1983 Jeep Scrambler CJ-8

This was my first Jeep.  I purchased the truck in 1989 for $3900.  It was only 6 years old and it had about 80K miles.  The previous owners took very good care of it.  What I liked was its original condition; it still looked like it did when it left the factory.  I had a soft spot for Scramblers too.  This specimen had the 258 6 cylinder with the T-176 transmission.  The ride was really nice especially when compared to shorter wheelbase CJ-7s.  But it had 2.73 ratio axles which made for a pretty sad acceleration situation, and the gearing was pretty bad off road.  The crawl ratio was 25.17 to 1.  Pathetic!  (My Rubicon crawl ratio is 65.92 stock) But I did use it once in a while off road in Upton State forest in MA.    The truck turned out to be a very reliable daily driver for a couple of years in it's stock form.  On a trip to Cape Cod one summer, I vowed to swap in a V-8.

Besides the swap to a V-8, I didn't do too much to it. I chased around very minor surface rust around the door hinges, bought a set of trim rings, painted the rims rally silver, and put on a set of Cooper Mud tires (wow did they look and sound and handle awesome!)  <>This Jeep, more than any other I've owned, got alot of looks from people, even non-Jeep people. I remember kids especially used to hoot and holler about it when driving by.  Apparently "they understood" the Jeep thing.  Of course it being super bright RED and nice black tires had something to do with it too.  I sold the truck in 1992 to help finance my first house.  Wow do I regret doing that.

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I used to take off the spare to lighten it up and for looks.  Notice there is no CJ-8 moniker; it only had "Scrambler" tags on the sides of the bed.  I don't see that on many Scramblers I see.  But then again, they only made 5,405 Scramblers in 1983. 

If I find some more of my Scrambler pics, I'll post 'em.