Cherokee Chief Rollin Coal
 

Well fellas, here goes another build thread. Hopefully I can keep you guys entertained for a few minutes.

I took my Zombie Jeep to get its oil changed today. While waiting outside an older gentleman approached me and began asking questions about the Jeep. We struck up conversation about wheeling stories and rigs that we have and had. He told me about a rock crawler he has and an old Willys and a few other things.

He said he was here working in Ohio from down South and had brought a diesel Cherokee with him. I said a wa wa wa what? He said a diesel Cherokee. I said a wa wa wa what? He said a diesel Cherokee. I asked 100 questions about it. He noticed my interest and said it was just a few miles up the road, if I wanted to come look at it I could. I don't normally follow strangers home but I figured a diesel Cherokee may be worth getting raped over. I'll take my chances.

I followed him up to the campground he was posted up at. He proudly showed me his 1985 5-speed 2.1 turbo diesel AMC Cherokee Chief. He recently had put a 3" lift with quick disconnects and new 31" tires on it. I had never even seen a picture of one before. He told me since he got here he had bought a truck and the Cherokee had just been sitting a couple years. He put the battery on and it started right up. I asked him if he would consider selling it and he said he hadn't thought about it before and we shook hands and parted ways.

While we were talking at the oil change place he had given me his business card. I called the number and asked him if I could bring my dad by to show him the diesel Cherokee (very hard not to call this thing a Jeep). He said sure stop by. We did, he let me drive it this time, I tried to buy it again and he told me no.

I came home and ate dinner and thought about how I would never see a diesel Cherokee again. I called once more and was told it's not for sale. He said he was going to haul it home, put it in storage and get to fixing it up later down the line. At that point I basically started begging and asked him to do the Cherokee justice and let someone who was going to appreciate it and clean it up have a turn with it. I said cars are meant to be seen and enjoyed, not stored away.
He said get over here before I change my mind. Here she is:

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As far as goals on this build? I'm going to start by cleaning it up. It hasn't had a bath since Christ died. I'll probably enjoy it and pamper it until someone makes me a nice enough cash offer on it.

That is bad ***. The paint is so sweet!

We need a video of the startup and walk around. Come on man! You tease worse than my girlfriend in 2nd grade!

X1000!!!!

Lol hang in there guys, waiting on video to upload.

Woot woot! Haha

Thumbs up man! (not sure if i can use icons on the app lol)

And they made a factory diesel? Very cool man.

They made very few that were sold in the US. There are not many left.

Here's an article I found. About halfway down they talk about the turbo 2.1's and wonder if there are any left out there.
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbs...ks-to-renault/

Updated fleet photo:
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Alright guys, first day of cleaning it up. The back carpet was gross and had been harboring car parts.

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Luckily the guy I bought it from supplied a new piece for the rear he had picked up but never installed. It's not perfect as it had been rolled up in the back with the rest of the stuff, but it's much cleaner than what I have. I laid it out on the garage floor and ran my carpet shampooer over it.

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For comparison, here's the old removed from the Cherokee:

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The floors look great, like I said this came from South Carolina. I even found a few seacreature shells under the carpet. I cleaned up a couple small rust spots and hit it with some rust stopping paint.

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Well the carpet swap officially kicked my ***. It's the first time I have ever messed with carpet. It's not real difficult but kinda just a pain in the butt trying to cut all the appropriate holes and not screw it up. Here's a pic of the test fit:

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Lucky for me the big stain is under the back seat:

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The longest part of this job was cleaning up the back plastics. Good lord they were gross. I bet you they have never been cleaned. I had to make a run to the auto parts store for some degreaser and steel wool. Check this **** out:

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This job took over 10 hours. I am beat. I could have done the carpet in 1-2 hours, the cleaning was the biggest part. I got it all together minus the spare tire. I was too worn out to clean up the nasty cover.

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Good job dude! You gotta feel good about the hard work.

10 hours straight or 10 hours total? Lol