1980 Jeep CJ-7
"Dookie"

The first pic taken after I bought it and a quick wash, along with the first pic taken at the GAFB car show in 2003:

   

The last pic taken at a car show in 2013 and a pic of Jim Eimer's Jeep in 2016

We went 'wheeling all the time and had SO much fun just hangin' out together, working on our rigs, or whatever.  One day when I took the Blue Nissan to a glass shop to have the windshield replaced, he asked if he could drive the Nissan right about the same time I asked if I could drive his Jeep.  HA!  Great minds DO think alike.  So, even though it was only a few miles, I thoroughly enjoyed driving his Jeep (the top was down and it was an awesome day, so who wouldn't love that?!).  I decided at that point that I would have a Jeep someday. 

A few years after meeting Dave and a few months after he'd gone to his next assignment, I picked up the Jeep from the Auto Skills Development Center at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, in March 1995 while my wife was stationed in Korea. I was afraid when I called her and told her that I had ditched my Blazer and bought a Jeep, that she would be upset. But quite to the contrary, she was almost ecstatic since she actually really hated my Blazer - another story.  OK - so that went well...

It was also quite a pain in the ass deal getting the Jeep. The then-manager of the Auto Hobby Shop (Don Myers) had asked me what I thought the Jeep was worth. He said he'd bought it from a student that had no idea what he had. I told him I thought $3500 was a fair price.  It had some kind of a winch on it, and he asked what I thought if he pulled the winch and kept it for his trailer - to which I told him I thought it was still worth $3500, since the winch is just an accessory after all.  He then asked me if I thought it would sell quickly if he asked $1400. I reached for my back pocket and asked him if he would take a check. He was surprised that I was interested and told me that would be fine.  I asked him for a few days to sell my Blazer and I'd have the money, but here's where the "pain in the ass" part comes in: he hadn't actually bought it yet, and one of the other guys in the shop (Dewayne) came up with the money first to pay the student.  So now, unbeknownst to me, I'm dealing with another guy who wants it gone for a quick flip, and had already talked to someone else about it.  Meanwhile, I'm striking a deal with one of my friends who has admired the Blazer for a time, asking me to let him know if I ever wanted to sell it.

So, I get the Blazer sold, and head back to the shop to hand over the money for the Jeep, and the other buyer is there.  He also didn't know he had competition for the Jeep (he just wanted it for his wife because she said it was cute).  He also didn't know I'd sold the Blazer and took pity on me (of a sort) and offered it up for $1500.  A little pissed, but backed into a corner, I agreed and gave him $100 and wrote a check for $1400 to Dewayne, who just smiled and took my money - jerk.  Whatever... I have a Jeep!

The second best thing about getting the Jeep is having met my best friend Jim Eimer.  He was a parts guy at NAPA Auto Parts, and when I saw his cool old '75 CJ-5 Renegade parked outside, I went in looking for some tune-up stuff.  He was at the counter when I asked, "Hey! Whose Jeep CJ-5 is that parked outside?"  He told me he thought his day had just taken a turn for the worse since his first thought was that this tall, goofy guy wearing a T-Shirt that said, 'It Must Suck To Be You," just ran into his Jeep, or something.  He said it was his, and I told him, "Cool Wheels!" (His CJ-5 is a Renegade Levi's edition with factory slotted mags - you never see those anymore.  He was relieved, of course, and we struck up a conversation.  He went out with me to check out my Jeep, showed me all the cool stuff on his, and that was that - I have a new friend who turned out to be a master mechanic who has forgotten more about Jeeps than I would ever know.  Every time I'd go into NAPA looking for parts, he'd ask what was up, and we'd talk about it.  Then he'd usually head outside, make some little adjustment and everything was right with the world again.  If I needed parts, he'd grab something from his 'stash' of Jeep parts and that would be that.

Our friendship continued and grew even closer when he took a position at the Auto Hobby Shop to be a full-time mechanic/instructor/manager.  Between he and Don, my Jeep grew up and I learned most of what I know about auto mechanics along the way.

Over the years, we've wrenched on each others' Jeeps and hung out together doing all sorts of things friends do.  In 2003, after Jim had gotten his Jeep restored and repainted, we took both of them out to the Goodfellow Rec Camp Car Show and began a tradition of attending the annual event, each of us winning awards and having a blast checking out the cool cars and just hanging out.  Sadly, we lost Jim in August 2017 due to issues associated with sepsis, and now I'm a little lost without him.  I'm still going to car shows with the Mach 1 and hope to get his Jeep back out to the car shows, since the 2017 event was the first one it's missed since we first started.

My 'Tech' pages (linked at the top) detail some of the things I'd done to the Jeep along the way up to around summer 2010 when I bought my '71 Mach 1 'basket case' project... until I brought it home in spring 2014 - then the Jeep wound up in a storage unit, since I had to take up its space in the garage and had nowhere to park it. 

In August 2020 after my other pal Harry pointed out a 1980 CJ-7 Laredo in Austin with a 304 V8 & automatic transmission.  He was hoping I'd get the Laredo and harvest the V8 & auto, and he could have my 258 & 4-speed for his Jeep... but that would leave me with a rolling Jeep CJ-7 chassis with nowhere to park it.  I remembered how much Dave enjoyed his '92 Wrangler and immediately thought that he needed a project car - to which he excitedly agreed.  While Harry and I were in Austin collecting Jeep stuff, the seller had tons of good classic Jeep stuff, so I decided to pick up a few extra things: the Laredo's front fenders were rusted through in many places, so I got a 'new' set, along with a set of YJ Wrangler half-doors (remembering Dave's '92 Wrnalger and how much he loved it). and an early model YJ Wrangler hard top - I'd always loved those tops because the glass is so much bigger than the CJ hard tops, i.e.: a LOT easier to see out of.  Also got an old ratty Bestop SuperTop with upper half-doors just to help keep critters out until we got ready to work on them.  After almost dying in the 104+ Texas heat, I dropped off the Laredo in Harry's back yard, planning to start working on it when things cooled off a bit later (like around Turkey Day) - which was helpful, since we now needed the storage unit for my Mom's stuff as she took ill, wound up in the hospital and later a nursing home... over the holidays... during COVID.  So, I brought both the Laredo and my Jeep home over Thanksgiving to begin swapping the drivetrains - the V8 & automatic into mine, and my 258 I-6 & 4-speed into the Laredo.  I got the V8 out over Christmas break, but my Mom was going downhill fast and passed away on 15 Jan 2021 - the same day Dave showed up to help finish the swap and take possession of the Laredo.  After Dave left with his new project, my Wife and I finished clearing out Mom's place, and by the time I was able to get back to working on my Jeep, the weather turned unbearably hot and I lost interest until the following fall/winter/spring.

Somewhere shortly after Dave left, we'd started kicking around names for the Jeeps, and we started calling the Laredo project 'Snyper' (an old paintball nickname he had that I remembered) and Dave came up with 'Swamper' for mine (most likely because of the tires and graphics).  My wife said we'd screwed that up in a big way, and said Dave's Jeep should be called 'Klooge' (which was his screen name when we were all playing Unreal Tournament together years earlier).  To which I replied, "Oh, I suppose that means I should start calling mine 'Dookie.'"  I think I told Dave about that conversation the next day and we both decided she was right: 'Klooge' and 'Dookie' they are.  She's very clever at naming things, and pretty much right - so props to her for that.

About 18 months after taking Klooge home in Sep/Oct 2022, Dave came to visit with an actual running Jeep CJ-7 on a trailer - Klooge is alive!  I had just barely gotten the engine, transmission, and transfer case into Dookie - not running, of course.  We cranked hard on it for 10 days, got real close, but still didn't finish up before he had to leave.  Then stuff happened, a bitter cold winter, and chilly 2 weeks of 'spring,' and I still hadn't gotten Dookie running when the Texas heat moved in and we had Triple-Digits for 6 months straight - sorry... too hot for me to be enthusiastic about working on Dookie.  In Sep/Oct 2023, Dave made another trip with Klooge (on a trailer) to come visit and help work on Dookie, but this time we got him running and actually took him for a spin the night before Dave had to head back to his home.

Click on the 'Jeep Blog' link to see updates on Dookie's progress as I get him closer to being an actual car again.

Here's the old stuff I haven't decided what to do with yet.

I have some more pictures of what it looked like when I bought it that I'll put up soon along with all the others I've taken over the years.

Since I've had the Jeep, I've learned a lot about mechanics, and a little bit about life as well. I've learned how to repair a lot of broken stuff on Jeeps, like wheel bearings, brakes, hubs, driveshafts, steering columns, carburetors, water pumps, transfer cases, transmissions (total rebuild), and other various little Jeep things.

I've also learned that you do not go to a tire shop to have a suspension lift kit installed. Especially not one located in San Angelo, Texas. 'Nuff said on that - you'll hafta E-mail me for the whole story on that.

And the most important thing I've learned about Jeeps, is while living in San Angelo, Texas...the best place to go for Jeep parts is through the post office.

This shot is to prove to the people of San Angelo that my Jeep does make it out of the garage every now and then.



Here's a couple taken around May 2000 by my buddy Rob while we were out by the lake playing one day. I still haven't cleaned it - he'd be proud.



This one was toward the end of the day before we got too hot and decided to pack it in.



And here's a few of the Jeep in it's favorite place, other than the garage - the Auto Hobby Shop at Goodfellow Air Force Base, in San Angelo, Texas. And something compels me to mention what a helpful, friendly, and courteous staff the folks at the Auto Hobby Shop can be - but only if you're not me. (I get picked on a lot, but it's all in good fun)



This one was taken on what I've affectionately deemed as "Jeep Day." There were Jeeps in every stall in the Hobby Shop that day except for a lone Volkswagen Beetle, which was OK since it was one of the old ones.



I'm still working on getting the vast collection of Jeep pics together and coming up with a way to present them that does the almost 30 years I've owned it justice. Stay tuned... it'll take a bit, since there's a lot of history and pics to share... and not as much time it seems to do so.