1990 YJ7

After driving the 1989 Jeep Comanche for about three years I was bitten by the bug to drive a Wrangler with no doors. I dont know exactly where the euphoria or motivation of thought comes from, but and old girl friend of mine once said that for her, "driving a Jeep filled a need" that she once thought she would need to ride a motorcycle to fulfill.

The 1990 YJ7 started as a burned 1990 YJ, that donated it's frame, axles, and body to the project. The 1978 CJ7 donated its Dana 300 Case for a flip job and both 258CID engine blocks were turned in for exchange on a first quality remanufactured engine. The 1990 donated most of its wiring, but a John Nutter bypass was performed and all smog equipment was removed. I utilized a 999 auto tranny, and a Jeep XJ Cherokee Dana 44 rear end to complete this project.

When I started this project it was about building a great looking, great running, and very capable Jeep for about $5000. I was very successful with this as the total project ended up running about $6500. The CJ front clip had a tree fall on it before it went to the body shop so I had to settle on the YJ Wrangler front clip. I put 50,000 miles on this Jeep, took it to the beach several times, and took it to New England once during the winter for a great ski trip.

All in all this Wrangler was great fun. When the 2005 LJ Rubicon was produced, I had no choice but to get rid of this Jeep. I made several attempts to sell it outright, but the YJ front clip presented a problem when showing a 1978 clean title.

I ended up trading this Jeep in at Fair Oaks (now Chantilly) Chrysler Jeep on the 2005 LJ Rubicon. They gave me $4500 for it, and put a snow plow onto it and used it for at least 2 winters. The last time that I was at the dealership in 2007 the Jeep was no longer sitting in the back of the lot so I dont know where it is today. Since I got the 2005 way under invoice and kept all rebates and incentives, half the hold back, and traded a 1998 XJ that they gave me $1000 more than I paid for it a year earlier without ever seeing the Jeep. (it had a shoddy bop repair job from hitting a deer, a broken windshield, the alloy wheels and BFG ATKO's removed and replaced with rusty steel wheels and bad tires, and the factory CD player swapped with a regular radio, and 40,000 more miles on it than when I bought it) this was the best deal I ever made.

Sad to see this Jeep go, some times I miss the old square headlights, and the memories of working with my grandfather while building it were a ton of fun. However the lime green LJ Rubicon that replaced it is 1000% more Jeep that this could ever be.