“It’s in rough shape,” my mechanic said when I asked about the old Jeep with a for-sale sign in the window. I’d just paid him for an oil change.
“It’s OK,” I said. “I don’t want to buy it, I just want to photograph it.”
But I have to admit, I did dream a little about rolling over some rough terrain in it, top off, wind in my hair.
That’s the allure of an old Jeep, isn’t it? I mean, the newer Jeeps are probably plenty capable. And I gather that Chrysler figured out how to make these things ride a lot less harshly, making new ones better choices as daily drivers. But these AMC Jeeps? Rough beasts the lot. It was part of their charm.
I had a boss 20 years ago who bought one. His teenaged sons immediately crowned him Coolest Dad Ever and extracted promises from him that he would keep it well past the time they got their driver’s licenses. But one winter morning as the boss drove to work he had, shall we say, a defining moment in his Jeep. “It had snowed, and the road was a little slick. I was tooling along down this back road and I looked down at something for just a fraction of a second. When I looked up, I was watching the scenery pass by out my windshield – the Jeep had turned 90 degrees sideways. There was nothing I could do, so I decided to enjoy the ride while it lasted, which it did for what seemed like a mile. Then it started to slide off the road and into the snow, where the tires got a little traction and I was able to get it going the right way on the road again.”
We didn’t see him in the Jeep very much after that. I thought it might reappear when spring rolled around, but instead he rolled into the parking lot in the boring gray LeSabre previously driven by the company owner. I asked about the Jeep. “After that one day last winter, I realized that there’s no way I want my boys driving it. I sold it so I could buy the LeSabre.”
My mechanic said, “This thing is a lot of fun on a sunny day.” My mind filled with delightful imagery. But then I thought of my 16-year-old son and contemplated my former boss’s wisdom. I got back into my boring gray Focus and drove home.
“And I gather that Chrysler figured out how to make these things ride a lot less harshly, making new ones better choices as daily drivers”
What you meant to say is that Chrysler managed to screw them up. The “new” Wrangler has a four door model AND all door handles are plastic and look better on the Durango then a Jeep. The four door model is not really so bad but to get rid of the foot locker type door handles makes the Wrangle just another truck.
For those folks that want a comfy ride Jeep there is the grand Cherokee.
That jeep in your pic may be a bit rough but they are popular and parts are cheap and plenty for them
You old boss may have had the wrong tires on his Jeep or just did not totally realize that even a Jeep can have issues in the snow if driven to fast or such.
The Focus is a good car and I had a 2005 which survived Snowmageddon in winter 2010. It was good in the snow but had the tendency slide around at even low speeds in slight rain no matter how I drove it or what tires I put on it.
Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that Chrysler didn’t take Jeep away from its mission. Only that you could more readily drive one to work or on the highway without a punishing ride.
Yeah, my Focus slides around on wet streets, but is good in snow, too.
Oh man, that is a sweet CJ.
I too will confess the occasional Jeep-lust. A cousin had one that he bought new in the 70s (a CJ5) with the 304 V8 mated to a stick. That was a fun thing to drive the couple of times I drove it, admittedly in the summer with the top off.
When I was ready to buy my first car in the 70s, my father (who always had a plan for everything) suggested that I buy a Jeep with a plow so that I could make money with it in the winter time. There was lots of snow to plow in northern Indiana, and people were always getting stuck so I could charge them to pull them out of snowbanks. But I wanted a car, not a business. There are times that I wonder if I should have listened. Maybe I could have paid for my frequent car-flipping habit back then.
Unless the photos are deceiving, this one looks to be in fine shape, at least from the outside, even if the mechanicals are rough.
I’ve always loved the CJ-7, which was the longer wheelbase version of these. I have a cousin that may still have the base ’76 CJ-5 that he bought, I think used I think around 1980 to use in and around their campground that he and my Uncle (his late Dad) owned. It was that very same Jeep that I learned how to drive a stick.
It had the venerable inline 6 and a 3spd manual, bolted to the floor. What made it a great vehicle to learn to drive a stick with was he removed the ratchet from the foot brake style parking brake so I was forced to learn how to start off on an upside incline, and not stall it, with a small trailer on it that we used to pick up the garbage around the camp to go to the burn pile to be burned (those were the days, and this WAS 1982 in the hills of N. Georgia).
I was in HS at the time as well. They were my Dad’s relatives BTW.
All of my Uncles, and possibly all the Aunts are now gone, as is my Dad, but most of the kids, and grand kids are still alive as far as I know.
I have to think that the added exterior brightwork (steel? aluminum?) is meant to mask considerable rust.
CC effect — saw one of these with the same appliqués on a different lot near Indy over the weekend.
I like jeeps but the wind in the hair stopped at the same time as my visits to the barber shop. I think they are good extra vehicles but don’t want one as a driver.
I’ve had my AMC CJ7 Renegade for over 10 years and its my favorite vehicle. It’s easy to park, I don’t worry about dings or scratches, I take it to the rural property and get it dirty occasionally. It’s topless fun in the summer and its more than capable in the winter snow. I removed the Levi’s option back seat because its in good shape. I now have a little bed for hauling stuff now. I replaced the gas tank recently (and about 20lbs of dirt, rocks and crud) The cat converter mysteriously disappeared and was replaced with a straight pipe (don’t need emissions testing anymore) It breathes better, runs cooler and I get that V8 burble and about 15 mpg around town.
In the year 2000 my brother’s dream came true. He bought a CJ7 with a V8 (it just had to have a V8). He restored it afterwards. It’s a 1977 CJ7 with the original AMC 304 engine and it has a 3 speed manual.
The end result:
A short wheelbase and widish tires make for a fun winter parking lot stormer. Like Mr. Grey mentioned I would imagine the diamond plate is hiding a ton of rust. A friend of mine son got hosed on a buy here pay here lot on a yj that had the same body(or lack there of) armour. Had to take the company to court after his mechanic noticed the steering box was mostly separated from the frame, not to mention the rotten tub.
I had an 86 CJ7. The one with the wide track Dana 44. Anyway, headed home from work one winter afternoon I was caught in an ice storm on the 5 mile ride home. The roads became nearly impassable within 5 minutes. As I had a Detroit locker in the rear end an a limited slip in the front, and thus all 4 wheels turning, I was able to make forward progress. As i was not inclined to wait out the storm in a rig with a horrible heater and some serious blowby leaking directly in the cabin, i drove down the center median and cut down some residential streets to get home. Finding a stranded fire truck in the middle of the road, and wearing my uniform from work (I worked for the FD in fire prevention) I stopped and asked if I could help. Turns out they were on their way to a medical call, so we loaded the paramedic and his gear in the truck, and we made our way through yards and down sidewalks to get him to the call. That being said, it was an awesome machine to have the pleasure to own, but in the end, the care and commitments required to keep a classic CJ running were too much to bear.
I knew someone who off road rallied a 78 Jeep he fitted a Falcon 250 cube 6 and big tyres it was mildly successfull though a multiple endforend rollover during the leadfoot 100 rearranged it somewhat. These older models seemed to have some capability in the bush if you can keep the wheels pointing down.
Find a used Cherokee or a pre-2005 Grand Cherokee. You can drive to the fun and keep going on the desert or mountain trails. Not as hard core as the CJ/Wrangler but perfectly nice daily drivers with significant off road capability.
Just today we dropped our son off at college and in the parking lot was a ruff-n-ready ’70’s CJ-7! I stood, looking into the un-zipped side window at the custom upholstery (a side of leather hide neatly cut to fit over the stock seat) and told my daughter it smelled like a good old car! (Oil, grease, you know that sweet perfume.) She said smelling a car was really weird.
C’mon, guys, back me up. It’s not weird! Is it?
When I come in from working in the garage (and even sometimes when I haven’t been working on anything) my wife will say (complain) “You smell like a car.”
My son thinks I should buy a new 4-door Wrangler “because the roof comes off, just like your convertible.” Uh huh. As the cool kids would say, seems legit. 🙂
I was just watching the 1979 Salem’s Lot miniseries, I always remembered that the main guy drove one these.
I will always remember the owner of this one.
+1 Me too! 🙂
Those cut offs are still short even by todays standards!
Thanks, Jim for that little story. I run across these kinds of situations all of the time. You see a certain vehicle on a corner somewhere and you think: “wouldn’t that be fun”. But the times I’ve made impulse buys (of just about anything), it usually turns out bad. Once burned and all that…
I have had a lot of time with Jeeps in my past. One of the cars I learned to drive stick on was my neighbor’s 1976 CJ-7 with a 258 and a three speed! Lots of torque in that thing, very hard to stall even in Northeast Ohio’s hills. A buddy of mine in high school got a Renegade CJ-5 for his 16th birthday; that thing was potentially deadly. A short wheelbase, a small block V8 (the 304’s in these cars were nothing to laugh at) and a bunch of high school boys means we ended up rolling it one autumn evening. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and even the Jeep had minimal damage.
Something like that would make a great third car; I’d love one to take to the sand dunes we have here in Western Michigan. But really, I want something fast again…
Thank goodness I’m not an impulse buyer, or I would have owned about 50 automotive albatrosses by now. And I’m familiar with the W. Mich. sand dunes, having grown up in northern Indiana.
1979 was not a vintage year for any vehicle. Late malaise era. Run away screaming…..
CC- effect strikes again – saw today what Wikipedia tells me is a CJ-10 pickup, unfortunately was not able to get a photo.
That red one is a looker. Here’s my version of jeeping.