The car came with a large exhast leak, right at the manifold. After a week and a half of figuring out what vacuum tubes go where, bending into funny shapes to remove bolts, and grinding through several rust-welded fastners, the old manifold came out. It will hang on my wall (I threw it away).

The Jeep also "featured" some very floaty steering (see right). This fix required a couple proprietary tools and a few junkyard dives, but the wheel is now firm. I fixed the high beams while I was at it. The steering still felt fairly light, and I did experience some death wobble. When I went to add some positive caster, I discoverd bent tie rods and control arms. I ended up replacing all the steering linkages, track bar, and control arms.

When I attempted to start the Jeep after being covered in snow, it read zero oil pressure on the dash (verified with a mechanical gauge). The fix has been a new oil pickup (it was packed with gunk) and engine oil flush. Previous owners had clearly neglected a few oil changes. With the oil pan off, I saw a large chip in a camshaft lobe. Let's hope that won't be an issue for a while.

Fixed rust spots on the roof, as well as put in a custom blue-grey corduroy headliner. Totally 90s.

I bought new seatbelts and welded on the brackets. My mom was happy about this.

Replaced the front shocks. Was actually an undamped system before.

Got a pretty bad powersteering leak and broke my Dad's one rule: "That piece of crap better not leak on the driveway". Replaced the low and high pressure lines to fix it.

The coolant looked more like coca-cola, so I flushed the system with a chemical flush and DI water. I also changed the oil several times, power steering fluid, and transmission fluid.

Replaced the broken ignition cylinder.

Did a LOT of cleaning and fixing of small rattles.