1974 JEEP CJ-5 IS JUNKYARD TREASURE IN COLORADO
Colorado car graveyards have plenty of Jeeps in stock, including some from the Willys-Overland and Kaiser-Willys eras. While I find DJ Dispatcher "Mail Jeeps" on a regular basis here, examples of the Jeep CJ tend to hold their value well enough to avoid a junkyardy fate. But you just never know what you'll find in a Centennial State junkyard, and I spotted this CJ-5 in a yard just outside of Denver recently.
The Jeep CJ goes way back, to a time when Willys-Overland saw that World War II would be ending soon and civilians might want to buy street-ready versions of the vehicle that helped the Allies crush the Axis. The CJ-5 version was built from the 1954 through 1983 model years, after which it was replaced by the Wrangler.
The American Motors Corporation bought Jeep from Kaiser in 1970, and so the CJ-5's engine choices in early 1974 (the build tag shows this was one of the first CJ-5s to roll off the Toledo line as a 1974 model) were both Kenosha powerplants: a 232-cubic-inch (3.8-liter) straight-six and a 304-cubic-inch (5.0-liter) V8. This one has the straight-six.
The transmission is a four-speed manual, and the controls are simple even by mid-1970s standards.
There's some rust, but nothing too lethal. Why didn't anyone rescue this valuable machine before it got here?
As one does, I brought with me a 1940 Agfa B2 Speedex film camera loaded with insane-high-contrast document film on the day I photographed this Jeep.
The ultimate get-up-and-go vehicle!
It's the toughest four-letter word on wheels, which tells trails to get lost. 21st-century Jeeps seem effete by comparison.