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Anyone ever Fly and Drive?


DDJeep89
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Several years ago I took to flipping XJs for a year, I flipped one a month. 

 

It's not as easy or lucrative as you might think. 

 

Sellers do not like to deal with out of the area buyers, you are a hassle to them. 

 

As a buyer you will know, or should know, a particular deal is yours or its not yours, it either 'feels' right or it doesn't, you'll pass on six for every one you buy. 

 

I took a ride back to Clearwater with a visiting family member, the only way I was getting back is if I made a purchase. It's stressful, the deals were not there for me, I had limited time and I had to use a borrowed car to look for buys. 

 

One seller sold out from under me while I was halfway to Atlanta. 

 

Sellers are not always available when you are in the area. 

 

32 pics and 6 phone conversations........you travel, only to find out it's POS that you know will not make it home. 

 

Bought my MJ in Atlanta, tire blew in Murphy NC, I was forced to buy a set of tires from Walmart just to make it home as the remaining three would not make the rest of the trip. 

 

 

 

 

If you think you're going to fly to LA, uber to the sellers house, plop down a wad of cash and drive home in your dream XJ...........eh........probably not. 

 

 

 

Sounds like you have some money- There are professional hunters who send you a full inspection report and ship one that you accept, maybe that's an option. 

 

 

 

I know you are not flipping Jeeps, just saying I've had plenty enough experience hunting. 

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20 hours ago, Jeep Driver said:

Live there 40 Years first 40 years of my life never saw a car rust because of so-called Ocean Spray it's just total bull$#!& it doesn't happen.

 

Obviously you've never lived in coastal Maine.

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10 hours ago, TheDude said:

I have a 2000 2wd absolutely rust free Cherokee in Pittsburgh PA if you're interested.

 

I also happen to have everything to make it 4wd if you wanted.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for the offer Dude. I'm really looking for a 4x4. I'm still working on the MJ so I don't think I could commit to making a conversion for quite a while.

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8 hours ago, Jeep Driver said:

Several years ago I took to flipping XJs for a year, I flipped one a month. 

 

It's not as easy or lucrative as you might think. 

 

Sellers do not like to deal with out of the area buyers, you are a hassle to them. 

 

As a buyer you will know, or should know, a particular deal is yours or its not yours, it either 'feels' right or it doesn't, you'll pass on six for every one you buy. 

 

I took a ride back to Clearwater with a visiting family member, the only way I was getting back is if I made a purchase. It's stressful, the deals were not there for me, I had limited time and I had to use a borrowed car to look for buys. 

 

One seller sold out from under me while I was halfway to Atlanta. 

 

Sellers are not always available when you are in the area. 

 

32 pics and 6 phone conversations........you travel, only to find out it's POS that you know will not make it home. 

 

Bought my MJ in Atlanta, tire blew in Murphy NC, I was forced to buy a set of tires from Walmart just to make it home as the remaining three would not make the rest of the trip. 

 

 

 

 

If you think you're going to fly to LA, uber to the sellers house, plop down a wad of cash and drive home in your dream XJ...........eh........probably not. 

 

 

 

Sounds like you have some money- There are professional hunters who send you a full inspection report and ship one that you accept, maybe that's an option. 

 

 

 

I know you are not flipping Jeeps, just saying I've had plenty enough experience hunting. 

Jeep Driver- I never thought about a professional hunter. Funds are not unlimited but I'm prepared to spend money if the right deal comes along.

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21 hours ago, Jeep Driver said:

 

If the buyer wants to drive from Washington State or Arizona he could knock himself out I ain't I ain't flying that far and I ain't driving that far for a $2,000 car

This....   I had no trouble finding over 5 rust free  XJs in Philadelphia area. And I paid $1000 and less for them.....   just be patient and diligent in your searches.  Expect to drive out and look at a few before you actually find it.   I wouldn’t spend $350+ for an air fare and $800 in fuel to buy a $1000-$2000 XJ in addition to the time & distance traveled. 

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Makes me think of how I ended up with the mj.  Half asleep bid on eBay and thought I would be outbid lol.  Week later drove to Billings MT to pick up a truck I hadn't seen before wondering WTH I was doing.  Plus side.  ND and MT don't use salt or deicer on the roads so rust is minimal around here.  Can spot a Minnesota vehicle from a mile away though with all the salt and deicer they use.

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I've purchased 4 Jeeps remotely in the past 12-15 years.  One on eBay (Indiana), one from a national search on carsforsale.com (PA and it was rust free) and two from Craigslist. Both from the Carolinas.  Transported all but the one from PA because I traded something toward it.  The negotiation process is tedious as most sellers want you to see the vehicle and negotiate in their driveway.  That's reasonable.  However, I have proof it can be done remotely.  Restores my faith in mankind.  Fly and Drive is too costly IMO.  

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Florida has salt air and will not out a Jeep quick. The south has tons of rain which rots them out from the inside. They also think they are worth way to much.

I have flown and drove a few times. Utah and Colorado are good for finding nice rigs. The desert will be rust free but the sun bakes the seals, rubber, paint and interiors.

I buy tons of cars and northern AZ and NV along with UT and CO are my go to places. Good luck and if you are a true car lover the trip home after buying makes all worth it.

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15 hours ago, Strokermjcomanche said:

What's your budget? Ever thought of having it shipped to you ? I've done this with great success. 

If I find the right one I could spend between 5-8 grand. Since my original post I have looked at some shipping options. I'm thinking if I'm patient enough I'll be able to find one within driving distance. I think I'd probably be willing to drive up to 5-6 hrs.

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Well, It did take me as long as I'd thought to find what I was looking for. I found this beauty in Lexington KY. I bought it off a woman in her mid 70's. She took amazing care of this Cherokee. It has a little over 114,000 on it and has ZERO rust. I even pulled the carpet up to check for rust on the floor pans. She got a little nervous when I was doing it and said "I hope you know what your doing?". She bought it brand new and the majority of the miles where put on up until 2003 when she retired. She had every service record right down to oil changes. She was a single woman and said she was the only one to ever drive it. I don't think the rear seats have even been sat in. I picked it up for $3,700.00. She decided to get rid of it because of back issues and it was getting difficult to get in and out of and she wanted a small car. The trim and flares where faded pretty bad so I repainted them this weekend. It's pretty close to the grey factory color. I'm not sure if I'll leave it or take it to get the grey repainted professionally, but good enough for now. 

 

Thanks to everyone for the advice! I ended up renting a car and driving the XJ back to PA in one day. It will be my daily driver for now. This weekend I'm going to fluid film the under carriage to keep the winter road salt at bay if I decide to drive it in the winter.

Ol_Red.jpg

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1 hour ago, DDJeep89 said:

I used Krylon Fusion. I had used it once before in black for the flares on my TJ and they turned out really nice.

I used the same recently on mine, not bad at all. What color grey was that? I did black for now to see if I wanted to change up but I like the original grey/Argent color better. 

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12 hours ago, bluenotenick said:

Curious how you found it? Craigslist or something else? Excellent find by the way.

I had told a buddy of mine I was looking for one. He has a 99' XJ and had a 95' that he got rid of a few years ago so he new what to look for. Turned out his neighbor down the street decided to sell this one. He told me if I didn't buy it, he was going to buy it. She was going to list it on Craigslist but I told my buddy to have her hold off until I could come down to check it out.

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8 hours ago, FrankTheDog said:

Well bought at $3,700. You got yourself a nice ride.

Thanks. The only thing it needs is the window tint redone. It's pretty much purple. I started removing it last night and what a pain in the rear end. I'm using a hand held steamer. It works real well but very slow and so far I've done the passenger side windows which took an hour and a half.

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42 minutes ago, DDJeep89 said:

Thanks. The only thing it needs is the window tint redone. It's pretty much purple. I started removing it last night and what a pain in the rear end. I'm using a hand held steamer. It works real well but very slow and so far I've done the passenger side windows which took an hour and a half.

That's the type of thing that I'd pay for, they do it all the time and know what they're doing. 

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Just now, Jeep Driver said:

That's the type of thing that I'd pay for, they do it all the time and know what they're doing. 

I 100% agree. I'm just removing the old stuff. I think there are some things that are better of being done by a trained professional and I think window tinting is one of them. Every place I called wanted at least an extra $125-$175 if they had to remove the old stuff. I figured I'd save myself a little cash and it's easy to do just time consuming.

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