I previously had a 1980 J10 that I bought new; the first truck and only 1 of 3 cars that I ever bought new. It was a 258 6/4 spd/208, and I loved that thing. I've had 10 4WD trucks over the years, and my J10 rode & drove the best.....(Except our 2005 GC, that rides really nice
)I've loved FSJs ever since, and always wanted another and have always been on the hunt for a good one.
I found this truck on Craigslist. It was bought new at Strode Motors in Brighton. The story was the guy I bought it from bought it from the original owner. It was a nice running rig when the 2nd owner bought it. The 2nd owner gave it to his middle aged daughter to use. Her teenage son got ahold of it and trashed & blew it up in 1 night. It sat for years until another son put a used short block in it to get it to run. It didn't run successfully, and sat for more years, until they sold it as is. I bought it for $1200.
It's never run for me. The engines supposedly ran for awhile, but it wouldn't start for me. In addition, the guy said the trans was busted too, as when he "rebuilt" the engine, it wouldn't stay in gear to move, and would pop out.
I liked it because it had very little rust; only the rear fender flares that I could see. Everything else was solid; never painted, never wrecked, no grinds/scratches underneath.... And it was dead stock. I needed a project that I could do a little bit at a time on, and I didn't have any money to throw at it....Ha.
It also had the original window sticker, and 66K miles on it. I pulled my username from the dealer and the serial number 55182 and the year.
As it sat when I saw it:
