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.
David, don’t use the Metropolitan as your daily driver. Only an insane person would do that. It’s gonna get you killed in LA traffic. You already have your daily driver: the pristine, rust-free Southwestern 5-speed ZJ. That car says all the right things about you. It makes a good impression. The guy driving a super-clean ZJ will draw the attention of sensible ladies and rugged men. Just do it. Of course you should keep the Mustang. You’ll have to make the J10 California emissions compliant if you want to register it there. You already have all the parts for a 4.0L efi swap in your other, total pile 5-speed ZJ. That ZJ can die so that your J10 may live on. That, or just put South Dakota plates on the J10. Yes, anyone can register a vehicle in South Dakota even if they do not reside there. As for the other vehicles – sell sell sell.
> The guy driving a super-clean ZJ will draw the attention of sensible ladies and rugged men
David has been single for a long time, and it’s not his hairline that’s at fault, it’s the jeeps.
I live in the LA region, and my garage is definitely available to store one of your Jeeps 😉
I agree with the consensus: sell all your damn cars already.
Sell all but the Mustang and the most daily-driver capable vehicle in your hoard.
There is no reason to tow midwestern rusted junk to southern California. You can replace each of these vehicles in the southwest with more solid equivalents if you want to. If you need to donate or junk them, do it.
Give yourself a deadline. Stick to it. These vehicles are holding you back.
Sell all but the Mustang. Start fresh.
Pragmatically, how many more rusty Jeep articles will you write? How much interest is there?
What if you, as has been suggested, just went around and wrote about other people’s projects for a while? Those could be great articles, and with a lot of variety!
The Australian Valiant was something different, and exciting for that reason, although it had the much to common rust theme, and the slow release schedule has made me lose interest.
What if then after a while in LA you got into restoring some interesting foreign car?! Or a fascinating old truck? And more importantly, what if your work, time, and articles focused on diagnosing and fixing issues and breathing life back into a quality vehicle which would be sold, but more importantly, it’s alive on the road again, used and loved (by someone else). And not one sentence devoted to yet another battle with another rusted control arm ball/bolt/bushing, but ALL devoted to an amazing car.
I look forward to your future articles.
I think the Mustang is not his, so he can’t sell it. Brother gets two weeks to pick it up, or you park it in downtown Detroit with the keys in it and a sign saying “steal me” on the windshield. Insurance claim for the brother. One down, melt the rest.
As much as I love and respect David, I have just never understood his fetish for, not just Jeeps, but specifically Cherokees and Grand Cherokees. I mean, sure, he likes them a lot, fine, I ain’t gonna yuck his yum just because it’s not to my taste. But even though it started with his very first car… imagine if I were doing that? Not only would I be hanging on to a 1978 Mercury Zephyr wagon, but I would have probably also accrued a ’79 Fairmont Futura, an ’80 Zephyr Z7, and an ’83 Mercury Marquis or an LTD, and I’d be agonizing over which to sell and which to keep, and everyone would be scratching their heads, wondering “Why?”
The larger point being we love to read about DT’s adventures with cars. I just think they’d be even more entertaining, and would attract a wider readership, if so many of the articles weren’t about pretty interchangeable Jeep Cherokees.
It occurs to me:
If, in the process of selling/raffling/giving away vehicles, you extract a commitment from each buyer/winner/recipient for continued contact & follow-up, you’ll be planting the seeds for a whole series of “Remember That (insert discarded vehicle description) I Left Behind?” articles — a long-term, close look at the destinies of your not-quite-random selection of projects. Win-win!
If you’re having trouble getting rid of stuff now, imagine how many cars you’ll have at my age! Sell and move to LA already!
(Keep the mustang though)
Sell the Jeeps, keep the memories.
The memories take up no space, will never rust, and only get better with time.
Sell, sell, sell. Or donate. Drive one of them and sell or junk it when you arrive as a cleansing ceremony.
Immerse yourself in LA’s car scene and start fresh.
If you want to impress guys get a car. If you want to meet women get a dog.
Keep the Mustang, the Metropolitan, and that old Jeep you want to convert to an electric vehicle. Sell or donate the remainder. Otherwise you are creating life-vehicle entanglements that will get worse when you enter the Realm of Marital Bliss. If the future spouse is a keeper she will keep you grounded. Sad in many ways, but very true.
Unless you are into buying a cheap barn or warehouse in Michigan and making them barn finds.
Keep the Mustang and the J10, for the rest try to find good homes, a solid plan and commitment from the future caretaker is more important than the $ amount.
It will free your mind for the left coast activities.
Dave-
You do know what to do you just don’t want to do it. Let Jason help you move these vehicles. Give them to the local PBS and take a write off Sell them cheap to local high school kids taking auto shop so they can learn and fix them up too!
Do not spend money storing these indefinitely- you’re just pushing the decisions down the road.
Cut your losses and think of the new vehicles that await you.
Also it’s expensive living in CA and you will need as much of your paycheck as you can keep. Paying to store cars in MI is silly.
We’re all rooting for ya!!
I have your solution, David. Hold a raffle for each of the vehicles, this way you get money, and the vehicles go to good homes.
Have you ever been to a casino? Went with a buddy for a first experience 20 years ago. Changed $100 into chips. The guy says, “now don’t think of this as money, these are chips. Enjoy the time, it’s not an investment.”
You are a great writer – there are cars in CA and there can be stories galore. Don’t think of these vehicles as money. Give a friend the job of selling them, most will go to a junkyard and you won’t have to deal with any emotions. Free yourself of the mess you have. You will be much better off for it.
Get a girlfriend, a dog, a cat and then hatch a couple of little wrenchers. Much more expensive “hobby”, but most folks enjoy the experience more than owning a yard full of non-running scrap metal.
It seems insane to me to choose to go through the cost and effort to move vehicles from MI, land of road salt and rust to CA, land of rust-free cars.
Sell everything except for the nice ZJ, it’s an excellent vehicle to move across the country with; it holds a ton of stuff and can tow a small trailer if you have more stuff you need to bring. When you get there it s an excellent daily driver.
I can’t even believe he’s considering shipping rust buckets to LA.
David, once you get to LA you’re bound to find new* vehicles that you want to add to your fleet, so you might as well start with as much of a blank slate as possible.
* I’m sure they’ll all be old vehicles, but you know what I mean
This is a tough call. Roll the dice on the expensive “Land of Broken Dreams” (CA), and leave your rusty dreams behind? Ideally, if you waited a little longer, you could snap up a soon-to be foreclosed Michigan house in the country(maybe one with a Barn, that you could seed with future “Barn Finds”), for peanuts. It seems like the housing market collapses every ten years in Michigan, so it’s about due. Then you could keep all of your “Gems”.
Leaving Michigan on the other hand, is probably a good idea, as the Domestic Detroit Auto Industry is evaporating. It’s only about 15% of what it was in 1980. My Sister moved out to L.A. in 1994 when she got her Engineering Degree. She has made a fortune alone on that little L.A. shack she bought with the bars on the windows.
Keep the Mustang(it’s not easily replaceable) and whatever vehicle has the lowest rust percentage. Be forewarned, any classic vehicle in L.A., will soon be in Mexico, no matter what you do to secure it. Then again, maybe you should actually take the rustiest one, as they don’t like those as much.
In my experience, those unfinished projects just squander our energy away. I don’t mean it in any sort of metaphysical sense, but purely psychological: any spark of creativity or drive to build new things will hit the mental “unfinished projects”, and will be diluted to nothing. And no matter the project we start, midway through our minds will start to remind us of the lots and lots of projects we have on the backlog, and will convince us that there is no point in putting any more effort on the current one. So it will be stowed away for a week, a month, ten years…
One reason I think that way is that I myself had to leave my old country in a (relatively) short notice. I had to fit all my life in two suitcases. It was not pleasant, sure, but it both freed me of lots of “mental energy sumps” in my life, and made me more frugal – why bother collecting big things if I may be forced to leave them behind once again?
I particularly feel your pain regarding your first car. I kept mine as well for a long time, and would have brought it to the new country, if I had the chance. Since I couldn’t, I just gave it to my young cousin and let him be happy about it. I mean the car – it is much happier now that it is being driven than it would be if I had stored it “while I sort out international freight” (that is, NEVER).
TL;DR: shed our problems away. Take the Mustang, the Jeep 93 (10k on our hand will not be better than a nice Jeep) and maybe the J10.
I don’t think you have enough opinions on this matter yet.
85 J10: You’ve taken on TÜV and won. Australia remains to be seen. I think you could tangle with CARB. Plus, getting that to pass emissions would be content. Keep.
66 Mustang: It’s functional. You don’t have to tangle about CARB. Keep.
93 Grand Cherokee: Already on your “sell” list. Sell.
94 Grand Cherokee: I say sell, but I know you don’t want to get rid of all the holy grails.
79 Cherokee: I know it’s on the sell list, but here me out. It needs an engine. Make this the electric project. The FC just needs so much more work to even beyond the conversion process.
00 Tracker: Already on the sell list, and you have a buyer? Absolutely sell.
58 Willys: Already made my pitch above with the 79 Cherokee. Sell.
92 Cherokee: If you haven’t gotten rid of your first car by now, I don’t think you’re going to. Keep.
So, if you listen to me for some reason, you’re only moving a still silly but much more manageable four cars halfway across the country instead of eight, a full two of which could make it on their own power.
Enabler! Shush!
I have five cars, two of which haven’t moved in… 15 years? Yeah, I’m probably not the best person to solicit ideas from.
I’m going to do exactly this.
Alternative: you’re a Mensch. Have kids from the local community college’s mechanics program apply and give the cars away based on the strength of their application.
Donate them to the local NPR station and get a tax deduction.
It’s not hard. Get rid of all the jeeps and tracker, except the red 5spd that doesn’t look like a zombie ate it. Why would you tow, transport, or store any of those piles of junk? Because they were cheap? They won’t be cheap after 1-2k in transport and ongoing storage costs. LA has room but storing cars isn’t free, and if you’re renting an apartment, you won’t be allowed to store a decrepit piece of trash like the busted up red jeep or the Willys.
Come on, man, time to snap out of adolescence.
I completely agree. California has plenty of junkyards and barns to find new projects in. Let go of the unfinished/broken stuff. Keep the stuff that’s nice and worth more than $7.
Californians with “troublesome” cars have a Nevada property too. Ask me how I know this……
So many great suggestions in this comment section. I think you need to make space to try new things once you move. I almost gave away my LSB e46 M3 when I moved to California from the midwest. I am sad about it but I’ve had such an experience here I can hardly regret it now.
Donate ’em all. That along with your moving expenses should do you right come tax time.
Then, treat Michigan the same as Germany and Hong Kong, spend a few weeks in the summer around the Motor City.
Cold Turkey, Rip the Band-Aid, “Just DO It!” (C’mon folks, let’s roll this cliche’ thread.)
I’m not sure why people make this claim about donations to help with taxes. What am missing?
Say a car is worth $1000.
1) Sell it for $1000, have $1000.
2) Donate it. Then itemize deductions, and IF you meet the income thresholds (which is a big if) then that $1000 comes off your income. So if you are in a 22% bracket, you decrease your owed taxes by $220 and end up with $220 more in your pocket.
Donating just turned $1000 into only $220, and caused you a lot more tax paperwork to fill out and a need to have proof for the Schedule A to itemize deductions.
Obviously if you can’t find a buyer for it, donating is better that nothing, absolutely!!! You can claim the value with only some proof of what the market value probably was.
Or, maybe the sense of altruism is worth $780 to you, great!
But purely financially, it’s not a good option. Unless I’m missing something?
Having just moved 5 vehicles 400 miles/one state away over a several month span this summer I can relate. It still required 3 separate trips to haul vehicles interspersed with several trips to move the household and garage stuff. I think I put about 7,000 miles on the truck in two months and it was grueling. I would keep the Mustang and your original XJ, and maybe whichever Grand Cherokee is going to be the overlander. As for storing vehicles, how many stories have you seen where someone put a vehicle away for a little while, only to have it languish for years, and they’re in the same zip code, not across the country. The costs get up there too, I know guys who’ve had classic muscle cars in storage for so long they could have paid for most of a restoration with the money they’ve spent keeping them locked away in a 10×20 shed for decades.
Pick the least shitty one, donate the rest. This is no longer about cars, as much as you try to rationalize it. It’s about hoarding, and we’re your intervention. Go (to California) with grace, David.