After looking for a nice and "affordable" 78-79 CJ5 Renegade for more than 6 months, my friend Andy McGrath talked me into buying a Jeepster Commando. He had just bought a '72 Commando (which is under the club rigs section) and he convinced me into getting one also. He said "Why would you want to buy something that everyone else has? You buy a Jeep to be unique, right, so why look like every other Wrangler that drives by?" (I guess I can blame this whole damn project on him.)I had only ever seen one Jeepster before Andy bought his Commando. Had never even heard of them before, and definitely never was able to research on them. Couldn't find anything! At the time, I thought Jeepsters were pretty unusual and that they must also be rare. Well, I was right on both counts, and especially if you are looking around for parts. Did I really know what I was getting into? No way. This was my first introduction to Jeepsters, also to Jeeps and to a car project. I've never had a project car before and boy did I pick a tough one to start out with. People always ask me if they should buy a Jeepster as their first project car. I always tell them that parts are rare, new parts in stores are non-existant, you'll have to cruise junkyards, attend swap meets, learn to fabricate, learn to wrench, and you'll drop a lot of money. The great thing about a Jeepster project are the people you will meet and talk to from this club and BBS, who will always be willing to help you. The American Jeepster Club, its chapters and this web site, were founded so that you don't have to go through the same pain we had to go through 10 years ago.
I bought my first Jeep, the Jeepster, from a Pleasanton police officer. This Jeepster was in the paper several weeks after Andy bought his and I asked him to help me check it out. This was the first and only Jeepster I ever went to go see and I bought it because I thought it might be the only Jeepster for sale for another year. Of course, this was way before the time of 'eBay' or the start of my American Jeepster Club Classifieds section. You guys have it soooo easy now! Ok, I thought I could trust this guy, being a cop and all, but I had a compression check done on the engine anyway. The test seemed OK to me so I drove the Jeepster home that day. Of course, as my luck would have it, the engine lasted about 50 more miles before it started belching black smoke. The engine only had 100,000 miles on it, says the cop. More like 200,000 I say, especially since the odometer only has 5 tumblers to it.
I had the engine torn apart by a very, very bad man (read "crook" here), which is a story I don't want to get in to, who found (or caused) a cracked piston. This is where it all started. It took over two years of rebuilding, restoring and building up, to a total cost that is still sky-rocketing, for the Jeepster to make its next offroad trip, the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah.
My "Project Jeepster" site will take you through the many steps and pains of my on-going, multi-year build-up. Hopefully these pages will help you learn some about Jeepsters, what can be done to them, what to avoid, and how to go about doing a Jeepster build-up. When I first started this project, I thought I would be done in 3 months, only spend a few grand and then spend all my free time camping with my family. Well, as any Jeep owner can tell you, especialy a Jeepster owner, you are never done with your project. There is a reason why "Jeep" stands for "Just Empty Every Pocket", and I have.
From the pictures below, you can see that this project has been going on for over 9 years now. My daughters have truely grown up with the Jeepster and hopefully will be working on it with their kids after I have passed away one day.
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1995 |
1996 |
2000 |
2003 |
| Justine at 3 |
Justine at 4 |
Justine 5, Jackie 2 |
Justine 9, Jackie 6 |
Justine 11, Jackie 8 |
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| This Project has been sponsored by: |
What it is ALL about... |
Good Times! |
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