Looking at a secondhand Rubicon.
 

We are looking to go to a larger Jeep and have our eye on 2 JKU Rubicon's on Carsales.com.au, plan will be to buy a Rubicon and then swap everything over from the shorty that can be swapped and sell the bits that cant, the shorty will be put back to stock cleaned up and sold.

After a year and a half with the shorty and driving Fujui's Rubi at Janowen Hills it confirmed to me we would be better off with a JKU and a Rubicon if we could afford it, mainly for the extra stability of the JKU and also being a lot more stable on steeper climbs, also the Rubicon adds some bits I wouldnt need to mod for, also for our style of Jeeping with all the camping we like to do it will give us more room and also tow a camping trailer which we plan on getting once the shorty has sold.

Nearly all my mods on the shorty have been planned with them being able to be transferd to a JKU at some point in the future and that point in time has come I think.

We have our eye on these 2 and plan to view one on Sunday

2008 Un-modded to the eye and looks in good condition, its in our price range of $25K max, trouble is its black.

http://www.carsales.com.au/private/d.../?Cr=2&sdmvc=1

The next one is a modded 2007 with $18k of mods, I cant seem to tell where the $18k is though with whats listed (may be in the cert for 4.5" lift) and having modded my Jeep know what things cost, also looks a little untidy which can be expected for off road use.
http://www.carsales.com.au/private/d.../?Cr=0&sdmvc=1

Once we have viewed the Jeeps if we decided we like one we will get it inspected, anyone have any thoughts or advice on the above.

Cheers Stephen

Looking at a secondhand Rubicon.
 

The unmodded looks better, and is less likely to have had some of the abuse that the green would have had. You already have stuff to put on from your shorty, so not much point buying the green as it doesn't look to need anything.

As far as 18k of mods goes, let's see... (Estimated prices, not including fitting) Front bar $2000, rear bar $2000, rock rails $1000, 4.5" lift $3-4000, assoc engineering $2-5000 depending on location, eBay snorkel $150, uhf unknown (if it was anything like mine, $390 head unit $200 antenna), computer jigger $700, 6x MTZ and wheels (at 1000 per wheel+tyre) $6000

Adds up.

What i would query on the green one.. Who did the installation? Why with all the expense of the gear would someone get an eBay snorkel? Mentioned in the ad the computer tool "for deleting codes" - just what sort of codes has it needed deleted? I would be over this thing with a fine tooth comb, check for mud around the breathers, damage to the drive shaft boots from the angle of the shafts. Lots more a mechanic would have to sign off on.

Now for the unmodded one..the current owner has only had this for 6months, so how many km have they put on it since purchase? Looks like stock tyres on there, so it likely hasn't seen the action typical for one that likes to test their mettle on a rocky trail, but the first owner could have returned it to stock to sell to the second owner and now the second owner just can't support the financial burden.. It looks better, but it could be worse

Hi Stephen. Drive them both & see which has less rattles & squeaks etc. If the green one has genuine approval on the lift that is something you can no longer get at that height. the roof rack may have holes drilled for the mounts that wont line up with your sharpwrax mounts. I'll talk soon.

Hi Steve,

I have test driven that green one about 10 months ago when the in-laws were looking for one. I thought it was rough. The wiring in the engine bay is real dodgy and it was caked in red... something. I thought it was rusty radiator liquid from a burst hose, but he said it was dust from a trip to the cape a year earlier which he just couldn't get rid of. From memory it had a bit of rust as well.

He wanted $33k back when I saw it. The fact that it's been for sale that long (and who knows how much longer before I saw it) and he's knocked close to $10k off his price paints a bit of a picture.

As much as I like the listed mods on the second one and I could cash up on them by selling them off, it just looks a little too rough for me and as 85mic pointed out.

Thanks for the feedback guys we are going to view the black one Sunday (still don't like black though but Rubi's are slim pickings)

Just based purely on colour, and given you're going from silver to black, you're going to notice every single scratch, mark, line, etc on the black.

I had a black TJ, looked great clean but just annoyed the crap out of me every other time.

Obviously, this is purely from a aesthetic point of view.

If we have to go with the Black it will have Trailskinz fitted right away befor wheeling, having owned Black cars I know they show up every mark.