Finding Old MJs

[kaidenlem]

Today I found out some information I did not want to hear.  Back in 2009 or 2010 my grandfather traded his 1986 Jeep Comanche long bed, blue, with the 2.8 v6.  Recently I’ve been looking at buying one, and I had a guy from a towing company run the vin number.  It came back to an owner that lived very close to where my grandfather got rid of it.  So yesterday I went down south looking for it, but could not find it.  I messaged the owner on Facebook, and called the number with no answer yesterday.  This morning he messaged me back on Facebook that the truck had been scrapped about 15 minutes away a few years ago.  The funny part is, the scrapyard only pays $130 per ton of steel, which means he only got $200 or so.  This is where my story ends, either I’ll try to find where the scrapped one went to (I know, silly idea), or buy another one to fix it up exactly like the one my grandfather had.  Any suggestions on ideas? I would like to at least find out where the scrapped one went to, whether it was crushed, or went to a salvage yard somewhere.  What are your suggestions?

[Jargon]

If it was a few years ago the truck is likely gone. But I would keep checking until you confirm that's the case. Even if it's in a salvage yard, probably 50% of it is now gone. Bummer. But the 2.8L wasn't the best engine either, so you'd be better off buying another one and fixing it up to match your grandfather's anyway. 

[gogmorgo]

Depending on the yard, yeah I know a couple that don't crush things until the bones are picked clean... but in most cases a couple years is pushing it. Even if most of it is still there, some yards will refuse to sell the vehicle whole on top of it, whether due to provincial or state law, or simply a liability concern, and as brought up, even if they do sell it, you'll now be hunting for the rare parts that get snapped up quickly and a bunch of other random stuff. Plus there's a strong probability they drained fluids by punching holes in pans, or reckless shoppers have wrecked parts to get at others, and you don't know what happened to it at the last guy's hands to warrant scrapping it. 

 

By all means it's worth investigating and finding out whether it's worth recovering or not, but I wouldn't get too hopeful. I can appreciate sentimental value, but it's almost guaranteed to cost you less time and money finding one that's already on the road, or at least reasonably complete.