As you may know, I’m a Postal Jeep apologist, having resurrected one from the dead and taken it on an epic off-road trip from Detroit, Michigan to Moab, Utah back in 2019. For this reason, I must tell you about the contraption I just discovered for sale on Facebook Marketplace for 8000 actual United States dollars. It is deeply strange.
First, here’s some throwback footage of The Before Times, back when I was but a lowly technical editor at Jalopnik, focused solely on wrenching and on bringing big traffic to that website; look at the joy in my eyes, the exuberance in my voice — those were the days:
Project POStal remains the greatest car I’ve ever had the pleasure of owning; I mourn its untimely death anytime anyone utters the word “Indiana,” as that’s where the Jeep was assembled in 1976 at the old Studebaker plant.
Anyway, this adventure left me indelibly linked to the Jeep “DJ” Dispatcher, which is why people frequently tag me in Postal Jeep-related posts on social media. Just this week, I learned through a social media tag that my favorite junkyard in the world, U.S. Auto in Sterling Heights, Michigan, recently took ownership of a DJ (which the ‘yard erroneously calls a CJ5). Check it out!:
Had I not moved out of Detroit last week, I’d likely be sitting in that Jeep right now, replaying memories of Project POStal. (There’s a chance I’d have taken that dash pad, which appears to be in mint condition).
I also learned this week — again via a social media tag — that this thing is for sale in Utica, New York:
The listing’s description reads:
1982 Mail jeep sitting on a 1996 s10 frame. 350 motor and 350 transmission. Steering has been converted to right hand drive. Runs and drivers great. Very fun and fast truck
It’s not clear if it’s actually been converted to right-hand drive, given that most Postal Jeeps already were RHD, but it is possible given that a good number were left-hand drive, and converting it would have been fairly easy with a parts Jeep.
Anyway, here’s a look at the Chevy 350, which would have replaced an Iron Duke 2.5-liter four-cylinder (by 1979, the AMC straight-six was gone).
In reality, it would have replaced whatever was in the S10 that gave its chassis for this body-swap — so either a little 2.2-liter four-cylinder or a 4.3-liter 90-degree V6. And while the latter is quite good, a 350 is a clear upgrade, here, and certainly would have been far too much motor for the original DJ’s short, tall platform.
I’m not entirely sure how this body swap went down given how incredibly narrow the DJ’s original frame is (I would know, since I had to fabricate a big part of it, since mine had a two-foot section almost completely rusted out). But the image above shows the front bumper seemingly mounted above the front frame horns, indicating that the bumper’s mounting provisions for the original frame were too far inboard to mount cleanly to the S10 frame.
Did the builder keep some of the DJ’s frame and weld it to the S10’s frame? It’s not entirely clear to me, but I’d love to know.
Look at the back of the box, which does hang quite far off the rear axle, but not as far as you’d think thanks to the DJ’s absurdly short body length. PO Boxes! How clever.
Would I say this is a beautifully-integrated execution? Absolutely not. But is it that much worse than the new Jeep Gladiator? As much as I’d like to poke fun at how Jeep basically just slapped a five-foot bed on the back of a Wrangler, in reality the answer is “yes.” This is way worse. Still, I love it, just like I love the Gladiator. It’s not rational.
Eight grand is absurd, though.
A LOT of beer went into that build.
Pro Built Ride for sure.
“But is it that much worse than the new Jeep Gladiator?”
No, DT, it really isn’t
When I see custom jobs like this, they tend to be very binary in execution. They’re either brilliantly done, or halfassed to the point of embarrassment. This could have been beautifully done, but…. So much was done so badly in such an obvious way that you KNOW once you get within 10′ many more bad choices and executions will become immediately obvious… If it were up the road a few minutes, sure, I’d stop by to check it out out of curiosity. The comment about dropping a zero is bang on.
A reverse ATBGE. I applaud the effort, and I get what the owner was going for, but man that thing is jaaaaaaaaaaaank.
In theory, sure, some interesting* ideas & the old mailbox details are a great touch, but damn if that’s not a whole lot of shitty execution.
*Please note I did not say good ideas.
Yeah, likely that the “RHD conversion” refers to the S10 chassis itself and also, as you noted, there were indeed postal jeeps that were LHD. In the mid-70s my dad, who often had a good eye for bargains, bought such a jeep at a USPS vehicle auction for far less than what the RHD jeeps were selling for since everyone at the auction wanted RHD for delivering newspapers and for rural mail routes (around here rural mail delivery people have to provide their own vehicles, dunno if that’s the case everywhere.) It was a fun vehicle to ride in for us kids though it could get a little old trying to explain to people interrogating us about why our mail jeep was LHD rather than RHD.
It’s a fun build, but would it have killed him to pain the bumper?
Really needs some custom MRZIP license plates.
This is what happens during long winters in central NY, inevitably helped along by lots of Saranac. Plus chicken riggies, greens and salt potatoes.
A fellow Utican, I see!
Don’t forget copious servings of steamed hams. Oh, wait, that’s a Albany expression.
10 points for the concept, plus bonus points for the use of PO Boxes in the tailgate and for using the same wrapping paper under the driver’s seat that I used this past Christmas. Minus 100 points for execution for not sawing off the front of the S-10 frame/bumper mounts and putting the front wheels way too awkwardly far back in the front fenders, and for generally asking $8000 for an $1800 vehicle (I know others have said $800, but I’ll grant an extra $1000 to anything that moves under its own power in these crazy used car times).
Oh, and a fun factoid that’s probably interesting only to to me, the first number in the number painted on the back of the roof denotes the model year, making this an 1981 edition.
On the old site, either David or Jason (or maybe it was a collaboration?) wrote a piece about the numbering system used on USPS vehicles, *or* that bit was a significant part of a broader post about mail trucks. No luck finding it over there, unfortunately.
So, put a v8 in a frame never designed for it, then add a rotted body with the torsional rigidity of a Twinkie. I bet that’s an exciting drive.
Wow! So this would be what, a Jeep Stampler?
Whoever put this together was clearly a Postal worker or a relative. Probably on the Motor Vehicle Services side of things (USPS maintains their own vehicles when they’re out of warranty. That’s probably why they catch on fire all the time).
The bronze bits on the tailgate are doors from PO Boxes from the 1930s or so.
I work for USPS and wouldn’t touch anything they put up for auction. Or some rando on FB marketplace.
DJ8 yo
Dave, I’m just going to throw this out there-
I.am about an hour from there, with a tow package equipped JT. If you can get that guy to accept some stupid low offer, there’s a workshop with a lift and tools available! Think of the usefulness of an extended cab jeep truck! Plus you can 4×4 swap that easy.
you can 4×4 swap that easy
This needs to be his next Moab-bound project! Should be a cakewalk compared to Project POStal or the Australian madness.
The S10 frame would have been converted to RHD?
Its an abomination, but its a good abomination
Oh right, that’s a good point.
Jim Farley needs to hire the person who built this. This is the degree of Quality Assurance that will take Ford to the next level. Shoot, I bet there’s hardly 10 yards of wiring harness in this thing, much less an extra mile.
I assumed the RHD conversation referred to modifying the donor chassis to accept the RHD steering of the postal, which presumably wouldn’t be that hard if you’re already swapping the engine.
But that’s a level of detail well beyond my skills, so I’m just guessing.
I find it both amusing and appropriate that this was posted at 4:20 (eastern).
Funny enough, 4:20 is the exact time they came up with the idea for this build.
It is glorious and terrible at the same time.
That’s not bizarre, that’s amazing.
I love the idea and some of the details involved (the stencils, the old PO boxes, the apparently-functional rear door) but I’m terrified of what lurks beneath.
The wheelbase sure looks longer than a 2wd ex-cab S-10’s, but it’s hard to eyeball. (It sure looks a lot less cramped in the cargo area than it was in the back seat of my middle-school girlfriend’s then-stepdad’s example.) Given the DJ’s 80″ wheelbase and the S-10’s being 122.9″, and the Jeep being pushed a bit forward so the front wheels aren’t centered under the fenders, that’d mean there should be three feet, several inches between where the Jeep’s rear axle was and where the S-10 axle is now, and that… almost looks right. Occam’s razor says it’s an optical illusion, given the ride height and perhaps smaller-than-stock tires, and that the S-10 frame and driveshaft have been left alone, but I’d sure love to check out the underside to find out.
Yikes! Whack a zero off of that, and we’ll talk!
Seeing POStal in person in that junkyard, is when I really understood just how rose colored your glasses really are DT. That body was RIDDLED with rust holes!
Guarantee you can find a rust free postal jeep and S10 in CA to recreate this for less than $8k. Heck there could be a rust free postal off the road in the woods somewhere near LA you can get for free!
A few years ago I spotted a DJ still with its original livery being towed to an Indy electrical shop. I was in a hurry at the time, and didn’t make it back to the shop to ask about it for a few weeks.
Turned out that the electrical system was shot and the owner had reclaimed it to scrap it. I sincerely regret not following up sooner, I might have been able to buy it for a song.
Not that I would have had the faintest clue what to do with it beyond “Call David and see if he wants it”.