dasbulliwagen

Talk to your accountant about what would be better to write off at the end of the year as far as depreciation is concerned. A new one with a warranty might come out better on your end that way. I don't have any experience with them, but I do with the Promaster and Promaster City. The promaster gasoline version has a Chrysler minivan drivetrain, and the City has basically a Jeep Cherokee 4 cyl drivetrain. The dealer I worked for didnt sell many so I didnt get a ton of experience with them other than other vehicles with the same drivetrain, each of which had its own issues.

I did just over a year at a technical college in Nashville back in '91-92. Even at a tiny tech college I had vehicle issues. One guy said he saw a bug on the door of my carm and kicked it, caving in the door. That and I couldnt afford a reliable car so I just drove old VW Beetles which required constant upkeep. Later on I worked maintinance at a small private college in Michigan. I eventually moved into an apartment owned by the college just off campus, and even then I still had issues with stupid people and my cars. My Hyundai Accent got walked over, leaving dents in the hood and roof, and a footprint on my windsheild. I got luck with my Grand Wagoneer. Out of a line of 6 cars along a drive at the apartments, mine was the only one to NOT get its tires slashed, I think because I was nice to the guy who did it at some point in the past. I agree with finding a cheap beater after you get there. don't modify it in any way, just keep it stock, and if something happens, its no big deal. Like you said, you don't have to deal with rust in Nashville, so thats a plus for Longevity. Good luck.

As for transfer case shifter, youll need one that came from a vehicle with the same transfer case as yours, so that the linkages are the correct length. youll need the body side bracket as well to support the cross bar, don't forget that.

They changed the style of the header panel mounting between 86 and 87. I found this out when installing an 86 Wagoneer header panel on my 87 Comanche. I think the earlier one has the bolts on the header panel and the later ones have studs on the fender, so bolting through and tightening down from the inside is an option.

I agree, better brakes, better rear axle, Metric ton leaf springs, trans cooler, upgraded radiator. Just make sure you see the big picture and address everything that will make it better for your intended use.

Trying to compete with the Escalade. I'm working in a Chevy Cadillac dealer now and a fully loaded Escalade is over $100,000. Its bad enough too, a highly equipped Suburban or Tahoe can be well into the $80,000's. I'm curious to see one in person. I loved the old '80's Wagoneer I had.

I ran 17" JK takeoffs for several years at close to stock height with minor rubbing. When I say close to stock height, I mean a 2.5 2wd, converted to 4wd from a 2.8, with an extra isolator added to the spring, and longer shackles in the rear on the 2wd springs for about 1" rear lift or equal to 4wd springs. The JK takeoffs run close to 32" tall.

If youre lifting more than 3 inches, a set of control arm drop brackets will help greatly with ride quality. Also, don't cheap out on shocks. I'm at around 6 inches with drop brackets, adjustable control arms, and Bilstein 5100 shocks, it rides almost like stock, which is exactly what I was going for. And keep your sway bar. Lots of guys say it isnt necessary, but if youre on road dailying, its a good idea to keep it. Add disconnects to it if you want to, but keep it. Upgrades are also easily available from other models to give an even better on road feel while cornering.

If those are the Rubicon Express 5.5" lift springs, they will settle a little over time. Mine have come down at least an inch over a three year period, and that's with a 2.5L engine. If you have a 4.0 and will be off roading, they will settle faster. This might give you the look you want with the rake, or you may have to adjust again later if you set it the way you want it right now.

JK shocks will work with minor modification, but thats about it on a stock MJ. I ran a set of the black ones on mine for years before I lifted it.

I used to live in Battle Creek, Michigan, home of Fort Custer ANG base. When I was younger, we would see the A10's doing training runs all the time. I love those things. The local regional airport was connected to the Air base and thus has a runway that can land just about anything. My grandfather was Army air force during WW2 and loved everything miltary aircraft or just plain cool. He heard about British Airways sending a bunch of pilots over for some sort of training flying in the Concorde! He got my dad and I to come with him and we watched the Concorde land and take back off in Battle Creek! That was an awesome sight. This was before they were all grounded, obviously.

You have to ask about it, or at least get a friend to do it for you. That truck needs to come back home to you.

I went my own way with the stickers.Going with my abominable theme, the tree line made sense.

The lights and light bar are holding up great. The Rust-Oleum bed liner spray on the bar is still looking good. I haven't done much with it in a while, but here a recent pic

The Cannonball Run movies.... The scenes with the Countach is what dreams are made of. Not really a car movie, but there is a VW bus that is a major character in this movie... Little Miss Sunshine The Original Herbie movies. I havent seen it yet, but I want to.... Ford vs Farrari

I had to custom make brackets to bolt the XJ rear bumper on. They are the square plates that come down from the rear edge of the bed in the pics. Not shown is the forward supports that are welded to the plates to tie into existing bolt holes in the rear frame rails.

Found it, Snap-On, or at least as close as I think youll find. $48 12–14 mm 6-Point Metric Flank Drive® Standard 10° Offset Box Wrench | XBM1214SA | Snap-on Store (snapon.com)

Just as an update, all that stuff got installed. I wired the power doors up and the header panel was plug and play. here's some more recent pics! I even did an XJ rear bumper, as my truck was originally rear bumper delete.

Happens all the time, I notice it while doing my weekly grocery shopping. The shampoo bottle is smaller, but not that much smaller that it is easily noticed, same with bags of Santitas tortilla chips. They were a 16 oz bag, now they are 11, in the same size bag, for the same price. I'm with you! if you need to raise the price, just raise the damned price instead of screwing with our minds! At what point do they decrease the size so much that the product becomes unusable? They have no problem raising tuition, or car prices, or real estate.

I looked up Big Johnson Jeeps on Facebook, it goes to a shop in Texas. I assume that's not correct?

Hyundai is doing the same thing. The Santa Cruz pickup has been in the works for a few years. It appears to be a similar setup as this Maverick and it isnt bad looking. I actually had a maverick 25 years or so ago. I bought it as a winter beater in Michigan. Other than the rust and a minor fender bender by the previous owner, it was a really clean low milage $350 car. 250 inline 6, C4 auto, 9" rear end. I had a car pull out in front of me and I T-boned them. Bad thing too was I was on a restricted license because of too many speeding tickets. The cop couldnt figure out whos fault it was, so no tickets were issued, lucky me, even though it wasnt my fault. It was a weird situation with a paved shoulder for passing, a school bus stopped turning left and a third car sitting at a stop sign that got hit by the car that I hit. Sorry, I got off on a tangent. Being a hybrid, this Maverick is something I may consider in the future, though Ill never get rid of my Comanche, so I probably won't ever need another truck.

Yes, pull the fan out and inspect. theres probably stuff in there too. My donor truck had the HVAC housing full of mouse house. I completely disassembled and cleaned it all before I installed it in my truck adding AC.

I agree with the 17's. JK stock 17's are right at 32" stock. I'm running stock JK size on aftermarket 17's with adapters at about 6" of lift. With the aftermarket tires I get minor rubbing on the lower edges of the fender flares. Though I ran stock JK takeoffs for a while with almost no lift. there was only minor rubbing in the front, and only rubbed in the rear under a heavy load. The front has settled at least an inch since I installed the lift.

The 86 XJ Wagoneer Limited that I got all my conversion parts from was a cash for clunkers trade in. I was lucky I worked at a dealership where they let us take stuff off the cars. That Waggy was spotless in excelent rust free condition. I wish I knew then what I know now about them, I would have saved more stuff off of it. But yeah, that program really screwed up the used car market in the US. And junk yards were only giving $50 each for the cars, which was really low considering that scrap values at the time were high. I guess with the junk yards not able to sell engine or transmission parts, and they had to scrap them totally within a certain period of time, made their overhead cost a bit higher too.

Except that the prices are going up...