I know the pieces fit because I watched them fall away

[arga]

22 years ago I was in college and working at Sears. My wife was expecting my son and we had no car. I bought my 71 Wagoneer from a coworker for, I think, $400. It wasn't running but I was confident I could get it running. (I was a fool.) My aunt took pity on me and gave us her old Volvo 142. The Jeep was parked at my dad's house and it's been there until last weekend.

I have some work ahead of me but it's my fault its in this condition anyway.
BTW, if you look close in this first picture you can see where someone keyed the fender. Who the hell keys a car that looks this bad? It's hardly even noticeable.






I pulled the front seat and the rubber "carpet" out and it doesn't look good.

[joe]

71 Wag? If time/budget allows cool project if the body isn't rusted($$$). Those floor boards look not rusted through and with elbow grease are save-able. Good year for FSJ's and the Buick 350 is a dandy motor. Have fun.

[arga]

Wow, you aren't kidding Joe. I spent about 20 minutes with a wire wheel on the passenger foot well and most of the rust came off. It burned through in a few small spots though, so I'll have to replace some of the sheet metal but not nearly as much as I thought I'd have to.

The rest of the body isn't bad at all. Even places that usually rust out like the bottoms of the doors and the rear quarter panels are clean. The only bad panels are the front passenger fender in the first pic; the one with the primer and key marks , and the foot wells in the pics. I'm not saying this is going to be an easy or cheap project but it might not be as bad as I originally thought.

Anyone know any sources for 5x5.5 wheels for these Jeeps? If not, I'll just get the original steel ones powder coated.

[R69US]

Nice Tool reference...
I like the wag. Doesn't look like the rust is too much more than surface. Were it me, I'd plan on pulling the motor and cleaning and least re-sealing it but I've seen worse fire off and run with a little TLC.
Just cause you know they fit and you already have them I'd repaint or powder coat the wheels you have...they'll look pretty nice just cleaned up with fresh tires, IMO.

[goldhammer]

5 on 5 1/2 is a pretty common bolt pattern.....The CJ's used it for years. Ford did on their Broncos and 1/2 tons as well, but some of those have a smaller center hole. Plenty of aftermarket suff out there in that bolt pattern.

These things never die, they just require more TLC as they get older, just like us.

BJ's Offroad is a good source for bits and pieces, as is ZM Jeeps, both members here.

BTW- the fan shroud is made of unobtanium, be careful with it.

[darylb]

"BTW- the fan shroud is made of unobtanium, be careful with it."

I've sold 4 in the past couple of months and have one more to go. But I ship in a very sturdy case for the reason you gave, they are fragile and break easily. I usually find 2 or 3 a year in the yards here in northern Utah.

As for the 71 Waggy, it has a twin at the Utah Pull N Save lot that just came in 2 weeks ago. Hardly anyone has touched it other than me.

http://www.utahpullnsave.com

[Mars]

Doesn't look good? That looks fantastic, you western boys are so spoiled.. you do not know what rust really is.

Here padiwan. Look upon this and despair..








Rust is the devil

You got it made in the shade my friend and a solid start to a project.

also..





It can be defeated

[arga]

R69US: you got the song reference, awesome.

I was originally going to do an LM7 swap but the Dauntless has kind of grown on me. I think I'll have it rebuilt next year and switch to a 4bbl QJ with that TA performance intake manifold that everyone loves.

Goldhammer: Since I posted that, I've been seeing more 5 lug wheels on Wagoneers but I didn't know what to search on ('Wagoneer' searches only brought up the 6 lug). Thanks for the tip on the CJs.

Believe me, I've discovered BJ's Offroad. I have a spread sheet in Excel for all the stuff I want to buy and how I'm going to pay for it. Unfortunately, I just learned this morning that my golden retriever has skin cancer. Looks like we caught it early so it should be treatable but that will push off any big ticket items for the Wagoneer until early next year. This isn't anything new for us. There are vets in LA that have put their kids through college on what I've paid them.

Thanks for the tip on that shroud but it was lost before I bought it. The radiator was missing too. The cross flow rad in the pics was my attempt 20 years ago to get a GM 4 core to fit. I may swap in the aluminum Buick specific one that ZM sells.

Darylb: That's good to know. I haven't checked out the yards around here yet. I need to do that.

Mars: I have a buddy I work with that's from New York who's building a sand rail with old VW parts. He was blown away that here in the desert the junk yards a filled with 40-50 year old parts with almost no rust. Paint, rubber, and plastic on the other hand, don't fair as well.

Unfortunately, this Jeep was stored up in northern California where there is a little more moisture. I'm definitely going to need to do the floor pans. That's OK though. The pans are relatively cheap, I've got a MIG welder, and I have time.



Thanks for the warm welcome guys. Best of luck to you and your projects.

[arga]

Mars, I was just admiring your work. Did you stitch that together with lots of little tack welds or did you run a continuous bead? I ask because I hear that you aren't supposed to weld a continuous bead because it will generate too much heat and the sheet metal will warp. Yours looks fine, though.

[Mars]

Tack at both ends so it wont move. 3 seconds on and stop, to prevent putting too much heat into the panel when you stop move to the far end of the panel. You will eventually end up with a continuous bead. I learned so much on that old jeep. The biggest thing I learned was panel fitment, the less you have to weld to cover poor fitment the happier you will be.

I went a similar route here.

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb357/Mars45211/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-08/20140816_155215_zpsbc7oiuxx.jpg

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb357/Mars45211/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-08/20140816_183520_zpsg4kaakmu.jpg

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb357/Mars45211/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-08/20140822_182337_zpsoc1kfxvz.jpg

I'm far from the best fab guy on here, self taught welder all that. But I'm pretty decent at rust busting and am happy to answer any questions.