Jeep dilemma

Howdy friends,

So I need some advice on what to do. This is what happened, I bought a 93 XJ that needed a new engine for $500 a few years ago. It was supposed to be my secondary/camping vehicle. I rebuilt the engine and over time kept fixing and swapping stuff to meet my needs. Well life happened so I had to sell my daily about a year ago and my XJ turned into my daily. It hasn't been a bad car but going from a Mercedes to a Jeep I start to miss some of the aesthetics and the wife does have her "opinion" on it. I love Jeeps and always want to have one especially for camping, IMHO nothing beats an XJ for a camping 4x4. Here's my dilemma, unfortunately I've dumped a lot more money into my rig than what I could sell it for and I really hate to lose money for nothing. With the exception of the body almost everything is in new or good condition. Tons of parts have been replaced, engine, power steering, axles, tires and the list goes on. I have probably 7k just in parts alone. The body has started to rust out in certain spots (rear quaters, rear floor and front passenger floor) and the rockers are beat to crap from rocks. Right now besides body work it could use a new lift, the old RE is just not holding up, some minor fixes (blower motor, window roll down thingy, seats) and that is about it. I'm stuck as to whether I should keep it and keep fixing it or part ways. Also while I love XJ's I personally hate the looks of the early models along with their interiors. So I'm even more hard pressed to keep putting money in it when I hate the interior. Another issue is we are going to start trying for a little minion so I need to have at least 1 reliable vehicle that I don't have to bust my knuckles on every weekend. I'm also sure the wife wouldn't be happy if she felt I was playing roulette with the little one every time I drove. So here is my question should I.......

a- Sell it as is, knowing I will lose money and buy a newer XJ and start over?
b- Be a man and stop worrying about how pretty it is and go bash some more rocks. The wife can be dealt with later
c- Find a newer donor for cheap and swap my parts on to it
d- Sell it as is and get a WJ and build it for what I need


Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks

B

:gee:

I'd do C if you're up to it. It's the only way to transfer over as much of that $7k you already put into it. The only hitch in this plan is that if you want to go to the later body style and get a 96 or newer XJ you might not be able to swap some of the parts over (though it depends on the part I guess).

C- but if you are daily driving it, this will be a problem........depending on what you will be swapping.

Possible option E... Keep current rig, get rid of wife, profit! :gee:

Think about where you want to be in 5 years and plan backwards from there

Thanks for the replies. All good advice, Notamos almost had me fall out of my chair! I could have another vehicle to drive during the process of swapping stuff but it would be a lot to swap. I would be looking at both axles, engine, ALL steering equipment (Tie rod, track bar, PS pump, PS gear box). Possibly trans and tcase depending on what donor vehicle had. I would need to install a new lift on to the donor as I would not swap over the current one. Not impossible but would take a good chunk of time. Which is something I'm finding less of these days. I was looking at possibly swapping the dash from a newer model which would solve some of the issues, but I would still be needing to dump more money into it.

Honestly. Thats a solid weekend or two project to swap all of that. Do the lift at the same time. It will all be done in a two weeks time.

Buy a new JK. Keep your XJ.

Pick up a cheap stock, 97 up, and start swapping ... Other than a few minor things it's almost all swappable between the years.
My 00 XJ has parts ranging from 89 XJ (front axle from a limited) to a 97 TJ (steering box) and a few ZJ and WJ parts as well.

The wife just dropped us in the hole on a new '15 JKU Sahara ... So her and the kids ride fine. And the XJ serves as back up (well, it did before we traded the turd '08 JKU - and it was full on turd - we used to have).

Pretty impressed with the 2015's ... And that's coming from an "I more or less hate JK's perspective" ... It's comfy, sips fuel (whaaaaaaat?), has good build quality, and good power ... I still don't like them ('cause it has no 4.0) but I can live with it, since the wife loves it. But, it has a transfer case and says jeep so I guess it can't be all bad.

I also snagged an '88 MJ a few years back for cheap to do the commute to work (250km once a week). Fixed it with parts off the XJ leftover from the XJ's cooling system refurbishment. Which let's me leave the XJ for play, mods without needing it to roll week to week, and back up duty, which was needed when we had the '08.

I guess it's a Jeep thing ... I still don't understand.

agree on "c" but "e" kills me! lol

Cool, thanks for the reply's. Other than craigslist any advice on where I could source a decent 97+ for cheap?