My Dad had someone from our local welding shop come look at the Jeep frame. He said the frame and everything is in really good shape, there were just a few spots that needed to be fixed by the rear leaf spring shackle which would be fairly easy to repair. Because there is no gas tank in it, we decided to tow it with my Dad’s truck to the welding shop with someone behind the wheel to steer it. It just so happened that when we needed to take it the temp was -10 degrees and there is no top on the Jeep. My brother JD was nominated for the job because he is 16 with a driver’s license and I am only 12. Pretty sure he earned that cold ride.
In the meantime, JD had found someone who had a YJ whole axel assembly for sale for both front and rear. JD, my Dad and I all loaded up to drive to Iowa and check it out. When we got there, I found out the guy selling the parts was making a crawler out of his YJ and put axels from a ¾ ton truck on his Jeep. I not only bought the axel assembly, but he also had a tail gate and front grill that I was able to buy since he had removed those parts as well. My tailgate is dented, and I needed a new grill because the one I have is chrome and we need a good grill we can paint when we are ready to paint it Jurassic Park colors. It all cost me $450 but I am hoping I can sell my chrome grill to get a little of my money back. We also bought some Raptor brand bed liner and primer paint which set me back $190.87. So far, I have spent $1700 for the Jeep, $200 for the title fees and taxes, a $450 + $190.87 for a total of $2540.87. I still don’t have the bill from the welder. No wonder they say Jeep stands for Just Empty Every Pocket.
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