My better half's mother called a few weeks ago and asked me if I'd like a free Jeep. I didn't hesitate, but after I hung up the phone, I wondered. My family has been hard on our Jeeps - I've owned 2 XJ's and 2 ZJ's, and none of them fared particularly well. One was plagued with fuel pump problems, then a broken steering column (this wasn't even off road), and one of the ZJ's died at the hands of my roommate who overheated it so badly that the god damn piston melted. Thanks, bro.
Cue the Freep.
The good:
The bad:
The ugly:
This particular Freep - a '99 Cherokee Classic, mostly in blue, has lived a tough life - 270K miles, passed down from mother to brother, to another brother, to sister (my SO), and now to me. Rusty rockers, smooshed front end, bits of trim missing, decapitated headliner, cranky transfer case (NP 242, mostly works), electrical woes on 75% of the doors, heater controls that work 25% of the time, every time, and some clatter in the top end of the still-wonderful 4.0. Seriously, that has to be one of the very best engines ever made. For the fact that the rockers are totally rusted out, underneath is a sea of clean metal - no frame rot, the very lightest dusting of surface rust (the SO's 2011 Fusion has more surface rust than this), overall pretty clean.
Plans are to go through the front end, fix the destroyed bumper, grind away the rusty rocker panels and...then what? I don't really want to weld in new panels, so at the very least I was going to paint the nasty bits and hope for the best. New tires will happen, maybe a bit of a lift, and eventually I'll rebuild the 4.0 because those engines are a treat to work on.
