Tomorrow is Time to bring home my '79 Cherokee!

[DanHS]

*updating post towards the bottom*

Ok, Sunday I'm finally buying the '79 Cherokee I've been planning on getting since like August. It's got a mildly built 360 with 30k on it, T15 trans, D20 t-case, manual everything, new 32x11.5 tires, 300+k miles, perfect one owner maintenence, and special edition east coast rust option. :rolleyes: All that for $500 :D. I plan to stick on a 4bbl Edelbrock intake I found in the junkyard with a freshly rebuilt Motorcraft 4180-C I found in a pile of 80's Mustang parts, and do the TFI. Then do something cool with the now somewhat rusted exhaust, trim the fenders and repaint the bottom half black, lift it an inch with BJ's front shackles and ORD 'zero rate AALs', and stick on 34" Swampers when I want to take it offroad. And of course put in a nice Pioneer stereo and 6 1/2" Pioneer speakers.

Anyways, I want to just slap on the plates from the GW, and drive it home right away with my dad following in another car. My dad says this isn't a good idea to drive it 30 miles, he wants to insure and register it Monday, and then go back to pick it up. I want to bring it home all in one shot so I have the added time to work on it and be sure no stupid problems can pop up to make this harder for me. I do want to have it ready to drive anywhere by next weekend. Think it's safe to drive 30 miles with a car covering behind me, or should I slow down and legalize the truck first?

Also, I'm going to replace the piggy nose with my muscle grille, and put the blacked out pignose back on the GW. Should I leave the muscle grille silver and chrome, or should I black out the insert and the headlight trim? I think the black would match better with the red and black on the Jeep.

[grand_wag_85]

Check your PM's

[adamsclarke]

As long as you have Insurance...I say drive it. That is what I always do...drive it home and then go get it titled and registered and insured. If any cop pulls you over after buying it 30 miles away....I doubt he'll give you a ticket

[Mud Thrasher]

If it were me I'd throw the GW plates on it and roll without a backup.:D But the respondsible answer is at least wait till you get insurance on it. As long as you have insurance you have so much time to get the title and other work done so you would be safe if you got pulled over. Besides if you did get pulled over it would only be to check out your new ride:D

[91G-Dub]

Dan...GET INSURANCE before you move it a foot.
When I bought my 91 I had insurance for it, flew to GA and "borrowed" a GA license plate from DSPO drove it home. I had a bill of sale and signed title showing that it was mine in case anything came up.
Good luck
oh and by the way let me be the first to say...You Suck

[The PIG Smith]

I plan to stick on a 4bbl Edelbrock intake I found in the junkyard with a freshly rebuilt Motorcraft 4180-C I found in a pile of 80's Mustang parts

OH MY!
I SOOOOO need to go shop at that junk yard!!

[CheapJeep]

At least if you have insurance, you are covered just in case. Plates, well, only a major problem if you are stopped!
Take an old regi sticker and insp sticker and stick them on the windshield as well, that way a cop won' t see the plate but no stickers.
Thats how I brough my 78 back from MD.

My brother just bought a VW jetta from impound, threw a plate on it and drove it from LI to Philly. then towed it to VA, where the tow vehicle broke down! So he drove the VW the rest of the way to TN!!!

[janie]

Dan,

Congrat's on the new Chero! Go ahead and put insurance on it. Tequilla hadn't even left Aaron's place in OH when I bought it, but the truck had already been placed on our ins. policy before it got hauled home to TX.

Chances are, nothing will happen, but I'd rather play safe than sorry. The cost is minimal but the peace of mind is worth a fortune.

BTW........................

:worthless:

[mdill]

I don't know how your insurance is, but with mine, I have 30 days after buying a car to the time I have to inform/pay the insurance, (I am covered for 30 days) so In my case I would be covered for the drive home, as far as plates go I just drive it, have the paper work with you so if you do get pulled over you can show you own it and just got it.

Mike D.

[DanHS]

Well it looks like I'll be handing over the money Sunday evening, doing the bill of sale, perhaps bringing home a few extra parts, then insuring and registering the Jeep Monday, and bringing it home Monday night or Wed morning. Guess that's soon enough, play it safe. Considering I'm the one who got pulled over because the officer did not see my front license plate from the side of the truck, and got a ticket in the Mustang for doing 74 when I was doing 60 and had other traffic passing me, it would be wise to have it insured and registered before driving it, why push my luck. Thanks for the advice everyone.

Now I just have to scrape together enough to complete the 4bbl swap and TFI asap, I'm $50 short, lol. :rolleyes:

[grand_wag_85]

So it's not just me...Last time I ventured into NYC one of those meter-reader cops stepped out in front of me and yelled about me not having a front plate. When he saw the PA ins sticker he was kind enough to let me go :D

[DanHS]

Argh, couldn't go buy the Chero tonight, gonna have to go buy it Tuesday after class, luckily I go to school about 20 minutes from the seller so it's not really out of the way. Looks like I'll get to take it home Wed, which is what we were planning anyway, so I'll have the Chero at the same time either way. He did some work on it too to get it a little fixed up, which was quite nice of him. Now I just have to figure out how to go about doing the 4bbl and TFI, school sucked up too much of my money. Perhaps I'll be cheap and steal the TFI off the GW, then do the 4bbl and replace the GW's TFI in a couple weeks when I have more money. :rolleyes:

As for the front lis plates, some people have told me how they have gone years without one, I can't see how I could drive out of my neighborhood without one and not get pulled over and ticketed for it. It's not like the police are all over the place, my luck is just that bad. And from every indication, they'd go beserk on you for something silly like that, especially in the city. I avoid driving in NYC anyway, I take the train there, then walk or use the subway.

[Gambler68]

Hope you get it, I got my 79 Cherk this weekend! (it was 750 miles away though..long drive). I had no problem calling up my insurance and adding it on my policy, it cost exactly the same to insure as my 68 J3000. All I did was give them the VIN and printed out my temps.

[DanHS]

Hooray, I've purchased my Cherokee! Tomorrow, provided it hasn't snowed a lot and shut down the insurance agent's place and the DMV (like the blizzard will actually happen), I'll have it insured and registered by noon, and then my dad and I will go to pick it up. Gonna go do the TFI for now and do the 4bbl in a little while. Pics to come tomorrow when I bring it home.

Since mechanically it's already pretty much sorted out, time to deal with aesthetics; it's a nice metallic maroon color, Bordeux metallic to be exact. I'm going to put on my Muscle grille, and paint it a little. The S package graphics are gone, I might get some from Tonka J200, but for now I'm going to do a bit of painting, and I want some input.

First the wheels: I never really liked white spokes on an FSJ, they look alright, but kinda cheap, if you know what I mean. I'm thinking of cleaning them up and painting them with that hammered metal effect metallic paint, in like charcoal grey, I think that would look pretty nice.

Then for the body paint, I'm thinking one of four things. I found a pic of a Chero with a similar color on my computer, I don't know whose it is but it was pretty good for portraying my ideas, only it's a rear veiw shot so you can't see how it matches with the grille. Anyways I added the links to crudely photoshopped pics after each idea:

-Satin Black around the rear windows, below the centerline of the body, and
on the grille insert and headlight trim.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a22/DanHS/FSJ%20stuff/cheropaintideas1.jpg
-Satin Black around the rear windows, on the flares and the rockers, and the
grille
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a22/DanHS/FSJ%20stuff/cheropaintideas2.jpg
-Satin Black only on the flares and the rockers, and the grille
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a22/DanHS/FSJ%20stuff/cheropaintideas3.jpg
-Semi gloss Charcoal grey only on the flares and rockers, and grille
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a22/DanHS/FSJ%20stuff/cheropaintideas4.jpg

I'm leaning towards number two, satin black around the rear windows and on the flares. What do you guys think?

[jeepfan93]

I like number two also, you suck man.

[Ristow]

looks good. looks pretty solid too.

[mark]

SWEET RIDE!
GOOD LUCK WITH IT DAN

[fulsizjeep]

Congrats Dan! I like the cheropaintideas2 pic layout. Hope you have lots of fun with it! :fsj:

[janie]

Dan, congrat's! Definitely #2.

[drlocke]

Nice! Any way you look at it..... :thumbsup:

[grand_wag_85]

Very nice, I went with #2 on mine and the colors are fire engine red and a high-gloss black. If ya want I can get ya all the pix you could ever want of mine.

[Cherokee01478]

I'd go with number two. My Chero has the body coloured panels where the rear glass is, and it doesn't look quite right.

[DanHS]

I'm thinking #2 for sure now. Btw, the Chero in the pics isn't mine, it's just one I found I had a pic of on my comp, mine's kinda rusty and isn't lifted, but otherwise in very good shape. I'll have pics in a couple hours I think, about to go out and get the registration now, then to pick it up. Then a mini FSJ parade back to the house.

[Gambler68]

Nice!! looks just my 79! Except you have the manual tailgate, you suck.

No #2 is a good scheme, though I wouldnt paint the rocker panel.