Where things stand

21 years of fun... and it's showing.

8/24/2007

 The first thing any good technician needs to do before trouble shooting or trying to fix a system is to evaluate the current condition of the equipment.  After you know what you're faced with, you can start prioritizing and planning a course of action to remedy the problems and achieve the ultimate goal.

The beginning of that process is to figure out where things stand (thus the name of this page).  This is where I do my best to identify the problems and begin forming a plan of action to address them; knowing full well there are a lot more still to be discovered.  As anyone with a military background knows the plan only lasts until the first shot is fired, or in this case the first wrench is turned.

Well, this is what I know:  Rust has taken over!

Rust has taken over.

Quarter panel coming apart.

Rot in the door jam.

The driver's side floor.

I could post a hundred more but you get the picture.

Bent up suspension; here it is:

The passenger side spring and shackle are nice and straight, but the driver's side, though improved since I changed the mounting hardware several years ago, is still bent.

Tired springs.

Bent sway bar. There will be plenty more, I just need to start digging.

Until I get the body stripped down and removed, all I can do is a superficial inspection.  It truly does look worse than it is; he's been parked outside for 4 years less than a mile from the beach while I was living in a condo then later on my sailboat.  The salt air lit the rust off, but there is good news.  What's pictured is the worst and was already well developed when I bought the Jeep 10 years ago.  Without a garage, I had no way to manage it or do periodic preservation and just had to let it go, knowing there was a fiberglass body somewhere in the future.  That future is a lot closer now.

 

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