67 Wagoneer - Pontiac powered

[81jseries]

After selling my 1 ton Commando rock crawler a few months ago due to the latest addition to our new family, we started hunting for a more baby friendly old Jeep. That's when I came across a member here thinking about thinning his herd.

Two weeks ago I took my girls 5 hours south to check out Adam's collection of FSJs in North Carolina. Long story short we bought this cool old wagoneer because it fit just about all of our "wants." 70s or older, mostly rust free, and stick shift. Momma loves a stick shift too.





Fast forward to yesterday. I loaded up my trusty old D350, grabbed Dad and departed MD. We arrived at the new early FSJ and promptly set up an old dirtbike tank resting on the cowl and tossed in a new battery. Its not clear how long it had been sitting, but after a few rounds of starting spray the Pontiac 389 was running just barely well enough to drive itself up on the trailer!





Long day for the old man co-dogging but its a beautiful ride down to North Carolina once you get south of Richmond. Couldnt have asked for a better 6 hour tow really.







Got it tucked away in my 1 car garage. Its definitely a tighter fit than my 72 Commando was.. Tearing into it soon!

[toddthewelder]

That is sweet!

[Heavy_Metal_Thunder_81]

Awesome! Glad you were able to rescue it!

[Kaiserjeeps]

Another early model save. And super straight too. Keep us posted.

[rang-a-stang]

Subscribed! Excited to see where you take it! Glad one more rig will be back on the road.

[xabn82]

Nice looking wagon.

[81jseries]

Thanks everyone! Were very excited to start working on it and already have some parts in the mail.

Heres a look at the 389. Was hoping to find some casting numbers to try and figure out what Pontiac it might have come out of but all the possible locations are pretty buried.



possibly a hole in the T18 bellhousing? need to investigate a little further.



my guess is someone was trying to stop an oil leak long ago. 2 must be better than 1 right?

[1969 dream wagon]

I love the pre 1971 wags too. This looks like a pretty dry truck. I guess the front grill has been switched out at some point for an early 70s? I just tore apart a 69 and will try and help out if you get any snags. Best of luck!

[81jseries]

Yes, I guess the original builder of this wagoneer liked the look of the early 70s grille better. Im partial to the correct razor but I think I'll keep this one on there.

Waiting for some parts to show up in the mail but in the meantime I Started resarching the pontiac engine.

Found this date code on the 4bl intake. I believe its May 4th 1965.



Then I found this code on the front of the block, just below the passenger side cylinder head. These two codes lead me to believe this engine came out of a 65 GTO with 335hp!

http://ronspontiacpage.com/reference-pages/1965.htm

If there are any engine code experts around here I'd love for someone to confirm this for me.




After all of that, I found this inside the drivers door. If anybody out in CA knows anything about this Jeep I'd love to know anything about it. I also found a NY registration in the glovebox from 5 years ago.



She's been around the block.

[rang-a-stang]

That's a smog ref's sticker. We get those when we do a non-stock engine swap. that sticker give the smog tech the information he needs to smog that truck. The sticker was issued back in 93 when you had to smog basically 65 and up in California. Nowadays, you would be smog exempt out here because 75 and earlier are not required to be smog checked.

That engine swap also would not fly in California any more, either because you cannot put in an engine that is older than the vehicle's VIN.

[81jseries]

Finally had time and decent weather to wash this thing! While I was at it I bolted on the new shoes and pulled the running boards. If anybody wants the aluminum running boards come get them before they go to the dump!

31x10.50 firestones on 5 lug CJ slot mags. They narrowed the track width some like a proper early wag should look in my opinion.

[1969 dream wagon]

Nice! Wheels look good, does it have a lift?

[Heavy_Metal_Thunder_81]

Looks perfect!

[81jseries]

Nice! Wheels look good, does it have a lift?

I believe it does. It sits a little higher than the average stock early wag.

[CameraFinn]

Looks real nice! That's an awesome paint color. I like the look of the wheels better two, the five slot mags fit well.
How does the interior look?