78 Chief

[surfwagoneer]

Which one you taking to ECI? Do you still have the WT fenders you cut off?

I'll be taking the wagon to ECI. I don't forsee the chief in that good of shape by then. I do still have the front flares off of the current chief and will be making the same cuts on the new one. Both the rear flares are shot on this one also.

[surfwagoneer]

Going to pick up the new '78 chief tomorrow. This one will become the new main project and parts will be combined from both. It'll be nice to have 2x the parts for everything and spares. It also looks like I might score some 6" front springs, might be 4" though. Paired with custom mounted rear chevy springs I should be doing pretty good until I can get my hands on some CUCV axles and then I'll be going SOA.

[surfwagoneer]

I've had the chief home for maybe 2 1/2 weeks now. Not a lot of progress but I did dive in a bit. The new chief is way more solid. I tore out the carpet and the floors look great except maybe two fist size areas that will need to be patched. The frame also has a lot less rust and the wiring under the hood looks to be in pretty solid shape. No leaky sunroof! The guy bought the chief in '82. It already had 80,000 mile on it (per title) and it now has 102,000 mile on it. The trans and transfer case are already out. I realized that I actually did not have a QT with a low range box but good thing is the new one does! I picked up a compression tester and will check all cylinders on both engines. Use the better of the two to run. The good thing is I pretty much have 2 of everything now since they are both '78 chiefs. My tiny back yard is starting to look like a junkyard, but I'm loving the view from my bedroom window.






rear flares

[surfwagoneer]

I've been getting a little done here and there lately. Working mostly on the interior so I can get the floor pans repaired. I found a bit more rust than I had planned. Luckily I already had floor pans for the whole passenger side and I was able to cut and modify what I had to fit repairs on both sides. I also picked up some replacement seat mounts for the driver side (mine were rotted out.) This'll save me time from having to re-fab them myself. I gave her a good wash also.

[surfwagoneer]

Also started pulling the front axles, almost ready to start swapping the fronts. The yellow chief has 4.09's and the ginger chief has 3.54's so I'll be swapping them over.

[surfwagoneer]

Got the seat brackets coated with rust inhibitor and painted up

[surfwagoneer]

I swapped front axles the other day. The ginger chief came with 3.54's and the yellow one 4.09's so I'm swapping them over. I want to keep the yellow one a roller so bolted the other axle back in also. I was really a pain in the a** in an uneven back yard but I managed to get it done by myself. Not the safest thing I've ever done but once the jeeps were up they were very secure with 6 ton jack stands on top of 2 16"x16" pavers and old rims stacked under the frame for good measure. Only a few hiccups to include a nice dent in one of my razor grilles. Good thing I have a spare. Honestly I'll probably keep it as a good extra since the ginger one will be a heavy trail vehicle anyhow. While I had the axle out I took a wire wheel to the inner wheel well and exposed frame section and then hit it all with a good coat of rust inhibitor.

[surfwagoneer]

I was offered a good deal on a Dana 300 a few weeks ago and pulled the trigger on it. The dana 300 will be stage II of this build (not for a while) when I rebuild the transmission. Tentative plans for the 300 is Lomax 4:1 gearset, upgraded HD output shafts and possibly a doubler. Once built it will be a very strong and capable TC. Of course its no Atlas but I think it will work great for its purpose and I wont be running a high HP engine either. I got it in the mail the other day and got a chance to open it all up today. All I can say is WOW this thing must have taken hours to pack. It was amazing the detail the gentleman went through to include spray foam inside and a strap/carrying handle on top of the box. I'm pretty sure there was about 4 rolls of tape alone used on the box.

Got the thing out and it looked like a giant package of cocaine







So as I had said this will be sitting for a bit while I collect parts. By the time I got the thing out to inspect it the box was absolutely destroyed. So I grabbed some scrap wood and made a little support crate for it so I could stash it in the garage and still stack stuff on top of it

[surfwagoneer]

So hopefully I'll get a chance to start working on the chief again soon. I took the family to ECI the other weekend with the wagon and we all had a blast. Betti (the wagon) drove awesome. Even poorly geared and open diffs front and rear it still surprises me what these things can do. I do need to do a few more maintenance things to Betti since she is my daily driver but then full bore on the chief. I some how managed to score a TT fabworks SOA/shackle flip kit from the hands of the man Tad Strickland himself, I had the winning raffle ticket. I'll add Tad is a great guy and we were glad he was able to make the long trip from AZ to ECI this year. It also seems that I have found a CUCV 14 bolt (4.56 and Detroit) that has already been converted to disc brakes and the guy is willing to deliver to my house from Raleigh which is a plus. Now if I can get the front dodge kingpin, locked dana 60 he is holding on to I'll be golden. If not the look is on for a kingpin dana 60. I also have found a local sm465/205 for sale and if all checks out good might actually drop the th400/built dana 300 plan and just go with that. I would obviously have to fully convert to manual and get a new bell housing but with the Granny low and the 4.56s I'll be able to climb up anything. And not that its gonna be a highway queen but it still has the capability of running 65mph, Ultimate Adventure regulations right! Next step is just to get the thing running on the current set up and then move from there. New axles/lift/drivetrain etc won't do me anything good if its not running!

The journey continues

[j20owner]

What are you using for rust inhibitor? I need to figure something out what I want to use. Also, it was your using an encapsulator, or just inhibitor?

[surfwagoneer]

What are you using for rust inhibitor? I need to figure something out what I want to use. Also, it was your using an encapsulator, or just inhibitor?

I've been using Eastwood's rust encapsulator. Its really good stuff and a little bit goes a long ways.

[j20owner]

Cool, thanks for the info.

[surfwagoneer]

Hopefully I'll be getting some time to get back to working on the chief soon. I am making a BIG step in moving towards making this a very capable wheeler this weekend. I'm going to pick up a pair of 1 tons, dana 60 front air locked and 14 bolt rear w/ detroit. The rear is a CUCV 14 bolt 4.56/detroit with disc brake conversion already done the front is a dodge drw with a teraflex t locker (air locker) 4.56 up front. The 60 is mid build but already has inner seals replaced, 4.56 and t locker installed. He also has the remaining seals and timkin bearings to finish up the rest and a brand new set of 30 spline warn locking hubs. I'll either have to find some srw dana 60 hubs at a reasonable price or have the drw hubs machined down. Super excited but also a bit nervous b/c now its time to get serious on this build!

[surfwagoneer]

Rig all loaded up and ready for the trip on Sat.

[surfwagoneer]

brought home the mother load today. I now have tons locked front and rear for my build.......game changer

[twisted frame]

Thanks for posting those floor patch pics. Always good to see and reminds me to get after mine. My patches are just screwed in for the time being.

[MtnYJ]

mmmmmm tons....

[Tad]

Coming together nicely.
You are going to love the dually 60 front, they came with more caster for the heavier loads.
Mine is shimmed 6* or 8* (don't remember) for a great driveshaft angle and it still has 3*, drives great down the highway.

[surfwagoneer]

Thanks Tad that's awesome to know.

[surfwagoneer]

Well I haven't posted any updates on this in quite a while. That being said I've done a lot of work. I pulled the 360/727 from my wagoneer (D/D) and put it in the chief. I also got an HD output and twin sticks for my dana 300, clocking ring and added that to complete the drivetrain. I initially had a lot of problems with ignition. Replaced the ignition with a MSD streetfire set up and replaced the distributor. Fires up great now. After sitting in my back yard for a few years and not moving on its own in about 15-20yrs it lives again! I also bolted up some 35" goodyear kevlars, still stock lift with flares removed. Threw the kids in for a maiden voyage and drove it for the first time yesterday. I still need to wrap up a few loose ends like reverse lights, headlights and exhaust. Also need to drop the tcase again,re- seal the rear trans (leaking like a siv) and clock the transfer case down a bit more. Should be roadworthy and legal very soon. And since we all like pictures and video, without further adieu.....

https://youtu.be/7L2GFkolbOY