My Jeep J10 is in great shape, body wise, if you consider how old it is. It’s got a little rust hole in the hood, a little rust on the back of the cab, a little hole here and there in the door jambs, a little bit on the floorboards, and a little in the bed, but it’s otherwise clean. Here in California, though, it’s apparently untouchable, because the standards are completely different than much of the rest of the country.
When I initially bought my 1985 Jeep J10 from Yadkinvilla, North Carolina in 2015, I was thrilled. The thing was 100% stock, it ran, it drove, it had very few miles, and the body was quite decent. I bought it for $3,500, which — especially for me back then — was a mountain of cash.
I not only got the truck, but also a Gallon of moonshine that the seller told me had been brewed by Junior Johnson himself, and I also got a hand-drawn map to the local mud-run that was happening that day. My friends and I attended, and it was epic.
The Jeep sat for a while until I used it for therapy during the pandemic, getting it on the road and driving it from Michigan to North Carolina to Fayetteville, AR to Dallas, TX, back up to Michigan. The truck was flawless, and I was in love.
It checks all the “ultimate pickup truck” boxes, including:
- Regular cab
- Long bed
- 4×4
- Manual
- Bench seat
- stamped tailgate
- manual locking hubs
- gun rack
It is the truckiest of the trucks, and luckily for me, it wasn’t a Michigan machine, or else it would be a rustbucket.
To be sure, it wasn’t perfect, as this young nerd points out here:
Here are a few photos of the minor rust:
Overall, it’s a really nice machine — by Michigan standards. By California standards, it’s apparently such a heap that someone just sent me this:
In case you can’t see that image for whatever reason, here’s the message:
Long shot here but I was wondering since it’s been a while if you are selling parts off your truck. I’m looking for a windshield and the front bumper if so please lmk
Either this person is pulling my leg or I’m out of touch, or maybe both, because is this person really suggesting I part out an 82,000 mile truck? Especially one that’s this complete? Come on; look at this thing — it’s not that bad!
Look at the underside; it’s clean!:
A few weeks ago I wrote “Bringing My Michigan Cars To California Was A Mistake,” an article about how my friend Fred had warned me that, given the amazing selection of vehicles out west, a vehicle from the rust belt pretty much has no value here in California. I don’t think I fully realized just how little value a truck that in another state is worth easily $7000 is basically worth, well, parts!
It’s a combination of the minor rust (which Californias would consider major) and the emissions status (it is missing its original emissions equipment, which is why it runs so well) that has basically relegated my J10 to the lowest tier in the California car hierarchy. It is a true shame.
Luckily, my internal sell-or-don’t-sell pendulum for the J10 is swinging back towards “keep forever,” so this doesn’t bother me in the least, but it’s something I find remarkable. In California, any rust = rustbucket. In Michigan, no holes = rust-free. What a difference.
I guess I’m more Californian than I thought because this to me is more than minor rust. I don’t consider any rust to be a rustbucket, and this is definitely less rust than some other vehicles you’ve posted about, but to me this is more of a medium-rust situation.
Until you can throw a dog all the way through it, it’s not too rusty up north.
For perspective, some friends that are hardcore from LA had a day planned, bike across the golden gate to marin, climb a mountain, and ski somewhere.
Next day they’re moping around like someone backed over his Lotus.
I ask what’s wrong expecting apocalyptic events!
They said we can’t go! It’s cloudy!
What!!
To me cloudy means NOT HOT, which is all I care about in summer.
They didn’t even go outside all day!
If you still think anything is normal there, go west on Sunset until you reach the Gates of Hell.
what size dog?
That would depend on the dog’s aerodynamics!
People outside of the rust belt will be surprised how little of the structure actually has to be there for the car to function (note that I didn’t say safely lol). Rust is just involuntary, environmental weight reduction.
Adding lightness!
Speed holes!
All cars are parts cars.
In the same way all zoos are petting zoos, if you treat them that way.
All pizzas are personal pizzas if you try hard and believe in yourself!
…or are a teenager.
I once tried to pet the alligator, but ended up feeding it instead. I still miss that hand
At least it stayed in the family, kinda.
Actually, the first time I heard that was by way of an explanation for why my grandfather would buy three identical pickups at once. Sure enough, between various wrecks and mechanical failures, we would have a Chevy with an orange cab, a blue bed, and various bits and pieces cannibalized to make about one and a half trucks. It was unclear which was “the parts truck”, they were all parts trucks.
All zoos are petting zoos once.
Hmmm. I have to say that if I walked by that car I would think the owner does not take care of it. I’m not going to look at the underbody to make my assessment.
As is, it looks like a beater. A cool beater, but the average person will take one look and keep a wide berth when driving lest parts fall off while moving.
Mechanically, it’s in better shape than most cars on the road. But yeah, the body is what you’d expect from a Farm Jeep.
That definitely is not rust free.
The air quotes in the title are doing some pretty heavy lifting.
Some day, years from now, the rust will fully purge from your bloodstream. Perhaps, hopefully, reason will restore.
Maybe Dave can wear some magnet bracelets, and at least it’ll all gather in a place or two so it can be removed?
It will make all the rust molecules align together and improves David’s miles to the gallon as a side benefit!
Na, just get a MRI. Fast, painful removal.
Pro tip: if you are a professional welder, or do a lot of grinding on projects, inform your doctor before having a MRI. You would be surprised how much metal gets embedded in your epidermis. And if you are nuts and do a lot of grinding sans goggles, how much is in your eyes.
An X-ray once saved me from getting an MRI on what turned out to be a broken-off nail in my foot. It had been in there for years before I admitted something was wrong.
As the podiatrist said, “It would have removed it!”
This has been an issue for a friend of mine who is a metal worker.
He has also been treated for excessive iron in his blood.
I can testify from personal experience that goggles don’t always stop everything.
And wood bits can be as bad as metal.
I hope David never needs an MRI.
Its facebook marketplace- the home of utterly stupid responses.
I ran into the same thing selling my XJ a few years back. People think that you’ll cannibalize parts off anything you’re selling. People wanted my bumpers, wheels, axles, etc.
I was amazed no one tried to buy parts off mine when I had it up.
My 1989 XJ has 224k miles on it, the paint has been roasted off of it by the sun many years ago, and it sports quite a few “sheet metal adjustments”. Every time it is in the driveway, I get asked if I’m selling it for parts. When it’s time for Old Broken to drive across the Rainbow Bridge, I’m going to donate it to the local tech college, just out of spite.
An idea for the next Autopian T-shirt, as a call back to the first one:
An image of the J10, with David standing next to it doing the Vanna White pose and the words “He knows what he’s got!” across the top.
I wonder if David knows who Vanna White is?
David.
David.
This is not a rust-free pickup.
It’s not even an entire pickup on account of the holes.
“Sure, you can buy the windshield and the front bumper! It’s $8000 and I’ll throw in the rest of the truck for free!”
This is the correct approach.
On the flip side, when I moved to LA for a couple of years back around 2001, I was able to pick up an ’87 BMW 325 convertible with a warm silver exterior and red interior for only $2900 despite it having only 78k on the clock. Nice cars in LA were so common that they could be found for almost nothing. My partner had just sold their rusty 1990 Subaru with 140k on it for $2500 in Minnesota.
The great weather and more restrictive requirements tend to keep older cars in better condition for longer.
What I’m hearing is that there’s money to be made by anyone that regularly travels between LA and Detroit.
Likely less so now. In 2001, shopping for cars online wasn’t what it is now, and people were much less likely to shop outside of their local area. Now that anyone can see what is for sale anywhere and shipping is a regular part of the process, the prices have normalized across the country.
I knew a guy in Chicago who used to drive to California, buy cars that would be rusty in northern Illinois, and then sell them for a nice profit.
The wild thing was that he said it didn’t really matter what the car was, so long as it was a car that’s normally very rusty up here. One time he rolled up in a mint 2003 Chevy Trailblazer (this was in 2015) and yep, he even made money on that, too.
Do people really ‘make money’ doing this though?
Selling for more than you payed sounds good at face value, but factor in fuel, expenses, paper work and the time to make it all happen… You’d have to be pretty shrewd to extract a living wage.
Probably not a living, but if it’s something that interests you and you’re traveling that route anyway you can probably make enough to at least cover travel expenses.
I totally get it, my wife and I have both had vehicles we bought in BC and drove back solo to Ontario. Both were awesome adventures, and worth the expense for the life experience and stories alone. It’s something id recommend anyone do at least once in their life, I just like to be real when it comes to any claims of actual profit.
in 2001 I bought an S13 in Miami and drove it home to Boston with my wife. I bought my Miata in Long Beach and drove it back solo.
Both trips were way more exciting than a regular road trip going out and back in the same car.
It’s not unheard of for people to come south just to take a car back with them.
An otherwise unremarkable car.
I completely agree with you. It’s in too good a shape to part out. I’ll tell you what, if you guys pick me for the job opening, I’d happily take the Gladiator as part of the employment package. We could add a slide in camper and turn it into a rolling office.
The email address is different, but the name is the same.
I think you’re finally coming around to realizing this, but as a Californian turned Arizonan I’ve never even considered rust as a notion. Cars get scrapped because of expensive mechanical faults or body damage, not some mysterious force that weakens the frame from the inside out. Sure the cars within a mile or two of the ocean get a bit rusty, but those beach hippie types are a different breed anyway.
In the desert, we don’t worry about rust, but how dry the rubber and plastic is. DT may consider a 9 year old used tire fine, but in Arizona anything over 5 years is a pending blowout.
Usually something pointy stabs one of my tires about 3 years in, and because Haldex I have to get 4 new ones at once anyway. But yeah, a full cooling system refresh with new gaskets and hoses is a must once anything starts seeming brittle. Still, I’ll take a bit of preventative maintenance over my car magically disappearing into dust.
Here in Alabama, I’ve walked from at least two cars that were great deals because I took them on a test drive, brought them home, and put them on ramps. My rejection was a little unnatural, but seeing 3 years worth of rust on an underbody that’s worse than 20+ years on my other car…that was a hard pass. Cars were from Upstate NY and MI, if that helps paint a picture.
It’s not always rational to freak out over superficially rusty suspensions and exhausts, but it’s definitely a reason to pause unless the buyer is really desperate.
Someone brought a Volvo south with them that had apparently been underwater for some time!
The dealer was very flexible but so was the frame!
I later saw the car being driven by someone.
Wait, does the market not consider it a ‘Holy Grail?’
it’s a “Holy” something….
The Holey Grail!
You’re asking $8K for a rusty old truck in SoCal? And it can’t be registered unless you put back in all the emissions equipment? Yep, it’s YOUR forever car now.
No.
It’s the car he can remember fondly as the bad decision he eventually had to donate.
Plan: Title it in CA, drive it back to Troy and sell it there as a CA truck. I’d sell so fast!!
It’s the best shot he has at the moment.
“You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime”
“Mom’s (shower) spaghetti”
If it makes it back to Troy without dumping all its fluids on David’s shoes.
Speaking as a Californian ordinarily I’d agree but given that the Autopian must have an affiliated corporation of some sort I’d be shocked if David couldn’t get a Montana registration on it and leave it as-is.
I’ve seen the truck in person and I love it, but yeah, by California standards it’s a rustbucket and the truth is if he really wants a J10/J20 he’d be better off finding a nicer example here. The harder truth is that as a new dad and family man now it makes sense to pick one, and only one, project and I’m not sure this is it.
The GMT400 isn’t as sexy but will do the truck stuff much better and no guilt will be felt keeping it mechanically solid while not worrying about the appearance.
The compensation for losing the freedom to eat shower spaghetti and bring vehicles back from the dead is an amazing wife and kid, and also the legitimate pride of putting together an amazing automotive site and community. Those things are worth, well, a lot.
(P.S. A shout-out to the picture in front of the Garden Inn, our go-to place to stay in San Luis Obispo – although it looks like it may have gone corporate since I last stayed there while our son attended Cal Poly)
As a lifetime California resident, that is a beater truck. Drive it and enjoy it, but don’t spend a dime on it. It needs far more time and money in body work than it will ever be worth. I’m not a jeep guy, but as an appliance (a truck, not a collectors item) looks like $2500 tops, although I’m wth your commenter, I’d only consider it for parts. I’ve bought (and still own) a completely rust free 5 speed manual, single cab, long bed truck that needed nothing for $2,500.
If I see a single spot of rust scale on a vehicle, it has been neglected and I’m moving on. Life is too short to deal with bolt heads that snap off when you touch them
Here in NM, as long as the VIN on the title matches the VIN on the truck, he is free to register it here. No cat, no brake lights, no problem!
Wait. $8k?
Good luck finding a Shitbox Showdown contestant that would lose to this.
“I know what I have, no low ballers”
– David, probably
David, in California patina is something that should be artfully applied with an airbrush and not earned through actual wear.
I’ve been there, David.
Sometimes, I’ve tried selling something that I know is special and rare, but people in the general public market don’t seem to understand. I’d make a great listing, beautiful pictures, thorough description, and try to explain why it’s such a great car. Invariably, I’d deal with time-wasters and lowballers, or people just looking for something that runs.
Eventually, I’d become so fed up with everyone, I’d delete the ad and think to myself, “Fine, if you guys don’t see the value in this, I’ll just keep it.” Spite is a helluva drug.
Sorry to say, David, but your J10 is just not clean. Your GMT400 is clean. When I see your J10 (from a NJ perspective), I see a survivor and a truck that’s intact and has potential….but rust holes = not clean!
How will you resolve the emissions situation? I believe you mentioned at one point that the OEM controls are difficult to find and hideously expensive when found.
I would “sell it” to Mercedes, so she can register it in Illinois where they have no rules, according to DUG. Mercedes then gets a small bonus every year for the inconvenience.
I’ve got it registered until 2033 as an antique; I’ll deal with it then.
Outstanding! Please carry on 🙂
I did the same with my XJ. It also helped reduce insurance costs.
The parts were there yesterday!
Nothing with rust HOLES is any kind of clean.
Unfortunately, that also includes my underwear.
Mine too.
I wouldn’t list them on marketplace and then act surprised when the only interested party just wants to buy the waistband.
Technically the inside of the holes is 100% clean
Based on the message you received I think you’re focusing way more on the rust or lack thereof on the truck than the length of time it has been on the market.
If I see an item or vehicle that has been listed for a long time I have no problem making a hail mary ludicrous offer to the seller with the hope that they’re desperate enough to accept it. It has worked a few times.
I’m on the upstate NY “it’s almost showroom fresh!” side of things.
See also the ’94 Grand Cherokee “Holy Grail” that a post David wrote about during the pandemic caused me to buy…it’s a rusty crusty thing even by road-salt state standards, but I still love it.
I’ve attended many Syracuse Nationals over the years, and I wholeheartedly agree. His truck would sell before they played the Canadian National Anthem on Friday morning. ‘Rusty’ in Syracuse means using two-by-fours to hold the frame of the winter beater together for one more winter because there is not enough metal to take a weld.
“Rusty” means using fiberglass to patch up the rear shock towers of an ‘86 Escort (in ‘94) to keep it on the road.
Yeah that says ‘parts car’ all day in the PNW.
Parts cars in other parts of the country are daily drivers in the Land of Enchantment. In NM, that truck could spend five years on the road with expired CA plates and never get pulled over. David wouldn’t be able to get $8500 out here, but someone would drop $4000 for the J-10 if the mechanicals are solid, and it would spend the next 20 years on a ranch, hauling hay and mending fences. Trucks in NM (not the Cowboy Cadillac Costco Run kind; yecch) are used for work, and we get decades of use out of them. I bet that J-10 would be thrilled to do the chores it was built for.
Fair. And I’m not saying that it should be taken off the road either. Just that anyone shopping in this area is not going to be looking at this example as anything other than something that should be worked into the ground, and priced accordingly. If they want something ‘clean’ they’d have examples to choose from that meet the local definition.
My parts pickup truck quickly became a keeper cause 4wd.
I don’t care if it ever leaves the pasture.
When it rains enough, nothing is good enough.