1965 Jeep Wagoneer Kaiser 4WD

[zookeeper93]

1965 Jeep Wagoneer Kaiser partial restoration project. This vehicle resides in the mountains of Colorado but I hauled her down to Texas (where I live) for a little under the hood turn up, clutch work, some exhaust work (thank God for bailing wire and damn some rocks that were higher than anticipated) and some cosmetic repair that was needed.
She has been in service since 1965 and has just over 34K miles. We bought her in 1988 from the original owner's family when the elder woman passed away. She had used the vehicle to drive to her mailbox, 4 miles from the headquarters on a very large ranch in the Davis Mountains (Alpine/Fort Davis area). We have had her as a 4x4 vehicle in Colorado ever since.
Right now, she is at the upholstery shop replacing the vinyl parts (front bench came un-sewn). I ended up taking her to an upholsterer in Dallas who is featured on a hot rod restoration TV show, after visiting two others, who were not interested in preserving any originality. I want to keep this ole lady's look as close to original as possible. The cloth is in great condition albeit a few dirty spots we can clean up. Door panels are being replaced and will be recreated as close as possible but will not be like original. On the bottom, it was a foil like material that is ruined and will be replaced, as will all silver areas, with a patterned/textured vinyl. The blue vinyl is replaced throughout with an exact match in color and texture. Carpet is also being replaced with a marine carpet for easier cleaning. Headliner, paint, body work (dents), and re-chroming will have to wait for another day.

What I am looking for are door seals. On this vehicle, there is a seal in the opening as well as glued on the door itself. The seal/weather stripping on the door openings is in good shape. The seal/weather stripping on the doors is deteriorated for the most part and hangs off on the bottom of doors.
Team Grand Wagoneer does not have door seal/weather stripping for the doors for this age Wagoneer. I did not find it on BJ's for this model either. Has anyone replaced their door seals on their older model Jeep Wagoneer and what product did you use?

Hopefully, these photos will be of some help.

[Lumpskie]

Wow, only 34k miles? That's incredible. And that's a really cool interior too.

[zookeeper93]

Yes. This photo was from about 4 years ago. The jeep is garage kept in Colorado and only used, at most, 2x a year, a week at a time, in the summer for mountain driving, so we are only putting maybe 50 miles on it a year. Originally, an older widow, who lived on a large ranch way out in the Big Bend country of west Texas, used it to drive to the mailbox, which was some miles away. When she passed, the family was selling it. A friend who knew the family called my father to let him know of the availability. I have the original bill of sale from the purchase from the original owner in the glove box. We paid for it in 1988 almost what it had cost new. My father is listed as the second owner on title. Registration is renewed every year but not inspection. Just had all the work done to get her passed for inspection. It reads 34, 153.9 in the photo.

[zookeeper93]

I see you are in Littleton, Lumpskie. We are in the collegiate peaks area, off 285 up the road from Mount Princeton Hot Springs, between Buena Vista and Salida, in St. Elmo where we have a cabin. She will head back up there in July (on a car hauler).

[hadaz]

What you might want to search out is auto shows/swap meets etc. These shows have at times vendors selling weatherstripping etc. Just bring a piece of what you need to replace and try to match something up. If that does not work you can search on line at places like this http://stores.restorationspecialties.com/ and see if they may have something close. I doubt if Kaiser/AMC designed and especially built rubber molding just for their products. You may have to do some searching but you should be able to located exactly what you need or something really close.

[jaber]

WOW, thats a beautiful survivor...

[mud89]

Too bad, i missed this post..
Awesome early wagoneer, will you share the original bill of sale ?

[zookeeper93]

mud89

Attached is the original window sticker and bill of sale for our Jeep Wagoneer. At the time, we didn't appreciate to the extent we do now, all of the paperwork the original owner kept. Along with receipts, she kept a log of maintenance she had done on the car.

[Tatsadasayago]

Now THAT is very COOL! I don't think I've ever seen dealer docs that old for an FSJ.

PS: I love the 1961 Dodge station wagon trade in

[mud89]

Great !
According to your serial number, the wagoneer was built in september 64, which is consistent with your bill of sale from november. For the options list i'll compare your window sticker with my brochures, IIRC some of them like for example the electric windshield wipers became actually standards shortly after

Later Kaiser FSJ Window stickers got the red and gold Kaiser Jeep logo in the header, i think i never saw a FSJ window sticker as early as this one

[zookeeper93]

Yes, please compare the window sticker to your brochure. In my packet of stuff, I have a brochure for the jeep but I don't think it describes the options. I will have to dig it out and scan it. Here she is from this past September. I just couldn't resist posing her in all the fluttering and falling gold.

[AJ-4m-PR]

i really dig that interior, and super cool, with the original sale paperwork.

[zookeeper93]

I realize I never posted any completed photos. We were able to save the original fabric upholstery and replaced the blue vinyl and carpet. Kept the original headliner and sun visor fabric but did put a trim piece of blue vinyl around because the original had come unsewn and was not salvageable. The dash is still the original paint job and the doors on the interior have been repainted white because we had to fix rust holes in one of the bottom of the doors.
Carpet Before


Carpet During


Door rusted



Door fixed, painted and new door panels


Filthy backseat uphostry


Lots of elbow grease cleaning upholstry - halfway done


Another shot of dirty -vs- clean


Tailgate rust removed and repainted. Lots of elbow grease cleaning interior.

[AJ-4m-PR]

just plain hard work and it shows.. thats great

[Tatsadasayago]

That rig is beautiful!
<-----Envy Bigtime!

[66stepside]

That is looking sweet! Nicely done.

[twisted frame]

Wow, wow, wow! What did you use to clean the back seat? Did you shampoo it somehow? Looks amazing.

[Nutz-n-Bolts]

Incredible Wagoneer! Thank you and your family for keeping her well all these years, and giving her the attention she needs now. Fantastic.

[zookeeper93]

The front bench and back rest were as dirty as the back seat and back rest. I just uploaded a few as not to bore everyone.
Per ASM Auto Upholstery in Dallas, after they installed the new vinyl and reused the original fabric, Sue told me to use water with just a few drops of dawn dish soap and white flour sack dish towels. Flour sack towels (available everywhere) are very soft unlike nubby towels. She said if I had some tougher spots, I could use an upholstery spray cleaner. I had a few of those but it didn't work on them. While the fabric got wet during scrubbing, I never saturated it. Just worked one row at a time.
I did take out the seat belts, soaked them in spray n wash, and put them in the front load washer with a load of thick towels. They came really clean.

The car lives year round in Colorado (except for this trip to TX for work) so what body rust it has does not worsen. We had the bad areas fixed this trip. But one day, I hope to bring it back down and have a new paint job put on. White of course. It is still a mountain vehicle but ridding it of the suface rust with a new paint job would help preserve the body for a long time to come

[zookeeper93]

The disentigration of the threads is what caused us to have to replace the vinyl. There was no way to salvage it due to the stretching of the sew holes. The upholsterer did a GREAT job in helping me match the color and texture of the original vinyl, as we did not replace the vinyl side panels in the rear. The arm rests are also original vinyl (though they are missing the chrome end caps). The wheel well covers are a hard molded plastic and only needed cleaning, so it HAD to match closely, if not perfectly.

The glove compartment door was removed at this time but put back on shortly after.

Had to throw one in of her coming down from Tin Cup Pass.



Here she is at the end of the road before we hike the rest of the way to the Cairn atop Chrysolite Mountain at 12,608 ft. (prior to the leaf springs being rebuilt this past summer)



Dallas Traffic headed home from Upholstery...Lots of thumbs up from enthusiasts and strange looks from youngsters that have never seen a three on a tree.



Dash is in GREAT shape. It does not have the original radio but a nice tape deck. Merle Haggard, Alabama, Charlie Pride, and Willie still in the glove box. Might have to upgrade that to something with an Aux jack and A new speaker. I think there is only one behind that grate. There once was a faux wood strip on the lower dash but it has been gone as long as we have owned the jeep. Haven't found a replacement and haven't splurged to have one made. I have not been able to remove the old adhesive still on the lower dash. I have tried Unseal and Goop. I don't want to hurt the paint and frankly just haven't looked into other options or products.



Polished grille and bumper. If I had more time, I was going to take off the bumper, have it straitened and rechomed but didn't get around to it. One of these days. The chrome was damaged when the bumper was bent.



Door Plate



When I take the bumper, I will take all 4 hub caps. They shine up pretty good. Even the really beat up one.




Thanks for letting me share my FSJ.