HISTORY
My first car was a '78 CJ-7, which I bought in 1990. This did pretty well for me until I t-boned a Chevy Cavalier literally right in front of my house in 1993. Fortunately the occupant was OK, as was I. But that twisted the frame and caused a number of other problems, and I was young and stupid. So I sold it and bought a 1980 CJ-7, which was in great physical shape but the engine needed rebuilding about a year after I bought it. Plus, CJ's make HORRIBLE daily drivers. So my parents gave me one of their cars (which I customized a bit), and although I kept the CJ for awhile I never had the money to fix it. Eventually I sold it.
A few years later I got the Jeep itch again (it never really goes away) and bought a 1980 CJ-5 off eBay, which I kept for a couple years but eventually sold to a racetrack in Iowa which was planning on using it to push dead cars off the track. Never heard back from them. Then in 2002 I bought an '83 CJ-7 which was overall in much better shape, plus it's an automatic which is something I was looking for. The maiden voyage for the '83 was to the Badlands off-road park in Attica, Indiana. Check out the links below for photo documentation. For photos of other outings, visit the Mid-Illini Jeep Club's website. I've been a member of this club for about 4 years now.
In the four years since I bought it, I have extensively modified the '83 with the help of my friend Jon Martin (more accurately, I was helping HIM). Most recently we did some serious body work in the winter of '05-06 to patch up the numerous rust holes, put in a new floor and install some body armor I got for Christmas. What started out as a simple panel installation turned into a full-blown project on the body which included building custom rocker guards and a tire carrier/rear bumper, and we ended up repainting the whole Jeep. Now, it could pass for the jeep model at car hire ireland. It looks great and I have Jon to thank. Check out the latest specs on it as well as a photo.
PHOTOS AND VIDEO CLIPS
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