Hello ALL, Wish me luck 1994 FZJ80 (1 Viewer)

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Ok, so there's no easy way to say this so I'll just come out with it. I'll start off by saying, I never make the same mistake twice, I make that s*** like 3 or 4 times, to make sure it was a mistake. I've always wanted 2 types of cars and now I have a couple of sheckels to rub together I had a budget to get a car, work on it on the weekend while using it during the week. Long story short I brought another truck today. 1997, wrangler sport, with about 164k on the clock. This one has a clean title at least but I'm in it for 2500. The crazy part is that I'm not sure I wana give up on the fzj, another crazy coincidence is that they're almost the same color. Runs and drives and I paid 35 dollars for a PPI (not a very good one) but it states rust is minimal. Please, let me know what you guys think as I love hearing opinions and thoughts. Here are a few pics and I should be getting this car dilivered by mid week (hopefully) I literally have to hide this from my wife as she'd cut off my n*ts.

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Hopefully my life makes people either shake thier heads or laugh out loud. Here some more pics

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Clean the Jeep and wax it up. Run a can of stp multisystem cleaner through a tank of gas. Put in a new fuel filter and get the interior spotless. Get the tires balanced well and sell it for 5k.

Now back to the 80. Most people by a parts rig second. But nothing wrong with starting first that way. Now find another of the same year and make sure whatever you transfer is not rusted or completely rust stopped. Sounds like the engine and tranny may be good. Probably many other little things too.

Enjoy!
 
I’m gonna save you the headache and reaffirm what others have said, better use that 80 as a parts truck or part it out. Seriously, I didn’t look at the 80s pics very close but with that amount of rust your looking at a couple thousand getting it back in shape. You’ve got a full floating rear axle, solid front axle, and what looks to be newer Toyota 17” wheels, that’s about $1,700. Start parting out the body panels, headlights, tail lights, tail gate (that’s a popular item that sells quickly for some reason) and take the leftover frame and body to scrap for some gas and beer money. Seriously, I’d run from that thing
 
Hopefully my life makes people either shake thier heads or laugh out loud. Here some more pics

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Looks good. Some of the TJ Sports came with a dana44 rear end as an option. Not as stout as a 9.5” but loads better than a dana35 (standard rear axle in TJs.) If tou plan on off-roading a lot you May want to swap a Ford 8.8” in either way.
That’s the biggest difference in an 80 and a Wrangler. All Wrangler owners have to upgrade axles (sooner or later) and I’ve never heard of anyone swapping their 80 axles.
The automatic should be the 3 speed which is much better than the crappy 4 speed autos they put in them after 1999.
 
I think you've got some good advice here. You bought a parts truck first, great. Find a decent 80 and put the 2 together and make 1 nice one. I suggest you travel south to find your next one. They're out there. Dont try to convince yourself that you should rebuild this one you'll end up spending way more than if you just found a decent shape 80 for a little more.

Good luck.
 
Judging on how the axles/birfields look (if they’re trashed you might be SOL), I’d strip the axles, put new bearings and races in them, possibly new rotors, grease the knuckles up to prevent rust, fill them with fluid and roll them around in the yard (to prevent rust) until someone bought them, and make about $1,000-$1,2000 profit, possibly more with wheels. Pull the trans, t-case, and motor and sell them as a package, with upfront honesty of what condition the truck was in, for about $300-$600, start parting out small things like headlights and seats for nickels and dimes just to recoup as much money as possible, and like I mentioned before scrap the rest to try and break even. You could spend $10k-$15k on a good running 80 series with some records and receipts behind it and be loads of time and money ahead of where you’re starting with this thing. I know this is my second post saying to run from this thing, but you really do need to treat it like the plague. These aren’t like Jeeps, Tacoma’s, or 90s model chevys, parts are hanging from trees in everyone’s back yard, and when/if you find parts in good shape from knowledgeable people they aren’t going to part with them easily because they know what they have. I know you hate to hear the news, but it’s not the end of the world either. Depending on your patience, research, and some elbow grease you could possibly make a little profit if your lucky. If all else fails you could scrap the truck whole for about $1,300-$1,800 realistically, or possibly sell it for parts to someone on here for $2,000. BUT, without some work on your end I’m afraid you might be stuck with a loss unfortunately. On the other hand, it looks like your acquired a pretty nice Jeep. Possibly one of the better ones they’ve made in the past 25 years.
 
Ill echo what everyone has said. See if you can figure out the engine situation, if its not a HG then you could possibly get the engine, both axles (remove and grind off rust, paint when clean) and make a couple grand off those three items. Having said that, it would be a few weekends of work, or 3 month project with an hr here and there. Sounds like youve moved on and are in Jeep land now...
 
It's still siting in my mother in laws garage. I visit her (both truck and inlaw, lol) about once every 2 or 3 weeks. I get in there start her up and let her run till temp then shut her down. I gave all the information to my buddy who's supposed to get a transferable registration from Rohde Island for me. After I get that in hand, I'll know more of what I'm doing with the old rig. Starts up 1st try everytime, I'll give it that.
 
So this thing sat in my mother-in-laws garage since I got it, but 2 weeks ago, my brother and I were talking and he mentioned that he was in the market for a hooptie . So I offered this truck, I said it's been sitting and is rusted to s***, but it needs break lines and tune up (spark plugs, oil and fluids mainly I won't waste any more than that) and best of all I said you can have it for free (i'll ask him for some $$ later on down the road, lets see how far it goes) . So we took it out the garage washed the exterior, fixed the break line and illegally drove it around the block, (no plates) . After having it on for about an hour it purred like a kitten, with it on for about 20 minutes I could hear a regular tap (like every 20 seconds) but then a good rev and once fully warmed up it went away. I tired to engage the lockers and it wouldn't engage ( but the solenoid looks rusted to all s***, or at least I believe thats what that is). He's getting a salvaged Pennsylvania title for it and should have it on the road by next week or the last week of November at the latest. He's hoping (and so am I that it makes it through the NYC winter with minimal maintenance. He basically needs a point a to point b car probably about 4 or 5 miles round trip (cause who wants to be catching a bus after transferring from a train during these cold days) so it should serve it's purpose.

Is it me or have the prices for these things caught fire? I'm not sure if it's because you see them in the backround of a lot of movies lately or what but you can't find a decent one for under 7 grand anywhere. Even rusted out POS like mine are going for 2 and above. anyway, that's my continued story
 
I was going to suggest you sell it to a farmer somewhere who needed a beater for his property. You had a very minimal investment so I wouldn't worry. I almost paid a guy 10k for a beautiful looking rig from up north. Thank God, I had a an expensive preinspection done, it saved my a$$ and 10k. So I spent 300 on a very comprehensive pre inspection but saved 10k.
 
FYI lockers only engage with the center diff locked so the truck must be in 4lo unless it has the center diff lock button installed. I felt like an idiot when I forgot that last week
 
Coronavirus sale. I'm giving up on this.

 
You get extra credit for calling a Spade, a Spade. :clap:
 
Update to my LC that just doesn't want to leave and won't quit. So as you can see by the eBay listing, the car sold for 1200. I got an immediate 500 deposit. The guy contacted me to let me know that he'll be mailing out a check. So some s time goes and I receive payment and deposit. The buyer is now trying to schedule a pickup and trying to find the best price for a tow (I'm in NYC and he was looking to go to Maryland area). Now we're in full pandemic mode and weeks are going by even close to a month. Then I get contacted by the gentleman again, saying that the rig and tow and everything was just going to be too much trouble plus he's getting on up there in age. He'd like a return on 500 and I can keep the 700. I coilsnt believe it, because most people would want the whole thing back, I agreed to send him back 6 and I'll keep six for listing fees and troubles.
Since then I've fixed the break line that was rusted (that didn't help brakes still sink all the way to the floor, isolated the cylinder and that's toast) the person who owned this thing I'd really like to kick him in the arse, not only is it rusted to ish, but every seal on this thing must have been leaking for years, either that or instead of driving through mud he was driving through oil fields, I pressure washed the motor to get the crusted up years of oil, seafoamed the motor, I have no idea why I'm doing this (boardem being one of them) but I feel as this this thing doesn't want to leave me. So let's see where it goes, I'll keep doing cheap old fixes to this thing (still not registered, but I have taken it out around a few blocks and opened it up every now and then. We'll that's my story...
 

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