Wheels

 About two months ago we did a thing. We decided to sell my Edge and the Mini Cooper. I had been looking at the possibility of getting a new (to me) car and had begun shopping for one. Sean said "if you are really serious about wanting a new car, perhaps we should sell some cars first". What we normally do is buy a car and then decide what to sell afterwards. I don't think I thought about it enough before posting those two cars online, but 24 hours later both were sold. It was crazy fast, definitely a sellers market. I was kind of shocked to be sitting there without my car. I mean we have cars, three left but those two were my main wheels....my main kid haulers. I was sad to see them go, I get attached to cars for some reason. If they stay too long there is a chance they will never be sold and will forever stay with me (for instance my old 98 Ford F-150 that I bought my freshman year in college). 

So I started the daunting task of car shopping. I feel car shopping is a love/hate thing. I really enjoy the aspect of getting something fresh and new to me but dealing with salesmen at dealerships is a lot of work. Especially if you put out interest to multiple dealerships all over the country as I did. I was getting text messages and emails all day for weeks. 

I wasn't even sure what I wanted to replace my daily driver with at the time. I was bouncing around on several vehicles but finally decided on a Wrangler. I've wanted one of those since I was a teenager (I think everyone does as some point in their lives). They aren't exactly practical but sometimes you just need to step outside your box and try something new. I really liked the convertible Mini we had, the fresh air and wind in your hair was really fun. The whole family enjoy those outings. I will always have a special spot in my heart for Mini Coopers and will probably own a Roadster at some point in my life but driving that lowered car on our gravel roads was too much. It was always dirty too, it was literally never clean. The black interior was dusty even if cleaned daily. It was just not a dirt road car. 

I figured a Jeep Wrangler would provide the fun, open air (if we wanted to) ride that the Mini provided but with the height of an SUV like my Ford Edge. So we started to hunt for them. We researched engines and decided on the 4.0 liter 6 cylinder motor in the TJ. They stopped making the TJ in 2006 so I wanted to find the newest low mileage one we could afford in our price range. I also didn't want to drive 1500 miles to pick one up. It took about 2 weeks but we found a 2004 with 77 thousand miles within a 3 hour drive. We took the car hauler trailer down with us since we weren't sure how it would do on the highway in the rain. 

 

I just think they are the cutest vehicles ever. I've always wanted a white one with a tan top (the new top is in a box in the garage as I write this). It's a good thing we brought the trailer as it had some suspension issues that needed to be fixed. It has (what we think) is a 3 inch lift and many of the parts needed to be replaced. Sean has been out there every weekend for the past three weeks replacing links or bushings or bars. He's such a good guy.

 

It's been quite the work in progress. It came with a set of Corbeau racing seats and a rhino lined interior. I decided to take the interior back to stock so I found a set of seats (it didn't have a back bench at all when we bought it) and carpets from a 2004 in a salvage yard, along with roll bar padding and covers (which had been removed). We were able to sell the racing seats (I wasn't a fan of the squeezed in feeling) and that paid for most of the replacement seats and back bench. I've been out there doing little things to customize it. I sprayed the D-rings red on the front and back. The inside panels on the half doors were the wrong tan for the year so I took them off, cleaned them up and sprayed them black with some vinyl paint. I put down sound deadener and a heat shield before putting in the carpet and seats. I figure anything to help it be quieter is a good thing.

 

The black soft top that came with it was in ok shape but the previous owner said the back window zipper was crap and if we took it out it probably wouldn't go back in. Sure enough we wanted to see it with the black top down and when we tried to put it all back together the zipper wouldn't work. What's the good of having a soft top that can't be opened? So we took it off and ordered a Bestop Trektop in tan. Looking forward to putting it on this week while it's sunny and in the 70's (soft tops are easiest to put on when they are warm and pliable, found that out from my Dad- thanks Dad!). It will just need an alignment from all the suspension work done and then it's ready for the road! It's just the cutest little Jeep ever.