I got into Jeeping completely by accident.
I bought a rotted out 83 CJ7 from a buddy
for $750 back in 1990. Back then I had an
86 Mustang SVO that I bought new (still
have it) and got sick and tired of driving
all over New England with this Fox body
Mustang with 225 50 VR16 tires and getting
stuck all over the place. I needed a 4x4
winter vehicle for commuting and ended up
buying this total POS CJ7. Rumor had it
my bud bought it for really, really short
money from some coke-head chick from New
York that needed some more nose candy (I
didn't ask him what else went in the
trade!). This thing was a total toilet.
You could see the road going by underneath
thru the rust holes. You had to keep it
revved up to 2k while stopped or the YFA
feedback carb would load up and kill the
motor and it would stall. It leaked oil,
antifreeze and gas all over the place and
the carpets were perpetually wet and
moldy.It smelled like a public toilet
inside. Yuck! Like a noob, I poured
money into it on stupid stuff like T-5
rebuilds,flimsy particle board based
center consoles, 4,000 lb winch ('cause it
was cheap) tires that were too small and
lifts that were too big, lock-rite Model
20 lockers, lots of fog lights, ss dress
up parts and some not so stupid but
expensive things like Webber carbs, JFI
Fuel Injection and Mallory ignitions. If
I saw it in Four Wheeler, I had to have
it. Ironically, despite the CJ-7 being
such a crapbox and leaving me stranded
countless times, I loved the Jeep, their
simplicity and realized Jeep owners had an
informal fraternity/brotherhood that
included cool things like the
"wave" and a willingness to help
a brother out. Some of the best people in
the world and my dearest friends are Jeep
owners, yet I digress. I finally swapped
out the rusty black Laredo tub for a
fiberglass one when the thing caught fire
and burned (YFA carb loaded up the exhaust
with fuel and the cat burned the floor and
carpets one night on the interstate. I
got really hooked on the jeep thing from
thereon out. I bought my Scrambler
shortly thereafter and got a smoking deal.
It was an unmolested 82' with 50k miles
and no rust. Despite the plastic valve
cover leaking like a sieve, the thing was
cherry. Since them, I've had a CJ 5, 6, 7
& 8 as well as a 73 Commando at one
time. Been all over wheeling. Moab,
Tellico, Jeep Jam, etc, etc. I've been
away for a while. Got the Scrambler out
of storage and got it running. Still have
the CJ-7 (1983) with a 4WD fiberglass tub
that I installed in 1991. Right now it is
missing running gear but has Currie built
D44s with 5:38 gears and ARBs. I was
going to swap a ford EFI 5.0 crate motor I
own into it but can't figure out the
tranny. I had a Jeep T-18 that was too
tempting to sell, now I have a Ford T19
but the T-case is wrong. Need to figure
this out there's too much money tied up in
to this CJ7