63 Wagoneer Rebuild

glake · Post by **glake** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 6:36 am

After posting in the Show and Tell section, I've finally gotten around to starting a build thread. Not to mention dedicating sometime to getting started on the actual build. Anyway, I've got a 63 Wagoneer that I rescued from the elements. The plan is to bring it back to life as my daily driver. It's not going to be stock, but it will keep the Jeep spirit.

Here she is on the day back in February that I brought her home.

She's pretty rough. Plenty of rust to remove and patching to be done. As a brief history, I appear to be owner #5. The original owner bought her in Santa Barbara, CA kept her until 87, when she went to Oxnard, CA. Then in 87, she went to Camarillo, CA. In 2013, she ended up in Acton, CA. She's now finally home for good as I plan to keep her. Somewhere along the line, one of the owners tried to do some fixes and upgrades that just ended up being a butcher job. They installed a crappy SBC, tried to repair rust with Bondo, welded window frames to the doors, and use all kinds of scrap metal to MacGyver their "upgrades" in place. I'm sorry, but some people should just not be allowed to own classic vehicles.

I've now stripper her down, pulled the motor/trans/transfer case. The motor turned out to be out of a 57 Chevy sedan, so I sold it to a guy restoring a 57 and gave the T90 to another guy redoing an old flat fender Willys.

I'm be putting in a freshly rebuilt SBC, fuel injected, and keeping the Dana 20 and adding a twin-stick. I'm not sure about the Tranny yet. It will either be a 700R4 or an NV4500. I also picked up a Dana 44 from an Isuzu Rodeo during half-off day at Ecology a few months back.

Now that it's stripped, it's time for rust repair. Debating on taking it to be blasted, or buy a unit from HF and making a mess myself.

Tin Medic · Post by **Tin Medic** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:24 pm

Was the original color Avacado green?

racerx12003r1 · Post by **racerx12003r1** » Sat Sep 05, 2015 6:51 am

A nickles worth of free advice here. Take it somewhere to have it blasted if you are going that route. I have done the self blasting stuff. It is extremely messy. You will find blasting materials in places you never thought it could get. Kind of like anti-seize. If you get a dab on you, it will be between your toes before you get done and you haven't even took your shoes off.

shimniok · Post by **shimniok** » Sat Sep 05, 2015 10:26 am

Best of luck with the build. Subscribing!

sent from my MotoX

glake · Post by **glake** » Sat Sep 05, 2015 8:25 pm

Tin Medic wrote:Was the original color Avacado green?

I believe green was the original color. At some point it may have been black, and finally white. Kinda looks like it was brushed on.

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glake · Post by **glake** » Sat Sep 05, 2015 8:27 pm

racerx12003r1 wrote:A nickles worth of free advice here. Take it somewhere to have it blasted if you are going that route. I have done the self blasting stuff. It is extremely messy. You will find blasting materials in places you never thought it could get. Kind of like anti-seize. If you get a dab on you, it will be between your toes before you get done and you haven't even took your shoes off.

I'm leaning towards taking it in, but am worried about the cost.

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racerx12003r1 · Post by **racerx12003r1** » Sun Sep 06, 2015 4:47 am

I can relate to the cost situation too. Of course there is a certain satisfaction from being able to say "Hey, I did this myself." too. I have been there. So far on my project, I have done all my fabrication. It's strictly opinion, but if I do any stripping, I would take it to someone and bite the bullet. I blasted a frame with a rented blaster 15 years ago and I still find sand in places in and around the area I work. I even found it in my tool box which was 20 feet away, closed, and covered up with a blanket. You definatly have yourself a great project vehicle. Have fun with it. That's what I do.

glake · Post by **glake** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 4:30 pm

racerx12003r1 wrote:I can relate to the cost situation too. Of course there is a certain satisfaction from being able to say "Hey, I did this myself." too. I have been there. So far on my project, I have done all my fabrication. It's strictly opinion, but if I do any stripping, I would take it to someone and bite the bullet. I blasted a frame with a rented blaster 15 years ago and I still find sand in places in and around the area I work. I even found it in my tool box which was 20 feet away, closed, and covered up with a blanket. You definatly have yourself a great project vehicle. Have fun with it. That's what I do.

I'm going to get some quotes this week. I really don't want to hassle with the blaster, although I'm tempted to get a soda blaster to do some of the little stuff. A few years back I redid a 66 Scout 800 and did the paint remover wheel on the grinder route - I never want to go through that again even though it was the satisfaction of doing it myself. It turned out nice though. I'm still a bit sad that I sold it, but I did it for the fun and in the end, I was a Jeep guy with a Scout - never really works!

The Scout went from this...

To this..

glake · Post by **glake** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 4:32 pm

Took a little trip to Arizona this weekend and picked up a Dana 44 for the front.

Got home last night, and being a 3 day weekend I was able to get out today and do a bit of work. I got the dash pulled and stripped and cut out the rusty floor panels.

Next up I need to look and repairing some cancer along the roof line.

az chip · Post by **az chip** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 3:25 am

Better add some pieces back before the wind carries it away.

shimniok · Post by **shimniok** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 6:53 am

Eager to see how you fix that. It will definitely be inspiring for me for fixing my own Jeep's rust holes.

sent from my MotoX

Atla · Post by **Atla** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 3:31 pm

"I got the dash pulled and stripped and cut out the rusty floor panels. "

More like the ENTIRE floor!

I like that Scout btw!

glake · Post by **glake** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 9:29 pm

Atla wrote:"I got the dash pulled and stripped and cut out the rusty floor panels. "

More like the ENTIRE floor!

I like that Scout btw!

Yeah, I love my plasma cutter, maybe a little too much!

After seeing how much rust was hidden in the rails under the floor pan, I decided to take more out so it can get a thorough blasting.

glake · Post by **glake** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 9:30 pm

az chip wrote:Better add some pieces back before the wind carries it away.

Aerodynamic and room for Fred Flintstone drivetrain!

glake · Post by **glake** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 9:34 pm

shimniok wrote:Eager to see how you fix that. It will definitely be inspiring for me for fixing my own Jeep's rust holes.

sent from my MotoX

My father-in-law was over and told me it was a rust pile ready for the crusher. I was offended and promptly told him that it was a thing of beauty that deserved to live again.

I actually had a brief thought of finding a replacement body, but then it wouldn't really be a 63 anymore, plus I like the challenge.

glake · Post by **glake** » Sun Sep 27, 2015 9:09 am

Since my last post, I've done a bit of running around. The weekend after picking up the front axle, I made the trek back to Globe and picked up a 66 for my buddy Wes. So now he's in the full Size club! Thanks again to Jerry!

After lamenting over my rust issue; searching about repairing, looking at the tools I needed to get, etc. I'm sorry to say I decided to give up on the roof. I found a 69 Super Wagoneer on CL that I picked up for $300. So we hit the road again yesterday and hauled this one back. (Ignore the chucklehead on the front - that's not me

)

This one's a bit beat up and the interior is a mess, but the roof and body is solid. A shame since it was a Super.

So now the plan is to use this body with all my good doors, fenders and what not. This one also gives my buddy the doors he's missing, the gauges and few other odds and ends. I still have metal work to do, as the rear quarter panels need to be completely replaced. Time to strip this one and cut spot welds to remove panels. I may also keep the ski racks!

glake · Post by **glake** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 4:38 pm

I brought my new acquisition home yesterday. It was pretty cool to have twins in the barn this morning.

Tucker agreed that this one has a better floor.

This one looks like it was rear ended. The rear is crumpled and buckled in a few spots. It also looks like it was on jack stands and fell off as the passenger side wheel well is damaged like it landed on something. The rear frame on the driver's side is also bent either from the rear ending, or the fall.

So the plan is to combine the two of them into one. Since the 63 is the rustier of the two, most of it will be recycled. Once I began cutting off the roof, I was able to see how bad the cancer was. Particularly around the front pillars. I cut the roof off in panels that I plan to blast and have as usable sheet metal.

By this afternoon, I had most of the body removed. I plan on salvaging most of what you see of this body and grafting it into the other body, replacing the identical section that is bent and buckled. Making one good body from the two.

There is a nice line just in front of the rear seat that I will use as the combining point. I've got it cut on both sides, ready to be removed.

I've got the tub reinforced, ready for removal. Next step, I will cut the rear pillars mid-way up and then remove this portion as one unit from the frame.

Once this is removed, I will then be removing the whole body from the other frame to asses the damage to it's frame. I'm thinking I will probably just replace the bent rear clip with the rear clip from the 63.

One noble Wagoneer shall give it's life so that the other may live.

glake · Post by **glake** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 4:12 pm

Rather productive day today. I finished cutting the rear of the 63 body and removed the piece I'm saving from the frame. The frame is now naked. I hope to pull the Super's body from it's frame tomorrow and start combining the two frames to make one solid frame.

glake · Post by **glake** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 4:20 pm

Got the Super body removed today.

Put the frames side-by-side to decide where best to make my splice. Also started stripping the frames. I got the Super frame just about stripped bare. I'll try and pull the axles and springs this week and give it a pressure wash and then start on the other frame.

jsinajeep · Post by **jsinajeep** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 4:37 pm

I did not know there was a different in the front of the frame. Keep us posted.

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