What doesn't make sense is his doing anything to it.
Wouldn't you steer somebody in that direction than placing $$$$$ into a broke dick TJ?
What part of beating a vehicle into the ground and replacing virtually everything to get to the 300k mile mark makes sense? The best bet if I didn't give a shit about it would probably have been to cash-4-clunkers it a while back.
It's my Jeep, I've owned it since it had 30k on the odometer, and I've maintained it basically myself. That's actually not going to be the case this time since I don't have a garage and it's been pouring rain all weekend. I'm going to have it towed to a local BMW/Merc shop that a friend works at and have him replace the skid, straps, and fuel pump for me next week. It'll cost me a few hundy and should get some laughs from the mechanics working on high end cars and the owner with the Ferrari sitting in the showroom, but my friend is a Jeep guy and someone I trust since I can't reasonably do it myself.
My "goal" with the TJ is actually to hit 300k, then basically restore it to "new" with a zero mile engine rebuild, transmission rebuild, fresh coat of paint, new fenders, new door, and fixes to anything I find along the way. Is it worth it in terms of resale value? Absolutely not. Is it something that I'd like to do? Yup.