- City
- Woodway
- State
- Tx
Looks like a soft top in the bag, it just keeps getting better ....
Survivor Project
- Thread starter Scrambler85
- Start date
- City
- south central
- State
- AK
No; different wheel. As you noted, it's clearly an early MJ/YJ/XJ wheel. CJ is 5x5.5", while your wheel is 5x4.5".
Scrambler85
Member
- City
- Lanexa
- State
- VA
damn, guess the luck ran out lol
- City
- Landing
- State
- NJ
Actually it’s quite common to see them especially the later ones loaded up but not a SR or SL. And the decal is Factory it shows up in the parts books it’s not common at all but seems to be something more so seen on 85s. But also hardly at all. If you get my drift.
The thing with 85s and even 84s for that matter is they were selling terribly by this point and dealers were ordering them in ways to try to get them to sell and also coming from zone stock from the factory this way. 84 and 85 production was terribly low. The Scrambler was a failure from the start.
This one has many options checked checked for sure. Even the metallic paint was an option !! I can say fairly certianly this is 100 percent original nothing touched from what I see so far.
Would love to see the engine bay and vin/build month next. I wonder how late it is in the run. ?
- City
- Molalla
- State
- Or
Interesting that there is no spare tire. Looks like it might have had one on the roll bar, or maybe ordered without one . . . save a couple bucks for that AC. No radio either . . . and no one drilled a hole for the antennae somewhere undesirable. Nice to see a bed without dents. You gotta love this Scrambler. Wonder what gears they put in the diffs?
- City
- Baton Rouge
- State
- La
x2 on the antenna
- City
- Landing
- State
- NJ
After sleeping on this one, and also looking at the new pics, a few more observations...
The AC is dealer installed and not factory according to the brackets, this is very common however and they made a specific kit for the dealers to use that keeps the alternator up high vs the factory way of the compressor being there....so thats one less option "not factory checked" it is often seen tho, and was available as a dealer order kit. Not to be confused with an aftermarket kit tho, even tho was made by same company (american air) the underdash box would look different. This jeep has the genuine box that is same as would have been as factory order...
I am leaning more towards what AKRWC said tho, on the SR....sans graphics....but believe they may have been removed day 1....here's why: the doors have the aluminum trims around the handle.... this may mean that someone or the dealer removed the door decals because they didnt like them for some reason, and had the dealer remove the stripes....those trims are very indicative with SR and SL packages with hardtop option, those would be there...the textured door decals....but i doubt someone went through the process of removing the handle just to get that decal fully off, so could be some pieces of decal remaining under the trim....
secondly on the SR theory, it has the dash overlay...thats a biggie....because as a base model, even fully loaded, that wasn't a separate option for just that...although yes whoever bought this could have added it by just buying it at the parts counter, but as a theory of probabilities determining SR/Base etc (sans window sticker) ((owner please check those papers, also for build sheet under the seat)) ... and a few others for the SR theory is of course the rocker trim (could be added) and the SR level steering wheel.....all of those things add up to I say 90-95 percent ordered with SR package...
So now the question of why no stripes.....I had an 84 Laredo CJ7 once back in the day that was able to be ordered without striping, although it did have the hard door decals and the thin whispy stripe upper belt line stripes...according to the son of the original owner, his parents ordered it this way...and I could see this able to happen in a way cause AMC would save the cost of putting the stripes on, and also probably got away with $100-$150 charge for the "special" order as well ... as far as this one I would think that is the same case...but the lack of door decals yet it has the door trims messes with my theory a bit...I would have to study a bit more in person....but if I had to bet on it now, the decals were deleted on order or removed on delivery.......the hard door textured decal situation a bit more of a mystery...
As far as other options, it has the bolts for the tire carrier on rollbar, which was standard so i see that as normal just was removed by the owner who didnt like it (I dont like them either)....and when there they used bolts to fill the tire carrier holes....my 9k mile scrambler was like this and I added the tire carrier to the back for preference. it had factory tire carrier bolts in place.... as far as when the rear tire carrier option is checked, plastic plugs are placed in the rollbar bolt locations...like the ones you see on the bed floor covering the rear seat holes. although they are black and not off white.
no power brakes....common as well...even on SR and SL...
the upper radiator hose clamp has been replaced, I wonder why..
heavy duty cooling option was checked, or was installed as appropriate when AC kit was added. includes extra capacity radiator, clutch fan, shroud, and coolant overflow bottle
interesting that the console is black and not honey, and the soft top is white and not honey...
wherever it was stored, the passenger side saw considerable more sun than the driver per the anodize fade on the rocker molding. The rocker molding also is an SR theory additive I mention above...
The tires and wheel combo is indicative of SR package also... the tires are the correct tires for 85 and also SR too, as a black wall tire...smooth edge design Goodyear Wrangler Radial....the SL would instead have white letters out....also these tires are not just white letter tires mounted in, they are a raised black letter (RBL) tire....exactly how the SRs were delivered. Could also be added to a base model of course, but theory here as applied. Lug nuts are also original to SR/SL.
and of course the denim level seats and full carpet aslo indicative of SR....base seats would be vinyl and CJ embossed...and just a small mini mat in front (in black) if not SR package...
To the owner of this jeep....I have been studying and collecting original CJs for more than 20 years....I can say you have one of the lowest mileage CJ8s in existence...maybe the second....there was a 688 mile 84 SR sold out of CO many years ago, who knows how many miles it has now.....also several in the 4-9k mile range but those can literally be counted on only one hand thats how rare an even sub 10,000 mile CJ8 is...so therefore you have somethng very special...it has years of storage issues that will need to be "reversed" and often need skilled hands to do so....only hand polish or with utmost care and experience....a modern car standard detail shop could ruin this jeep very easily and it will never be the same...even some of the mechanical stuff... i would get it running and driving first before replacing anything including the bushings....what you dont want to do is add crappy aftermarket stuff to it like plastic radiators etc if this one comes back to leak.
my 2 cents..or was it 2 dollars ?
The AC is dealer installed and not factory according to the brackets, this is very common however and they made a specific kit for the dealers to use that keeps the alternator up high vs the factory way of the compressor being there....so thats one less option "not factory checked" it is often seen tho, and was available as a dealer order kit. Not to be confused with an aftermarket kit tho, even tho was made by same company (american air) the underdash box would look different. This jeep has the genuine box that is same as would have been as factory order...
I am leaning more towards what AKRWC said tho, on the SR....sans graphics....but believe they may have been removed day 1....here's why: the doors have the aluminum trims around the handle.... this may mean that someone or the dealer removed the door decals because they didnt like them for some reason, and had the dealer remove the stripes....those trims are very indicative with SR and SL packages with hardtop option, those would be there...the textured door decals....but i doubt someone went through the process of removing the handle just to get that decal fully off, so could be some pieces of decal remaining under the trim....
secondly on the SR theory, it has the dash overlay...thats a biggie....because as a base model, even fully loaded, that wasn't a separate option for just that...although yes whoever bought this could have added it by just buying it at the parts counter, but as a theory of probabilities determining SR/Base etc (sans window sticker) ((owner please check those papers, also for build sheet under the seat)) ... and a few others for the SR theory is of course the rocker trim (could be added) and the SR level steering wheel.....all of those things add up to I say 90-95 percent ordered with SR package...
So now the question of why no stripes.....I had an 84 Laredo CJ7 once back in the day that was able to be ordered without striping, although it did have the hard door decals and the thin whispy stripe upper belt line stripes...according to the son of the original owner, his parents ordered it this way...and I could see this able to happen in a way cause AMC would save the cost of putting the stripes on, and also probably got away with $100-$150 charge for the "special" order as well ... as far as this one I would think that is the same case...but the lack of door decals yet it has the door trims messes with my theory a bit...I would have to study a bit more in person....but if I had to bet on it now, the decals were deleted on order or removed on delivery.......the hard door textured decal situation a bit more of a mystery...
As far as other options, it has the bolts for the tire carrier on rollbar, which was standard so i see that as normal just was removed by the owner who didnt like it (I dont like them either)....and when there they used bolts to fill the tire carrier holes....my 9k mile scrambler was like this and I added the tire carrier to the back for preference. it had factory tire carrier bolts in place.... as far as when the rear tire carrier option is checked, plastic plugs are placed in the rollbar bolt locations...like the ones you see on the bed floor covering the rear seat holes. although they are black and not off white.
no power brakes....common as well...even on SR and SL...
the upper radiator hose clamp has been replaced, I wonder why..
heavy duty cooling option was checked, or was installed as appropriate when AC kit was added. includes extra capacity radiator, clutch fan, shroud, and coolant overflow bottle
interesting that the console is black and not honey, and the soft top is white and not honey...
wherever it was stored, the passenger side saw considerable more sun than the driver per the anodize fade on the rocker molding. The rocker molding also is an SR theory additive I mention above...
The tires and wheel combo is indicative of SR package also... the tires are the correct tires for 85 and also SR too, as a black wall tire...smooth edge design Goodyear Wrangler Radial....the SL would instead have white letters out....also these tires are not just white letter tires mounted in, they are a raised black letter (RBL) tire....exactly how the SRs were delivered. Could also be added to a base model of course, but theory here as applied. Lug nuts are also original to SR/SL.
and of course the denim level seats and full carpet aslo indicative of SR....base seats would be vinyl and CJ embossed...and just a small mini mat in front (in black) if not SR package...
To the owner of this jeep....I have been studying and collecting original CJs for more than 20 years....I can say you have one of the lowest mileage CJ8s in existence...maybe the second....there was a 688 mile 84 SR sold out of CO many years ago, who knows how many miles it has now.....also several in the 4-9k mile range but those can literally be counted on only one hand thats how rare an even sub 10,000 mile CJ8 is...so therefore you have somethng very special...it has years of storage issues that will need to be "reversed" and often need skilled hands to do so....only hand polish or with utmost care and experience....a modern car standard detail shop could ruin this jeep very easily and it will never be the same...even some of the mechanical stuff... i would get it running and driving first before replacing anything including the bushings....what you dont want to do is add crappy aftermarket stuff to it like plastic radiators etc if this one comes back to leak.
my 2 cents..or was it 2 dollars ?
Last edited:
Scrambler85
Member
- City
- Lanexa
- State
- VA
We appreciate all the insight and info provided so far yall... I will try and get a vin and door tag either tonight or tomorrow morning,
Scrambler85
Member
- City
- Lanexa
- State
- VA
vin # written in the manual from the 1st owner, and the paper door tag has seen better days but it looks like 8/7/84. The original dealer “Parrish” in Athens, GA
Attachments
Last edited:
- City
- Landing
- State
- NJ
Great info. Thanks for sharing. So what we now know is this is actually a very early 85, your date is correct you show when it had its final checkouts on the line in August of 84... the first 30-45 days of 85 production. You will also likely see a month on the inside foot well on the vin sticker. Also to know the VIN sequential is of all units of all AMC Jeeps all models. So therefore it is early as an 85 for sure.
Another area to check I said above is the possible build sheet. look under each of the seats. It will be a yellow dot matrix type sheet full sheet size. Also some black hockey type tape holding it there and hopefully still some seat plastic too. Here is an example. Fingers crossed it’s still there. If it is I have the order codes to decipher it.
Another area to check I said above is the possible build sheet. look under each of the seats. It will be a yellow dot matrix type sheet full sheet size. Also some black hockey type tape holding it there and hopefully still some seat plastic too. Here is an example. Fingers crossed it’s still there. If it is I have the order codes to decipher it.
Scrambler85
Member
- City
- Lanexa
- State
- VA
- City
- Landing
- State
- NJ
Any hardware with the top or bows ? It appears it’s just the bag and the skin as normally they are on the outside of the bag with Velcro holders. And wondering if for hard doors or soft doors ? Did you get any doors with it in white. Those don’t fit in the bag and may have come separately .
Scrambler85
Member
- City
- Lanexa
- State
- VA
No extra doors, and no softop bows... also some pics of the under body.
Attachments
- City
- Merton
- State
- WI
Possible undercoating treatment?
- City
- Baton Rouge
- State
- La
If so, was undercoating a “factory check” option?