Need advice on a Jeep

[DOWNS]

Hello everyone, I’m looking at a 1992 Jeep Wrangler yj and need some advice. The seller says he’s put over $13k into it, as he’s turned it into his company car and has used it as advertisement for his company. He is asking $5,500( he said he can go $5,000). The fuse box caught on fire when one of his employees was driving it to an event… he says he and some of his guys have tried replacing it and fixing it and that one of them got it running but no fuel was getting to the engine. He says he can almost guarantee the car will work perfectly fine if I can fix the fuse box but I’m not sure if it’s worth the risk. I’m curious to know if the fuse box catching fire is a common thing and if it’s expensive/hard to fix? I’ve never worked on cars(and this would be my first car) but I’m good at fixing things and if it’s not too complicated of a thing I could probably fix it. I know this is a long one lol but just wanted to know other Jeep enthusiasts opinions before I make a purchase. Thank you in advance

"Almost Guarantee" What a joker. Dude's a salesman, for sure. Of the used car variety.

"Used it every single day, fuse box had a corroded fuse, bought a new one to stall, but do not have time for a rewire if the fuse box" so he lied by omission in the ad. "Corroded fuse", you mean it caught on fire?

"Car has some rust". Corrosion issues are not nice to these things. Depending on where he's been running it in Florida, good chance if you see easy to see surface rust all over it has deeper corrosion issues. I see some pretty nasty looking rust on the side steps/rock rails. I'm willing to bet there's bad corrosion under those. The tub sides are some kind of applique armor or some such that has the company adverts on it. Willing to be the body is rough under those too. Layering two pieces of material together doesn't do well for rust prevention.

Another issue is the Bed liner he put in it. If it's not done PERFECTLY and you get a break in that stuff water/junk gets between it and the body and rusts it out at lightning speed. Also possible he's hiding other corrosion under it that you can't see.

The Jeep has had an electrical fire. I might consider 5k for a running YJ but for sure not one that's been on fire especially in the wiring.

I would start negotiating based on installing a whole new wiring harness and fuse block and not patching it together. You're not looking at a cheap fix or short work labor wise. He can complain about having 13k into it, which, if he's smart, he wrote all that off as a business expense since he's using it for company advertising, but it doesn't change the fact the wiring has been on fire and it may or may not have rust problems. 2k max considering the electrical fire and potential rust issues of all the "good ideas" he had.

 

[machoheadgames]

"Almost Guarantee" What a joker. Dude's a salesman, for sure. Of the used car variety.

"Used it every single day, fuse box had a corroded fuse, bought a new one to stall, but do not have time for a rewire if the fuse box" so he lied by omission in the ad. "Corroded fuse", you mean it caught on fire?

"Car has some rust". Corrosion issues are not nice to these things. Depending on where he's been running it in Florida, good chance if you see easy to see surface rust all over it has deeper corrosion issues. I see some pretty nasty looking rust on the side steps/rock rails. I'm willing to bet there's bad corrosion under those. The tub sides are some kind of applique armor or some such that has the company adverts on it. Willing to be the body is rough under those too. Layering two pieces of material together doesn't do well for rust prevention.

Another issue is the Bed liner he put in it. If it's not done PERFECTLY and you get a break in that stuff water/junk gets between it and the body and rusts it out at lightning speed. Also possible he's hiding other corrosion under it that you can't see.

The Jeep has had an electrical fire. I might consider 5k for a running YJ but for sure not one that's been on fire especially in the wiring.

I would start negotiating based on installing a whole new wiring harness and fuse block and not patching it together. You're not looking at a cheap fix or short work labor wise. He can complain about having 13k into it, which, if he's smart, he wrote all that off as a business expense since he's using it for company advertising. 2k max considering the electrical fire and potential rust issues of all the "good ideas" he had.

Yeah, after seeing the photos I’d pass. I already didn’t like it at the fire but figured maybe it looks ok otherwise. If it’s so easy to fix, the guy should just buy a wiring harness and fix it to sell it properly at this point.

 

[DOWNS]

Yeah, after seeing the photos I’d pass. I already didn’t like it at the fire but figured maybe it looks ok otherwise. If it’s so easy to fix, the guy should just buy a wiring harness and fix it to sell it properly at this point.

That's always my catch on these kinds of adverts. "Oh it's an easy fix just gotta fix x,y or z."..................ok so why haven't you done it yet and asked more for it?

 

[Plastic Fury]

Yeah, after seeing the photos I’d pass. I already didn’t like it at the fire but figured maybe it looks ok otherwise. If it’s so easy to fix, the guy should just buy a wiring harness and fix it to sell it properly at this point.

Yeah that is a solid point. If it's such an easy fix, why not take the effort to fix it and then sell it at a higher price. The truth is that beyond the fire, it's probably hiding a host of other problems.

 

[New to Jeeps]

Chasing electrical gremlins can be the worst, especially after a fire. As others mentioned, if you wind up purchasing it, I would pick up another harness and swap out the entire thing. To my knowledge, Painless does not make a kit for the fuel injected YJ, only up to 1990. Looks like that YJ is in decent shape and has some aftermarket parts on it. If it's solid otherwise it would be worth saving. Swapping out the harness for another complete one is not a tough job, just a little tedious but worth it IMO. I would still offer less though as it's not a running Jeep and you are unable to verify any other issues it might have before hand.

I offered him $4,000 and he said he can’t go lower than $4,500. Unless I change my mind I’m gonna pick it up Wednesday and hopefully won’t regret my decision

 

[DOWNS]

Well just remember what a bunch of guys experienced with Jeeps have said in this thread Other than that good luck and enjoy the experience.

 

[TRevs]

How much $ he put into it is irrelevant; what matters is how much time and money you’ll have to put into it to make it a decent operable vehicle.

A lot of his ‘upgrades’ could very well be junk worse than stock.

You’ve been warned about the electrical issues; don’t underestimate the potential for rust issues.