Should I buy a Gladiator?

[Sir Sam]

5 hours ago, derf said:

I've had half a dozen full size Jeeps over the years.  I've done a lot of the AMC V8s mostly.  Enough to never want to do another.  Parts are just about impossible to find.  Small block Chevy/LS swaps are well documented and stupid easy.  Both the 4L60 and 4L80 fit well in the tunnel.  An NV4500 works well too.

 

You can do a floor pan swap easy enough.  Dropping or clocking the tcase is easy enough too.

 

Lots of info on the FSJ forums.  http://www.fsjnetwork.com and http://www.ifsja.org are the two big ones.  And of course groups on facebook.

yup lots of info out there already. Right now this is more of a conceptual of what the project would be and how it would be executed. 
 

If I buy it I will store it a while, like a year, until I would get to it. I have some other projects I want to knock out first. So it gives me time to consider options. Mostly I’m just thinking if the body is in good shape I have the chance now to pick it up for a reasonable price that I should jump on it. I like the aesthetics of the early trucks and they seem way more classic to me than the newer ones. 

[buxmj]

Easy for the rest of us to say but I agree with everyone else. Just. Buy. It. It looks like it is in great shape and that would be a good thing to do is get it and sit on it to get your ducks in a row, meanwhile it is YOURS. 

 

Buck.

[Minuit]

I'm not very familiar with FSJs, especially the older ones. They're not really my thing I guess. But being a '65, I would expect there to be some amount of rust no matter what. I'm looking at this from the perspective of "yeah, that looks like more truck than rust. As long as the frame isn't completely gone, that's probably as good as you can reasonably expect" And being as old school body-on-frame as it gets, I'd guess that any structural rust repair would probably be easier on this than a Comanche.

 

No way I'd spend $2500 unless the frame was solid and it moved under its own power well enough to take a quick drive around the block at the very least. It doesn't look like that's the case from where I'm sitting. I'd probably be in on it at the $1200 mark give or take a couple hundred.

 

Drivetrain wise, I know I can be a bit of a purist but these things came with GM engines and transmissions straight from the factory. A fuel injected GM V8 would be just the modern update it needs to be a useful vehicle. It's my understanding that even factory V8 FSJs are slow as hell without much parts availability, but maybe I'm just thinking about the smog era AMC 360s here. Maybe the older GM engined ones are better?

 

Still think you should buy it. A mint flavored '65 FSJ with a modern powertrain would be a nice ride.