picture taken shortly after I got it, I was about 45 pounds lighter and 45 years younger than I am now. Bought it new for around $3,750. Wish I still had it.

Had another CJ, a YJ, a Cherokee, and now the TJ.View attachment 209571
Awesome!!
 
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My second drivable CJ5 that included a lot of the first. I wish I had repainted the glass packs before this picture in 1991:
View attachment 209718

The third Jeep, bought new in 1996:
View attachment 209724

4th Jeep, another 1996 some time in 2012:
View attachment 209725

5th Jeep (was second CJ5) after buying it from someone that raced it for 18 years. I'll be honest and say it only looks that good because I used "matching" latex paint to do the touch ups:
View attachment 209734

Here's how I ended up on this forum, Jeep #6:
View attachment 209739

And what the heck, Jeep #7, my wife's recently purchased 2017 JK. Not a Rubicon but those stickers are gone now:
View attachment 209740
All of these are CLEAN
 
I started off with a '76 CJ-5 back in 1985, drove it all over the place, survived three cross-country moves from Florida to California to Oregon and lots of trails in between. It got totaled by a drunk driver while parked in front of my house. Second one was an '88 XJ 4-banger, primarily a family truckster. Traded up to a '98 XJ, built it up some, lots more trails, then gave it to my daughter when I bought my '06 LJ.

I have better pics somewhere, but it's late and I'm too lazy to track them down,

My first love. Stayed basically stock and went everywhere I pointed it.
View attachment 209961

First XJ. Also stock for the whole time I owned it (just starting out as a low time helicopter pilot with zero disposable income). Nothing special, but great, reliable transportation.
View attachment 209958

Second XJ after I turned it over to Jeep Girl Jr. I was just getting started on my LJ. Her tires are the ones I took off the LJ when I bought the MTR/K's and she had just blown up one of the Duratracs that came with the XJ. She wheels hard...
View attachment 209959

Where I am now.
View attachment 209960
Love them all, but I really love what you've done to the LJ
 
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