My Favorite Ride: Rebuilding a Jeep Wrangler from the frame up

Laura Lane, The Herald-Times
·4 min read

About three years ago, Brian Green and his father-in-law bought an old rusted-out Jeep Wrangler. It ran, but was in pretty rough sharp. They worked together to fix it up.

That's Brian Green's Jeep, just wheels and chassis, under the blue tarp, before he and his father-in law started working on it. The Jeep has come a long way over the past three years.
That's Brian Green's Jeep, just wheels and chassis, under the blue tarp, before he and his father-in law started working on it. The Jeep has come a long way over the past three years.

"I thought we were going to build a little toy to drive around on the weekends," Green said. "I definitely didn't think it would turn out like this."

Brian Green's 1991 Jeep Wrangler parked at Advanced Auto Care in Bloomington, where he works.
Brian Green's 1991 Jeep Wrangler parked at Advanced Auto Care in Bloomington, where he works.

A thousand-dollar investment turned it into a pretty expensive, and very cool, vehicle. "A money pit," he laughed, saying he could have bought a showroom-new Wrangler with the money he's spent rebuilding his 1991 model.

I'm not sure why, but I haven't written about many Jeeps since this column launched more than two decades ago.

Of late, there was the 2000 Jeep Wrangler mentioned in a column last year that got stolen along with Dave Fischbach's 1960 custom Chevrolet Corvette.

There was a small Jeep mention in a 2021 column about Alan Fluke, who traded a 2016 Jeep Wrangler for a 1967 Chevy Malibu.

Another Jeep storyMy Favorite Ride: Decades later, man gets another 1960s muscle car

In another story, Larry York used a 1972 Jeep CJ-7 frame as the new base for a 1947 Dodge pickup he and his son brought back to life.

I wrote about two Jeeps in a single column, neither roadworthy, twin wood-paneled Wagoneers parked at Bob Jones Radiator & Auto Repair shop.

Then in 2020, a column focused on Ryan Pedigo's 1979 Jeep CJ-5, which wasn't in great shape when he bought it. It died three times driving the five-mile drive home. “I thought my wife was going to kill me for another stupid vehicle purchase,” he said.

When I encountered Green's Wrangler, I saw an opportunity for another Jeep story.

While it looks pretty fancy — huge tires, a light bar, a winch attached to the front — the interior has been stripped down to just the basics. It's got a radio and a heater, and not many extras. There are just 89,000 miles on the odometer.

Brian Green's 1991 orange Jeep, close up
Brian Green's 1991 orange Jeep, close up

"I could drive it under water. There's nothing on it to fail," he said, describing how the electronics and wiring are sealed away. "I park it in the summer with the top down and if it rains, where another vehicle would be ruined, water runs off. I can just towel it dry."

This Jeep's top speed is about 70 mph, he said, "and that's pushing it. It's super top heavy." The vehicle is made for afternoon cruising in sunny weather; this past summer, the soft top never got put on, Green said.

He and his father-in-law, Steve Stephens, took the Jeep down to the frame and started over. The windshield and hood are about all that remain. They did the work in the shop at Green's house, where over time he found himself working on his own more often.

These days, his Jeep spends most of the winter parked in a heated and carpeted garage, pampered. "It's pretty far from what it was originally," he said of the 40-year-old Jeep.

Brian Green has been rebuilding this1991 Jeep the past few years.
Brian Green has been rebuilding this1991 Jeep the past few years.

Disappearing catalytic converters

In other news, a warning for owners of old Toyota Prius hybrids: Keep a close eye on your car, and park inside a garage if you have one. Also, consider investing a few hundred dollars for a protective shield to protect your catalytic converter.

That's because thieves are more than ever stealing the catalytic converters on second-generation Priuses made from 2004 to 2009. The anti-pollution devices on these cars, part of the exhaust system, contain more of the precious metals — platinum, palladium and rhodium that thieves extract and sell — than other cars have.

When a catalytic converter gets cut off a Prius, it can cost $2,000 to replace.

A catalytic converter from a 2007 Prius can be resold for hundreds of dollars, while a converter from a 2007 Ford F-150 is worth about $150.

Catalytic converter thieves in Bloomington have caught the Prius wave. Data from the Bloomington Police Department shows that of the six catalytic converters stolen in the city the first 10 days of 2023, five were cut off mid-2000s Toyota Priuses.

In 2022, BPD logged 88 stolen catalytic converter thefts, many from Priuses, Honda SUVs and big trucks. They happened all around the city: at Leonard Springs Nature Park, Girls Inc., Upland Brewing, Habitat for Humanity Restore and even a city parking garage.

The thefts continue into the new year, with no end in sight. Thieves can scoot under a car, jack it up, steal a converter in just two or three minutes and be gone. So beware.

Have a story to tell about a car or truck? Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington man rebuilds 1991 Jeep Wrangler from the frame up