Should I Buy it? 69 cj5

Hi, all.

Lots of great info here. I just looked at a non-running 69 cj5. It has the Dauntless. The battery was dead but we jumped it and the engine turned over ver-r-r-r-y, verrrrrrry, slow. Kinda like rrr-rrr-pause-rrr-rrr- pause,etc. the tranny and drive train were all original and it all seemed to shift easily and the clutch felt good. I'm just wishy washy about jumping into such a big project. (Time and money, ya know ) Just wanted to get some expert opinions from ya'll. Body had usual rust but and a little damage on the rear passenger panel. Transmission and transfer case were covered with oil. Axles and drive shaft looked okay with usual seepage on diff seals. Any suggestions and/or encouragement/warnings appreciated

 

Sounds to me like it needs the normal amout of work that most of them you find need. I would buy it depending on price, but then again I would buy every Jeep I come across if I had the $$. How much are they asking for it??

 

$850. But he dropped to $650 as I was crawling out from under it. My biggest concern is the engine. The sluggish turn-over. I'd hate to get it to the shop only to find out it has a cracked block. Don't know if I could find a replacement block anywhere. The guy put in new plugs and threw the old ones away so couldn't see what shape they might have been in. He said it hadn't run in about a year and a half. Oh, this is a third party sell, too.

 

Nope, Billy. In Lousyana.

 

For $650 I would say go for it. If you don't want it once you get it there shouldn't be too much trouble getting your money back out of it. It will take some work, and I can tell you from experience that you will never get it all done. Even when you think it is completed, you will still find things that you want to do to it. Then, once those things start to slow down and you either can't come up with the $$ to do certain things to it, you will come across another one and think, hey, my first one was pretty easy, this one can't be that bad either and I can do things different this time. Next thing you know you have 6 - 8 projects sitting around and so much to do to them that you can't figure out where to start. It is a sickness.

 

Thanks, Mcscott. I'm not going to be able to do anything til next week anyway, so I'll have time to mull over it. That is unless it gets sold over the weekend!! Then I'll have lots of "I should of" time!!

 

"I would be on it like fat on Baby John!!!!!!!"
Ha!! like that!!R)

I got under it and looked it over and didn't see anything unusual, Billy. Is there anything in particular to watch out for? Thanks for the info.

 

Sounds like you already have checked out the obvious things. For that price, I'd be all over it like white on rice. The sluggish turnover may be quite normal. Being in Lousy-ana I doubt it'd have a cracked block due to freezing. Might be a flood vehicle, so perhaps snoop underneath the air cleaner and stuff like that. Good luck!

 

Thanks, Hippo393.
Ya'll are getting real close to talking me into it!!!!
It was brought down from Miss. so it probably isn't a flood victim. Unless the guy drove it in a pond or something! Ha!

 

Jump on that deal! If I had that kind of opportunity I would snatch that up. I paid $800.oo for my '65 back in October of last year, and the motor was just sitting in the frame rails.

 

look behind the front spring mounts that are behind the wheel famous for cracking there, and see if there has been any patch jobs on the frame ..... heck sounds like a deal though...... id say go for it

 

Okay folks. first thing monday, I'm going to give it a even closer look. Busy this weekend and don't think i can find the time til Monday. I sure do appreciate your help and advice.

 

Busy?! Too busy to jump on a deal like that? You won't be too busy later on to kick yourself in the a$$ for missing out when he sells it to someone else for $500.

 

Man yer killin us. :toetap:

The dragging starter could be a weak battery, even jumping a dead one off isn't always enough.

I'd pick up for the price.

 

Go for it.

 

:iagree: But I guess it is possible that you may not have caught the disease that is the Jeep Thing yet. Once you finally get this illness, you will learn to cancel everything else in a situation like this because there is nothing more important than an opportunity to get a deal like this on a Jeep.