1969 Wagoneer - Built for Adventure

[TrailTestedMFG]

We rescued this 1969 Wagoneer from a ranch, where it had been sitting covered in weeds for many years. We knew it had potential but we weren't sure what we wanted to do with it. Our co-owner Courtney had been wanting to do the 2017 Rebelle Rally and realized it had potential to become the perfect dual sport adventure rig. A few days later a plan was a made and a team was formed! Courtney will be teaming up with Martha Tansy, an established fabricator from Alaska to complete the build and participate in the Rebelle Rally with. The Rebelle Rally is the United State's first women's only rally raid, which starts in Lake Tahoe, NV and ends 7 days later in San Diego, CA. This thread will be about the build, but if you are interested in learning more or supporting these awesome ladies you can check them out on Facebook or on their website.











As the Waggy sits it has no motor and minimal structural rust, making it the perfect base for our build. We have already picked up a 6.0 Vortec V8 out of a 2010 Suburban with a 6L90E transmission. We will be ditching the transfer case that came with the motor as Advance Adapters came on board as our first sponsor and will be hooking us up with an Atlas 2 speed! The rest of the build is still being determined as we acquire sponsors, but here is a rough plan.

- Custom Frame
- One Ton Axles
- Coilovers
- Four Link Rear
- Three Link Front w/ Track Bar
- Roll Cage
- 35" Tires
- Custom Bumpers
- Fully Updated Interior

Fabrication should begin in the next few weeks and we will update the thread as we go!

[TrailTestedMFG]

First step of of the build was to clean it out! The interior was covered in several inches of rat poop and the rats had been living in the headliner. We completely stripped the interior, scrubbed it really well and were pleasantly surprised to find almost no rust. The floor is in great shape! I removed the rust from the chrome with some tin foil and diet coke to get it looking better for pictures.

[bkilby]

That's going to be a great project. Can't wait to see what you come up with on the suspension etc.

[Heavy_Metal_Thunder_81]

Hey, I saw that on Dirt Every Day Extra! Looking forward to seeing this thing GO!

[TrailTestedMFG]

We are back from a week in the desert for King of the Hammers and the build should begin this week. I'll post up pics as we remove the body and start building the new frame. In the mean time, here's a link to the first episode of a series we will be making to document the build.

https://youtu.be/_UODYqp6hXo

You can also see more about the build on a recent episode of Dirt Every Day Extra!

https://www.motortrendondemand.com/d...t-/1_eqbl8rbp/

[EKWagoneer]

Looks to be an interesting project! The 6.0 is a great motor, and you can't beat GM for parts availability and aftermarket support. Easy to upgrade without sacrificing reliability.
Look forward to progress, and good luck at the rally!

Ely

[TrailTestedMFG]

We spent this afternoon removing the body from the frame. Aside from a few seized bolts it went fairly quickly.









The frame was in much better shape than we had anticipated so we decided to use it instead of building a new one. We pulled the trans/tcase, cut out the old exhaust and removed both the factory and auxillary fuel tanks. We will finish cutting off the remaining factory brackets and take it to get sandblasted tomorrow.

[Strode]

Don't booger up that grille! It looks about perfect, which is rare. Keep posting

[mud89]

Great project, do you still have the yellow sticker with the VIN and the production date ?

[TrailTestedMFG]

Great project, do you still have the yellow sticker with the VIN and the production date ?

I believe so! Is there something on there we should be interested in?

[TrailTestedMFG]

Martha was in town last week so we spent a day boxing the frame in and reinforcing anywhere that had numerous holes. When I have a chance I'll upload all of the pics. In the meantime, here's a video the ladies just released.

Link to Youtube Video

[mud89]

I believe so! Is there something on there we should be interested in?

If you have it, it's actually an early '70 (model year)
I am interested by dates and figures

[TrailTestedMFG]

As parts start to arrive the build is picking up momentum quickly! Last week we picked up the axles from New Image Automotive down in El Monte, CA. We will be running a Chevy Kingpin Dana 60 in the front and a 14 bolt in the rear. Step one was to cut off all existing brackets (luckily there weren't that many). The gears in both axles match (4.10) and since we are only going to be running 35s (for now ) and a 3.8 Atlas we decided there wasn't a need to regear.

As we wait for our suspension parts to arrive from Ruffstuff we started working on mounting the motor. The L96 fits very nicely inside the engine bay so the mounting process went fairly quickly. We started by making the mounts on the motor side.





Then we designed the frame side mount, which is also a removable cross-member. It was important to make it removable because the motor drops out from the bottom A LOT easier than trying to take it out the top.









For now the transmission is just held up with a piece of angle iron. We will build the transmission cross-member after we are able to check for driveshaft/exhaust clearance.

Next up is suspension! We have the axles sitting underneath the Jeep and once the parts show up we will get to work. We will be running 35s for the Rebelle Rally, but we are setting up the suspension so that a 37 will fit in the future.

[bkilby]

Nice work! Are those shackle bolts you're using to hold the cross member to the weld on brackets?

[TrailTestedMFG]

Nice work! Are those shackle bolts you're using to hold the cross member to the weld on brackets?

Good eye! We had a set laying around that were convenient for mock up. They will get replaced with grade 8 when we reassemble after paint.