Actually, he never intended to build the thing when he bought it. He needed a front axle for his 4x4 project. I recommended a wide-track Dana 44 from an FSJ. A few weeks later he shows up with this '78 Cherokee Chief. It turned out to be cheaper to buy this whole Jeep than to try and get just an axle from a local junkyard. I could lie and tell you it was a total rust bucket, but this thing was clean. There wasn't a bit of rust on the thing. It was cleaner than any of the FSJs I've ever owned. Of course I toyed with the idea of building it up, but the fact that it wasn't smog exempt in my state was a real turn off. Another buddy of mine was convinced he was taking the remains home until he too found out it was a '78. By the end of the day I had two more friends on the hunt for a smog exempt FSJ because they thought it looked so cool. Heck, I'm still on the hunt too. Anybody got a clean running '74 or '75 short-bed J-truck with a V-8 and a T-18 manual they are trying to unload for less than $2,000?