Jeeps have always been a part of me, going way back to when my ride was a Big Wheel. From those days of riding shotgun in my dad’s plow Jeep, on up to grade school where I had a healthy collection of Jeeps in my box of hotwheels, Matchbox, and Stompers and up to junior high when my driving days were within reach, the hunger was always there. My first actual ride was Dad’s ’84 Dodge Ram, and after a year of powering around in that and saving up my money, I was eyeballing Jeeps.
Sometime in junior high, I came across a couple of old Jeep brochures from back when my parents were considering a new Cherokee Chief with the Snow Boss package.
That never came to pass, but the brochures stuck around. And man, did I ever pore over them! I carried these brochures just about everywhere, burning the images of the good times that would eventually roll once I had my own Jeep. I was focused on these older models since I knew a brand new rig was obviously way out of reach. My parents aren’t the types who drop a brand spanking new vehicle on a 17-year old. So I set out to find a nice clean used one. I buried my head in these old ads and let my mind and desires run wild.
Who wouldn’t want a few campfire tunes with a buddy, the ladies, a gorgeous backdrop and a couple of Jeeps that got you there? Or powering thru snowdrifts in an orange CJ5 with a blue Levis top and interior? Imagine THAT color combo in 2015! I actually knew a guy back in the early 90s who had a Jeep similar to this but with the full Renegade stripe package in blue, jacked up on 40″ Super Swampers and with a built 401. One of the more impressive Jeeps I’ve come across.
Jeep was all too happy to show you all of the activities you could enjoy in your brand new ride. The possibilities were limitless. These CJs with their sheer ruggedness and versatility as well as 70s style just appealed to me far more than the more modern and ‘softened’ YJ Wranglers that were new at the time.
While a CJ was at the top of my list, the J-10 pickups had always appealed to me as well, and the brochures kept that image fresh.
Or a Cherokee would be nice too. These had a certain ‘pull’ for me that the Broncos, Blazers, and integrated roof Ramchargers never had for me.
Now, with all of these images of shiny, brand new ’70s era Jeeps in my head, as well as a healthy addiction to the offroad magazines such as Four Wheeler and Petersen’s 4 Wheel showing off nicely restored Jeeps, lets just say that my expectations skewed a bit unrealistic.
Truth is, West TN is far from a mecca of Jeep enthusiasts. Kindred gearheads are few and far between, and anything older tends to be GM cars or pickups. Jeeps when you can find them at all have been rode hard and put away wet. Bleeding rust holes, body work attempted with beer cans in one hand and no skill, and drive trains that are thrashed beyond belief are the norm. I started looking at Jeeps with my dad towards the end of my sophomore year, when I had about $2K saved up. My dad said he would match me so I could get something decent and for $4K in 1991, a solid Jeep wasn’t out of reach.
Trouble is, I looked at a LOT of rusty, wobbly, beat up deathtraps for more money. Takes a LOT of patience to be a Jeep fanatic with any kind of standards in TN. Now don’t get the idea that I was afraid of doing some wrenching. There’s a huge difference between a project that needs some love, vs. a worn out pile.
Clean ones did exist. I found an ’84 Renegade near identical to this beige one for about $4500. It looked to have been pampered, drove like a dream and had the coveted 258 I-6 and strong (for 1984) T-176 4 spd trans. But once out and warmed up, the oil pressure dropped off alarmingly. I had to walk away but as it turns out 2 later Jeeps had the same problem due to some wonky factory electric gauges. Even with over 100K, 258s are near immortal.
Add white wagon spokes and a tan top and this rig would be the spitting image of my ’78 when I first brought it home.
So in November of 1990, the first half of my junior year in H.S, my buddy Michael tells me his dad has a co-worker at UPS who had a Jeep for sale. It was a ’78 with a factory 304, 3spd manual and a hardtop. I didn’t get my hopes up since he only wanted $3000. I met the guy, and his Jeep wasn’t nearly as clean as the pic above. The hardtop and doors were transplants from another Jeep and (sort of) repainted to look factory. This practice of top and door musical chairs is VERY common on Jeeps.
It had some rust-thru on the rear quarters and a little hole under the drivers seat but it wasn’t super awful. The paint and stripes were in fair shape…it wouldn’t win an beauty contests but it had a certain character. 33″ Super Swampers on rusty white ‘wagon spoke’ wheels rounded out the package and with no lift, it threatened to eat the fender flairs.
The seller, Richard took me for a quick spin. He was driving gently, but then asked if I wanted to give it try. Holy flying monkey, this thing was an absolute MONSTER!!!! With quiet turbo mufflers, it wasn’t showing its hand right away. I wasn’t cowboying it by any means but it ran like a bear and I could tell the gears were deep. I wanted to try out high and low range 4wd, so Richard guided me down a little backwoods trail where he goes hunting. I had already stopped off to lock the hubs and was cruising in 4-hi until we hit a bog of thick snotty mud and sank it to the frame. I wondered if we’d pull out so he said go 4-lo and give it hell. I did as he said and stabbed the throttle in 2nd gear 4-lo. The engine roared and the swampers dug halfway to China as it hooked up and we slung baseball sized clods of mud and dirt for 50 feet.
Before I knew it we were looking at sky as we launched up a small hill. We crested that and continued on. Mud bog? WHAT mud bog? The drivetrain was quiet and smooth so with that flex of this beast’s muscles I was all but sold. I went home, told my dad what I found and we went for another ride, this time time doing a more thorough check of all the fluids, scoping under the frame for rust or mechanical damage. This Jeep was by no means perfect, but Dad and I shuffled off to discuss. “Well if you want a Jeep, there it is”, Dad told me. That was his way of giving this ‘Gade the nod. I had right about the $3000 asking price in the bank. No way I was going to pay that though. I figured if I could get it for $2500, that was fair and Dad said he and Mom would front $1000 of whatever I paid so I wouldn’t blow my savings. That would allow some coin to do what work this rig needed as well as do the tax/title/insurance. I offered $2100; Richard shot back $2700. I said lets meet in the middle, so $2400 was what we shook on.
For the next 4 months, Dad and I went thru the Jeep pretty good. It needed more work than what we had thought initially but it was all just doing neglected maintenance and re-doing properly the work which was done on the cheap in the past. The brakes had been postponed WAY too long, and the rear drums had more mud in them than metal. We tore down the front hubs and replaced cheap Chinese wheel bearings with Timkens. One U joint was chirping like a canary so pulling it out revealed needle bearings that had turned to dust. The carb was the wrong one, so Dad took a spare off his old F-250 and we adapted it to the intake. It started hitting on 5 cylinders so plugs/wires/distributor were all replaced. The windshield gasket had a leak which started a patch of rust and rotted out the dash pad, so we replaced that.
My first topless run was after we pulled the hardtop and cut out the rust where the early style rollbar was side bolted thru the rear fenders. The too-quiet turbo mufflers were on their last legs and the exhaust from the headpipes back was dodgy at best, so I took it to the muffler shop and had a set of full duals ran thru 10″ Cherry Bomb glasspaks…the loudest thing he would sell to a rig driving on the street. Not exactly legal, but c’mon….C’MON!!! It had been said that you could hear me coming for a good 5 minutes before seeing me. Its probably true, and if you’ve never heard an AMC V8’s raspy battle cry when properly plumbed…its an experience I’d highly recommend!
That summer I purchased a brand new black fast back style softop from Kayline, who was at that time BesTop’s biggest competitor. I opted for the full view doors (which had the lower windows, increasing visibility and keeping the original CJ softop look) but ran with my steel doors until I sold the whole hardtop to another CJ owner. That Christmas I got a spankin new set of 10-hole chrome wheels and swapped my too-big Swampers to my dad’s buddy for a barely used set of 31″ Remington all terrains. I began transitioning from Dad’s ’84 Dodge to the Jeep as we chased the gremlins out of it and it actually became pretty damned reliable.
It wasn’t the perfect ride though. One night, my buddy and I had picked up a couple of ‘ethically casual’ young ladies. He chose the blonde, which was ok with me. The taller raven haired voluptuous one was more my style. Just as the deal was about to be sealed, I developed a miss and the lights started to dim. Damned alternator! I had to call a towtruck and the 2 floozies took off. No big loss. From day one, the carb seemed like it was choking the engine, and as per running into a guy who owned it some 5-7 years back, it turns out he and his dad had swapped in an AMC 360. A little poking around at the numbers on the block confirmed that indeed, this 304 which seemed WAY too strong had a dirty secret.
Now I’d driven quite a few 304 equipped CJs and when they’re in tune they make for a damned powerful Jeep. Once I got mine dialed in with the right carb and jetting, this thing was like driving Thor’s hammer! On many a night, I had quite a few idiots in their Mustangs and Camaros trying to race me. Well I quickly learned that if I was quick on the green I could easily put a car length between me and pretty much anything else on the road. Now once I wound it out and had to upshift, then it was all over…but for the brief moment I had the holeshot on a lot of shiny new ponycars.
One night, one of my co-workers tried to tell me his 4 cyl S-10 was faster. We went to a back road where we could open them up and I never saw the guy. By the time it was over, I hit 120 mph as I left him in my dust. Offroad, it was a BEAST. Granted, there’s little more than some muddy back roads in west TN but I explored everything within a 75 mile radius and it never once even hinted at getting stuck. I pulled a few buddies’ 4×4 minitrucks out of several mudholes also. Jeeps generally suck in mud/sand…but apparently Mazdas and Toyotas are even worse.
That summer, it was top down and often. It was a lot of adventures with friends, and a LOT of riding around with hundreds of scantily clad ladies who wanted to be in my loud fast Jeep. It was also the rearing of an ugly head. If the temp outside got much above 75 degrees, my temp gauge would start to climbing. If I was out on the highway it took a bit longer but on a hot day around town…it got hot quick. Dad and I practically tore that Jeep apart. We replaced every hose, flushed the cooling system, replaced the heater core, ruled out a blown head gasket since no oil/coolant contamination. I wasn’t losing coolant anywhere either so while that would’ve been a symptom, the dreaded cracked block seemed to be the only answer.
But then on a trip out west, Dad ran into a guy who’s shop specialized in Jeeps. They’d done the 360 conversion like infinity billion times, and as it turns out a 2 row radiator is plenty for a 6cyl, its marginal for the 304. A custom 3 row job is the only cure. After 2 full summers of having to drive in short stints, I was staring down starting community college, which was a 20 mile one way run. 8mpg was acceptable when staying within a close radius, but even with sub $1/gal gas that was a bit much. I put my Jeep up for sale and after 2 and a half years, I parted ways with the first vehicle that was every truly MINE. I pocketed $2800 with a bit of a lump in my throat. After all, this Jeep had become a part of me. My ‘stank’ was rubbed off on it, and its stank was rubbed off on me. I was selling over 2 years of my memories. Adventures, unspeakable debauchery, and a few summer flings had all happened with this brute as a centerpiece. I felt like I was parting ways with a friend as much as a truck. But I’d be briefly re-united with my dad’s Dodge as I began the search for Jeep #2….
Great tale! And holy crap – I’ve driven a 304 Jeep, and it was right quick. A 360? Thor’s Hammer seems like a good description (that made me laugh out loud.)
My father tried to encourage me to buy a Jeep with a plow so that I could make money with it in the winter, plowing snow and pulling people out of snowdrifts. But I dinna want no Jeep. In retrospect, it could have been kind of cool.
Thanks, man! One thing I forgot to point out was that 360 was out of something from ’71, so it still had higher compression than later desmogged, neutered versions. It ran for absolute crap on anythig less than premium gas and I didnt dare go to some no-name station. I dont have any literature in front of me, but as I remember that motor was rated up near 300 hp, and well over that in torque. I dont have to tell you what that means when mounted in a 3200 lb jeep with low gears and 31″ tires.
With about a decade’s production of TJs out there, only a dedicated Jeep nut or a masochist would play around with a CJ now. Price of entry is too high for what you get.
Im a bit of both. Truth be told, if money/time were no object, Id take a TJ chassis and mod a CJ-7 body to fit onto it..repower it with a Mopar smallblock. The frame and suspension on the TJ are superior all around, but the looks of the CJ, the dash design, the flold down tailgate and ‘correct’ triangular rollbar are just a few little details that make it what it is. The softer, civilized interior of the TJ is one thing Ive never liked about them. I dont need much in the way of comfort. I want functionality and durability with a bit of style.
I agree with what you’ve listed (especially the tailgate – the TJ’s lack of a T-handle on the rear glass is an unfortunate cheapening). The frame comparison is the one that makes me laugh – the fully-boxed frame on the TJ is far superior.
The point on the interior isn’t really fair though – the old CJ dash wouldn’t have been compatible with safety regs at the time.
A TJ is no Jeep. Real Jeeps have manual locking hubs and no girly dash pad. Price of entry is too high for what you get at any Barret-Jackson auction also.
I disagree. I owned a TJ, and while I didn’t like that car-like dash either it had it where it counts. The coil-link suspension is a godsend. Disconnect the swaybars, make sure you have some decent tires on it and even Aunt Edna could wheel like a rockstar.
The JK on the other hand feels as though it could be a resurrected Bronco. That’s not a shot at it, but having owned 3 CJs, a YJ, and a TJ all 3 of those had a certain flavor in common. Even with some efforts to modernize them and make them a bit more suitable for daily driving…the magic was still there. The JK….very different.
If you want to talk ‘not a real Jeep’…lets discuss those rebodied, re-engineered Dodge Calibers and Fiats…
I agree. If you want a vehicle to actually take off-road, TJ is by far the best value. CJ you’ll either buy a basketcase that needs a ton of money put into it just making it road-worthy or you’ll pay through the nose to get something solid. Pretty much any upgrade you could make on a CJ is available for a TJ anyway, so the finger-wagging over a feature checklist is more or less pointless.
Also agree on the JK – whenever I park my TJ next to one, I’m struck by how much wider the vehicle has become. Like the Bronco, it’s the width of (what used to be) a full-size pickup truck.
Wrangler JK width: 74″ (including fender flares)
Width of every full-size pickup since the early ’60s: 78″+
GMT 400 76.8″ it’s close
@Mopar4wd
Not to mention that the TJ – conveniently left out of the above list – was 66.7″.
The JK has definitely crept much closer to one end of the spectrum than the other. The short time I spent behind the wheel of one really made the increase in size stand out – it really does drive like something a whole vehicle class bigger.
It’s clear that Daimler-Benz never really ‘got’ Jeep. In that sense Renault takes a bad-rap, they left Jeep in pretty good shape – XJ, YJ, ZJ.
For pure offroad the TJ is better then JK but the JK was the right vehicle to build jeep volume with, other then the width it doesn’t give up much jeepness while increasing its target market. I’m torn on this because personally I prefer a narrower width for trails but as a father of 3 it makes a wrangler interior to small for daily where as a JK would be ideal.
But lets not get silly and think it isn’t a lot larger then it once was.
Jeep marketing back in the day was the best. Good looking people were always having a grand time, all made possible by their Jeep. Looking at these ads, who wouldn’t want one? Too bad for Jeep, I had driven a couple of them, and knew that I would never have so much fun in such a rough riding tippy buckboard.
Ha!! My grandparents had the same color Cherokee Chief that was in that 1979 Jeep ad. That was a beast. The only power options in it was the power rear window and power steering. It had a AM radio.
I disagree that the TJ is not a real jeep. I feel it is the last true Jeep as it was the last Jeep to use AMC engines and the locker door handles. I like the TJ’s dash. The CJ’s dash was too spartan looking and the YT’s dash was too busy looking. The TJ’s dash is a nice contrast to that.
I agree, I don’t see what the big complaints are about the TJ’s dash, it’s the most basic grade of MIC Black PP/ABS available and, once airbags became a reality, metal dash panels became a practical impossibility.
Another admirable thing about the TJ interior is how many parts were common with the later XJs – cluster, center stack, vents, trans and t-case shifters were all basically the same parts with cosmetic or electrical differences.
TJs are essentially the ultimate evolution of the Jeep concept before the massive pork-out of the Daimler-Chrysler designed JK.
Awesome, very enjoyable read, and I loved the narrative. I knew this was going to be good. You’re one of only a handful of peers (we’re the same age) that actually got the machine they wanted while in high school.
You touched on something with the Jeep brochures selling more than just the vehicle, but also a lifestyle. These Jeeps truly had no peer when kids like us were growing up in the 80’s.
Thanks, man. Glad you enjoyed, and coming from a great writer thats a compliment.
I definitely set a goal and made it happen with only a little greasing of the wheels coming from the parental units. In my H.S. parking lot, there were plenty of spoiled brats rolling in new Fox body 5.0’s, 3rd gen F bodies, and lowered minitrucks (remember when that was a thing?) but my parents did it right. I still had my Jeep but they made me work for it, both in earning the cash and in wrenching on it til it was roadworthy. That ethic was pounded into my head from an early age and I have good parents to thank for that.
Solid.
“The taller raven haired voluptuous one was more my style. Just as the deal was about to be sealed, I developed a miss and the lights started to dim.”
This can happen. Yes, it can.
Sigh… La Gina.
Great. My brother also has one, just a year older (a 1977 CJ7 304, factory engine).
WOW. If your brothers Jeep had Ansen slot mags and full steel doors then that would be my perfect CJ7 in the metal. Thats the color, just right lift and tires, one of the engines Id want, and those longtube headers dumping into old school side pipes are EXACTLY what I would do. Either he got lucky if he bought it like that, or if its his work, we’re on the same wavelength!
Oh no…it certainly wasn’t in that condition when he bought it in 2000…
Front fenders and hood are new (the original parts were “beyond repair”), paint job in a shade of flat blue he liked. The body already had a new floor welded in when he got it. New rims and other parts all around. It all took a lot of time and work, most of it done by himself. Just like all maintenance and repairs in later years.
The side pipes are custom built. By a young man who was good at it. LPG-system (it’s running on LPG full-time) from Impco, 3 speed manual.
Well he’s a helluva craftsman. His work looks amazing.
Nice COAL, I love a good Jeep story. I echo your love for 70’s Jeeps, given the choice between CJs, SJs and J-10s I’m not sure what I would pick. I’ve always enjoyed those wacky ads too, funny how they often found a way to park the Jeeps on uneven surfaces.
A friend has had a ’82 SJ Cherokee for sale for a while, I’m very tempted but can’t find a way to rationalize buying another vehicle. No rust, 4″ lift, big tires, 258 with Offy intake and headers, 4 spd…it’s just so tempting. I’d love an old CJ but as you said there either beat to death or crazily priced.
A clean rust free 2 door SJ with sound mechanicals? Unless the price is stupid…BUY IT.
Agreed heartily. A rust-free SJ is something that will actually appreciate in value! Have you seen what the early and late ones are selling for? Kind of crazy. Buy it, hang onto it for a couple of years having fun, and sell it for a tidy profit!
Damn dude, this brings back memories… I had nearly the same exact Jeep when I was the same age. ’79 Renegade, hardtop, brown, 304 tossed for a 360, 3-speed, single digit miles per gallon… reading this brought me right back to being a Jeep-obsessed 15 year old with stacks and stacks of magazines and catalogs and sketches in notebooks with highly specific ideas about how, exactly, I wanted my (yet nonexistent) Jeep to look, sound, drive and feel.
Waiting those two years to finally get my full license, go through automotive purgatory with my first car (an awful Chevy Cavalier), and finally find a suitable CJ-7 seemed like an eternity. Now it seems like I’m two years older every time I blink…
I’d give anything to have this Jeep back for just one day. I always wonder if it still exists.
CJ’s are way overpriced. A buddy bought a 69 CJ5 a couple years ago for WAY too much. We did save the life of the 19 year-old kid who sold it to him. The kid drove it like 60 miles on the freeway to show it to us. The brakes barely worked, the clutch was on it’s last legs, the lights were like candles, and the steering components and spring bushings were WAY beyond service life! We are constantly working on it, fixing the usual breakage/wear items, and discovering all the shoddy work done by previous owners. I happen to own a 71 J2000 Gladiator shortbed pickup, 4wd, 350 Buick engine (rebuilt by yours truly), T400 trans, 4.11 Dana 44’s front and rear, open front, Detroit locker in rear, Dana 20 all-gear case, 33 inch BFG mudders, and a custom 4 inch lift. This thing will go ANYWHERE! Rust holes and all! The only thing besides the lousy fuel mileage that I don’t like is the damn closed-knuckle front end. Turns like the Queen Mary! Oh…and not a lot of suspension flex. Looking to put an open-knucle front end on her someday. And…..yeah, I fell in love with those old Jeep ads, too! Have a whole collection of them! Great story, dude!
Nice to read a piece of yours Moparrocker74. Keep em coming.
Man that sounds like it was a fun vehicle. I went through a couple of years where I really wanted a Jeep…Dad said no way. In retrospect, only having driven cars and with questionable corner approaches, I probably would have rolled the thing, so maybe he was right. Still, it was a lifestyle I wanted to be a part of, and as is very important to a high-school aged guy, it might have helped with the ladies. Alas.