I go to college about 4 hours from home and can't afford gas for my Jeep anymore. I knew this day would come eventually, so I never did any real mods to it (well that, and it's a 2WD. I was waiting to see if I wanted a 4WD at some point). I posted it on craigslist with some information, but since I could only post so many pictures, I put this link in the description, for a more detailed post.

http://cmhansen2.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/pictures/

I listed it at $2,000, willing to take about $1,700. After a week of no serious offers, I dropped it to $1,800 and expected no less than $1,500, and that was an absolute worst case scenario.

I've had no real buyers, so I figure it's time to spend some time fixing it up with my dad. This is the list of things we had in mind in order to church it up some and hopefully get a bit more money out of it.

-Replace lower radiator hose (if this doesn't fix the problem, move on to the water pump. But it looks like it's just the hose)
-Try to pull out the front fender damage (anyone got a method for this?)
-Sand and bonding work to fix a good bit of the scratches
-DIY paintjob. My dad has all the tools, and experience, so we would just need the paint.

I figured, at most, this could cost about $200 and hopefully bring the price closer to $2,200 or something if we can get it looking nice.

Does anyone else have a better idea as to what can be done, or how we could go about doing it? Our method for pulling out the fender damage was to try and wedge a crowbar in the space where the damage is, and hook it around a tree and back up slowly. My dad said it should straighten the fender back out, but it's clear there will be a little more work to do on the lip underneath the front of the car.

Thanks for any posts

EDIT: If we primed the car with a base coat, would it be alright to just paint the hood with the way it is? I think the owner before me tried some special wax or something on it and it stripped the paint right off, or so it looks. I've got no clue, it could be a common problem with this kind of Jeep. Anyways, would it be okay to paint over that, or would we be better off going to a junkyard and getting a new one?

EDIT2: I don't know what they're called, but the little...strips along the sides of the car at the bottom. Those things are CAKED in dirt. What would be the best way to clean them before painting?

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im no genius, but that sounds like what I would do lol well, I might try a winch instead of backing up and pulling it out, Ive seen the 'backing up to pull out the fender' thing go wrong real quick lol if it's just the bumper yer tryin to pull out, have you tried a jy for a used one? I know I couldn't get it back to straight, but that kind of thing isn't my bag, neither is painting lol I'd still try, rather than pay someone to do it, yaknow. if yer dad can paint and all you need is the material, I'd say go for it!
that's a perty low price for a 96, and yeah I know it's 2wd. but hell if I had the money, I'd prolly go for something like that, I like projects lol and just sittin here I daydreamed of stuffing a GC inside of that XJ lol
yep, well I don't think anything i said will help at all lol but...
I was in somewhat of the same boat, what with driving to school, cost of gas, what not, and I opted to move in to town to be closer to school... the cost of an apt roughly equals about what I was spending on gas each month lol

you think that's a low price? With the leak fixed, how much do you think it would be worth? Maybe I shouldn't bother with body work...

If you click the link in the original post, there's about 20 pics. I didn't want to have to reupload every single one of them.

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Convert it to 4x4. Then raise the price $500+

Yeah but i'm not going to do that.

If I were you I'd get a JY fender to help it cosmetically. After that re list it with less of the bad stuff mentioned. Most of the problems you listed can be expected with jeeps such as the headliner and paint. Just say "slight wear and tear" or something like that.