Turned out to be as rotten as a pear, throughout the body. Which as i was to discover, is a standard issue with FSJ's. The drivetrain and frame, however was in great shape. So when another FSJ came up on the bay a couple months later, i grabbed it too in the hopes of being able to swapping body parts around and using sheet metal from one to patch the other.
Turns out the second one was even worse off than the first one.
To recoup my £££ (TBH, both cars had cost me less than £700), i chose to part out the first one. Had people come from as far as Wales and Holland to snatch up the engine, axles, and drivetrain parts. Then weighed the body in for scrap. Made more in parts than i had paid out, topping up the 'Jeep fund'.Which i was then able to put to (what i thought was) good use when i found the 3rd FSJ later that year.
This one has a 'claim to fame' in that it was featured in the magazine (Dec 2006) for a story about 'cheap' off-roaders (Written by Matt Jones). For which i trailered it up to Wildtracks, near Newmarket.
Unfortunately a couple of weeks later, i accidently pulled off one of the A pillars with my hand
. Which tells you the extent of the corrosion damage 
. The second FSJ wasn't much better. So, i parted them out (had a bloke come all the way from the Baltic Sea to pick up a lot of it), and weighed in the rest.
And gave up.
Until now.
Our local Jeep Club used to have a regular visitor at the monthly pub meets in Ben, a young man with an '82 Jeep Cherokee Chief that had been owned and passed several members of the family until it finally was taken on by Ben. As I've had a few SJ's in the past, we'd hang out and talk about what needed to be done to his Jeep and how best to proceed.
Then he stopped coming to the meets. Months went by, until last September, when he showed up again.
Turned out the reason he'd not been coming was because he'd been in and out of hospital for months. He'd been diagnosed with, and was being treated for, Aplastic Anemia, a form of Leukemia. Which basically means your bone marrow stops making blood cells.
So we spent the evening talking about his illness, Jeeps, Harleys, and general BS'ing. The next month i tried getting in touch to see if he was coming, that's when i found out he had lost his fight against his illness a few days before. At the age of 28.
Unfortunately i was not able to attend Ben's Funeral as my Mother In Law passed at about the same time, also from a long term illness, and we had to go to California for her funeral.
I waited a few months before trying to reach out to his family to find out what their plans were for the Chief. I finally reached his Mum on Facebook, through his page, and explained who i was and what Ben and i had talked about. This is her reply:
Read her answer to my Wife last night, who of course started bawling as it reminded her of her Mom passing. And she DEMANDED that i follow this through. For Ben, for Ben's Mum, (and for her Mom).i'm so glad to hear from you. The meet he turned up to was two days before he went to st barts and never came home. He barely made it home that night. He kept blacking out, but refused to let my husband chauffeur him or come get him. He was so stubborn, he spoke about that evening as he said you had said about helping him. I had to cancel the order from the States, but he had been getting bits from various sources. The reason I was trying to find the Jeep Club was I had hoped to do just as you've said. Ben so wanted it finished, I couldn't bear for it to just waste away.
We called it the family heirloom as all of us had passed it around free, except for the large bills for whatever ailed it at that time. I would be grateful if you would come and look at it and discuss our options. Ben had two other projects, his Harley and his Fiesta (Mkii, UKJ). The Fiesta is a project his friends in the Ford club want to do, and his Harley will be going to Italy in September to a Harley meet with one of his friends. No rush but when you want to come look let me know and we can discuss the options. My main aim is for Ben's projects to be finished and loved.
Loraine
No pressure then!
Went out to meet Tony and Loraine (Ben's Parents), looked over the Chief, and had a long talk with them about what the future holds. I told them what was wrong and what needed to be done. I explained to them as it is, if it was sold on Ebay, etc it would very probably end up being broken up for parts (the drivetrain is quite desirable for other off-roaders, as i found previously), and the rest would be scrapped. Because it was converted to RHD correctly (most of the UK SJ's, like all of my three, were converted "1/2 way" by cutting the steering column in half and using a chain drive to take the column across to the right hand side, along with various linkages for brake. etc) a successful sale to a Euro collecter would be difficult, and may again have resulted in the concern of stripping/scrapping.
As an '82 SJ properly converted to RHD drive it is a very rare vehicle. Perhaps one of the rarest Jeeps in Britain. It's not a particularly valuable car (as i said, i've had 3 in the past, all for under £300-£500), but Ben's parent's weren't concerned about it's financial value, they wanted the same as i do, to see Ben's final project completed and to see the "Family Heirloom" restored and attending car shows.
The result of this is that they have now given me Ben's Jeep (AKA "Freddie" as in Kruger).
Quite a bit to be done, first of which, and most important is to repair the roof. It has several rust holes that will need to be cut out and patched ('filler' is not an option). The roof bars and strips are not on the Jeep, and the area's around the bolt holes are quite well rusted. Also the edges of the roof above the drivers and passenger door, along with a small area at the front over the windshield are dissolved.
However... All of the bodywork below the gutters and down, is pristine. The fenders, wheel arches (inside and out), door frames, tailgate, and floor pans are perfect. No visible damage. Underbody still has good underseal, the fuel and brake lines show no corrosion, frame is good (except a bit of surface rust at the front frame horns). Chrome bumpers have no peeling or bubbling. Weather strips around glass is good. Rear window goes down, AND UP without tilting (though i didn't go all the way down). Rubber strips along bottom of drivers, rear, passenger windows is perished though. Tailgate will need patching, but is essentially OK.
Video of the 5.9L V8 engine running, we got it going last week. The camera microphone doesn't do the side exit exhausts justice
!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do9SwGoj8h4
More pictures.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ukjeeper/s ... 258586275/
If you still don't think the addiction is a problem, i've also had two "YJ" Wranglers (an '89 and the current '91) and two "XJ" Cherokee's (The '94 was KIA a couple years ago after being T-Boned by an 18 wheeler, and the '98 was sold recently to generate FSJ funds)
), but apparently all the buyer wants is the engine. The parts guy he's been talking to is trying to get me the body. Buyer is in Surrey, apparently.
What didn't you like about the WJ (Techically its a WG) ? I was sniffing around for an LPG converted one (or the 2.7L Diesel version), in part to use as a tow vehicle for my YJ. But all my Jeep funds are now focussed on the SJ.