If you spend a lot of time crawling around in Colorado car graveyards, as I do, you’ll find plenty of used-up off-road-capable machinery from decades past. International Harvester Scouts are relatively easy to find, as are Mitsubishi Monteros, ancient Jeep Wagoneers, GMC Jimmys, FJ60 Toyota Land Cruisers and so on. What you won’t find very often in such places is Jeep Wranglers that were reasonably intact upon arrival. Oh, sure, I find the stripped-clean carcasses of parts Wranglers now and then, but these trucks are worth enough in the Centennial State that they tend to get repaired rather than thrown away. After years of searching, I found this battered but recognizable first-generation example in a boneyard just south of Denver.
The Wrangler is the direct descendant of the military-grade Jeep CJ, and it replaced the CJ-7 in the Jeep lineup starting with the 1986 model year.
When the American Motors Corporation was saved from certain doom by a Renault takeover in 1979, a crew of French engineers — most notably, the brilliant François Castaing — showed up in Kenosha to help remake AMC’s product line. The AMC-built Renault Alliance and Encore ended up being evolutionary dead ends here, but the Eagle Premier provided leading-edge chassis engineering for Chrysler products deep into our current century and the revolutionary Castaing-designed Jeep XJ Cherokee began the process of turning America into a nation of truck commuters.
The Wrangler was the result of that Franco-Wisconsonian shakeup as well, keeping the CJ-style body but getting suspension and interior updates that made it less punitive as a daily driver. After Chrysler took over AMC in 1987, the first-generation Wrangler stayed in production through 1995 for the North American market.
This one appears to be a mashup of several YJ Wranglers plus a generous helping of well-used aftermarket off-road hardware.
Some junkyard shopper grabbed the entire rear axle assembly before I arrived.
U.S.-market 1986-1995 Wranglers were powered by AMC straight-four and straight-six engines. This one has a straight-six, which would be a 4.0 if original. As you can see from the funky engine angle, someone has yanked the transmission.
That transmission was a five-speed manual, unless someone swapped in a three- or four-speed along the way.
Just over 177,000 hard miles on the odometer.
The body is rusty and the interior smells bad. Keep in mind that this is one of the nicest early Wranglers I’ve ever seen in a self-service junkyard.
The Wrangler has become bigger, cushier and more powerful over the decades, but still does just fine off-road without beating its occupants senseless when driving to the mall.
Just what you needed to live 1993’s most glamorous outdoor lifestyle (and to drive to the mall).
