So, my brother picked up an '89 GW a few years back. Life, wife, kid, etc took over and I ended up buying it from him before he got a chance to dig into it much. It's been sitting for a couple years in my driveway while I figure out what to do with it (and lurking here).
Rust is fairly minor for being a Missouri/Kansas vehicle since new. Isolated to surface rust on the underside, rocker panels, fuel skid plate, and rear quarters. The previous owner included new panels with it.
Electrically, this thing has been hacked to death. Rat nests in the engine compartment, weak connections throughout, several drains I've yet to completely source, a random switch mounted in the dash to cut power to everything rear of the engine. Windows and locks barely work. Good fun.
Interior has a great rear seat, good passenger seat, driver's seat is split. Dash is hurting. Headliner is gone. Carpet isn't bad.
Exterior is not bad minus the rust and the vinyl. A bit of a crumple in the passenger side front quarter. Some work and a paint and it'll be great.
Engine starts and runs - 130k miles or there abouts. The transmission though slips bad. Sometimes it can get rolling other times, it's gonna stay where it is. Transfer case works as far as I can tell with the transmission issues.
So, after all the time it's been sitting, I've been trying to figure out exactly what route I want to go with it. Seems I decided far enough to go ahead and order more in parts than the initial cost of the vehicle. Up to this point, I've only spent money on new door lock actuators (which I probably didn't need), a hood release, and new tires (cheap 235s to let it roll instead of the dry rotted ones it had).
So, my end goal is to turn this into a fun daily driver/camping trip rig. My daily driver is a stock 2010 Frontier that I bought new and have put it through hell taking it to remote camping trips and wheeling it through passes in Colorado that it really should never have been on with street biased Michelins. I have about a 20 mile round trip commute to work, so miles don't rack up that quick.
Where I'm starting with my build is from experience with my old YJ - a lift comes first as it makes everything else underneath so much easier. While I've been prepping for that, I removed the spare tire, trailer hitch, and am working on the fuel tank - because apparently that needs to move to get to the nut for the spring hanger. I'll be spending the next few months with a wire wheel, rust reformer and paint it to get the underside surface rust under control and prevented. Also have new body mounts on the way and I'll be stripping every bit of wiring from the vehicle and putting together everything from scratch. All this while I drop off the transmission to get rebuilt -- and possibly the engine (need to find a shop for the engine yet). And of course, after fighting the rusted out skid plate on the tank all yesterday, I'll be going with the '91 s10 blazer tank - just have to figure out how to get it over to my dad's place to make and weld up the new cross members to hold it in place.
With any luck, once all of that is done, I can think about cleaning up the interior and exterior.
Whew, talk about jumping down the rabbit's hole.