I was once the proud owner of a 1970s Postal Jeep. I bought the thing for $500, spent hundreds of hours and a few thousand dollars fixing it, and then sold it for $2000. Postal Jeeps are worthless, but that didn’t stop this person from turning one into a hotrod with the greatest name I’ve ever seen.
It’s called “Low Priority,” a play on the United States Postal Service’s “Priority Mail” and the vehicle’s suspension, which has the body sitting down low — it’s genius, really.
Not so genius, at least financially, is dropping heavy coin on a Postal Jeep. The average person used to be able to buy one at the post office for $300, and the machine’s value hasn’t exactly climbed since then. The Postal Jeep’s problem is that it’s only two-wheel drive, so it’s not exactly attractive to off-road folks. It’s also extremely tall and narrow, making daily-driving it a bit scary for some folks, plus they offer pretty much zero crashworthiness, they’re loud, and I could go on and on.
I daily-drove mine for a while after taking it on a 4,000-mile road trip from Michigan to Utah and back. I found the ride rather comfortable, and had no issue with the handling or any of that (but I have low, low standards). What’s more, the AMC straight-six motor was a tank, and the Chrysler 727 never gave me any guff (at least, not on-road). I loved that Jeep.
But my machine doesn’t hold a candle to the 1974 Jeep DJ5 Mail Jeep, named “Low Priority,” for sale in Florida right now for $25,990 or best offer. The amount of effort that went into this machine — the attention to detail — is mind-blowing. For one, under the hood remains the standard inline-six you’d expect in a 1974 Jeep DJ-5D Dispatcher, except it has been thoroughly modified:
Look at that turbocharger! This turbo required the relocation of the air cleaner from atop the intake manifold to the front left corner of the engine bay (as viewed from the driver’s seat). You can see the air cleaner sticking out of the hood:
Also worth noting is the round fenders, which replaced the more squared-off ones that the vehicle would have left the Studebaker factory in South Bend, Indiana with. (Fenders shared with the Jeep CJ-5 and military M38a1). I’m assuming these fenders were formed to fit the front wheels, which sit much higher relative to the body due to the slammed suspension.
speaking of, also shown in that engine-bay photo is an independent front suspension. Typically, a postal Jeep has a leaf-sprung dead-axle up front — just a giant cast iron tube with C’s welded to each end to receive the steering knuckles. It’s literally the simplest suspension of all time.
This Postal Jeep, though, has an independent front suspension from a Ford Mustang II, and it’s got a rack-and-pinion steering setup over the old-school, wander-y steering box that made my cross-country drive across America so “exciting.” What’s more, Low Priority has an “Airmaxxx” air-ride system that lets you raise and lower the vehicle.
Out back, there appears to still be a solid rear axle, and, like the front, it’s bagged instead of leaf-sprung. You can see under the rear floor just how high the modified frame rails come up into the Jeep to allow the vehicle to sit so low, plus you can see air tank and some of the links in the triangulated four-link rear suspension:
Here’s a look underneath:
Because the frame has to sit so high in the body, and because that big air tank has to sit somewhere, the rear of the Postal Jeep loses quite a bit of storage space, and that’s all been closed out with a big red box:
While we’re looking inside, check out the front of the cabin, which has been painted red and tan, decorated with some elegant but simple red seats, and adorned with a chrome steering wheel:
The whole thing is just bonkers, and I love the fact that the builder kept lots of Postal Jeep features, like the inline-six engine, the “LOOK BEFORE BACKING” dash sticker, the ridiculous side mirror, and even the cabin-cooling fan:
But above all, I just love that name:
All images: eBay/sofloclassics
Has anyone else noticed that the sign that you see when the back door is open has 7 grille slots and not the 5 that the mail Jeeps had?
Dave when he saw this:
https://media1.tenor.com/m/W2x0CtMRX6sAAAAC/south-park-there-was-a-ghost.gif
I love living in a world where a person can build the car of their dreams, even though I am not at all a fan of the car.
I love the passion even if I don’t love the car.
$25,990 OBO? Ha, I’ll give you $2,599
Maybe if it was owned by Newman and he threw in the mailbag owned by the Son of Sam
Ok, hell no, he’s still ALIVE! Wow, I’m shocked- I hardly knew anything about him outside of the Seinfeld reference (besides being a serial killer obviously) and had no interest but would have guessed he was dead…interestingly, he had no interest in getting parole for a long time and has no chance of getting it anyway
“Nobody really needs mail”
“You wanna know a secret about zip codes? They’re meaningless!”
“I don’t work in the rain”
Newman was an awesome character and was perfect for the role
I wonder what the “batting average” is on custom cars… what it is worth vs. what the owner thinks it is worth.
Well California keeps bringing Charles (Helter Skelter) Manson up eligible for parole. And he’s nuttier than, was it David Schwartz?
Berkowitz…didn’t Manson die in 2017?
So for everyone reading oops I was wrong not sure if Mason died and yes I believe Berkowitz is correct.
For all of those who thought I was infallible, sorry I let you down
In the future I promise not to admit it, er not to be wrong.
Through rain, sleet and bud light…
Cool idea. But certain aspects shout Florida Man here. Fenders, and air cleaner through the hood, etc. But @ 25K CP.
6k all day
Yeah not sure about the quality of the job done there. The fenders seem to have been eye balled with a sawzall, the paint must have been done with rattle cans and there’s visible rust.
It’s somebody else’s project that’ll become your project too.
I’d take this over an LLV or a Metris. That’s also about half the price of a new Metris. No room for parcels but the mail would arrive with style.
It’s cool, but those front fenders are ghastly. Those really need a redo and some matching paint.
You’re welcome.
Think of this with open wheels no fenders, no hood but a traditional 6 slot jeep face?
Some little red flag trafficators would be a perfect addition to this build.
A super job by the builder. The name isn’t bad but I would have gone with Priority Male.
It’s not the size of the balls it’s the bounce. And you always have truck nuts. Lol
You know what they say, you can’t rely on the size of your balls, their just nuts.
No mention of that delicious brake pedal that looks like an envelope?
Too bad we can’t see him send it.
A million years ago, I knew of a guy who took a postal jeep and stuck a 455 Pontiac engine in it backed up by a Turbo 400. It was VERY squirrelly, and had a driveshaft maaaaaaybe a foot long.
It was just for giggles, and didn’t last long.
It is cool, but IMO not $26K cool.
Back in history there were modified Postal Jeeps on the dragstrip, typically with extended front frames and V8 power, probably just slightly less useful than this example.
It would be worth it if the cosmetic details were a little better.
This one really made me giggle with delight. Good find!
This is really an homage to the first Hot Rods, the Ford Model T and Model A. You start with something cheap and mechanically simple, and it’s easy and inexpensive to modify to your personal vision.
I’m not loving what they did with the front fenders. I get why they did it, but I would want to do… something else.
The rest is pretty freaking great, and full of wonderful details. Anybody else notice the brake pedal pad? This thing is so fun.
I would’ve gone with some sort of pontoon fender treatment, but it’s easy for me to say that when I don’t have the metal working chops to cut and weld up this terrific goblin of a hotrod.
Yeah, I’m really not sure what I would have done. And frankly, I also do not have the chops to do any of what they’ve done here, so they still have my respect. It almost looks like they were sick of the project by the time they got to the front, so they just cobbled that together to be done with it.
Nonetheless, I really like it overall.
I think open wheel no front fenders a tribute to the old days.
I would’ve just deleted the front fenders entirely. It’s a hot rod, you’re allowed to do that.
Barring a better idea, which I do not have, I’d probably do the same.
They might live somewhere fenders are required or get hassled enough that they included them.
Motorcycle fenders might be worth playing with here
They kind of look like an OG 2CV.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_2CV
Good call!
Had, sir. You had low, low standards. 🙂
This is pure speculation but I think you may have raised them a skoche in the past year or so. That is not at all a bad thing – AFAICT we all do it. *mumble* years ago I was happy with a slammed orange Super Beetle as a daily driver, but the current iteration of me would prefer… not.
I still want one, of course, but I’ve become accustomed to more comfort.
As much as I like this, my brain is really stuck on the front bumper delete. It’s just such an important part of the original look to remove entirely.
I’ve seen one lowered truck that moved its front bumper when dropped, in a manner similar to an automatic running board, so there are options. Or were, a bit late now.
Oh well, not my project to add requirements.
Gives “going postal” a whole new meaning.
“Worthless Postal Jeep”
What is a phrase I never thought David Tracy would utter, Alex
Decades-old muscle memory is hard to change.