ExpatMJGuy

Until I retired I’ve always had a car as a commuter. I might drive my Jeep or my truck one day every few weeks but mainly I drove my car. My commute with Atlanta traffic was an hour to two hours each way, average length 1 hour 20 minutes by the time I retired. I figured out every 4 weeks I easily put in a 40 hour work week in my car and I easily did 100 miles a day. I drove 10 years to that job in 4 vehicles as my commuter car. 2005 Jetta GLI, 2012 Jetta TDI, a 2015 Nissan Leaf, and back to a 2015 Jetta gas one. I can’t remember the trim. Before that in 2008 and 2009 I drove an 04 Jetta 270 miles From Fayetteville NC to Charlotte once a week and in my 13th month I drove it that 270 miles daily till I graduated from UTI. I know me some commuting in Jettas. The leaf was great till the chargers at work died and it was decided they wouldn’t be repaired. And if it weren’t for the Dieselgate buyback I’d drove that TDI into the ground. As stated earlier it was great on fuel, and those things are reliable as can be. When I got my gas one to replace the leaf the TDI models weren’t for sale yet but was still a great car! The cheaper fuel almost offset the mpg gains of the diesel. But the diesel at least pre modification was king. In my experience while I like the looks of the 4th Gen Jetta better than the 5th, 6th, or 7th. The 6th Gen was more reliable by far! I never had anything major wrong with my 04 or 05 Jettas that wasn’t caused by me just lots of little crap. Knobs, buttons, well… I did have a coil die one time. 6th Gen vehicles were ROCK solid. Nothing but scheduled maintenance. I had a buddy have to change some bushings on his but that’s it! I didn’t like the gawdy chrome grill of the 5th Gen and I don’t like the interior of this new 7th Gen. So I guess I skip generations. When I retired I decided I wanted to do more car restoration and my commute was cut next to nothing so fuel economy wasn’t a thing. I traded my Jetta and sold my old truck for my 2019 Nissan Frontier which hauls old cars and heavy loads better than my old 4 cyl 2000 Frontier did. IF I were to go back to commuting though first I’d try it out with my Subaru BRZ but those race seats and long commutes may not be a good mix. If were on a budget then back to the TDI Jettas. Mid 2010s is where it’s at for value. If I decided do buy a new or newer vehicle I’d go with the Subaru Legacy. In recent years I feel Volkswagen has screwed me over 1 too many times. Both at the Corporate level when dealing with Dieselgate with our trade (a whole separate and crazy story) and the local level at the closest Dealership. Our family owned VW was bought out by big box Autonation and since then everything involving that building has turned to Crap. Sales, Service and Parts! By the time I drive to another part of town to go to another VW Dealership I can be at a Subaru dealership. * So I can vouch for the Volkswagens but with Caveats.*

As I'm looking at this Jeep more and more, @Pete MI'm thinking you may have another bed to come pick up and it's right down the road. LOL As I get into it so far... yeah there's no crazy rust yet but there's lots of surface rust spots under the hood. You want to do it right you need strip it down to the bare truck without the engine and such to get to that surface rust before it becomes more than surface. That's a big restoration job when there is much cleaner stuff out there cheap. Tried to put power to it nothing. No headlights nothing. Body ground has continuity. Hot power to the starter. Replaced all the fuses. I see a lot of roads lead through the ignition switch which barely turns but still doesn't explain the headlights not working. Some of the wire under the hood seems brittle. Was going to hunt the yellow fuse box feed wire but gave up and decided I was done for the day.

I’m in Georgia, but until I sell what is essentially for you guys is a D40 Navara I still have the ability to trailer my MJ to any port. If my Jeep is where I want it to be when it ships, I can drive it there even if it’s a distance. I know it will most likely be cheaper going out of the west coast. I still have to look at cost difference of using an East coast port vs the fuel to drive across the country. I’ve already learned all Kinds of stuff. I’m aware of pre approval from the Aus govt before you even start. I’m aware of the asbestos certs before you even leave the country and all the rules and fees about them having to wash the vehicle in quarantine. I’m also aware about once it gets cleared at the port it will need to be trailered to a mechanic where they will inspect it for a red or blue slip. And then I can take my slip to Transport NSW for “rego.” I just haven’t decided on who I want to hire to actually put the Jeep on the ocean. I know there can be SO MANY hang ups at this point with the port on either side. I know the right shipping agent can make it break this experience and word of mouth is prolly the best way to find the right agent.

Sweet thanks Eagle! And thanks Pete. That glass is making it's way into my shortbed for sure then! I got a factory solid pane and what I found out after I bought it is an aftermarket slider but I like idea of factory glass! Solid pane will go in if I try to save this thing! Did it not show the original selling dealer this time? And does anyone know what the earliest build dates are for these things?

1986, Jeep, Comanche (maybe X at this age emblems can lie) 2.8v6 / AX-15 / 4wd / Long Bed Buford, GA ( I know it's been in Tennessee based on it's title) Status: Parts vehicle maybe someone else's future project I own her. Picked Her up last night. I honestly bought her so I could do an interior swap for that sexy factory black interior. But there are many other useful parts that I plan to steal or swap. Her final disposition is undecided. She also is 4wd and main MJ is a 2WD! So I have everything for a 4wd upgrade outside a rear drive shaft. I might revive her, or I might part her out. Lots of good unique or rare parts. You can tell that at some point she was owned by some kids that did not treat her well. Engine is a 2.8 v8 that most likely is toast. It was taken out off-roading, then they got water in the intake and hydro locked the engine. It sat in that state for a long time (like years) with no since of urgency to get the water out. There's rust on the rockers so it's a long shot and I don't have great expectations but I think I might try to at least attempt to get her going. Outside of that from underneath the floorboards look solid but truth will be revealed when I pull the carpet. If the engine is unsalvageable and the floors are rotted out, I'll most likely part her out. If the floor boards are clean and I can get several little things like the doors to line up better, even with a bad engine I will prolly send her on to a new home after I swap her interior for grey. I might do it and try to turn a profit if I can find a cheap v8. I just hate seeing good MJs trashed for a few basic parts. Tomorrow we will start to find this out. I'm done for the day after playing yard, garage, and driveway Tetris with running and non-running vehicles. If someone has a lead on that black strip at the bottom of the dash and an ashtray I'd appreciate it. Oh and someone has already swapped the BA10 for an AX-15 so BONUS! Also can anyone tell me if this is factory or aftermarket back glass?

I just picked up a second MJ last night and plan to do a full interior swap because it’s that’s full black interior with rare MJ specific black leather buckets. I’m going to shoot video of it for YouTube and make it so I can watch myself disassemble when it comes time for reassembly. I’ll snap lots of still pics and can post them up here as well. I plan on getting started in the next 24 to 48 hours because I want to get the parts I need off this second MJ and need it gone. I don’t want to have so much overhead in parts i don’t need or worry about where I’m going to store the whole Jeep as I live in a subdivision and parking space for all my normal cars much less my projects is in short supply. Not only that but we’ll be moving hopefully in about a year. Today’s project, get it off the trailer and move all the cars around so I can begin working on it. On that note we’re planning a move to Australia as soon as our visas are approved. I need to arrange shipping for my MJ to take it with me. I’ve been in contact with a guy that’s imported Jeeps to NSW from America but the shipping company that he used for all 3 Jeeps has folded. What company did you use and would you use them again? Thanks!

I think if you take the wheels off those rims and get them sand blasted they will turn out good! They just need a little TLC!

@Pete MGA has inspections only if you're trying to bring a rebuilt title across state lines or your trying to upgrade a title from salvage to rebuilt. Honestly I didn't know that either and if I did then I wouldn't have touched this Jeep with a 10 foot pole. Tax Collectors Office gives you a list of available inspectors in each county. You call one on the list and you either take the car to them or you can pay to have them come to you. I understand if it's legit coming from salvage to rebuilt but in my situation I think it's a load of crap. If it was inspected in another state and already registered in that state then it should be good to go and not need reinspecting. My door even has the FL rebuilt tag in the door. My situation is even more insulting because the Jeep was never in a wreck. It was stolen and had it's wheels stolen and left on blocks. Previous owner put new wheels on it had it inspected and kept on rolling!

He's new he may not know about them. It took me several weeks before I knew them much less his website. @JWheeler331 go to http://cruiser54.com. This is where u start when dealing with electrical issues.

I bought it because it was already inspected and passed in FL. I even drove it home from Miami Florida. When I got it home I took the title to the tag office and expected to register it just like any other vehicle. NOPE. So I went through the red tape and found out who needs to inspect it, and got it scheduled and even paid extra to have the inspector come to me. Why not? It just passed in FL just a few months prior. I even bought frilly parts for it the morning of the inspection. Then it was a blow to get kicked back. I was amazed. Cars in South Georgia are driven in much worse shape but they can be on the road legally because they have clean titles. My Jeep has never been in an accident but because the title has a BS brand, I can't get it on the road. BUT things work out the way they are supposed to. That green Jeep showed up right when I needed it to.

2001 Jeep Cherokee Limited 4.0L 6 Cal, AW4, NP 231 Transfer Case, Dana 30 Front and Chrysler 8.25 axles 2/01 Build This is my $800 XJ! If you've seen my other post about my parts XJ this is it's companion. I was looking into replacing my rusty crap title Jeep's floorpans and then this one appeared for sale at a real small mechanic shop right down the street from where I worked. It's previous owner didn't want to pay for it's repair bill and still owed Diag money to the Mechanic as well as the A/C work he previously did on the Jeep. I contacted the owner and worked a 3 way deal to essentially pay off the mechanic for them and get the Jeep if he brought and signed over the title and it worked! It has a bad 4.0 engine. Start it and it sounds like a tank is coming! I'm currently in the process of moving the engine over from my 99XJ. I'll test the auto transmission out to verify it and then move the rest of the 99XJ driveline to this Jeep.

1999 Jeep Cherokee Sport 4.0L 6 Cal, AX15 Manual Transmission, NP 231 Transfer Case, Dana 30 Front and Chrysler 8.25 axles 3/99 Build This is my parts Jeep. I bought this Jeep in FL with a rebuilt title and honestly paid too much for it. It is super clean and mechanically is excellent order! Rebuilt title because it was stolen and recovered after it had already been written off from the insurance company. I got it back to GA and found out that GA doesn't just accept out of state rebuilt titles. SO I had to get it inspected again by a DOT Inspector. I paid one to come out confident there would be no issues. NOPE.. Previous owner painted over the rust spots on the undercarriage to hide them. Inspector knocked on the floor pans with the back of this screw driver and a quarter size hole appeared and then he failed me for inspection. I was going to get the floorpans replaced and be done with it, but I was out driving around and found the next XJ I'm about to register for $800! Since it has absolutely NO RUST and a clean title I decided I was going to move the driveline over to the other Jeep and use this one for parts. Rust is a cancer and once it starts you'll always be battling it, plus I just don't want to deal with the title issues. My thought at the time was even if I get it dealt with it and fix the rust we will always have a value hit because of the title type and be a PITA if we move. And here it is a few years later we're not just leaving the state but the country! Once I'm done building my MJ and finish my other XJ parts will appear for sale!

That's one nice truck. When people purchase and post makes me wonder how much everyone paid. (you don't have to say) I just know costs for prime specimen MJs keep going up.

I think sometimes people say it's "done" when it's about 3/4 and hoping you don't notice and if you do they just say well what do you expect from a 30 year old vehicle. But reality they prolly just got it to a point where they have it back together enough get it sold and price it like that to try to get back as much as they can. I actually don't mind the fact that mine is purchased were it is at the very beginning states of a restoration but very drivable. I know where I am, where I've been, and where I want to be at any given time.

It happens to the best of us! My buddy that I bought my MJ from still has two more of them an XJ, and a Silverado! He went back to college so to save on money he moved back in with his parents and his dad told him he has too many cars and that some of his cars gotta go! SO... even though I'm leaving the country I decided to take one on and try to squeeze it in with what time I have left. If it were any vehicle but an MJ I'd turned him down. Once I realized that the vehicle was a North America vehicle only I realized it would be crazy rare over there and IF I ever decided to sell it, (never gonna happen) that it would be worth more overseas due to it's rarity so it would most likely offset my shipping cost in value. IF IF things fall through and our VISAs don't get approved I want a second one. I think when I finish this one I'll start a 97+ interior one since it won't need to clear customs. I know that route is long tough and arduous but it would be so worth it when it's done!

AMEN it's not just up in New England. You have no idea what it's like in the south! Every dang Red Neck kid that gets his hands on one of these without any idea of the rarity seems to chop it up to turn it into some crazy rock crawler or super mudder and absolutely DESTROYS the truck! Unfortunately, many times he's got more in it with tires and lift than he does in the actual truck! So he treats the truck like garbage and when he finally destroys it beyond it's usefulness he takes his tires and lift and moves it to another Jeep and sometimes tries to sell the junk but often time it ends up in the scrapper or even more likely rusting to oblivion out in his back 40. When it becomes an eyesore and his parents tell him he's got to do something about it or they try to sell the property the Jeep is sitting on they will often put it on Facebook Marketplace without a title so that no one will even possibly get the chance to revive it. They just want it gone at this point and want you to come and get it with little effort on their part and even if you try to throw a $100 bucks their pay and pay their title fees for them to get a legit title they just won't move. I mean I've offered $100 bucks for them to show up for 30 minutes at the tag office and sign a paper and they just won't do it. They'd rather it go away now with no effort and knowing its only outcome will be getting crushed. SMH And then others end up like you said... half completed projects that end up being too much for someone and disposed of by whatever means to get most of their money back and many times it's a part out because the truck is worth more in pieces than it is whole. SMH I just hate when people get into these trucks and never really understand what they have or the work it's going to be in the end and add to their demise rather than help prevent it. Then there's people like many of us trying to save these things but many times you just feel out numbered. It's sad.

I have to pick and choose with spare parts but I’m still after them. Luckily I’m selling a lot of stuff before I leave the country because my household goods will be expensive to ship. It’s a bit of offset but I still have to watch my spending before such a large move.

Yeah, I suspected it might be down a layer but it’s still not bad and should be an easy fix. I’ll have it fixed when it goes into the body shop for paint in a few months. If the body shop tells me it’s not worth it I’ll start the hunt for another one either way it’s better than what I was working with, which in a bind is now in my attic.

Well I have only had my MJ about a month or so now and I've been spending a lot of time researching and hunting parts but I've got a few things down. I like the idea of having this space as a way to document my build. First thing was I found out why my wipers didn't even touch the glass. I didn't really take pics but instead took videos and plan to do a future YouTube video on how I worked on it. So everyone can be looking forward to that in the not so distant future. Updated the plug to the Chrysler from the AMC plug and replaced the rack from a parts Cherokee I have. Someone cracked the actual stud the wiper arms sit on with my original. Still need to find a wiper delay module right now it's bypassed. Up next was finding out why my turn signals didn't work. I simply changed a fuse and cleaned up a connection at the actual fuse block was such a quick fix I didn't document it. Up next I started looking at wiring in my dash and starting to figure out some issues with my instrument cluster. My cluster had red white and blue LEDs. I have no idea why someone would want to have a single cluster that looks like the American Flag. BUT I put all green LEDs in and then checked the bulbs on all of the warning lights. Of course someone pulled the bulb on the check engine light rather than find out what the problem was. With help of the community I labeled all of the wiring behind the dash and cleaned everything up. While I was up in Wisconsin over Christmas I luckily decided to hit up the marketplace for Comanche parts while I was in a new market. Picked up a new tailgate, back glass, a set of rims and a bunch of other small parts on the cheap! I learned that they all come down south and take our rust free parts up north and then they all end up being hoarded in barns and stuff. But because there's more parts up there the prices are cheaper. So tonight I decided to put the replacement tailgate on the truck. The tailgate I bought with the truck had absolutely very little rust but it was overloaded at some point and had a bow to it. Getting it open and shut was a PITA. When I drove the truck home on the first day I actually hit a bump and fell open. The new tailgate is real straight and only has a very minor bit of surface rust that can hopefully be taken care of when the truck goes in for paint in the spring. Once I got the tailgate on the truck I realized the handle needs work and the support hardware on the right side of the tailgate was broken. I looked at the hardware of my original tailgate and decided to make a hardware swap. After a few good hits with Lithium Grease my original handle as well as the crusty old one came with my new tailgate moved real well. After the hardware and handle swap it's looking good. Up next... According to the last owner he did the floorboards rust prevention and sound deadening mat. When he threw it back together to sell it, he didn't put the shift boot in. So I need to pull it up and verify his work and put the shifter boot back in place. Pulling the trim to get the carpet up will also allow me to look at the wiring harness going to the back of the cab as I have dome lights to test and a new cargo light and rear cab harness to support it. I'd love to do a console and bucket seat conversion if I can find the right seats. I want to keep things stock and I don't want to fab as much as possible as it will need to pass several inspections upon entry into Australia in a year or two and I don't want any hang ups. I also have a new clock coming in and I need to get a good look at brakes. So lots of stuff coming!

$10,700 was the closing price. I don't know if that crossed the reserve but IF they got it at $10,700 and there's nothing lurking besides broken A/C they got a really good deal. I'm jealous. Definitely where I aspire for my truck to eventually be. Who in their right mind would donate that to someone?!?!

It's an 88 Comanche Pioneer. Unfortunately though I'm finding super expensive to be the name of the entire game when it comes to taking my truck with me when we move. All will be worth it though when she's sitting in front of my house with New South Wales plates on her and only one of less than a handful of MJs on the entire continent of Australia.

Is this a difficult thing for a body shop to order? Someone has painted over mine. It would be a good idea to get mine replaced before it gets put on the boat overseas.

I highly recommend this. I recently started a thread and asked a bunch of questions because my dash came to me in pieces. The previous owner basically just threw the Jeep back together so he could sell it. I saw all the random unused connectors in the first few days of owning the truck and felt overwhelmed at first. Between you guys help and a 88 wiring manual it was easy peasy. It's a good place to start if we want to piece one together. We went over many of the dash plugs and some underhood ones. A pinned dedicated area of the site would be amazing reference pieces new owners can go to and get this info and a space that we can point to during conversations when various plugs and wires come up when troubleshooting instead of reinventing the wheel every time a question comes up and a plug is referenced. A Vacuum reference wouldn't be a bad idea either.

His buy it now price is crazy! Maybe if the a/c worked and you told me it didn't have a single dent and all services are up to date and the vehicle is turn key car show ready. Closer to the starting price that the buy now price. BUT, it is clean, and I AM Jealous when I see how much work mine needs to be where his is.

I'm ISO Grey or Black Bucket Seats with Frames for my 88. Specifically the Comanche seats. Since my Jeep will be leaving the country a year or two I am trying to stick to Comanche seats. I'm trying to keep fabrication at a minimum until my truck gets through all the customs and tech inspections for registration in Australia. I want to keep everything as stock as possible so there is less chances for issues. Might be willing to trade my bench seat depending on quality. I live in the Atlanta Metro and would be willing to travel within a days drive. Maybe a bit more if my roof tent will ever show up from the port. I have a trip to the Denver Rocky Mountain NP area planned to pickup my roof tent at the Crua warehouse in the next month or two where I'll be visiting family in Kansas along the way. So if you can wait till my stuff clears the ports and it's out that direction it might be an option. Thanks!