I used to have an '86 when I was younger. Paid $1600 for it, never did any work on it, and basically just ran it until it died. It had special features like dying while turning too sharply, continuing to run when you turned it off and took the key out, and getting about 60 feet to the gallon. I still loved it. This project will either end up being my 14 year old son's car when he turns 16, OR if I get it decent enough, I will probably commandeer it and he can drive our Suburban.
I bought the Jeep off of eBay. We had been looking around at different Jeeps (really had my mind set on a CJ-8, but they're just too damned expensive) and when I saw that it was in Houston I put a bid in. Not real serious but somehow ended up winning.
Anyway I get down there to pick it up and as we're going over it at the "dealership" I notice a bunch of fluid splattering on the pavement while it's idling. We pop the hood and see a jet stream of coolant coming out of a pea sized hole in the thermostat housing. The salesman can see that I'm trying to decide how much of a headache I want to bite off with this truck so he drops $200 off the price and we have a deal.
Backyard projects have kept me away from working on it this last week, but every time I step out the front door and see it there I get a little excited. The kids love it, they think it's some kind of prehistoric car out of the Flinstones (not that they even know what the Flinstones are).
