Early Renegade....

So.... I picked up another Warn 8200 yesterday for a good deal. He started out asking $150, then dropped it to $120 and that's when I inquired about it. I made the offer that if he could get it to me roughly 20 miles away, I'd give him the original $150.00. He countered with "you come get it you can have it for $75"..... We all know how that ends. So I went and got it. He had another one sitting in his container with his dad's CJ5 that his dad had bought new.

Here's where it get's weird. I ask if he wants to show the Jeep and he opens up the container to reveal a green jeep in a few pieces but mostly complete. I walk up along the driver side and it has Renegade II on the cowl and correct hood stripes. I'm like "dude, this is a pretty rare jeep. Renegade II. Made in 71." Then I spot the under driver tank that's factory. No sign of a rear tank. I look for hood reflectors but it has marker lights in the fenders and quarters. Has a tailgate and the Ren I swing out tire carrier in the back. The he says "I swear it said Renegade I on it, check the other side".. So I crawl across the front frame horns to check out the passenger side (no hood blister) and sure as sh*t, it says Renegade I on the passenger side. Production decal on the dash was worn enough that I couldn't tell the date of mfg anymore. Wish I had grabbed some photos, but I was dumbfounded. I surmised that maybe it had had some repairs early on that resulted in the mismatch RI/RII badging, but he was certain nothing had been changed like that since his dad had purchased it new. Now, he was about my age so there's a 7 or 8 year gap from the time his dad bought the jeep to when he was born so anything could have happened. But man, what a weird find!

 

Should have have the 8” KH steel wheels too. Are you working a deal on this one?
-Donny

 

He isn't interested in selling the Jeep. Retirement project he said. It had chrome reverse wheels with baby moons on it so they were changed out at some point. Not sure what wheels it came with, but likely KH.

 

A misbuild at the Jeep factory would certainly not be surprising. Heck, my CJ left the factory with 3.73 gears in 1 axle & 4.88's in the other!

 

I would tend to agree it's not out of the realm of possibilities. Would be interesting to see if he has older photos to document the mismatched decals from new.