You're gonna kill me for this...
So far I have approx. 600 bucks into it, plus whatever I end up paying my parents.
My parents bought it in 2002. It spent till 2008 towing our family camping trailer, hauling us kids around, moving us back and forth to and from college, and being the college kid car (yes, I was that cool kid in college driving an 8 passenger van, it was a real hit with the ladies.) In around 2008 or 2009 the transmission melted down so they had it rebuilt, then shortly after that the front wheel bearings went to hell. My dad brought it to a local shop that turned out to be a bunch of shady idiots, they completely screwed up the job, and he parked it in frustration. They were planning on selling it anyways, since they bought a replacement vehicle that wasn't such an ugly gas pig when all us kids grew up and moved out.
Fast forward 3 years. Now my mom is really sick and tired of looking at the stupid thing in the driveway, and my dad wants nothing to do with fixing it, but doesn't want to shell out a ridiculous amount of money to have it done, either. Mom decides to donate it to something or other for a 500 dollar tax credit (i.e. 125 bucks or so) and mentions it to me on facebook in passing. I thought it had a 5.9L motor, which I wanted for my street MJ project, so I told her to not get rid of it and that I'd pay at least what they were going to, and either tow it or fix it and drive it away.
I ended up putting about 600 bucks in parts (300 of which I haven't even installed yet, new brake rotors and pads, it makes some mild noise at road speed, hoping it will wear off in another few thousand miles) on it - new wheel bearings on both front wheels, a new alternator, a new battery, a new idler pulley, new wipers, some signals and bulbs and junk, etc.
They went from trying to convince me to not take it to trying to get me to keep it. On the way home from fixing it (I drove it home, since it was more comfortable than the shitbasket 98 XJ I drove up there with my tools and parts in it) the Sunday before WF, I started thinking... that's always a mistake in my case... and went AHA! This thing is a 3/4 ton, I bet I can tow my jeep to WF with it! :gee:
Ended up buying my tow dolly off a friend for $350 (would have cost me $500+ just to rent a uhaul one for that long), registering everything Thursday, then threw all my tools in the back and drove to WF. Towing a jeep a thousand miles with a vehicle that hadn't actually run in 3 years probably wasn't the wisest decision I've ever made, but it actually worked out pretty well, surprisingly.
I have it listed on CL for 3k OBRO, if it sells, I'll subtract the price of the parts I have into it, then give my parents *at least* half of what's left. They are trying to get me to just take it, but I don't really feel right about that, especially since I offered multiple times over the last few years to help fix it and never got around to it.
