TheWeekendWagon
Member
Hey everyone! New guy here so I thought I would share one of my pride & joys! I have a JKUR as well but this is my '90 FSJ Grand Wagoneer! I saw it sitting in a driveway rotting away in a nearby neighborhood. It had a flat right rear tire, the rear window was stuck halfway down, it was filthy, and it had cobwebs connecting the driveway to the car all over the place so I could see it hadn't moved in quite a while. I assumed it didn't run but the interior and body looked fairly decent so I decided to leave a note on it to see if the owner wanted to sell. Sure enough I got a text from them that night and went over the next day to take a harder look at it. I thought that if it didn't run I may be able to pick it up for cheap with hopes of getting it running and flipping it for a profit. When I pulled up, the rear tire was aired back up and it was sitting there running and idling smooth as silk and in to myself in my head I said, crap...the price just went up. After talking with the owner he explained that the engine was fairly recent rebuilt by the guy before him and I believed it by the way it was running and the fact that the paint on the engine seemed newer than the surrounding parts. He also explained that it had a somewhat recent exterior re-spray as well but looking at it, it wasn't a very high quality one. I didn't look too hard at the car at this point because I knew it would be more than I wanted to pay so I shook his hand and told him that I was hoping it in worse condition and that I didn't have the cash to make him a reasonable offer for what I thought it was worth. Then he asked how much I had. I told him $2,000 and he said we had a deal. I couldn't believe it so I snapped a quick photo of the VIN and went home to grab the money, run the VIN through the DMV to make sure it wasn't stolen and had a clean title and before you know it there was this GW sitting in my garage.
Once home, I looked through it a little more and created a list of things I needed to do in order to flip it for a profit. Don't get me wrong, she's far from perfect but I still got one hell of a deal. I replaced the brakes on all four corners, got new tires, rebuilt the front knuckles with all new ball joints, new axle seals, fixed the rear window (which was simply un-plugged), and did some work cleaning it up and restoring the paint as best I could. While I was waiting for the new title to show up I drove it around a bit for fun and, well, long story short I fell in love with it and the idea of flipping it for a profit quickly went off the table.
I haven't done a lot more to it since, just been enjoying it in fair weather since the A/C and heater don't work but the project continues to move on slowly. As of now I am still working on getting everything working 100% and then I will have to decide what direction I want to go with the build. I flip-flop back and forth between just keeping it stock, which I love them stock, or building it into a mild overland vehicle while maintaining that vintage 80s/early 90s flair. Time will tell!
Once home, I looked through it a little more and created a list of things I needed to do in order to flip it for a profit. Don't get me wrong, she's far from perfect but I still got one hell of a deal. I replaced the brakes on all four corners, got new tires, rebuilt the front knuckles with all new ball joints, new axle seals, fixed the rear window (which was simply un-plugged), and did some work cleaning it up and restoring the paint as best I could. While I was waiting for the new title to show up I drove it around a bit for fun and, well, long story short I fell in love with it and the idea of flipping it for a profit quickly went off the table.
I haven't done a lot more to it since, just been enjoying it in fair weather since the A/C and heater don't work but the project continues to move on slowly. As of now I am still working on getting everything working 100% and then I will have to decide what direction I want to go with the build. I flip-flop back and forth between just keeping it stock, which I love them stock, or building it into a mild overland vehicle while maintaining that vintage 80s/early 90s flair. Time will tell!
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