War Gin - The 1984 Wagoneer

[bangarang]

4wd told me procomps were the best money could buy...

[WarGin]

Hey all, it's been a long time. Work, moving house, and life has sucked.
Got a new DD Cherokee, just FINALLY got actual plates yesterday, concluding 3 months of hell trying to get it imported (Canada model). She's staying stock, which enables War Gin to really come into her own off-road. Plus, my new place has plenty of wheeling in my backyard, so she doesn't need to be registered.

New DD (100k, 5sp, $750 (plus 1k in paperwork ))

So, back in September, War Gin's water pump imploded hardcore and sat till last week. A new pump, coolant, a jump, and little gas in the bowl and she fired right up.

Drove down to Hudson's shop for a quick run-through , and a few mods!
Finally got rid of the POS stick-in-a-can front driveshaft and installed the correct yoke and double cardan shaft. Vast improvement, the original shaft was max'd out just with the lift.



AND, welded my D35
Now before anyone says anything, I'm only wheeling on my property (for the moment), and if it breaks I have a tractor to pull the car out of anything. Also, not that it really matters, but no C-Clips, so marginally better then otherwise. War Gins getting new axles eventually regardless so might as well have fun while breaking stuff!



However, she's now almost completely unstreetable. Not only is she hopping in turns but she doesnt want to go over 40-45. I guess the angry squirrels under the hood cant spin everything in the rear at once!

Off-road ability is much improved, haven't hit anything really crazy, as I just started trailblazing Saturday. Much potential however!


In hindsight, I wish I welded the front as well. With the CAD i could rig up a DIY Posi-Lok and have 'open' to locked capability. Definitely happening soon...

Plans for this weekend are to fix a leaking fuel return line, and possibly throw the fuel tank in the trunk for giggles. And do a bunch of trailblazing, once one or both of those things are accomplished.

[WarGin]

Disclaimer: Much rum and coke was involved in this project.
So messing around in my backyard I managed to put a sizable dent in my fuel tank and wedged a stick or something into my fuel lines which caused a leak. So I decided to relocate my fuel tank. To the trunk. With ratchet straps...
Dropped the tank and cut the lines.

Pulled the trim off and it wasn't looking good to start .

Cut the carpet out of the trunk and it was waaaaay worse.



So I decided to cover all that cancer with a bandaid of primer. I figured I'll be cutting the floor out this summer anyways so why hack it now and left the holes.

The buddy that helped me out decided he likes fire-truck red gas tanks. Still haven't gotten around to re painting it or rerouting the filler/vent lines.
Absolutely no leaks in the compartment, but still have a drip from the return line that's a rusty. I'll take care of it when I replace my rear driveshaft ujoints, which are on their way out but not yet gone.
Snows a little too deep to keep messing around in the woods, guess I just gotta wait till it starts melting. Which will take awhile cus were in for 4 more days of snow.

PS: Why the fuck is SiS so dead?!

[WarGin]

Spent all day gutting the interior. I knew the cancer was bad around the front leaf mounts but I wanted to be somewhat thorough and get eerything at once. Wheeling season is upon us and I want to blaze trails at my house.


Everything was pretty straightforward until I got to the front seats. The studs/nuts or whatever were completely unrecongnizable and had to be ground and drilled out. In the process the drivers seat mount got hopelessly mangled.




Then I pulled the trim and pulled up the carpet. Started on the pass side.
Which didn't look bad! The carpet weighed a ton, was soaked and reeked to high heaven. But not too bad rust wise. Where I started...


And then I pulled up the drivers side. And was stunned. The floor felt pretty solid for years, and didn't look horrible from underneath, just a hole under the clutch.
But more metal came up with the carpet then what was left on the body...




Also, holy seam sealer. There are 1/2 gaps in the trans tunnel filled by the factory.
Guess the wire wheel shall be broken out tomorrow and I'll have to source a little more sheet metal then I thought...

All things considered for a 1984 vehicle it's not bad at all.
Recently acquired a pair of heated leather, mechanical seats from a PT cruiser, so once the floor is patched and solid I'll have to see what can be done to accommodate them.

Also thinking of a quick spreader bar between C pillars, I heard a lot of urethane creaking and door flex from the rear last time I was out playing in the snow.

Broke out the scrapers and attacked cancer.





Then the rust on the doors and quarters pissed me off so I ground them down and threw some rustoleum on it till I get filler. Then I decided to just paint the body line down black, screw the filler.


That's as far as I got today.

[WarGin]

So got a lot of the floor and those plates welded in.
Total newb at welding and slowly self teaching, but it's pretty hard running a cheap machine with flux core and getting decent beads, especially on sheet metal! Blowing fewer and fewer holes but the welds still look like crap.

The floor is 1/8x3/4 angle ribbing with 20ga over it. The 20 was too thin by itself so I just did 8x12" sections. Probably not the best way to do it but whatever, it holds over 300lbs without any sign of movement. We'll see what happens the first time I flex out though...


Hopefully will be done and have the drivers seat from an 01 PT cruiser bolted in tomorrow. Modified the brackets and trans tunnel to mount up the front brackets, but the rear mounting points in the PT was a crossmember so I will have to fab something up.



Stoked for wheelin season ! Walked a ~ mile long loop in woods a few days ago and I'm pretty confident it can be easily blazed in a good afternoon of hustling . If the friggin snow would hurry up and melt. And stop being added to.

[Ruepart Hoaxley]

I feel you on the snow.

Ignorance is bliss when it comes to the floors on my ZJ... Looks like you've got it under control.

[WarGin]

I feel you on the snow.

Ignorance is bliss when it comes to the floors on my ZJ... Looks like you've got it under control.

You might want to check those out haha, I thought mine weren't that bad, but when I pulled up the carpet all the metal stuck like glue and pulled everything up with the carpet