And then there's the J10! I bought this POS after badgering the seller for two months. Dealing with alcoholics is tough but I got attached to the poor Jeep's story and had to rescue it. Best as I can tell, she spent her youth hauling a truckbed camper around the southwest. It has an ancient lift that was made for hauling something around 1500 lbs. With a load in the bed it rides like a Cadillac, empty it rides like a dually dodge. Right now it's sitting on Q78-16 Swampers and clears them perfectly. Came on a set of very dry rotted 34x9.50 Swampers that looked tiny on it. Here's a few pictures:
The sellers pictures that got me hooked.
Some kids bought it from the original owner and four wheeled the piss out of the truck in the 80's. They broke the low range unit and parked it in a field. Then (according to the seller) he bought it in 1998 and got her running again. According to him, he used the truck to smuggle bails of weed over the Colorado-New Mexico border for a few years before he blew the 401 running from someone (I don't know how much of this story I believe but there were a LOT of roaches in the cab!). He bought a rebuilt 360 for it and tried to install it himself. The truck then sat from 2003 to 2009; he got it almost on the road (bought new tires and everything) and then for some reason stopped. Fast forward 9 years to 2018 and he sent it to a friends shop to get ready to sell. He posts it on craigslist and gets lots of interest but it's hard to sell something from jail. Dude got in a bar fight and spent a month in county jail.
It's important to note, I was in school up in Missoula and Wyatt back home made this deal possible by volunteering his time for the love of Jeeps!
I called the number on the add the day after he got out of "The Hospital" and asked for more pictures, etc... and never heard back. Called back a few days later and he didn't remember who I was but he told me if I western-unioned him $500 he'd mail me the title. Which obviously I wasn't crazy about and was not willing to do. Weeks go by without the guy answering the phone. I called every couple of days and finally one day he answers! He explained that he went to Oregon for a "Business Trip" and that his friend the mechanic had finished the Jeep. We arranged for Wyatt to go down and meet his sister to buy the Jeep. Now, the craigslist add said $1000. Suspecting he was going to stick us with the mechanics bill I had my mom get $1500 out of my account and Wyatt picked it up on his way down to Woodland Park. Upon arrival there were of course, surprises.
The "Brand new man!" tires were sketchy at best.
The "Little rock damage" was more like moderate boulder damage.
The "About like a pack of cigs" rust hole could swallow a kitten.
Other than that it wasn't too bad for a $1000 J truck.
After some deliberation Wyatt worked on test driving and I called the guy to haggle. He then hits me with "So since I had the shop fix the overheating issue (which he hadn't mentioned previously) how about $1200 and the $700 mechanics bill?" After asking if he was joking i told him "No way dude." and that I'd call him back after the test drive. Wyatt called back "The battery was dead, threw in my spare and she's got no gears." We troubleshot for a few minutes and determined the transmission was empty. They went to get fluid and I called the seller back. I explained that if the Jeep had been as described I would have honestly payed $1900 for the Jeep. But with the lack of safe tires, working battery, the massive dent, and the hole in the floor I wasn't paying any more than $1200 total (which I felt was a generous offer). And only if the transmission came back to life. He wasn't thrilled. After some name calling he said he'd think about it.
Wyatt applying some "Tough Love" to the transmission hoping to get the gears to come back.
After adding a full fill worth of fluid to the transmission it mostly worked! I called back the seller "So you guys will do $1500 right"? to which I replied "Nope. My guy will give your sister $1200 or I'll send them home." "Well how about $1200 but you Western Union the money to me in Oregon and she mails you the title?" I was unwilling to simply trust the title would show up and that the mechanic wouldn't try to lien the title after this guy didn't pay his bill. I said "Look man, $1200 CASH to your sister or we walk." To which he replied "Fine BEEP YOU I'll call my sister and tell her to do the deal." Luckily his sister was lovely to deal with. She and Wyatt tendered the deal drama free and she paid the mechanic on the spot giving us a copy of the receipt just in case. They loaded up, bought extra ATF, and promptly overheated 2 miles down the road.
Wyatt had 64 miles of winding mountain roads to go to get home. The plates were only 5 years expired and had started life on another vehicle, the tires had cracks to make the Grand Canyon jealous, and there was no cell phone service the whole drive. What could possibly go wrong! Normally the drive from Woodland Park to Evergreen would take an hour and a half. They left at three and I didn't hear from them until eleven that night. Getting it home that night was quite the adventure. They overheated every five miles or so and had to stop to let it cool. They took the hood off a few overheats into the journey, and used the South Platte river to refill the collection of milk jugs they were using to keep the radiator full. Can you say Roadkill? I flew in to town for my birthday a week and half later and finally got to play with the new Jeep. Installed a new fan clutch, radiator, reinstalled a thermostat, and spent 3 hours undoing the shops fix for the broken thermostat housing bolt.
After that I decided to figure out why none of the gauges worked.
After rewiring the dash I have yet to reinstall the cluster; but it has only caught fire once since I messed with it so I'm calling this project a win.
Got it registered and took it up to Storm Mountain to see Blake. Where we discovered the low range was good and buggered.