1977 Wagoneer "FrankenJeep"

[ghinmi]

Got the body pulled off tonight. Less of a pain than I remembered it being. And I got everything unhooked on the first try! Time to start repairing the sloppy work that the factory did putting it together.

[ghinmi]

Got more stuff gutted out and started investigating the questionable factory construction. Just have to pull the dash and firewall stuff and quarter windows and it's completely gutted.



Look at how nice the pinch is in the windshield area! They're never that nice, no work needed there.


B pillar where it meets the roof after I scraped a ton of seam sealer off of it. Yeah, that's all getting welded.


And one of three spots that needs rust repair. And none of them are exterior body panels so they don't have to be perfect. Not bad at all.

[ghinmi]

Finally found (hopefully) the last mouse nests. This thing had a hardcore infestation.


Got the dash pulled.

[ghinmi]

Got most of the spots welded up that the factory should have but didn't. The B-pillars were literally not attached to the roof! I could move them by hand! Wonder if my black one was that way too. Also, dug around the rear quarters and even though they're not rusted out, the pinch seam is rusted in between the two layers so they need to come off and new quarters put on. You win some ya lose some. Probably save me time in body work on the crunched passenger quarter anyhow.

Fixed the floor rust holes. I'm resourceful, used the stock oil pan sump from when I built the deep pan.




Went to work on the crunched up rocker panel. I gave up pretty quick on trying to pull it out and ended up cutting out a strip. Will weld it back together after I coat the inside with cavity wax. There was so much junk in that rocker panel!






So after the rockers and quarters are done it's pretty much downhill from there as far as the body is concerned.

[ghinmi]

Got the driver's side quarter cut off yesterday. Didn't look bad on the outside but I knew the inside was rough. Here's the proof. So glad I decided to replace it.





And here's how it looks after I fixed it. I'm about to head out to the shop right now to glue on the new quarter.



This is the upper door opening that I replaced. No idea why it was rotted out but it was rough. You can also see how the roof turned out.



Here's how the floor turned out. It's dirty already. [lol]



And a shot of the passenger quarter that I'll be putting on.

[ghinmi]

Got the quarter fit up and glued on this morning. Lots of screws and clamps. I'll unclamp it tomorrow and fill the screw holes and then that side of the Jeep is DONE. WOOOO! Then on to the other side and underneath.

[ghinmi]

Found another repair I wasn't planning on. Cut out the pinch seam around the driver's side quarter, here's what they look like. Looked fine on the outside. Inside, not so much.


Here's what the outer wheelhouse looks like.


And here's what it looks like after I cleaned it up and welded in a new fender lip. I trimmed up the edge but forgot to take a picture of that.

[ghinmi]

Started on the passenger side today. They had hit something with the back and buckled the quarter. The actual quarter isn't a big issue, just slap another one on. The parts around it are the bugger. This is one of the spots that I had to straighten out. You can't see it but there's a bunch of inner structure that's all crumpled up inside. I had to cut the lower fender off to get in there.



And after a little love. Not perfect but a little filler will it make look legit. The bumper hides it anyhow. But it needed to be in the right spot to be able to attach the new fender to.


Then the cutting tools came out. Not as much rust repair work to do on this side compared to the other one.

[ghinmi]

Good stopping point for the night. All rust repair work done and painted. Now on to fitting up the new panel and sticking it on.

[ghinmi]

Got a little more done tonight. Actually a little more than I had planned. The new quarter panel practically dropped into place, a little trimming and it was ready to put on. Put a done stamp on that corner. Now just to pull out the squished in cowl area, clean and POR 15 underneath and it's ready to start prepping for primer. Ahead of schedule. How often does that happen? Still going to be a huge crunch to get it done by spring.

[rstep]

Some very nice work going on there.

[Strode182]

Yes, very nice work.

[ghinmi]

Thanks guys, I'm doing the best I can with what I've got. My black Wagoneer was way worse so I've already done all these tasks once and learned from my mistakes. Hoping this one turns out at least as nice.

Got to working on the cowl area tonight. I forgot to snap a picture before I started working on it but you can see how bad it was from this older picture.


I ended up having to cut it out and weld in a new piece. As luck would have it, one of the fender pieces had the exact bend I needed so that got used.


All ground down and ready for a little more hammer work and filler later.


Also un-clamped the quarter panel and ground down some of excess glue and welds.



And the money shots. This is why I glued instead of welded. Minimal body work needed and NO WARPING.



Officially done with metal work!

[fulsizjeep]

Once again Greg, WOW.

[ghinmi]

Bringing this one back from the dead. The weather has been shaping up a little bit so back to work. Needs a little more sandblasting underneath still but that's close. Got most of the passenger side stripped down. Getting close to putting it in Epoxy.

[Laffior]

I am loving this build!

[super98lsc]

Looks great! Cant wait to see more. Was the body on the black one ruined? Curious because it does not look that bad in the photos from the outside.

[ghinmi]

The black one wasn't that bad, but needed to be totally repainted because of little heat blisters here and there. Since it needed paint I decided to start with a cleaner body shell. The black one was a rust bucket that I fixed up and this body is WAY nicer, especially since I can paint the underside and such now. The black one was totally rebuildable, I just decided to take the quality up a notch.

[jpswapmohn]

ghinmi,
If you end up with extras of the stainless side trim that is in decent shape, let me know if you want to part with it. I am piecing together a set to make work on my 88. With the different tail lights, I am going to need some extra to make the back square off so it looks finished. I am a long way from that stage as I haven't even gotten the vinyl stripped off and prepped o go to the painter yet.

Great build #2. Anxious to see where you take this one.

[ghinmi]

I think I've got a complete extra set of trim that I saved off of a '79. Will have to inventory things when I get closer to that point. The longer piece that you're looking for on the quarter panel will have to be a shortened piece off of a pickup truck, I have that too. I'm going to be clearing out pretty much my whole inventory of spare parts in a few months, I'll let you know.