I didn’t know the best place for this thread, so I made my best shot at it. Feel free to move it if there’s a better or more appropriate place.
I have done what I would call practical four wheeling all of my adult life. When I say practical, I mean four wheeling for the purpose of ranching, hunting, disaster relief, off-road vehicle driving in the army and the like. When I was young I did motorcycle trail riding and racing. I am at a point now where I want to do some trail riding and climbing for the pure meanness of it. A couple of my granddaughters are pushing me too, which is a big motivator.
When I started researching all this, I thought I wanted a CJ7, but it is now appearing that the coil spring TJ can be had for about the same money and give me a more up to date and capable off-roader. Now I’m at the crossroads of whether to buy or build. It appears that I can get a medium to high mileage, cared for TJ for something like $10K. It appears that if I did that, the mods, in general terms, would be:
o Solid roll cage
o. Racing seats and serious multipoint harnesses
o. Tire/wheel set of some size
o. Lift and suspension upgrade of some size.
o. Winch
For the moment , let’s throw out the subject of which way would be less expensive unless you think one course or the other will be significantly less expensive. Another consideration is my age. I am 76 and as of now in excellent health and physical condition for my age, but who knows when the inevitable time will come that changes it, so I would hate to tie up a significant amount of time doing a build while the grandkids stay home playing video games. On top of that, I have no trouble staying busy. I have two airplanes that I keep airworthy and try to fly as much as possible and spend time at the warbird museum volunteering for various duties.
I would appreciate comments, opinions, advice and just generally keeping me betweeen the curbs.
I have come across a TJ for sale that I have seen pictures and talked to the car lot owner. It is a FIVE OWNER vehicle(red flag number one) it has what appears to be a pretty significant lift, racing seats with serious harnesses, an inline six and manual( (I insist on a manual trans BTW). I think the car lot has ended up stuck with it and I can probably get it dirt cheap. He said that he had someone come to buy it and when they drove it, they had a terrible wobble. It sounds like the track bar is the problem which I think would be a relatively easy fix. He said that everything works. It is located over two hours away and I haven’t decided whether to go check it further. It doesn’t look super presentable, but something like this will end up like a race car, looking bad quickly. I haven’t decided whether or not to spend a day going to see it. I welcome suggestions about this. I realize how bad it could be, but who knows? It might have lots of good components.
On the other approach there are several well cared for, virgin TJ ‘s around to build one from that are in the $10K to $13K price range.
Thanks for any comments even if nothing more than “go back to your rocking chair old man and leave us alone.”
Who knows this might turn into an adventure thread or a build thread. It could go anywhere.
I have done what I would call practical four wheeling all of my adult life. When I say practical, I mean four wheeling for the purpose of ranching, hunting, disaster relief, off-road vehicle driving in the army and the like. When I was young I did motorcycle trail riding and racing. I am at a point now where I want to do some trail riding and climbing for the pure meanness of it. A couple of my granddaughters are pushing me too, which is a big motivator.
When I started researching all this, I thought I wanted a CJ7, but it is now appearing that the coil spring TJ can be had for about the same money and give me a more up to date and capable off-roader. Now I’m at the crossroads of whether to buy or build. It appears that I can get a medium to high mileage, cared for TJ for something like $10K. It appears that if I did that, the mods, in general terms, would be:
o Solid roll cage
o. Racing seats and serious multipoint harnesses
o. Tire/wheel set of some size
o. Lift and suspension upgrade of some size.
o. Winch
For the moment , let’s throw out the subject of which way would be less expensive unless you think one course or the other will be significantly less expensive. Another consideration is my age. I am 76 and as of now in excellent health and physical condition for my age, but who knows when the inevitable time will come that changes it, so I would hate to tie up a significant amount of time doing a build while the grandkids stay home playing video games. On top of that, I have no trouble staying busy. I have two airplanes that I keep airworthy and try to fly as much as possible and spend time at the warbird museum volunteering for various duties.
I would appreciate comments, opinions, advice and just generally keeping me betweeen the curbs.
I have come across a TJ for sale that I have seen pictures and talked to the car lot owner. It is a FIVE OWNER vehicle(red flag number one) it has what appears to be a pretty significant lift, racing seats with serious harnesses, an inline six and manual( (I insist on a manual trans BTW). I think the car lot has ended up stuck with it and I can probably get it dirt cheap. He said that he had someone come to buy it and when they drove it, they had a terrible wobble. It sounds like the track bar is the problem which I think would be a relatively easy fix. He said that everything works. It is located over two hours away and I haven’t decided whether to go check it further. It doesn’t look super presentable, but something like this will end up like a race car, looking bad quickly. I haven’t decided whether or not to spend a day going to see it. I welcome suggestions about this. I realize how bad it could be, but who knows? It might have lots of good components.
On the other approach there are several well cared for, virgin TJ ‘s around to build one from that are in the $10K to $13K price range.
Thanks for any comments even if nothing more than “go back to your rocking chair old man and leave us alone.”
Who knows this might turn into an adventure thread or a build thread. It could go anywhere.
. 
