This is what got me hooked on the whole 'jeep' thing. My grandfather's 57' ****** CJ3B. Now it's mine and in a major rebuild. Someday she will roll again.

 

I got my 99 XJ from my parents to drive (was the old company car, and cheap) and to me then it was just a daily driver. happened upon this site last feb. trying to figure out a surging issue it was having. since then I've gotten into the off-roading and all. ended up getting a second XJ that we were going to part out. now I'm driving that one, and off-roading it, and starting to build it up.

 

What got me hooked was my first ride in AoA's XJ shortly after he bought it. I've seen the evolution of his Jeep thru pictures and became hooked.

 

ive been hooked before i was even born my grandpa had plenty of cjs when we were young he was a member of a club. and we have black and white pictures of him and my grandma on the trails and such. my parents had a tj that i blew up in high school. then my buddy took me ralling in his xj. after we rolled it in a feild 6months latter i bought it and his parts jeep and never looked back.
it went from a nothing pretty much to this in under three years of breaking and upgradeing .

 

I personally had always wanted a Wrangler, and starte actually looking into them after having gone through a few full size Chevy's and wanted to 'downgrade' a bit after getting sick of my 87 Suburban with 6" lift and 36's was only good for mud lol. I quickly found that decently clean Wranglers were a little rare and expensive, and came across a 98 Cherokee. Looked at it, drove it, and worked a deal (4" on 33's). Plan was just to use it for winter (which worked for the first winter), but then everyone wanted to trail ride. After 2 years and many runs she became a little worn out and required replacing. Now I'm onto a virgin 99 XJ and can't wait to break her in! (Her build up is in it's finishing stages, and sorry but no build thread)

 

For me started actually with my old mans 69 FJ-40 aka "Ugly Jeep" to me as a kid. Then they graduated to a 1988 Grand Wagoneer! Wood paneled and everything and we took it everywhere to boot. Then when i turned 16 i got my First XJ, my 86 pioneer nick-named Homer, cause well i punished the crap out of it and it kept going. After that i had the itch for a CJ-5, so after a year long rebuild my 73 CJ-5 rolled out of the garage for my 18th birthday. Unfortunatly it got wrecked, had it fixed but the frame started cracking..... so i bought a 95 ZJ.... well two trannies and a rear end later it sadly went too... then came my stupid 91 saturn..... boooooo!!! and everyone else boo too please hahaha... well i killed that POS and now i'm finally on Homer 2.0, the 01 XJ. Its not just a Jeep thing, but more of a Jeep Disease... and i dont want the cure!!!

 

Boooooo

Yay!!! Lol

 

jeep was my first vehicle (a wrangler) in HS. After graduating, gas prices kept going up and i traded it in on a small car (dark days). Never liked not being able to get around in the fields, so i bought a cherokee, liked that there was more room than the little wrangler. Crashed that cherokee, now I have another one that will hopefully live on !

 

Two years later and I'm still hooked. Lol.

 

Loved the old jeeps. Had one back in the 70's. A piece of junk. Then later in the early 2000's a 95 Wrangler. Then a 46 Jeep that warped and shook when hitting a bump. Then a newer TJ. Then while driving for work one day I was behind an 93 XJ that had a for sale sign in the rear window. I wanted a winter car that would get through the snow for work. It had 193,000 miles on it for 2K and in very good shape. That was something like 13 years ago. Drove it another 72K or so and it was always reliable until the brakes went out. Took it to the mechanic and they drove it into the bay and crashed it into a steel work bench. By this time it was starting to rust and the black paint was oxidizing pretty badly and the drivers door was red because the old one fell off (hinges broke in half). Settled for some cash and kept the XJ. Sat for two years until I fixed the brakes so I could drive it into the garage to work on it. After two years, it started right up after replacing the battery.

In the mean time I have picked the skins from the doors forward from a Comanche to fix the crash and picked up tools and am replacing the floor pans, fixing other rust, plan on paint and a lift, new bumpers, a winch and running it until this motor gives out then replacing that. I hope to run it to 300K on this engine, my original plan.

As an aircraft mechanic I figure that by taking care of the XJ like you take care of aircraft, it should last your lifetime not counting an accident. Even then, everything is rebuild-able.

Before it got laid up I loved it. Hard to explain why. My GF called it a POS. I laughed and told her it was MY POS.

In the mean time, two winters ago, I picked up a Toyota FJ Cruiser to replace it. It is a great replacement with the same 'part time' four wheel drive and a lot nicer to ride in, quieter, rear locker, and similar up front using ABS type braking and fits in my garage like the XJ, yet, it is not the XJ. Lots of folks pour money into their FJ's and saw an awesome build for sale for a whopping 75K but also include an AR-15 and two handguns. Still, I would rather spend money on the XJ.

It is like the erector set of 4x4s.

 

My dad and I had a project '76 CJ5 when I was a kid, and early on we bought a '78 CJ5 for $200 to cannibalize for its disc brakes. We put the brakes on the "big" Jeep (it sat on 44"x18.5" meats). Meanwhile, dad figured that I might as well learn to drive on that little rusted out 78. It had a shot out 3 speed manual...after running around on our farm in that at 10 years old, to this day there's not a stick shift that I can't rock like a champ. My next was a 93 YJ that was my first vehicle that I paid for 100% on my own. The frame rusted away while I was in Iraq in 03 and 04.

Didn't get my first XJ til four years ago, a stock '01 4wd 4 door. I got it because I wanted another Wrangler, but my wife at the time
wouldn't allow our newborn to ride in a TJ, so we compromised on the XJ. I've been hooked ever since. Planning a small lift in the next few months, and going up to '31s.

 

Actually it was my interest in AMC that got me into an XJ just about a month ago. When the trans in my very rusty Eagle wagon went south it wasn't feasible to repair. The car was just shot after 30 years of hard winter use. Although not too terrible up top it basically looked like the RMS Titanic underneath.

The XJ has an AMC pedigree, is similar in size to the Eagle, and there are still plenty around so I picked one up. It really is a great little vehicle, much more capable than the Eagle or just about anything else that I've owned and seems infinitely adaptable. I'm pretty much hooked. Just wish I hadn't waited so long to try one out! (In fact it's been off the road for several days waiting for me to have time to bleed the brakes after repairing a brake line and I've been having withdrawals already!)

Out with the old...




...and in with the new...




...with a little tribute taken off the old Eagle...

 

Had a 99 Tacoma that I bought new and wanted to lift it etc. Started out with a 3" body lift, then ended up with 13" lift, 40" tires on 15X14 Weld Typhoons. 5.29 gears yada yada!

I remember reading the 4X4 mags and seeing nothing but, Jeep this and Jeep that. I was like, doesn't anyone know there is more vehicles out there besides a dang Jeep! So after using my truck for nothing but the show scene and getting tickets in it left and right for to tall, tires sticking out to far etc. I ended up trading it for a 2000 wrangler and 8K cash to boot. Lost my behind on the deal but, wanted something to use and not get pulled over or clean on every weekend. Lifted the Wrangler, 4.56 gears, 33's and wheeled it a lot and loved every minute of it. It was a 4 banger which was the only weakness that drove me crazy..POWER was not it's strong point. Found my 97 XJ on CL, bought it, love it and the 4.0 would run circles around the TJ. Sold the TJ and the rest as they say is history!!

 

I was looking for something just to tow my grady white overnighter.saw a 94 Cherokee for $600.00 I went to look at it test drove it and bought.after playing around fow a couple I was hooked.just something about it.very good response for the engine size.love the way it turns on a dime.I put a 4 inch lift kit got some soft 8's and some 31 put on rear disc brakes.I just love this thing and looking for the first snow fall with her.

 

Grew up in Southfield, MI, in the shadow of the AMC building. My best friend's father, and next door neighbor, was a VP for AMC and every few weeks he'd bring home a different CJ or Wagoneer, and would tell us kids to hop in the back so we could go test it out. There weren't a whole lot of places to take it off road, but my friend's dad always seemed to find somewhere with some cool hills, or lots of mud. I always said I was going to buy a Jeep some day, just because of all the fun we had in them.

Fast forward 30+ years, and I had never got around to owning one. My daughter got her license, saved up enough to buy her first vehicle, and what does she get? A rust free XJ, and she tells me to hop in so we can go test it out. LOL.

The shame of my daughter owning a Jeep before me, pushed me in to gear, and I tracked down a 96 XJ that I could afford, and haven't looked back since.