If you want a fun and relaxing weekend ride, be forewarned, this 1971 Jeepster Commando starts conversations and turns heads. It is nearly impossible to stop at a light and not have someone honk at you or shout out a question. You will need to prepare yourself to answer some common questions. These answers come in handy, "It's a '71," "Yes, it is a blast to drive," "No, that's not the stock engine," and "Yes, it goes fast."

You can enjoy this Jeepster right away and spend the summer having fun on the road. If you have kids, prepare for them to be absolutely thrilled as you go down the road with the top down. They will want to bring friends.

This Jeepster is a bit of a pound puppy. It is the Jeepster body and frame with a fuel injected 350 V6 engine.

I purchased it a couple of years ago from a friend. I've kept it garaged and I do have the soft top for it. The top was in good condition when I took it off and folded it up. It is included in the sale.

However, when I got the vehicle to my house I took the soft top off because I knew I was only going to drive this out and about on beautiful days to best enjoy the Jeepster. Since I've owned it I've done a load of work to it:

Replaced front single leaf springs with multi-leaf springs.
New shocks all around.
Realigned drive train.
Rebuilt automatic transmission.
Replaced the body bushings.
Regularly serviced the engine with oil and filter changes.

The engine is not the original engine. It is a fuel injected Vortec V6 with an unknown number of miles on it. I was told the engine and steering column came out of a Chevy Blazer. And the steering column is interesting as well. The column runs down between the brake and gas pedal so you have to learn to brake with your left foot and accelerate with your right. The first ten seconds of driving the Jeepster are the most interesting for learning how to handle that setup. After that it is second nature.

The body is generally in excellent shape I think and at some point was repainted and new carpet put inside. Whoever painted it did a terrific job. There are some nicks and chips in the paint as you can see in the pictures below from regular driving.

The Things You Want to Know

The Jeepster has a custom fuel tank. I did replace the filler tube with a flexible one but it sometimes prevents the gas from automatically shutting off when you are fueling. If you are not paying attention, because someone is asking you a question, gas overflows and you wipe it off or you pay attention as it fills and listen for the gas in the filler tube and stop filling.
There is a small yellow spot on the drivers door. I have no clue why. It was there when I brought it home and it has not grown or raised any.
The Jeepster leaned ever so slightly to the drivers side in the rear. I had the frame checked to see if there was any issue and they said it was perfectly straight. So rather than replace the rear spring if that's what was causing the problem, I put air shocks in the back that automatically leveled it and the problem was resolved.
The air bag switches mounted on the dash do not work because the air bag system was removed when I addressed the broken front leaf spring.
There are some switches on the dash that do not appear to operate anything.
The glove box is useless and I have a replacement I'll include with the sale.
The passenger side armrest fell off and I think I still have it.
The windshield has been reseated but on the top left the gasket comes very close to the edge of the glass.
The left turn signal has to be canceled manually some times.
At some point some new tires are probably in order.
I have no clue how many miles the Jeepster has on it.
I have a clear NC title with no liens. It is ready to transfer to the buyer.

But Here is the Fun News

I've had some really great times in the Jeepster with my dad on weekend country rides. I've met some amazing people from just having people walk up to me and start talking about the Jeepster. It's not uncommon to walk back out to the parking lot after you've gone someplace and see people taking pictures of it.

I'm selling the Jeepster because my work as a fire department photographer and local journalist now requires me to carry a bunch of gear and be on-call. The Jeepster isn't well suited for those dark rainy nights carrying expensive equipment. So for the last six months it has just been sitting in the garage. Rather than hold on to it I think someone else could get a lot of fun out of it. It's time to pass this wonderful Jeepster to another good home.

The Jeepster is being offered for sale locally as well so if it sells before the end of the auction I reserve the right to close the auction.

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Auto blog

Ward's releases 10 Best Interiors list for 2014

Thu, 10 Apr 2014

While we're still a ways off from the automotive awards season proper, where things like North American Car and Truck of the Year, Motor Trend's Car of the Year and Car and Driver's Ten Best are named, that doesn't mean there aren't trophies being handed out to deserving automakers. Ward's 10 Best Interiors being one of them.
As the name might imply, the magazine focuses on the very best interior treatments in the US market. Whereas some awards purposely exclude extreme, high-dollar offerings, Ward's considers them - the only requirement is that a vehicle has a "new or significantly redesigned interior."
Ward's offered up the list of winners in simple, alphabetical order, and it only seems fair to do the same:

Chrysler recalling nearly 141k vehicles over electrical woes

Wed, 02 Oct 2013

Software glitches that randomly illuminate warning lights and cause instrument cluster blackouts are forcing Chrysler to recall 140,800 vehicles, The Detroit News reports. The automaker is recalling 132,000 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokees, 91,559 of which are in the US. In addition to the Jeep recalls, Chrysler is adding 10,800 2014 Ram 1500, 2500 and 3500 trucks to the list for similar problems.
Chrysler reportedly says, "Both events occurred infrequently and appeared to resolve themselves by tuning the vehicle's ignition off and then on."
Engineers discovered a problem with the anti-lock-braking system software that causes the instrument cluster display of the Grand Cherokee to illuminate warning lights and black out - even its ABS and electronic stability control systems are affected. To fix the Jeeps, Chrysler will update the vehicle's software.

SEMA crowns Mustang, FR-S as this year's hottest cars in the building

Wed, 31 Oct 2012

After wrapping up the first day of the 2012 SEMA Show, organizers handed out awards for some of the trendiest vehicles on display. Since the whole point of SEMA is to show off new products available in the aftermarket world for use in cars, trucks and SUVs, each year, the show distinguishes the most popular vehicle in various segments. Not surprisingly, this year's Hottest Car and Hottest Sport Compact are the Ford Mustang and Scion FR-S, respectively, while the Ford F-Series brought home the Hottest Truck and the Jeep Wrangler was named the Hottest 4x4-SUV.
More than 2,000 companies are at this year's show, and the display booths represents a "vote" for each car to determing the trendiest vehicles in each of the four categories. It isn't clear if these awards also take cars brought by OEMs into account, but the Mustang and FR-S were definitely well represented by both OEM and aftermarket show versions.
As usual, the OEMs showed up in force at the this year's SEMA Show exhibiting a variety of cars ranging from production-intent cars like the beastly Ford Mustang Cobra Jet to much flashier rides like Scion's Carbon Stealth FR-S.

1971 Jeepster Commando Turns Heads On The Road on 2040-cars

Jeep Commando for Sale