Meet Colonel Ham

[Colonel Ham]

As a decorated pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II, my Grandfather Colonel “Ham” fearlessly soared the skies aboard the mighty B-17, earning the the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, and several other medals of honor.

In honor of his legacy, my Jeep proudly bears his name—a tribute to his courage and sacrifice that helped to shape America for generations.

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[Stuka]

I dig the patina of the two colors.

How long have you had it? What are your plans for it?

[Yeller]

Very Nice! Always love patina

[Colonel Ham]

I dig the patina of the two colors.

How long have you had it? What are your plans for it?

Thanks man. Gonna work on the rear wheel rust areas, keeping the patina, and clear coat it as it sits. I've had it for a couple of months. About to replace the entire front end. Currently has a Dana 30 closed knuckle with drums. Changing to a Dana 44 disc set-up. Needs a new gas tank, thinking about the aluminium 27 gallon tank from BJ's offroad. Of course the power rear window isn't working, so I'm gonna need a new regulator and hand crank to try to end the forever problem of rear window failure. Those are the immediate needs/fixes to make it safe and drivable. After that I have plans to add an American flag headliner, maybe a new set of wheels and hopefully the Colonel will be good to go for another 50 years!

[Colonel Ham]

Very Nice! Always love patina

Thank you. The patina was one of the reasons I bought it...

[tgreese]

Cool. Awesome dedication.

'73 was the first year for the Borg-Warner Quadratrac. Look for the Press-On-Regardless rally Jeeps, Moby DIck and Moby Dick II, both '73 IIRC. These Jeeps dominated the rallies that year.

Has it been repainted? Could have been blue originally, maybe Jetset Blue Poly. There was also Marlin Blue Poly, a fleet color, which any dealership could have spec'd on their orders. The green is not an original color - maybe Spruce Tip Green, which was a popular and original Jeep color from a few years earlier.

Jeep started putting the paint and trim codes on the VIN tag in '74 I think? IIRC a '73 had the glued-on foil paint and trim tag on the passenger firewall, which is often lost.

MTS makes a replacement gas tank for these Jeeps that fits in the original spot. Do you have a skid plate? The gas tank skid plate was optional in these years. Possible you could use the MTS replacement and add a tank behind the rear axle; lots of precedent for that.

Also possible to have the existing tank repaired. Bona fide radiator shops (that still do repairs) do this kind of work.

I would try to get the OEM tailgate window motor to work. The aftermarket manual regulators tend to break, according to what I've read. Not an upgrade. Lots of experience here with these tailgates - suggest you read and ask some before you decide.

Last year for the 30 in the Wagoneer. You can use Ford hubs on a '74-79 Wagoneer open front 44 and keep your wheels. Main issue with the 30 is the turning radius, IMO. It can be upgraded to disks straightforwardly. Check on the CJ forums for background - all the Jeep closed knuckle front ends are the same wrt this conversion.

[dodgerammit]

Cool. Awesome dedication.

I would try to get the OEM tailgate window motor to work. The aftermarket manual regulators tend to break, according to what I've read. Not an upgrade. Lots of experience here with these tailgates - suggest you read and ask some before you decide.

2nd this. Set it up with a good relay kit that fully rewires the whole rear window circuit. You can always bypass the safety lever in the tailgate (if it has one). Mine has been running flawlessly for almost 7 years. Beginning to get some corrosion in the circuitry now. Gotta move the system from the tailgate to the quarter panel to protect against moisture better. I recommend putting the relay stuff in there to start.

[devildog80]

See my build thread and how I fixed my rear electric window to work. A bit different than others have done, but it works good now, just a little McGivering with existing parts. I do plan to someday install the relay as well, but after cleaning up the motor with some fresh Lithium grease and making some internal drive gear adjustments, it works perfect.

84 Grand Wagoneer Revival - post #306
https://www.jeepforum.com/threads/84-gr ... 16#replies

Reworked the tailgate glass motor.....again. Removed motor, which was turning ok, but drive gear was not engaging on the worm drive. Found the black metal plate that holds pressure against the plastic drive gear had worn down a bit, and when we worked it the first time did not drop the guts out of it for cleaning. Took it apart and cleaned, then modified the metal plate about 3/16s "deeper" in the center on the drill press (just used it for controlled pressing of the light metal), so it would keep the drive gear from pushing up off the worm gear. Cut some leather washers out of an old pair of moccasins I had saved, just for something like this. Sprayed the gear drive and leather washers good with white lithium grease, placed metal "cap" over gear, then leather washers were placed on the outside of the drive motor between the motor & lift mechanism. This will maintain pressure so gear stays engaged on worm drive. Installed and window works nice & smooth again.

[tgreese]

"Make it safe and drivable." How does it drive? That much lift seems always to affect the caster angle, negatively. If it does not have caster shims between the springs and perches, I expect it needs them. This can have a profound effect on how it drives.

[Colonel Ham]

Cool. Awesome dedication.

'73 was the first year for the Borg-Warner Quadratrac. Look for the Press-On-Regardless rally Jeeps, Moby DIck and Moby Dick II, both '73 IIRC. These Jeeps dominated the rallies that year.

Has it been repainted? Could have been blue originally, maybe Jetset Blue Poly. There was also Marlin Blue Poly, a fleet color, which any dealership could have spec'd on their orders. The green is not an original color - maybe Spruce Tip Green, which was a popular and original Jeep color from a few years earlier.

Jeep started putting the paint and trim codes on the VIN tag in '74 I think? IIRC a '73 had the glued-on foil paint and trim tag on the passenger firewall, which is often lost.

MTS makes a replacement gas tank for these Jeeps that fits in the original spot. Do you have a skid plate? The gas tank skid plate was optional in these years. Possible you could use the MTS replacement and add a tank behind the rear axle; lots of precedent for that.

Also possible to have the existing tank repaired. Bona fide radiator shops (that still do repairs) do this kind of work.

I would try to get the OEM tailgate window motor to work. The aftermarket manual regulators tend to break, according to what I've read. Not an upgrade. Lots of experience here with these tailgates - suggest you read and ask some before you decide.

Last year for the 30 in the Wagoneer. You can use Ford hubs on a '74-79 Wagoneer open front 44 and keep your wheels. Main issue with the 30 is the turning radius, IMO. It can be upgraded to disks straightforwardly. Check on the CJ forums for background - all the Jeep closed knuckle front ends are the same wrt this conversion .

Yesss! Thank you for all the insight. Would love to see any links that might be a good replacement tank for me. You almost have me convinced on the rear window fix. I guess I better do a little more research on it. Im not super savvy when it comes to electrical.

I read somewhere that original paint was listed on the vin plate. Can somebody help me decipher it?

F1BC3C4A-4630-433C-9EEF-B250CD4491B8.jpeg

[tgreese]

Looks like I'm mistaken re the trim and paint location. Apparently '73 was the first year for this style of VIN tag.

Paint and trim are 492 and 430 resp. These will be listed in the factory parts book located on the Tom Collins site. https://oljeep.com/edge_parts_man.html '62-73 J-series. The '73 TSM (available for purchase) tells you what the fields on the VIN plate are. However, nothing of interest there other than VIN and paint/trim codes.

VIN decoding is on page Ge-9 of the parts book. Paint codes on Ge-17. 492 is Jetset Blue metallic. Trim codes are given in group 29; 430 is there. Unfortunately each interior component is listed by the trim code, not vice-versa. If you have buff upholstery and a bench seat, you could infer that 430 is the code for that trim style.

I've no stake in the tailgate question, having never owned one of these wagons. Likely you should chat with other owners (like above) with personal experience.

No experience with replacement tanks for Wagoneers either. The original steel tanks (like you have) used a skid plate, which was optional. The skid plates are around, or you could easily fab or have fabbed a duplicate.

Rocklaurence had this one for sale a while ago -

WagoneerSkidPlate (466 x 344).jpg

I have repaired a few Jeep gas tanks, both plastic and steel, and would go that way. Looking at your other post, your tank is dented but still functional. Do you have a spare tire behind the axle? I expect that your size of tire won't fit in that space. There are many options for an auxiliary tank behind the rear axle. Search and you'll find many threads and much discussion, both here and at IFSJA. $1300 seems like a lot for a replacement when you have what looks to be a serviceable original tank.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=site%3Afs ... k+Wagoneer

[Colonel Ham]

Nope, no spare behind the axle. I plan on mounting it on the rear bumper with some sort of swing set-up. Of course, I need to fix the rear window first…

[devildog80]

Rear window is mostly mechanical, cleaning up the old grease from the motor drive gear, and adjusting parts for wear so they work together again. Thought mine was electrical, but found motor was just gunked up. Really easy to take apart and work on it, once you get started. Cleaned it up and works perfectly now, with relay not needed, but will look at later. Sure what I did will give the rear window motor another 40 years of life.

[Colonel Ham]

Nice. Looks like I’m gonna follow in that direction as well. Thanks for the insight…

[melford72]

As someone who converted his closed knuckle front axle to discs and then lived with it for a few years, I strongly agree with your plan to swap to a open knuckle front 44 with discs. After countless five and seven point turns in my 72, was wishing I’d done the same. And now the guy I sold the truck to (a buddy of mine) is doing the swap.

Nice truck!

[sonic4014]

Awesome tribute and awesome wagon!