I’ve been in denial about this for a while. “My cars aren’t holding me back at all,” I’d convinced myself for years. “If I wanted to, I could sell them all tomorrow.” Recently it’s become clear that this just isn’t true, as has been proven by my move to LA, which should have happened months ago but hasn’t yet due to an anchor made of tons of American iron. So I come to you asking for advice on how to move past this.
The truth is, I’ve been wanting to leave Michigan for years, but what happens is: 1. November rolls around, things get cold, and I tell myself “I’m out of here.” Then 2. I fly to Germany or Hong Kong to be with my family for Christmas, and stay over there for a month working remotely. 3. I get back, spend a few months in cold Michigan and then the sun comes back out in April. 4. Weather is absolutely perfect from April through October, and car culture thrives. My enchantment with Michigan swells. 5. I vow never to leave Michigan. 6. November hits again. 7. Repeat.
[Ed note: Right before the pandemic I had dinner with David and our bud Aaron Foley and pleaded with him to move. I offered to buy one of his cars. Anything to make it happen. It didn’t work. Then during the pandemic we hung out in a junkyard and had the same conversation. Next week I’m going to make him get an apartment. Just tell him to sell all but two of his cars for everyone’s sake – MH]
This has been the cycle for about five years. My upbringing as an Army brat has built within me an insatiable desire to move every year or so, and yet I’ve staved off this urge by traveling so often and for such long durations — I was just in Australia for a month earlier this year, I was also in Germany and Italy, plus I see my brother in Hong Kong relatively frequently. But I don’t know that I can push this off any longer, mostly because the long-term future of The Autopian depends on me being in LA and working with our talented behind-the-scenes crew out there.
So I have to go, and in truth — as a single dude who feels a little out of place in suburban Michigan, and who’d like to try listening to the buzz of a bigger city for the first time in his life (I’ve only ever lived in small cities) — I want to give it a shot. The problem is these beautiful mechanical anchors:
- Jeep J10 4spd stick: Store in MI (?)
- 1966 Ford Mustang auto: Drive to CA
- 1992 Jeep Cherokee auto: Store in MI (?)
- 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5spd: Sell
- 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5spd: Tow to CA
- 2000 Chevy Tracker 5spd: Sell
- 1958 Willys FC-170 3spd stick: Tow to CA
- 1979 Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle 3spd auto: Sell
Let’s go through them one by one. Each car has a poll below it; I’m eager to hear your recommendations (it might make sense to read the whole article before going back and voting).
1985 Jeep J10: Store In Michigan Or Drive To California
I love this truck with all my heart, but I don’t think it’ll make it through emissions inspection in California, mostly because all the smog stuff has been ripped off. I could fuel inject it using a Jeep 4.0-liter cylinder head, then throw on a 4.0 catalytic converter and hope the shop doesn’t care that I don’t have an air pump on my accessory drive. But I don’t know that this will work; California has a “visual” inspection, so even if my now-fuel-injected truck is cleaner, it’d likely fail. Logical? No. But such is life.
“Sell it,” you may now suggest, but I can’t. It’s the greatest truck on earth, and I can’t let it go. It’s true mechanical perfection in my eyes. As of now, my plan is to store it somewhere. Or maybe take it to California. I haven’t decided.
1966 Ford Mustang: Drive To California
Is there a place where this vehicle would be more at home than in southern California? Answer: No. I’m daily driving this. I have some security concerns, so I’ve purchased a GPS tracker and a “club” steering lock. I hope those do the job; I’ll also make sure to park it in a garage whenever I can.
I’ll likely drive this on weekends as my free Nash Metropolitan will be my true daily driver that I take to work and park on the streets without worry. I doubt anyone wants to steal that.
1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5spd: Sell
What you’re looking at is the most perfect Jeep Grand Cherokee on earth. It’s the first model year with a five-speed manual and manual windows and locks. It’s not only the lightest Grand Cherokee in history, it’s also the most reliable, and it’s the best off-road platform. Hopefully I can find someone who understands the rarity and value of what I consider the ultimate Grand Cherokee, as I’d like to get as close to $10 large out of this 130,000 mile, rust-free Jeep as possible. If not, I may have to keep it, which would complicate things.
1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5spd: Tow Or Drive To California
Of course, I’m not going to sell all of my “Holy Grail” manual Grand Cherokees. I plan to keep the rougher 1994 model that I bought for $350. Why hold onto this one? Overly pretty cars are a pain in the ass to maintain, and this one being a bit rough around the edges will give me more peace-of-mind. Plus, I’ll feel less guilty when I put a mild lift and bigger tires on it; I’ve heard off-roading in California is pretty damn good.
The issue is that this Jeep is still far from being roadworthy. I swapped the guts from that rusted-out Holy Grail in Wisconsin that I wrote about years ago, but there’s still a lot to do before this thing can move under its own power. I could fix it over the next month or so and then drive it west or I could tow it and wrench later.
1979 Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle: Sell
Oh man, this Jeep is one of my biggest regrets. It ran when I bought it, I removed a cylinder head to extract a broken exhaust stud, then I flew to Germany for a month. When I returned, I saw some surface rust on the cylinder walls, so I pulled the engine and honed it; I figured I’d swap the rings and bearings while I was at it, but sadly I could never get the motor back together properly. So I bought a rebuilt engine, which seized.
Honestly, the fact that this machine has been sitting for over five years is a result of only one thing: my own stupidity. I am ashamed, though I am twice the wrench I was back then. So should I fix it and then sell it for some heavy coin? Or do I sell it as is and give up the five grand delta?
This is a tough one for me because, if I’m anything, it’s a cheap bastard.
2000 Chevrolet Tracker: Sell
I should never have bought this Tracker, though I’m pleased with how far it’s come. I’ve fixed the crankshaft damper, cleaned the interior, bondo’d the huge dent in the quarter panel, installed junkyard all-terrain tires, fixed a few electrical gremlins, jerry-rigged a fix for the four-wheel drive system, and swapped out all the fluids. This thing is beautiful now, and I even have a buyer willing to throw me $3,000 for it. Not quite my $3,500 asking price, but close.
First, I’m taking it off-roading tomorrow (you’re all invited). This will be the second time I’m off-roading a car just prior to sale; the first time, I filled the engine with water, then that water froze, and when it thawed, I learned that my crankshaft bearings had been wiped. (You may recall my article “My 1948 Jeep’s Engine Is Ruined Because I Am A Dumbass”). I hope nothing similar happens this time around. I really shouldn’t be off-roading this thing before sale, but come on — I did all this work to this thing; I have to see how good it is in the dirt, right?
1958 Willys FC-170: Tow To California?
I want to do an EV conversion soon, and I really think this FC is the ideal candidate.
Could I just buy one on the west coast? Yes. That’d make my life easier. But look at the pedigree this one has!:
1992 Jeep Cherokee: Store?
This one’s a tough one. The Jeep isn’t in great shape at the moment; I flooded the rear diff, so I need to replace the axle. Plus the cooling system needs some work — likely a new radiator. These aren’t huge jobs, but they’re not nothing, either.
I suppose I COULD bring this Jeep out to California, or I could store it, or I could sell it. But this is my very first car. Should I sell the Jeep that started it all?
This Is Complicated
So I want to keep the 1992 XJ, the J10, the 1994 ZJ, the FC, and the Mustang. I could just bring all five of those, and sell the rest. There should be plenty of space to store these machines on the Galpin lot that Beau has so graciously offered up. Maybe I could tow the FC with the J10, then drive everything else out. Or I could ask an automaker for a big-ass heavy-duty truck and a car-hauler, and just tow the whole fleet out.
Or I could sell the original XJ and the FC, and just take the J10, 1994 ZJ and Mustang. Then I can find another FC out west and cry myself to sleep every now and then missing the ’92 OG.
I don’t know what the answer is. But I need to come up with something soon.
As awesome a truck as that J10 is, I can virtually guarantee that it will never pass smog in California. If you’re not willing to find all the necessary parts to make it CARB compliant, let someone else who can appreciate it enjoy and drive it in all its glory.
I may not know what smog testing may be like, but if I remember correctly, ’74 and newer have to be tested every year, right? Why would you bring any vehicle from a salt state that has to be smog tested as well? I’m sure many of those cats aren’t long for this world, let alone if they might possibly get stolen (it’s been happening quite a bit in my neck of NY for a while now).
I’d take the Mustang and FC. Sell everything else, if you seriously have to move there.
*Totally an opinion without knowing much, so 1,000,000% take it with a grain of salt.
Smog test is every two years, and model years up to 1975 are exempt.
Information gained! Thanks.
David, you need to drop the sentimentality for these boat anchors. The Mustang would be easy but expensive to replace in SoCal so drive that one out. You have the Nash for some of your wrenching time and endless opportunities to buy, wrench, and build memories with cancer-free cars on the West Coast. Leave the rust behind you and embrace the Golden State. Sell everything else, even the J10. Sell that one to me!
Or, hear me out, a celebratory, going away demolition derby.
you know the golden eagle has to go… and so does everything else but keep the Mustang and the two pickups.
I can’t begin to recommend which cars to sell, move, or store, as your lifestyle is very foreign to mine, despite the fact that I’m a gearhead in Southern California and have two project cars of my own. Your idea of daily driving a Nash Metroplitan in L.A. confirms that. I long ago learned the lesson to not daily drive a project.
I will say that if you decide to take anything to L.A. that would require a smog check but will be hard to make pass, like your J10 – don’t even bother trying. If you have the ability to keep it registered in another state, do it. Hopefully you have some friends in Michigan who would help with that.
I say this as a long time proud Californian who in general thinks smog checks are a good thing (although the methods may be questionable) and has gone to great pains to make a project car smog legal – my 347 powered ’85 Ford LTD has a BAR legal engine swap and passes smog no problem despite having 3x as much power as stock. I’m even an admin in a Facebook group advocating for California smog check exemptions for classic cars. Normally I wouldn’t advocate registering out of state, as I think you should pay your fair share of taxes if you use the road, but getting an old vehicle with a bunch of missing and likely obsolete emissions equipment to pass California smog is a sisyphean task, and clearly you would have some other cars registered here.
It’s not Sisyphean, just a garden-variety pain in the ass. You’ve done it, I’ve done it, it’s doable. If David really wants to keep and register his J10 in California, he can jump through the hoops, and it’ll probably be easier (and just as fun to read about) as it was making his minivan legal in Germany was. The alternative is either giving up his beloved J10 or not moving out here at all, and our Dave ain’t no kind of quitter.
It absolutely can be Sisyphean if you don’t already have the parts, which he does not. I guarantee some of the stuff he’d need is obsolete. Hell, I’m working with a Fox Mustang EFI 5.0 engine which still has tons of support and replacement parts available and yet I had to resort to finding a used smog pump (air pump) hose because new ones are no longer available.
Move them all.
Hear me out: Beau has offered you space to store these. And he’s partnered with you to start an automotive media company.
And what kind of things cary a lot of weight when it comes to automotive media? Fixing old cars and fixing them a new chance at life. [Insert YouTuber here]’s channel really blew up when they rebuilt that [insert project here]. I’m not saying it’s a formula for success, just that a few people–especially alumni from the old lighting site–have awakened an audience.
Based on the comments from your articles, there are many who would love to learn how you’re fixing these up, and you could probably convince a few to help you transport them.
All the plans you have for these different cars sound great (I’m super interested in the electric FC and seeing how you can get the J10 to pass smog).
Seriously, move them out and show us what you’re doing with them. We’ll eat that up.
Hi David. I was out running errands today and my route took me past your house. Congratulations, you’ve identified the problem. I wish you all the best.
To paraphrase Tommy Callahan, and Ray Zalinsky, King of Auto Parts:
Ray: “Went a little heavy on the number of vehicles there, kid?”
Tommy: “Sir, they’re my obsession.”
Ray: “Good, you’ve pinpointed it. Step two is getting rid of them.”
David, if you have a place to store them securely, then take what you love to LA with you, strangers’ opinions about “car hoarding” be damned. Maybe sell that Golden Eagle thats been nothing but trouble, the Tracker, and that parts car ZJ. Once they’re gone, you can never get them back, especially your first car. Look at any car group post on Facebook and you’ll see dozens of comments lamenting selling some first car from long ago. You went crazy over finding the “holy grail ZJ”, it looks great, why get rid of it?
If you have the means, a place to securely store then, and it’s not a financial burden, keep what you damn well please. 🙂
Don’t store vehicles in Michigan if you are going to live in California. It just doesn’t make sense. You need to decide what you want to keep, and sell the rest. That would mean you have to do whatever it takes to make the J-10 emissions compliant if you want to keep it that badly. Fortunately, I think you could get enough money to do it from selling the Golden Eagle and (I hate to say it) your first ever Jeep. You have to decide if sentiment alone is worth keeping that Jeep over the rarer manual ones you clearly adore. The FC is something you should just get rid of unless you seriously plan to dig into that EV conversion once you move to LA. Since you have a website to build up and all, I don’t see the FC project getting the kind of time needed for such a massive project.
Here’s my plan of action for you- Take the Mustang, J-10, and ‘93 Cherokee to California. You can park the J-10 in non-op status until you get the time to make it emissions compliant. I agree with you that it is way too awesome not to keep, and the LA climate will do wonders for preserving the sheet metal. Keep the ‘93 Cherokee over all the others because it is far and away the nicest Jeep you have. I’ve seen it in person at one of the meetups.
Sell the rest. I want to encourage you to keep the Golden Eagle because it is a beautiful two door beast from a time before SUVs were just poorly designed minivans, but I get the impression that you value the rest of your Jeep SUVs more. So focus on what makes you happy. You’ll have four cars in LA including the Nash. That should be plenty to keep you busy until you are ready to see what else is out there.
Sell ’em all!
Keep the ‘stang (cruising SoCal in it will be very enjoyable, so long as you don’t overheat it)
Keep the Willy’s FC, sounds like a fun project that’s also COntent!
Either keep the J10 in MI or bring it with to LA as a parts hauler for all those rust free junkyards
sell the rest. Remember, you’ve got that awesome Nash Metropolitan our there in Cali as well, so you’ll have a care for all needs with just the ones i mentioned above.
Not to mention that fewer cars to keep running ( and pay for storage/parking) means more time and money for having any sort of non oil soaked social life!
ugh, forgot about smog check for ’75 and newer. store the j10 in MI then if it means something to you. otherwise sell it to someone who will take care of it.
I feel like I’m missing something. What happened to the Valiant? If you still have it, then we need to talk. If it’s gone, then I wish I knew about it leaving your fleet.
That was just our dear leader’s winter car! It was an epic steed, rust holes and all.
Sell/scrap everything except the ’93 5-speed Cherokee. The J10 will be nothing but a nightmare to pass smog without the original stuff. Yo have to learn to let shit go. How much trouble has having all these heaps gotten you already?
And have fun parking/storing more than one car anywhere in LA proper… maybe out in the Valley you could, but not on the fun side of the mountains.
IIRC, that Mustang has family connection (your brothers?). It’s the perfect car for California, but all the others are decidedly not. Sell everything else to whoever will take it. Take that coin and buy something (relatively) rust free out there and get to wrenching on it. Keep the Mustang, sell the rest.
Also, one Midwesterner to another…
Get The Hell Out Of Here!
David, I apologize for how philosophical this comment is about to be in spite of being posted on a car website from some guy you’ve never met in real life, but I think you should hear it.
When I moved earlier this year, I could not force myself to let go of much of anything. I took all kinds of random crap with me and paid for the privilege to do so. (Quite a lot actually… good lord pro movers are expensive…)
I paid them to pack and move all my stuff, but elected to unpack myself. Getting to the house and unpacking each box, the actual process of unboxing, unwrapping, looking at, and deciding where to put each individual item in the new place, made me realize that I had just paid four figures to move a bunch of stuff that was doing nothing but weighing me down – not just physically, but metaphorically as well.
It wasn’t that all this clutter was particularly valuable or important to me in it’s current state. The hangup was the idea of what it could be that I was deeply attached to. I was, and I still am, attached to the concept of what each of these unfinished projects or unrestored vintage items or whatever are inside my mind’s eye, in their theoretical “finished” state.
I am making a huge personal effort to get away from this mindset because I can now see how clinging to all these past ideas is holding me back as I juggle them instead of engaging with the present and with the future, and I think you should as well.
That image you have of the torn apart 94 Cherokee 5spd contrasted to your written description is what tells me you are in this same mental gridlock that I am dealing with the fallout of right now. Look at it. It cost you $350. You could get out tomorrow breaking even, or it could cost you much more than it already has to get to California and get registered just in cash, let alone in time, and effort, and most importantly in the missed opportunities you don’t take in favor of dealing with it.
Making these choices will be hard. I get it. At the same time, I cannot recommend strongly enough that you let go anything you are thinking of keeping ownership of but leaving behind somewhere in MI. That is peak avoidance of the choice you need to make, and as the song goes, “if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.” Trying to stick these in a storage unit somewhere is the worst of both worlds: they will cost you money as they sit decaying AND you won’t have them with you to get use value out of them.
Once you make the move, you will be flooded with new opportunities you haven’t even considered yet. You’re moving to the land of rust-free used cars! Think of all the trouble you could get into if you start with a clean slate!
The Mustang is definitely a keeper. Let go of the rest. Your journey and theirs are coming to a fork in the road, and whoever ends up buying them from you will love them joining their own journey.
When you’re moving the temptation is to take everything. Never know what you’ll need. We did this in late 2020. Still have things in storage we’ve never looked at let alone need.
If we had it to do over I’d pull out the really really essentials and have an estate auction for the rest.
Sell, sell, sell, and more sell. Only one I’d hang onto is the Mustang (you have a good story with that one and you’ll get more in CA if you do decide to move it), but I would seriously question the decision to daily it. In LA traffic. Unless that thing is fully sorted (and c’mon David, we know you don’t have that thing fully sorted), I’d be fully expecting you to be broke down somewhere in the first month after sitting in traffic too long.
While not cars, I had to question a lot of things I packed up prior to my last move. Things that I told myself I’d get around to. I didn’t. They had to go so I could go. Pull the trigger man, don’t carry those well-intentioned anchors with you….
I had to come back and add more, because this gets me really sentimental. Seriously, leave it behind. You won’t lose who you are if you don’t have a fleet of projects and good intentions with you. You have a whole world of new ahead of you….new adventures, new people, new projects. Don’t let the ones in the rearview hold you back. Embrace the new in front of you.
Once I did that, and left a lot behind figuratively and literally, I found so much more and couldn’t be happier. Even met a woman who goes far beyond what I could have ever dreamed of who is now my wife. Head to California with as close to a clean slate as possible and enjoy the ride. You are awesome David, you don’t need that fleet of rust to define you.
David, I am a one-car man, so your current fleet, while still pared down by your standards, is still very overwhelming to me. My advice is probably extreme compared to what your goals are, but I’d recommend whittling the collection down to a daily driver plus a “fun” car. The Mustang seems like a no-brainer for the fun car, and I am skeptical about a decades-old Nash being able to take on daily driver duties, so one of the modern(ish) Jeeps sounds better to me in that regard. Or, better yet, find something when you get there. SoCal has great car culture, and I’m sure you’ll find something interesting there.
But what I really came here to say was to hold onto the memories. Take pictures of all your vehicles before you sell them, and don’t just leave those pictures on your phone. Go to a site like Snapfish or Shutterfly and get a nice hardback book made of them. Include pictures from your adventures, from your articles, and from meet-ups. Set the book on the coffeetable in your new place, and page through it every now and then. You don’t need to own the tons of iron that make up the vehicle to recall the good times you’ve had with it.
Drive the Mustang out. Take 2 lane roads. Stop in diners. Take pictures of it in front of landmarks.
Sell everything else except the J10 and the disassembled ZJ. Swap the 4.0/5 speed from the ZJ into the J10, scrap the carcass, fight your way thru its first smog check, and then you have an awesome pickup to use.
See? Mark knows his shit, even if his dislike for chopped tops calls his hotrod taste into question.
It’s not that complicated. Bring with you the neat stuff that would be hard to replace in CA. I personally think you should bring the J10, the Mustang, and maybe the Golden Eagle because it’s neato. The Cherokees are disposable (yes, even the grails, yes, even your first) and if you really, really need one or two, find ones out here THAT AREN’T RUSTY!!! Honestly, even the Mustang would be easy to replace out here, though it might take a while for a cheapskate like you to find one at a price you’re willing to pay. (That’s the ONLY reason why I figure you might as well keep the one you got. Whatever replacement parts you might need are all over the place out here, used, NOS, or repro.) For the J10, I wouldn’t fret too much about passing smog. Find a Jeep drivetrain that fits, and is newer (or at least no older than) your J10, ensure it has all its original smog equipment, and go visit the smog referee. Bring along the VIN of the donor vehicle to speed the process along. This is how I was able to swap the Chevy 350 drivetrain from a 1993 Caprice into a 1987 Jaguar XJ6 with fairly minimal hassle. (I mean, there was definitely hassle, don’t get me wrong, but not as bad as I thought it would be.) Once I got the CARB sticker from the referee, then for all my subsequent biennial smog checks I could bring it to any smog station and they’d smog it as if it were a 1993 Caprice.
https://bar.ca.gov/consumer/smog-check-program/engine-changes#:~:text=To%20make%20an%20appointment%2C%20consumers,appointment%20will%20simplify%20the%20process.
Sorry, here’s a simpler link: https://bar.ca.gov/consumer/smog-check-program/engine-changes
Anyway, ditch the rusty stuff. Especially ditch the FC. Even with all the rat-filth taken care of, the way you described it was that it was essentially rustflakes held together by paint. Find a better, non-rusty platform to start with. Leave all the rust behind. I guarantee you won’t miss it once you’re disassembled and reassembled ONE vehicle system that was not caked with tinworm! It’ll genuinely change your life, and you’ll get much more sleep instead of passing out on the cold ground underneath a stupid rust-frozen suspension bolt that spins merrily along with its rounded-off captive nut inside a rusty frame that you can’t see because of all the rust flakes dusting your glasses.
While you’re totally right, if David can’t get the J10 going with the existing engine and time he has now, chances of him being able to solve this with a BAR legal engine swap are pretty slim. Just being honest.
It just might be simpler than sourcing the missing original-year smog components. Anyway, he’ll have more time for productive wrenching when he’s not spending his midnight hours grappling with a couple of stubborn rusty fasteners.
Getting the J10’s engine swapped and through a CARB referee is good for a whole bunch of articles, so David should bring it for that reason alone.
Keep the Mustang and the first XJ, sell the rest.
Dude you have a whole bunch of garbage, dump it all except the Rustang. Hell I acrew garbage myself then call my scrap guy and be like BOY DO I HAVE A DEAL FOR YOU! Get rid of it all even…. Find some more junk in Commifornia and be rust free at least.
Take the J10 and Mustang to California and sell everything else including your furniture. Maybe keep the FC as it is pre-emissions provided you have a cheap place to store it in LA (meaning at a friend’s place because nothing is cheap). I sold everything I own other than what fits in my Pacifica and travel the US with my wife and pup while living in Airbnbs. House, gone, bed, gone, tools gone. I sold the 1966 Volvo 1800 I rebuilt in my garage, an Acura, and gave away my 1999 Golf on FB. Currently hanging out near Santa Cruz, CA.
While you are not going full nomad, I read a bit before heading on this adventure. 99% of people who stored stuff never visit it and ended up selling everything later on. Save yourself the hassle and storage costs. Pull the bandage off now.
Keep the Mustang. Keep the nice ZJ. Keep the FC. Sell the rest. As others have said Cali emissions are a bear for engine modded vehicles. And there is a lot of old corrosion free American Iron ™ still hidden in barns or garages.
I’m typing this covered in Fluid Film 2/3 of the way through prepping my small fleet for the salt. It’ll take another bit to finish up. Don’t spend your life rust frozen to a place. If you end up not liking LA, cars have wheels and Michigan will be there.
Stay in MI!!!!!