Repair or Replace? (81 body damage)

[Narnian]

I put a wrinkle in the driver quarter panel of my Cherokee Chief Widetrack. It's gonna
require replacing the quarter panel. The passenger quarter panel is showing signs of bad rust.

Here is my dilemna:

I just spent $1200 making the hood & fenders like new - acid dipped, straightened, 0 rust, primed & painted. (the front looks sharp)
Ralph and I put the fuel injection in this rig, along with many other mechanical mods. I paid $4000 for the Cherry three years ago,
because (at the time) the engine and tranny were new, and the interior was in excellent condition. The body looked great except for the fenders. (which I can now replace)

I have not put the new hood and fenders on yet. I found out last week that my frame is starting to rot all along the gas tank.
I'm guessing it will cost $1600 to repair the rear quarter panels, and another $300 to properly fix the frame.

Should I fix my Cherry, or store the new parts for a rainy day and find another Cherry to restore?

PS - The rest of the body is in good shape. I poked around underneath last week and the floorboards are all intact.

[ August 12, 2002, 12:12 PM: Message edited by: Narnian ]

[Jerk]

wide tracks are getting rare, I'd keep it and fix it, finding another one is gonna be hard, unless you wanna pour more money into that one too. Hey at least you know what is good or bad on your rig, buying a new one you'd be taking a shot in the dark unless some one here was selling it, because every one here is pretty good at wrenching on their own rigs and kinda nows what is going on. Just my opinion.
I have some rust through on the rear flares of my 81 cherry w/t and other small uglies here and there, but it was 150$ with a blown 360 and dinky tires on the stocker 8" wheels, I am keeping it and restoring it, no matter what. It finally runs now so I'm kinda stoked about right now.

[Narnian]

I think you are right. I just spoke to a friend of mine who is a financial wizard (unlike me) and he pretty much said the same thing. If I buy another one, there is no telling what problems it'll have. At least with this one I know the quirks already. And you are right, they are becoming incredibly rare. I have only seen three in Ohio for sale in the last two years, and of those three two were completely wore out, and the third was mostly wore out. Now I just need to find me some California Quarter panels.

Any more opinions?

[Jerk]

put round headlights init? I don't know, I did that to mine and used the aluminum grill from a 78 jtruck( basically the same look but no plastic.) I like it, it looks more rough and tough and less "Soccer-Mom"-y.
Unless you are good at welding body panels, I'd find a REEEEL good body shop to do it. I'm kinda Skeert to weld on my j20 bed sides because they warp so easily, and bondo is a no-no for me on a j20! it has a pretty rough ride and I'd hate crap flaking or chipping off my rig due to road shake or vibes after I just put a nice clean paint job on it!
I'll have to get some pics of my rigs and put them in my sig, hell, every body else is! :D

[Andrew]

FYI I looked for almost 3 months for a late model widetrack and it cost a lot to find a SOLID rust free truck and it still needs new front fenders (Dents etc). So I'd fix it. If you spend some of that money on a welder you can do some of those fixes yourself.

[OBX-AUTOMOTIVE]

1200 BUCKS!!!!!!.. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[Narnian]

Originally posted by GEMOBX/77/401:
1200 BUCKS!!!!!!.. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: Yeah, it suprised me too when I stopped to count the cost. Like I said in the other post it was peicemeal -

I paid $175 for a par of straight un rusted fenders back in the spring, then I paid $280 to have my spare hood and those two fenders dipped. I wanted to get rid of the surface rust and all the layers of paint. Dipping them ensures that you don't miss any rust spots which will come back in three weeks. Plus, it allows you to get a better paint job.

Ralph had a buddy who was gonna paint them the way they needed done, but he got busted fer some nonsense or another. Ralph reported that the hood was showing the first stages of rust, so I grabbed all the parts, including the nerf bars I had just purchased and had a local body shop paint them all - $700. After spending the $700 I looked back and realized how much cash I'd blown - even if the fenders and hood DID look awesome and brand new that's still a lot of dough.

[PlumCrazyChris]

FSJeeper still has two more FSJs sitting in a field in Victoria he's been trying to give away for a month. Why don't you contact him? He's on here quite regularly. I'm sure he's probably at Ouray now though.

Good luck

[2j20's]

Hey Narnian
if you need some real good full quarters i have a set of L=R that i cut off my 83 cherokee.am not just trying to blow smoke here but i owned the the jeep for 13 years and never 4wheel it so they are good ones.if you like you can e-mail me at j20s@webtv.net David

[Narnian]

Originally posted by PlumCrazyChris:
FSJeeper still has two more FSJs sitting in a field in Victoria he's been trying to give away for a month. Why don't you contact him? He's on here quite regularly. I'm sure he's probably at Ouray now though.

Good luckAre they wide track Cherokees? If they are I'd go pick one up. If they are wagoneers they won't do me any good.