Full Size Jeep Network

Hi all and greetings from Italy!
Tomorrow I will become owner of this beauty, my first Jeep
1979 Chief 4.2L manual, two seater

Engine runs fine, clutch plate needs replacement as well as tires, rust spots here and there but not dramatic, seats are worn badly...
I am planning to fix what needs to be fixed to make it driveable, and maybe lift it (depending on what tire sizes are in the papers, you can't be too creative on this side of the ocean unfortunately...)
I will dig in the forum and look for hints and tech info, and surely ask a lot of newbie questions!

The forum does that with posts from time to time. If you get an error or it seems to hang forever, open a new window and load the forum. Chances are it posted just fine. If you see your post you can cancel or ignore the error. Someone will be along to clean up the extra posts.

Oh, and welcome to the madness.

Welcome to the forum. Don't worry about the double posts, it happens here.

That is a good looking FSJ and many will be jealous that you have a manual transmission. It's been repainted and may not actually have been born a 'Chief'. Mine was a Laredo model but I liked the Chief badging so much I converted it. It doesn't really make a difference, they were just trim options. I would love to see some more pictures once you pick it up!

I am posting from Tapatalk app, maybe this is the reason for double posts

I took some pics after hand shake with current owner, maybe from interiors you can spot whether it is a Chief or not?

It's not Taptalk. It's the forum. Normally the Chiefs had a small emblem on the glove box and another on the grill. Don't worry too much if it is a 'real' Chief or not.

I love those shifters. That's going to be a lot of fun to drive around. And I imagine it will get a bit of attention in Italy too.

Are there some places you can take it off road??

Shouldn’t the Chief have wider axles vs the standard Cherokees?

Not many places in Italy for offroading it is forbidden almost everywhere...

But the few ones are just amazing

See “Strada della Assietta” on google, it is a mountain former mitary road, on eastern Alps. I have been there last summer on 2 wheels

Right the beauty reached the workshop


I ordered and received (in two days!!) a clutch kit from Rockauto and also got a set of good 31” cooper discovery tyres

I am now looking for front seats. I found a full set front and back in Italy (miracle) but expensive, and I do not really need back seats since the chief was homologated in Italy as two seater

Buying them in US would not be viable due to postage cost

It will be a long journey to make it look as coll as it should...!

Yes, Europe dosent like modified vehicles on the roads. Unfortunately, that really limits the After-Market business there. Big Heavy 4x4s are definately cool in Europe. Almost as cool as a Unimoog

Looking real good shape! Nice find!

Here few new pics after first drive and having fixed some of the issues meanwhile
Replaced seats with a set I have found here in Italy (Levi's!), new clutch, 31" tires, instruments restored, tailgate window fixed...few more things still to be fixed but I am making good progresses thanks to this forum!

Looking good! Above you asked about wider axles. Some Cherokee's had wider axles from the factory. All 'Chiefs' did but it was not exclusive to the Chief. We call them 'wide tracks' or WT for short. The CHerokee with the standard width axles are called Narrow Tracks. They share the same axles as the Wagoneer. There was no wide track Wagoneer from the factory.
You have the Chief badge but it is not in the stock location. It may have been added. It's been repainted and the black parts don't match the original Chief paint either. No worries.. I have a "laredo" Cherokee but I put on the Chief badge and painted in the black part too.

I do not care whether it is a Chief or not really, it is so rare here that nobody really knows it existed!

I would love to respray it and bring it back to original paint, but it is not worth it, not for a 258 (maybe for a 360 auto...)

I am still after few issues but it runs quite ok and it doesn’t look bad after all, despite some rust

'Chief' is just a trim package. All Wide-Trac Cherokee's have wider axles. Not all Wide-Tracs are Chiefs, but all Chiefs are Wide-Tracs. There was also the Narrow-Trac Cherokee 'S', which was the Chief trim package without the wider axles and fender flares or Chief stickers/paint.