Transforming a 1979 Jeep Cherokee Into a Trail Worthy Bargain Beater - Trucks! S7, E15
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- Опубліковано 19 вер 2020
- Stacey David takes a '79 Jeep Cherokee and shows you how it can be modified to be a good entry-level, or even hardcore, off-road vehicle!
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Here in 2022, the term budget beater in regards to this build makes me want to cry
Good luck finding an old "Waggy" for $1500, those days are long gone. I was extremely lucky to score a J10 for under 3 grand and no rust. The days of Broncos, Blazers, Ramchargers and Full size Jeeps being affordable are over.
That particular front grill is the best ever for jeeps. Like my 64' short bed 1/4 ton.
I love these old 4-wheel drive machines. They are really cool. I also love how the 60's Jeep Gladiator grille & headlights completely transformed the look of this 70's Jeep Cherokee. Absolutely killer. You just can't beat the old Jeeps, Toyota Land Cruisers and pickups, Land Rovers, and Ford Broncos just to name a few.
Love how he always beats on his projects .
That's light use for that one,didn't even bury past the doors or climb60% grade
FREE... Axle vent tubes, take the original hose off the top of the axle and put on a longer vent tube, vent it out under your hood. In the rear vent it out on top of your tailgate, on the body. That way you don't get your axles full of water.
As the owner (many moons ago) of a base 2-door '77 Cherokee with a 258 cid 3 spd manual - let me tell how tough that platform was. Total beast. I put as many miles off-road as I did on. All in stock form. I used to blaze trail for my buddies in their CJ's.
Oh-rah!
Last night I actually found one of these for 1500 bucks!
And then I woke up😅
Different times friend. Gas was 2ish dollars.
The old stuff from the powerblock is still better then the new stuff they put out
The best part of the video was the little antenna on the winch remote. Haha
The only constant in the universe is Stacey David's hair
There are things know and things unknown. In between. Lies the part in Stacy's hair.
And his constant giggling.
He bought this old Cherokee for $1500 to start. Now for one in that shape you would pay $20,000. It's crazy how expensive everything is, now. Today, for his complete build you'd pay $30K or more. And to buy one that nice, you'd probably pay close to $40K.
I used to watch this show religiously.
I always loved Stacey David's shows.
It amazes me how much the dollar has depreciated since this aired. Now a set of decent rims, 35" tires, bumpers, lift kit and winch could not be bought with what this rig allegedly cost all in. If you could even find a Jeep like this to build for under $15k.
I was just gonna say... *budget build* *spends $10k on parts* lol
@@seanchrist9875 it's more of how much buying power the dollar has lost. Even 10k for a project start to finish including the car isn't outlandish.
If wages kept pace with inflation, I think the average American salary would be a bit over 100k.
Old SUVs are going up when it comes to demand, and the whole cash for clunkers debacle took a lot off of the road. Many others succumbed to rust or the crusher. I'm keeping my K5 Blazer forever.
Yep. Thanks to COVID shut downs, greedy labor unions, over regulation by governments, and litigation by environmentalist zealots, combined with FUBARed foreign trade agreements. Pretty much all you can afford to buy now for aftermarket parts are made offshore and are bad right out of the box 50% of the time. Even the high-priced "made in the US" performance parts aren't much better when it comes to QC. Edelbrock parts are now made overseas. And their AMC intakes were never 100% right. Distributors are remanned out of the US and components are misalgned or bent. Brake calipers are all remanned outside the US. New rotors and drums are made in china and out of round. Axel bearings are made with soft races. Driveshaft U-joint endcaps are loose out of the box...SPICER U-joints. Moog axle-shaft U-joint cross ends are rusty in the box. Forget about steel fenders and bed sides for the trucks. I've never looked for seats. But I can tell you they are not common and retrofitting into a FSJ with the high, wide drivetrain hump is not as simple as it seems. Crate motors can have poorly machined and fitted components. Like a set of heads where all the valve-stems are different heights. Bulltear timing covers with oil passages not drilled fully, so your engine wrecks bearings immediately upon start up due to oil starvation. And remanned starters and alternators are iffy at best. If you're lucky they wont fail catastrophically and leave a bushing iwedged in your rign gear teeth so the starter can shred the teeth off. Because the ring gears are welded on the flex plate too far rearward for modern aftermarket NipponDenso starters to engage. The CVR Protorque and Mean Green adjustable starters are cool, but you have to grind the engine block webbing for them to bolt up in the right position and clear headers. Headers...Hedmans are twice as exspensive as they used to be and they still have rotten port alignment. Need I go on?
I drive a 1970s Jeep truck regularly. I also maintain it regularly. I also have a big stock of used and rebuildable big components. I also know how to weld, and have modified a number of components, used and new, to work better. Unless you can supply the majority of your own parts, and work on it yourself, you can't drive a 40+ year old Jeep very far. They make a cool yard ornament though. Everyone loves to stare at them with coveting eyes, admiring that "patina"...I mean cancer. But they don't have a clue as to what kind of commitment is required to maintain one.
It doesn't look good for the Budget-minded FSJ restoring market these days. BJ's Offroad does have some quality US made parts. But even they are not 100% perfect. Now that President Bilbo is in office you can expect trade deals to revert to the bad old days pre-Trump. Meaning say hello to more cheap chinese garbage flooding our markets. And US manufacturers shutting down or sending more of their assembly jobs overseas to offset the weak profits of the flaccid US manufacturing dollar.
In 2020 this rig would go for 50k on Bring a trailer
the front looks like an abstract rolls royce
I loved these trucks when I was a kid. Now I have the money to do that project and the trucks are literally 10x as expensive.
I was flashing back to "snowfoot" my 79 SJ,probably lb for lb the best 4x4 ever built,3/4 ton dana 44s front and back, 360v8 full time 4wd,towing capacity similar to d5 dozer,pull full size p/u out of almost any hole,room for 6 large adults or as many friends as you have,fold and tumble rear seat for max interior space or car camping. What they had no idea about was it's winter capability-almost as good as a snow cat in up to 3 feet of snow(that's how she got her name-friends tow company gave me ditch pulls every snow storm). What he didn't tell is fuel mileage is 10mpg. Really want one to do diesel conversion(400+ turbo hp). I don't know how they found one for $1500 but that is scrap value(very heavy),parts weren't available years ago. Big Bad and ready for anything
Those are expensive now in Australia they are highly collectible now down under !
Love it! Thanks for this build. Now, to find an old SJ in good shape like that one!
Last I knew, Brent or Ryan (one of the guys operating BJ's Offroad) owned the Bargain Beater. This was at least ten years ago.
Is it one of the ones Ryan is currently selling?
@@cameronwalther6520 I don't know. Ryan was a member of the same Jeep forum I used to be a member of and he'd post tech stuff and we'd argue about things. And When I wrote articles for Jeep Junkie Magazine in 2007 and 2008 he did too, building Bargain Beater up even more. He had a couple other FSJ projects going then and dropped them when the magazine flopped. And I think Brent was a member of the magazine staff. I guess one or both of them were part owner of the publication until it died around 2009. I also occasionally buy new FSJ parts from BJ's because they have US made parts for the 1973-79 Quadratrac T-cases, but they are spendy.
It's been years since I had anything to do with anyone from the old online FS-Jeeping community, so take that for what its worth.
Shoot him an email at BJ's. You probably know better how to get a hold of him than I do these days. I know he was no hack. So if the projects he built are for sale by him, he probably has maintained them well and upgraded everything safety related.
I could of had a brand new one in 1990 but was oblivious to them, I could feel sick about it. Not in my price range now, I looked at one yesterday for 7k but it was so rusty. I decided to work on a 1995 xj.
That would cost double that where I live. Stacey used the word affordable a little loosely
Back when cherokees and wagoneers were cheap. But dang I want one so bad now
Love this guys videos. So upbeat and explanatory. Watched a couple of total rebuilds of pick up he has done. Pure genius
I feel like this show has a share in what caused greater general interest in old trucks and 4x4s than before. $1,500 for this starting out seems ridiculous even by that day's standard.
This is so cool!! What a great channel!!
I really like watching trucks, I need these truck videos.
Haha... $1500, no way today. Searching around Cali these are $10k+. I once owned a quadra trac wagoneer. The wife drove it and called it "the tank". Got a whopping 7 mpg.
Musta needed a tune up and carb adjustment.. my 360 in my qagoneer even lifted with mud terrains and lights.. gets 13mpg
I'm kinda wanting an old jeep again now. Fuck I wish there were unlimited Stacy David episodes of trucks. This is one of the best ways to start a Sunday morning
Don't do it! They're awesome until you need some part that nobody has because they haven't made that part in 40 years. These things aren't like classic sports cars where everyone and their dog are making new stock parts.
@@padrescout that's part of the fun in it though.... and makes ya different. What kinda gearhead would want a common ride only anyway?
@@padrescout if everyone thought that way everyone would have the same ride and that's not cool at all
Wish my dad never sold his 1980 JC...😰... Great video! ✌️🏜️
Can't even look at a 79 Jeep Cherokee now for less than $10K.
Hell, I have a 2000 XJ that was totaled in 2016. Rebuilt title now, and I can sell it painlessly for $6000.
Also, this series is probably 13 years old. It aired on spike starting 2004 or 2005ish
CamaroZ28Nut3 it says at the end credits, 2005. Yeah. If we all would have only known....
Double that here in Florida
@@CamaroZ28Nut3 Exactly, I was a teenager when this show was on the air (I use to love watching it).
@garrett wood Yeah, in 2000 you could get stuff like that for cheap. I had an 82 GMC Jimmy 4x4 in the 90s that we basically gave away because nobody wanted the thing and got a Scout for less than 1,000 bucks because nobody wanted the thing. Vehicles have this weird bell curve where they get less and less valuable as they get older - the value comes back up because they're old and "classic" I'd believe at one point that Jeep was basically free.
These chiefs are now the most expensive of the wagons, i saw one beat to hell the other day for 25 grand
That musta been a fluke.. theyre all over the place still for 1300-7k
That $700 lift kit from BJ's starts at $1400.
Thats why i opted to just go with a 2 inch add a leaf life for 170$. Although main reason is i got oem springs made in PA based off the original part numbers 3 years ago as i just wanted factory heogjt at the time... the stock springs It lifted my sagging suspension 3 inchs back to factory height. And believe it or not with just 2 inch lift it made the stock 29 inch tires look like baby tires. So i just got 31s. Because honestly most of these Jeeps are geard at 2.73 or 3.31. You might find a cherokee with 3.35 or so but yea.
The stock gearing is really bad for tires above 31 inchs. Mine luckily had 3.31 because its a factory tow package. And 31s is as high as id go on 3.31 gears. So the cost involved in replacing the springs i already spent 1000$ on 3 years prior and to regear for 33 inch tires.. made no sense over just getting a 2 inch lift and 31s.
Plus wagoneers can only go 33 max even with a 6 inch lift. If you want bigger you gatta trim the wheel wells.. something i didnt wanna do either. The wide tracks might be able to get away with 35s but not the wagoneers. There max really is 31-33 without crazy modifications. That will ruin the resell value. Once you cut those wheel wells itll kill any resale value and turn it into a rig for hillbillys only
11:05 😲 man! You drive that truck like it's not yours! 🤣🤣🤣🤣👍
Very rare jeep, amazing job
A "custom fit" bumper you still have to mark and drill or weld on brackets?
I DO like the Kaiser grille look.
Don't forget the upgraded alternator to charge that battery and power all that stuff.
When i first saw part 1 I was wondering how old this video was. Wow, if only i could find a SJ in that shape for $1500 I would even care if it had a engine.
Looks like early to mid 1990s if you look at the cars driving around 10:10 Lucky my friend just gave me one of these 86 Grand wagoneer were going to fix it up and sell it. Restored to stock 1980's are going for $79-100k now.
Ya today for 1300$ theyre missing seats. Dash.. rusted floors etc
One one marketplace near me with no motor, rusted to hell, and raccoons trashed the inside and they want $1500
A running one in ok shape for the age is at least $10k now
Post more of these 2-3 episode projects, like the Little Red Wagon or say Tomb Raider. The one I'm waiting on as the full size build..the Wicked Willys
Sweet, I’ve got an 81 I’m starting on. Found the springs but any way you can post specs/links to the wheels/rims. I can’t find them just based on the make/35x10 you mentioned. Thanks🤙🏼
You maybe can find them 'for cheap" when you have a production team scouring the country. Here in 2024, you're not finding a running, non ruster, for under $5k.
He beat the crap out of that Jeep. Lol
All of that and no locker. The locker should have been done right after the tires. I wish I had bought a few of those Jeeps back when they were that cheap because now they have jumped up huge in price.
A quick search shows $15k is a base for something that isn't a rusted out shell.
@@bmstylee exactly and in restored condition the are going for 40k+. The cars have gotten out of control so now the hunt is on for trucks and SUVs.
there are plenty of bodies laying in junkyards. especially in the southwest
Only problem with a swing out tire carrier is that you can't leave the tailgate down to haul long items.
I have a 1980 fsj. D44 wide track, amc 360 automatic. It has 60k miles on it. After reading some of the comments I guess I'd let it go for $5000
I never trust those odemeters. They can roll past 100k and look like they have 40-50k miles because unfortunatly they only go to 99,999k
How long ago did you acquire and perform the upgrades on the Jeep Wagoneer? It looks Great!!!
“I would have never made it through this hole without that bumper...”.
Did the bumper get out and push and I missed it?
:D You win the comments! That got an honest laugh out of me.
I guess they left out the new paint around the grill?
They even got over spray on the front passenger fender flair.
Was a QUAD head lamo version available, Like driving lights?
Where do you get the grill for the conversion to gladiator ?
I got one for free. It’s running now. Someday I’ll get some money to make it a fun project.
Thanks for some good ideas
Where did you get the grill and lights, I’m thinking about doing the same thing for my jeep
I love Jeep videos
Yeah, getting parts for a 70s Cherokee sounds like a nightmare. Hope they have good salvage yards with lots of the things in your area, I guess?
@10:07 hahahaha anyone catch the Snappy truck? You know Matco was like blot that ish out!
Good job boy Nice job
can you comment on where you got that luggage rack on top?
Throttle or clutch on the jake brake cutout.
I love his idea of affordable
This and the old original power wagon are the real deal.
Just like the last video, you didn’t address the steering components you have to replace because of the lift. I referred to the last video because of the driveshaft angles that weren’t addressed
It's bad ass Stacey 😊😊
That haircut is epic af
So cool sir
Felicitaciones 🍾🎉 🍀☘️🌠🍻🍻🍻
She's gorgeous!
does anyone know what year this aired
I wonder if you could use copper for and air system.... I use them in HVAC up to 390psi all day....
Shawn Green yes. You can. With copper, it’s the seal. If you braze on the ends right, you should be fine.
Linesets don't move like a 4wd does lol, I think ACR would crack after a few years but hey why not give it a shot. They used to use soft copper in RV propane systems back in the day with flare fittings back in the day
Tim Stevenson I am pretty sure you didn’t watch the whole video.
@@eprofessio I think your right
If I remember right these jeeps go for 20k+. Shows how old these videos are.
I found a 1980 cherokee for 1500 bucks on Craigslist the other day too
I would love to find on of those! You selling it?
I wonder if he still has this rig.
Only problem is not street legal you can't see the license plate anymore
Where did you find that for 1500. I’ll take 2 of them.
When did this really come out? Now a Jeep like that would cost 30k! 😂
Where did you buy the Lift kit because Bj's has that lift kit for $1500 not $700
This was made when an ounce of gold could be brought for a few hundred bucks rather than a couple thousand.
Dollars are worth less now, therefore things cost more dollar.
Did I just miss something? Did he go up underneath the front bumper and drill holes into metal above him without wearing safety glasses? Ouch
I miss the days of finding vehicles like that for 1500 bucks!
These are very valuable now days, good luck finding a cheap one, but they are out there.
Did the Belushis' have another brother?
OMG where can I find a sorta rust free 79 for only $1500 ???
Bigger tires, yes....replace black rims, that was a mistake IMO.
16:22 me when i finally get home from pf changs
Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,
smells like a steak and seats thirty-five..
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Well, it goes real slow with the hammer down,
It's the country-fried truck endorsed by a clown!
Canyonero! (Yah!) Canyonero!
[Krusty:] Hey Hey
The Federal Highway commission has ruled the
Canyonero unsafe for highway or city driving.
Canyonero!
12 yards long, 2 lanes wide,
65 tons of American Pride!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Top of the line in utility sports,
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!
Canyonero! Canyonero! (Yah!)
She blinds everybody with her super high beams,
She's a squirrel crushing, deer smacking, driving machine!
Canyonero!-oh woah, Canyonero! (Yah!)
Drive Canyonero!
Woah Canyonero!
Woah!
WOAH! Hold on! Why did you edit the winch out, did the winch not handle it so you edited out the unimog coming and towing you out to the edge??? Eh?! Eh?!
Bolting the winch to the bumper which is bolted (not welded) to the car is a bad idea
$5400.00? I will buy it from you Stacey. My teenage son will be thrilled!
I'm like, 2 minutes and 15 seconds ish? In... Yeah. Because Mickey Thompson's are a "budget" tire, and who wouldn't want a restricted rad? 🤷🏻♂️🤯
🤦🏻♂️
10:08 I saw you snap on, you can't hide from me.
"You can buy one used for cheap". Not anymore you can't
A woman saved a 1975 Pontiac firebird from a scrapyard, she could use your help her name Ada.
Did he ever finish a project ?
Ахренительно!
How old is this video?
Early 2000s.
Stacey David is GOD
Johnathan Ward (ICON) hold my beer, $150K later.
so incredible true. With money you can build everything, but bargain mods are the ones like: "Hell'ya I wrench something off, then something on, and yeah, a plan was made, but lost. Now I wrench for surviving bcs the project killed the budged/time ran out/got divorced" The 3 project killers.
He’s a regular beater
Looking for one on FB market place
Oh wow, Media Play. What a time capsule these shows are
Bruh that Ronald McDonald mullet has got to go !!!! Still sport’n it all these years later !!! 😄