Blake Noble

Drive all day, drive all night Get blinded by the high beam lights Feel the sputter, run out of gas I need a truck to come and tow my ass But money's tight and I'm out of warranty And nobody's gonna come rescue me Now I'm stranded In my Chrysler Crossfire Yeah I'm stranded In a Chrysler Crossfire

I'm not crazy about the LEDs, but I'm set on that particular design because it's the only "modern" option (since the lower indicators and headlights are flush and part of the same housing) you have out there for an XJ, other than hacking up your header panel to fit a set of Commander headlights. Those aftermarket headlights I linked to also come in black, and I'm thinking that going that route and attempting to paint the supplied surrounds chrome to match the grille might be my best bet. The tackiness factor does go down a notch if the internal surrounds aren't chrome.

Keeping the Jeep the factory color would save me a cool chunk of dough. That's probably what I'll wind up doing, anyway. Actually, ocn, I'm going to use a Cherokee Limited front grille when I swap front clip out: I'm also going to throw in a set of these headlights to further clean up the front end and get rid of the old sealed beam lights.

Yeah, speaking of "hmmm," I'm wondering now if I want to go back with the factory green (sans two-tone) or paint it Tungsten Metallic to match the Charger ... If you were wondering, I'm still waiting to get the time to do a comprehensive detail job and a good photoshoot for the Charger. Yes, it's okay to laugh at the horrible front driver's side tire on the Cherokee.

Thanks, GMTG74. I'm thrilled to actually have a project vehicle for once that can be driven (with a little work) while I'm upgrading it. I'm also glad it was well under budget. A half way decent XJ like similar to what I've just bought typically costs almost double what I paid. In fact, there was someone who showed up to look at my Jeep just minutes after I rolled in. I don't mind the AMC-era front clip, but the Chrysler-era one looks cleaner and more modern. What I do hope to retain in the swap is the "classy" feeling of the older XJs like mine, which I think is doable.

I like the Jeep 2500's headlights, but the grille ... Meh. There is a guy in state selling the parts needed to convert it for $400, although the '97 and up front clip would cost about half of that. Also, most of the front fenders you wind up with for a 2500 swap seem to be made of cheap metal, almost pot metal. Either way, I'll be using the Jeep 2500 taillights. The older hatch does look better (not to mention it isn't worth the work to swap it out to the '97 and up one) and the 2500 lights are pretty much a direct swap.

Simple. I had the extra cash and I wanted a beater, and I have the hots for XJ Cherokees. I've also had a dream build sheet typed up for one since my last XJ. Give me a little time. This will be a nice XJ by the time I'm done. Remember that thread about the Saabaru from about this time last month?

Nope. Seriously, no.

Also, just thought I'd share that when the '97 and up Cherokee front clip and doors go on, I'm keeping those chrome door handles. I wanted them on the last XJ I had and now I have them without having to look for them. It should tie in nice with the factory green paint once there's a fresh coat on it, the chrome front grille, and the chrome Soft 8s. Ooops. Shared a little too much.

Yeah, screw teasers. Here's the whole Jeep. Here's the shakedown: This is a 1991 Jeep Cherokee Laredo with four-wheel drive (no, it doesn't smell like a steak and it can't seat thirty-five). It's green. Some of the clearcoat has faded and some of the paint is oxidized. It has the good old 4.0L AMC inline six with 190 horses since this was the first year for the Chrysler-sourced fuel system (thank GOD it isn't a Renix-equipped XJ). It has 216,000 miles, so it's just finally broken in. I found this Heep on Craigslist for a whopping $850. Someone pawned it off, and judging from the massive stack of papers that I found in the horrifically disgusting glovebox, I'd say that someone was in a big bind for money. After paying for a title only transfer and a tow home (yeah, don't say it; the seller refused to look the other way and let me drive it home), the total cost went up to a healthy $920 bucks. Not bad considering I was close to buying a two-wheel drive '88 Comanche in about the same shape with the boring old 2.5L four-banger for $2,000. Yes, it has rust, but nothing out of the ordinary for a 22 year old Heep. It needs two small areas on both rockers patched, the lower rear quarters patched up, and two holes patched in the rear floorboards. Aside from a brused passenger-side door and fender, it's straight as an arrow. It runs and drives strong. It just needed a new battery and, as it just so happens, I had the nice Duralast I bought for my previous XJ project/beater/heartache sitting around. It doesn't smoke, it doesn't run hot or use coolant, and the oil wasn't milky when I checked it out. The exhaust is crap, however, and the oil fill cap isn't the correct one, so it's a little leaky. The interior is disgusting, the headliner is trash, and the driver's side seat frame has rusted apart. The good old GM Saginaw steering column also flops around at the tilting joint like Michael J. Fox (I think two bolts down in the column have worked loose; no big deal). On the bright side, the old AMC-era stereo works and would bring in clear reception if the factory power antenna wasn't broken. All of the power options work aside from the left-side passenger window and door lock. The fuel gauge even reads steady. So what's the plan? Fix the steering column, the seat, and drive it. Then start building the Cherokee I've always wanted. Just empty every pocket, indeed.

Much better!

I tried bidding on a '99 Wrangler and a '02 S10 at auction tonight. No dice.

Please don't take this post the wrong way dfelt, but the title in conjunction with the catagorization is fairly misleading. Not to mention there are a few ... well, mechanical issues with the article. Again, don't take this as insulting or anything, but I'd would highly advise that you keep this article from view on the front page until it's a little better sorted out.

I'm going to take a stab at option three tonight. Wish me luck. Otherwise, there's a likely chance the Saab will be in my driveway in the relatively near future.

Well that is technically possible ...

So long Comanche. I was a little too slow on the trigger. Oh well. The Saab was probably the better investment out of the two and I know it's probably not going anywhere.

If you look closely, there's a new Chrysler and Dodge somewhere in there.

The truck and the Saab are on the table. I'm not going to jump head first into anything however, but we'll see what happens. I still have one more avenue I want to explore first before I start to take complete affirmative action. The truck would leave a considerable amount of change left over in my pocket versus the Saabaru. Plus, it's not too far from being this:http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=134192&d=1354572615 It's just a paint job and a set of decent flares away.

I drove the Saabaru today and, to my absolute surprise, it checks out. The title is clean (unlike the interior) and it drives, well, like a late model Subaru. Here's a shot of the outside and the rusty dent. For some damn reason, I forgot to snap a shot of the interior ... which, come to think of it, had surprisingly clean carpet.

See option three. Basically, the beater has to be four-wheel or all-wheel drive, relatively small, and reasonable to commute in. A manual transmission wins bonus points.

I won't lie, I'm very curious about the full history on the Saab. Granted, it's in a rather pitiful state to be so new and so low-mileage (I honestly wouldn't be suprised if the seats were frigging bloodstained), but judging from KBB's estimate on what the private party value should be in "fair condition," I'd say you're right in that it's still a couple thousand too low. The Axiom, well, is just a last-generation Isuzu Rodeo in a negligee. I know for a fact the running gear is easily capable of another 100,000 miles. I have an uncle who has driven one to hell and back and it's held up fairly well. I'll sniff out the full story on the both of them. In other news, something else very interesting has crawled out of the woodwork.

Before anyone says it, no, none of these three are terribly reliable out of the box, but they do fit the guidelines fairly well.

Happy burffday, doode. Sorry I'm a little late to the party here.

Here's a simple scenario. Let's say you have a few grand saved up and you want to buy a decent beater to keep the miles off of your nice later model car, and to also bear the brunt of going on long commutes to and from class and work, especially in inclement weather. You've found two options that are quite enticing. Here are those two options. Option One: 2005 Saabaru 9-2X AWD; 2.5L Boxer-Four; Five-Speed Stick; 57,000 miles; asking price of $4,000 with room to negotiate. Condition: filthy seats; rusty dent in the rear left side passenger door; horrible curb rash on all four tires, but otherwise sound. Option Two: 2002 Isuzu Axiom 4WD; 3.5L V6; Four-Speed Autotragic Slushbox; over 100,000 miles; asking price somewhere in the ballpark of $3,000. Condition: filthy interior but otherwise solid. Of course, you have a third option of saying no to either of them and holding out for Jeep at your local auto auction for pennies on the dollar. What would you do?

Sorry hyper, the fifth-gen isn't quite the shameless riff on the '69 Camaro you're making it out to be. There are an extremely limited handful of design cues that reference those early Camaros, the rest simply do not translate back to it. It's a design that's inspired by those early cars; it doesn't aspire to be one itself. That's the difference here and it's what makes the car overall farily non-retro versus other designs like the new Beetle and -- even though I adore it -- the Challenger. This photo probaby says it best. Sure, it's the 2006 concept version, but it isn't that much different from the production car, as we both know. I can only spot three major cues that reference the old car on the fifth-gen: the way the beltline and the leading edge of the front fender interface with one another, the shape of the "hips" in the rear quarter panel, and the line that bisects the middle of the car. I would include the daylight opening here, but it's actually very different from the original car. In fact, even the three cues that visually link the new Camaro to the old one are all somehow subtly different from the original. Granted, they all are significant in giving the car a similar feel to the old one, but nothing was directly lifted from the original. That same line of thinking will probably continue with the upcoming car. It'll probably reference the old car in the roofline, like you said, and possibly the daylight opening and profile lines of the car, but it won't look exactly the same by any means. While there isn't a lot of info out there on the sixth-generation Camaro, it isn't all that hard to fill in the blanks. Camaro: An American Icon is probably one of the best books out there that documents the design process of the second-generation Camaro. It's one of the reasons why I bought a copy of it. The second-generation Camaro was inspired by various Ferraris -- in particular, the 250 SWB (in fact, the two have a hell of a lot in common) -- as well as the Jaguar E-Type. According to Pete Estes on page 44 of the book, "We wanted it to last like a Ferrari. There is no reason to change cars so often if you do the job right." I'd say they did the job right because the second-gen lasted for 11 frigging years. That's ancient even by standards back then and today, and even though the car was so old by the time it was finished paying its dues on the market, it never had a bad sales year.