Bringing back a family truck to greatness! (maybe)

[DzienManche]

This truck has been in my family since it rolled off the line in '86. My late Uncle purchased this truck with my dad buying a lesser trim line at the same time. My Dad's truck has since been long gone, but my uncle maintained and kept this truck pretty nice through the years, using it for "normal truck things" including loaning it to friends who didn't treat the rear bumper so nice. My Uncle passed a number of years ago suddenly from a heart attack and my dad used this truck for a year or so. It could handle towing a decently sized boat, from my young perspective haha. Afterwards, my Grandfather took the truck back to his place where it was parked out front of his house in the Florida sun for years and years, only being driven very seldom, as he is elderly and doesn't move around well anymore. He had always talked about selling it to someone for little of nothing to get rid of it, which I finally had the means to say, "I'll pay whatever you want so we can keep it in the family and I can restore it." After some thought, he and my grandma decided to give it to me! I immediately scheduled some vacation from work to drive down from VA, where I live now, to Florida in order to pick it up and drive it back home. I didn't want to stress the back end because it hadn't been seriously driven in a long time so I got a Uhaul that took all four wheels off the ground instead of the front end trailer.

 

After unloading it and working on it this past 7-8 months, I found that the mechanic who my grandfather trusted and kept it maintained had actually been sabotaging the MJ, as he always asked my grandfather that he'd take it off his hands for a few hundred dollars. I found quite a few problems with his "repairs". He had also recommended to my grandfather to put in an alarm system which he drilled a hole, without grommet, through the firewall and created a rats nest of wires which was causing many electrical problems with how Gerry-rigged the hole system was. What do you guy think? And no real rust to speak of, just small surface stuff. 

 

So far I've:

Flushed the coolant system

Replaced a broken overflow coolant reservoir

Taken out the keyless/alarm system

Fixed turn signals/headlight/hazards electrical issues
Replaced tail light lenses

Replaced rear Diff fluid

Oil change

Fixed a rust spot in engine Bay from broken coolant res leak issue

Replaced exhaust/CC delete

Replaced instrument cluster and shifter lights

Fixed WW motor parking issue and replaced intermittent module

Upgraded the headlights

changed sockets on front turn signals/indicators

scrubbed and treated the rear bumper for some rust spots.

 

What's left (For now):

Trans filter replacement and fluid replacement

Paint correction/repaint

re-pinstripe (peeling but still on)

Fix/polish wheels

Adjust RPM on stock cluster

Rear leaf spring replacement

front shock replacement

Replace turn signal and wiper lever

 

Pie in the sky wants:
Possible engine swap and upgrade, including trans. (need to figure out what all I need for this, like model year and type of engine and trans.)

complete color scheme change (To make the truck really mine) but I'm not sold on wanting to do this.

Upgrade to complete digital layout possibly for all instrument cluster

Lift after engine upgrade?

 

[neohic]

Very sharp looking MJ! 

[DzienManche]

24 minutes ago, neohic said:

Very sharp looking MJ! 

Thanks!

[Pete M]

awesome survivor! 

 

being in the same family counts so be sure to add it to the OG original owners thread in the Pub.   

[Drahcir495]

Great story and a clean looking truck 

[fiatslug87]

Nice, has a lot of factory options 

[AverageJoe10]

Beautiful rig! Any chance you'll trade your bucket seats for a bench seat?  lol

 

Interior looks great 

[buxmj]

Thanks for sharing and that is a great story. I would lean towards keeping it stock, especially if the original paint is in good shape. I think the carpet should clean up nicely with some elbow grease. Congrats and welcome to the madness!