Music and fashion styles may come and go, but the look of an AMC-produced Jeep CJ-7 is about as timeless as it gets, especially with the Laredo package like on this 1983 offering you can view here on eBay. The current bid on this Copperas Cove, Texas CJ is just north of $9,000 as of this writing, and the reserve has not been met.
The seller says this Jeep is Olympic White (9B), but in some of the pics it looks closer to Almond Beige (3A) or Jamaican Beige (2J), albeit with some fading. Regardless, the paint is original, and there are some dings and chips and surface rust spots that make driver/survivor quality a fair assessment. The hard top looks to be solid, and the seller also offers a soft top (sold separately, of course) for those who like a little more wind noise. And, of course, the classic Laredo striping and chrome accents still stand out as the markings of a top-of-the-line CJ.
We don’t get an engine pic, which seems odd considering the ample number of pictures of various sheet and structural metal parts. I guess the seller decided it was more important to show the lack of rust than the look of the engine, but I’m not sure I’d agree. This Jeep does have the preferred 4.2L 258 cu. in. Inline-6 engine, good for 112 horses and 210 lb-ft of torque, and the seller did upload a video of it running. It also has a manual transmission, thankfully, though no indication if it’s a 4-speed or 5-speed with overdrive. The interior keeps up with the driver/survivor condition of the exterior: a little surface rust here, a crack in the dash there. In one of the interior pics the Laredo-specific clock appears, which is one of the cooler additions to the package. But we get no information from the seller on what works and what doesn’t, so we know clock will be right a minimum of twice a day.
Overall, you’ve got options with this CJ-7 Laredo. For a “mostly original” ‘83 with 77k miles, the engine and transmission should have plenty of life left, so if the minor-ish body and interior imperfections don’t bother you, do nothing and have yourself a driver-quality classic Jeep. Or go the extra mile with a solid baseline for a restoration project that doesn’t appear to need a ton of heavy lifting. Which way would you go?
Leave A Comment