What Vehicle Is The Best Bargain For A Used 4x4? - Trucks! S7, E14

Hello, welcome to the

trucks

. You know, there are two questions I get frequently: number one,

what

is the

best

vehicle

to buy if I'm just getting into off-roading and don't want to spend a fortune, and number two, which is the

best

. trading in a

used

4x4, well, obviously these two questions go hand in hand and the answer may come in a

vehicle

, but it is not a wrangler, nor a bronco, nor an explorer, nor a blazer. Now these are all amazing platforms, but they are not the best. Don't negotiate, I'm talking about a full size jeep, the sj, the old wagoneers, grand wagoneers, the cherokees and the j series

trucks

, now why are they such a good deal?

That's

what

we'll show you and show you. Look, how easy it is to turn them into a nice trail rig that you can still ride every day. What we have here is a 79 jeep cherokee chief that we got for $1500 and took it home now, that in itself is a

bargain

. But the real value starts when you look closer, you have a 360 V8 under the hood, so you have a lot of power potential. Here you have air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, guys, this is the kind of thing you will spend a lot of money on. A lot of money was invested in their platform and most of these full size jeeps came from the factory.

Another nice surprise is that most of these trucks came with Dana 44 axles front and rear, meaning you don't have to go out shopping. some high priced off road axles, I mean you already have some tough suckers and they are easy to upgrade so they will handle any type of off roading you want to do now, not only are the bodies great but so is this. The body style was from about 1963 to 1991, yeah, almost 30 years and they didn't change it, you know, other than the grilles, headlights, bumpers and little things like that, which means that all these main parts of the bodywork from all those years will practically be exchanged. and they are easy to find now, another big benefit is the longer wheelbase which can be a real advantage when you are on four wheels and then of course you have the closed cargo area to carry your things, your friends, your dogs, whatever you're going to do.

You'll be hard-pressed to find a vehicle like this that gives you as much good for the price you pay for them. Well, there's the team. Now we're going to show you how to do it even better, so the first thing we did was a call to BJ's off-road because they specialize in full-size Jeeps and we have one of their six-inch lift kits. The kit now consists of new front and rear leaf springs, you have new U-bolts and hardware. I have sway bar end links with disconnects so you can flex the front axle whenever you want, of course the new shocks release the pitman arm, longer brake hoses and that's it, another plus for these vehicles they are really easy to modify.

I'm going to show you what I'm talking about, the first step is to lift the truck in the air and place a jack under the axle to support it, then remove the shocks, old brake hoses, sway bar end links and disconnect the pitman arm drag link finally remove the actual u bolts get those old springs out of there ah now the best tools you can have here are a good penetrating lube and a lot of coaxing now we're ready for the new springs so if your bolts are rusted or worn now it's time to replace them, next we will bolt the axle to the springs, follow that with the pitman arm shocks, the new brake hoses disconnect, the stabilizer bar and that's it for the front now , as you can see how difficult Part of this project isn't putting in the lift, no, it's about all the rusty, creaky hardware under here, yeah, so be prepared to spend some time here.

When we return, the rear end will lift and the big tires will come on. Hello welcome. Back to the trucks and our cheap full size jeep project, now the idea here is to show you how to take a

used

4x4 truck that gives you the best value for your investment, like a full size jeep, and modify and improve it now. I'm talking about pretty simple things, you know, things that almost anyone can do and that are affordable, so you don't spend a fortune doing it, so when you're done, you'll have a vehicle that you can drive every day. the street, but you can also take and ride four wheels whenever you want.

It's a good combination. Now what I have here is a 79 Jeep Cherokee that already has six inches of lift in the front and I'm working on the rear which really means I'm removing a bunch of old junk like I did on the front but removing the front end and removing the rear end are not exactly the same thing, let me show you what I mean when you are going to remove this rear part from the driver's side. leaf spring, you will find a little surprise: this mounting bolt has a nut on the other side inside the frame rail that you won't be able to access unless you remove this skid plate and move some things around, so be prepared to spend a little . time here hmm hmm and that's all there is to lifting a full size jeep.

Now look what we have here, we have a pretty simple project, not a lot of money and a lot of bang for the buck, yeah a full size jeep starting out sounds like a better deal all the time doesn't it? Yeah, now I want to talk to you about one thing while I'm here that you should be prepared for if you're working on an older 4x4, I don't care. Which is what I call hacker patrol, yes, that's where you need to spend an afternoon, go under the vehicle and fix all the hacks and all the abandonment that has happened to the truck over the years, for example, Check out this powertrain and engine. this is saturated with oil coming from leaking seals and gaskets you have carnage here with this hose that's leaking and the wiring is all cut now the reason it's important to fix this is you let the wiring short out which which will cause it to put all this good oil on the fire and guys, you might as well take out the sausages and grill them because they will never put the fire out.

I've seen vehicles burn on the road over and over and over again and it's always garbage like this. causes it so fix it now wheels and rims for wheels we went to mickey thompson and got these classic lock rims now they are very slippery because they look good polished aluminum classic style simulated bead lock they are strong and affordable which is exactly The direction in the one we're going on in this project now, the size is 15 by 10 and then we wrapped them with 35 1250 low claw radials. Now most people know that the Baja Claw is a great all-terrain tire, you can look at the tread and say so. that, but the radial will make this much better on the highway so you won't get beat to death when you're driving down the highway and this combination will be wicked on that old cherokee that we're going to show you that after the break, welcome back to trucks and our full-size jeep project, well, we're showing you how to get the most out of your investment in a used 4x4.

Now I've put six inches of lift on this old guy. 35 inch tall Cherokee wheels and look at this, this is great, it's something anyone would want to drive every day and it's also a capable off-roader, but you expected it. Now I'll show you why it's so big. These old sj's are fun to play with, look at this, obviously this old grill is history and stylistically fine, let's just say this wasn't the jeep's finest hour here with all the plastic and the square headlights and all that crap, but you can change this Why did they do it.

Put some cool grills on these things and there are plenty of used parts at salvage yards or on eBay, like this '60s-style gladiator grille and headlights we picked up. You'll be surprised how easy this goes on that truck. Now I know your first thought is wait a minute, this is a long horizontal grill and you just showed me a small vertical grill, how is that going to work well? You'll start to understand a little better once I pull out this old grill. from here, well, what you're seeing here is the original style sheet metal that came out in 1963 and remained virtually unchanged throughout the entire production run of these trucks.

Yeah, basically what the jeep did was put on another grill every few years to make it look like. different and keep the cost down, so to put an old style grill on a late model truck, all you have to do is remove some of this stuff and return it to the original design. Here's how to do it first. We will do it. top cover and hood latch. Now is also a good time to get rid of any old tricks or wiring that someone may have done, so we need to get rid of all of these grill supports and they are spot welded, so I'm going to Now you need to use a spot weld cutter to cut them.

If you don't have a cutter like this, you can remove them with a drill and chisel, but remember that this is now your exterior sheet metal, so any damage you do to it will be yours. You're going to have to go back and fix it now, the last thing you need to do is take your original style gladiator grill and just screw it into place and you've got the original mounting tabs and everything still here, now look at that man, he's cool. or what there is no doubt now, this is a jeep, except for those damn square headlights, we will deal with them after the break.

Hello, welcome back to trucks and our full size jeep project, which is now six inches taller and sitting. 35 now what i'm working on right now is showing you how to put an old gladiator style front end on a late model cherokee or wagoneer as you can see the grill is on and it's awesome now let's get to that . these headlights now you have to give credit to amc here they figured out how to put a square headlight in a round hole yeah welcome to the 1970s we're going to show you how to change that now believe it or not headlight buckets and moldings.

The rings you will need for this conversion are none other than the Jeep CJ5 and CJ7 and you can get this entire assembly new from Quadratec which is exactly what we looked at on this headlight, the bulb, retaining ring and outer trim ring and that's all you're going to need now these parts are original we got them from bj's off-road and they are to cover that auxiliary hole right next to the headlight now you're probably thinking, big man just screw these into the right headlights They are a little more complicated than that. Here's how to place them first.

You should straighten out any wobbles or wrinkles that may be in the mounting flange. Although the styling never changed, these headlight openings are larger. The first thing you need to do is center the hub in the opening so you can determine where you need to make some tabs to mount this hub. Yes, it's up to you to make this fit, then all you have to do is cut. some tabs weld them in place and then drill and tap the mounting holes and there you have it round headlights that mount as if they came from the factory that way for the aluminum cover plates that's just a matter of drilling holes and assemble them, well, this is what we started and this is what we have now yes, which one would you rather have?

And you know, the good thing is that it doesn't even matter because with a full size Jeep you have the option, now you saw how easy it is. was to put this grill on, in fact everything I did on this truck today only brings up a difficulty meter halfway which means this is a good intermediate project that almost anyone can do and that makes an old sj an even better business. You know that as the uses and needs of four-wheel drive trucks continue to evolve, so does tire technology to keep up, that's why Firestone just launched its Target MT tire, It now has aggressive lugs to give you good traction. rain, snow, rocks and mud, but it's also designed to give you a decent highway ride and good tread wear if you're a construction worker or a hunter or fisherman or just taking a recreational ride on the weekend.

Does it matter when they built this tire