Raise your hand if you love old-style big-body Jeeps. My hand is certainly up high, despite a pile of repair bills I still have in a box from the early 1990s when we bought an eight-year-old Grand Wagoneer that had only been used as a beach car on Nantucket.
It didn’t have many miles for its age so we could buy an extended warranty from the Jeep dealership, but we still had continuously horrendous repair bills.
I disclosed the repair issues when I put a small ad in the paper to sell the Grand Wagoneer after about 18 months, but three potential buyers raced to my house with the asking price in cash. Two of them walked away, unhappy and mad at me.
But I still love the style and the purposeful gravitas of the full-body Jeeps. If you do, you’d probably like to know about Vigilante 4×4.
Johnson City, Texas-based Vigilante specializes in restomods on full-body style Jeep Grand Wagoneers, 2-door Jeep Cherokee Chiefs, and 2-door, long-bed Jeep J-trucks.
Wait, what’s a restomod? A restomod is Vigilante’s process for restoring and adding modern components to older Jeeps.
The Vigilante restomod process
Restoring older vehicles is a specialized business. The husband-and-wife team who own Vigilante 4×4 have been restoring Jeeps for more than twenty years. In that time, they have developed three restoration types or stages.
Stage One restoration brings the vehicle back as close as possible to its original condition. Vigilante craftspeople don’t add nonstock parts but restore and rebuild everything to how it was when the vehicle was brand new. Stage One restorations start at $145,000
Stage Two restorations return the vehicle to pristine condition and upgrade the power, brakes, and audio systems. Specifically, Vigilante adds 315 hp AMC fuel-injection engines, Hybroboost disc brakes, and Bluetooth audio to Stage Two resto-mods. Stage Two pricing starts at $175,000.
Stage Three restoration, also called a Vigilante restomod, returns the Jeep to its original appearance but adds a reengineered frame, axles, wheels, engine, transmission, and transfer case. Available engines include a 485hp 6.4-liter SRT-8 or a 707hp 6.2-liter Supercharged Hellcat HEMI. Stage Three/Vigilante restomods start at $275,000.
