1978 Jeep Cherokee Chief

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Gorgeous.

Buy it Now for $17,500 in Virginia.  Relisted for $16,000 BIN.

“I purchased this Jeep from the original owner about 15 years ago when it had a bit over 64,000 miles. The owner was very reluctant to sell this but was moving to the Caribbean for a very long time and I made a promise to take very good care of her. I believe I have kept that promise. Over the next 15 years I have only put on an additional 25,000 miles. Everything on this jeep was redone at an expense of near $50,000.00. The engine, a 360 ci V-8 got re-built about ten years ago but I got completely ripped off as the rebuild was a disaster. Just recently I had the engine rebuilt again using top shelf components. MCD Distributor and Ignition components, aluminum heads (Edelbrock), aluminum intake (Edlebrock), pistons, cam, carb (Holley 650cfm), electric fuel pump, Hedmann stainless headers and complete custom stainless steel exhaust including dual Borla stainless xteel mufflers, high volume oil pump. The engine list goes on and on but long story short this last build cost over $12,000 alone for the engine and it is a perfect build for this ‘truck’. The transmission was just gone through and is performing flawlessly. I did have a minor neutral return spring issue but that is now fixed. The transmission is a 4 speed manual with the 1st gear being the non-syncro ‘granny gear’. 2nd, 3rd, and 4th are the normal everyday gears that are used.

The interior used to be the ivory cream color but I had it redone in the two-tone black/charcoal and had a custom console built. The ‘hugger orange’ paint is PPG Concept 2 single stage enamel. All of the decals are replaced with paint so you can forget that peeling decal worry. The tailgate has had a rebuild with a new motor and regulator. There are still the decals on the rear window lift key and rear glass telling you not to drive with the window down. Axles are DANA 44s all gone through by Virginia Spring and Alignment. They also rebuilt all of the suspension components. Shocks are Rancho 5000 as is the steering damper.

There is no lift kit.

The 31×10.50×15 B.F.Goodrich tires and wheels are brand new keeping the OEM Jeep chrome center cap. All of the chrome has been redone including the aluminum grill at great expense.

I will add to this listing as I remember the details.

The only thing left to do is find a reverse light switch and locate 5 of the seven tailgate carpet hold down aluminum strips. I have been looking for these things for years, off and on, mostly off lately but I will start again. grandwagoneer.com is where I found many of the restoration item like the new engine hood blanket and door switches but have not located either the strips or the switch. I hope to have them by the time you see this Jeep.

Overall this Jeep is in excellent condition but it is not a perfect 100. Please do not expect it to be as it is 33 years old. I do get told every time I drive it that they have never seen such a nice Jeep. I even had one woman say that she did not know Jeep “still made these”. Kind of funny, really.

The short story of all of this is that I have 2 Ducatis that take up all of my extra time and this is just sitting under a bunch of sheets in the garage, getting overlooked. Besides, there comes a time in a person’s life when one has to decide to catch up on some bills and mortgage payments.”


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