Chief

[Niedhogg]

So my son is crusin' adds the other day and spots what appears to be a pretty sweet looking 79 Chief, for 2500 bucks. Gives the guy a call to ask the usual, miles 119K, how does it run? great, it's his daily (3-4 times a week) driver with a 98 mile round trip commute. It looks pretty clean, have the panels been replaced or filled with bondo? (has a really nice non-factory paint job), He says, "well I don't know, I've never crawled underneath it, I'll check, call me back later". We call back later that evening, and he proceeds to tell my son how he had just aquired it a few months ago from a nieghbor who was the original owner and just couldn't drive it, or maintain it anymore, and had just spent a little over 3 grand on it to pass inspection on things like brakes, exhaust (emissions and everything), tires, tune up, radiator, belts and just everything a shop would do if there was basically an open checkbook. He said he crawled underneath, and if it had replacement panels, he couldn't tell, it was perfect. He said you could put a magnet anywhere on this body and not find any filler of any kind. Says "he THINKS it has a V6, it gets pretty good gas mileage", (a what??) Well there's just no way, but my son doesn't say anything, but "wow, really". He's probably never even looked under the hood, my son and I figure it's a AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l , but it's also an automatic, which I think would be wierd behind a 6 cylinder, and I've bet my son it's probably a V8 (401???!!), and he just can't tell with the new exhaust, lol, wouldn't THAT be something! So anyway, they're bull iesting away and the guy says look, it should go to someone like you, who's genuinely interested in what this is, and who will take care of it, I'll let you have it for 1700 bucks, if that get's you here to look at it this weekend....

Ya... we're going to get a new Chief tomorrow

 

[Busted Knuckles]

Interesting to hear how this turns out, good luck !

 

[Old Dog]

 

[Niedhogg]

Well.... at least it was a beautiful 420 mile round trip for nothing..

I'm not sure what kind of magnet this guy was using... The fender flares were near solid bondo, and it looked like it was a rattle can paint job. I don't know, you get all hyped up when you go see something you're excited about, it was built up by the seller to be something it was not, and overall it would have been a good foundation for a pretty neat build, it looked good from a distance and really, as I looked it over it could have been much much worse. Pulling back the carpets revealed quite a bit of pitting but no holes, and really, the body was about what I was expecting even though the seller had told us different, and again, when you're hyped up on high hopes, the dissapointment comes easy. Now, the driveline... it was indeed an inline 6, greasy, dirty AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l and I mean even the carb was oily and dirty, and as I reflect I suppose the reason the floors had not rusted completely through, was probably because of the generous amount of oil throughout the under carriage... so a couple pumps and a turn of the key and she fires up, with a weak compact battery crank, and fast idles quite nicely with quite a bit of lifter noise that really never goes away as we drive it around. As we pull out of the parking spot, the rearend is already complaining and he proceeds to tell us that his 'buddy' says that it's pretty normal to hear noise from these 'locker rears'... now I have owned a wagoneer in my day of the same vintage, and I don't believe I've ever heard the noises we heard today from a driveline, and as I looked around the dash and floor area, and in the glove compartment I was surprised to see it was a QuadraTrac without the low range, so that was very dissapointing as well. I did a little research last night and I had read that the low range case was an option in 79, and the was really the last nail in the coffin for me. Can you imagine, a 5-6000lb 4x4 without a low gear range?

On the bright side, I think my son has decided to go with a CJ or a YJ now, and I won't have to spend my time wheeling with a Cherokee Chief hooked to my winch all day..

 

[mylittlecj5]

Oh man thats too bad! Sorry for the wasted trip, but at least you saw what was underneath the hype, and didn't waste your money!


Now I gotta look the '79 Cherokee I just bought over a little closer and see if I have a low range in it or not...Not that it matters since the engine will go in my CJ.

 

[Busted Knuckles]

With fuel prices what they are today, I cant imagine who can afford an FSJ, unless maybe a 4BT is swapped into it. Might be for the better, sorry to hear of your wasted trip !