63 4X4 Panel Delivery Wagoneer SLOW Build Thread

[66Stepside]

Slow might be an understatement?

Despite the minor flurries a few times over the past few days, it was sunny and fairly warm today, so I did quite a bit of cleaning and wrapped up two body filler needs today and did some serious cleaning over the past three days.

Not much to look at, but::


And:




The windshield is covered in dust! It'll be coming out soon enough- brakes and shifter linkage first.

[66Stepside]

Fenders...

Here's what I'm starting with:





Here are a few of the problems:





Minor stuff, but here's the initial fix:









I went to the local auto paint supply shop and found a can of epoxy single stage on their mismatch/discount shelf and lined the inner fender wells:





Does any one recognize this master cylinder and what vehicle(s) it might be from? I doubt it is factory, but it's leaking and needs to be replaced and I'd like to do that while I'm replacing the brakes.



I'll be mounting them tomorrow if all goes according to plan. EDIT 11/30/11



A 63 Washington State fender with obvious signs of damage over the years mounted to a 63 Arizona Jeep... not bad, but a bit more tweaking is in order. ; ) One down, one to go.



EDIT 12/4/11 Driver's Side mounted today:

[66Stepside]

Before:



After:





The fenders will stay unpainted until after I lower the Panel as far as I can get her. That way if I need to stretch the fenders to clear the tires at their widest turn, I won't have to redo any of the body work on the fenders.

[66Stepside]

Bummer!

Went to do a spring under on the rear axle and found this surprise!





So I guess I can get old axles and freshen them up, or upgrade to six lug. Decisions, decisions.

I did score this mystery master cylinder replacement today. Nothing beats research and a micrometer.

[lunchbox1671]

Holy crap!!!

Good thing you weren't driving it like that, it could have turned out bad!

If it were me, I'd 6-lug it with disk brakes...

[grand_wag_85]

Never seen that happen to an axle before

[jaber]

Oh, just wrap it in glass and call it a window...

[66Stepside]

It is crazy weird; I've never seen anything like it either.

It looks like it's been cut off at one point in time and someone did a sloppy welding job. Fiberglass would've been better than a slagged, contaminated & sloppy weld!

I'll inspect it a bit more and see if it can be patched with the original piece once I cut it from the old perch. She'll never see the off road light again, it's her destiny to stick to the city streets rain, snow, or shine. I would love to upgrade the axles, but not this winter.

There was that broken shock mount, now this. I wonder what other surprises she has in store?

[serehill]

Glad to see there was a panel with a tailgate I didn't know they existed.

That is unless you made the Panel out of a cherk. Mine been is closer than I thought.

[66Stepside]

That is unless you made the Panel out of a cherk. Mine been is closer than I thought.

I know what you mean... I had planned on converting my 77 Wagoneer to a Panel years ago:





And using these:



But I sold the waggie after some yahoo broke into it and butchered the dash to steal the stereo.

[66Stepside]

I got in the shop today in order to get a closer look at the damage. I was wanting to patch the hole and weld the bracket back on, but the axle is warped and seriously cracked. So there's no sense doing the work of a spring under on a messed up axle.

It does have 4.10 in the front and 4.09 in the rear... way too steep for the "close to stock" tires I plan on running. I do run that set up on my truck, though. But it has the tires sized up to handle that gearing.





So, tomorrow I'll be scouting the local wrecking yards trying to source a matching set of 3.07- 3.55 axles to swap in.

[lunchbox1671]

3.54's are great with stock-ish tires. Definitely hang on to those 4.09 gears for another project!!! Lucky!!!

[Stuka]

I think you should keep the old axles. Not those exact ones, but of the same vintage. You already have the old master cylinder, why not keep going with the authentic restoration?

[66Stepside]

Axle Lottery? Not!

I saw this axle at the local wrecking yard and after a few quick measurements, I nearly fell over from patting myself on the back:





Gearing was right, numbers match a 63 Wagon, but once I popped the diff cover, it was pretty clear that who ever sand blasted it left a ton of sand inside and broke off several bolts making it impossible to take the axle apart and just get the housing for a simple swap.

Meanwhile, I took the other side of the Panel's axle off the spring and found this:





If I was a bit quicker on the uptake, this wrecking yard had two wagoneers that had axles that would've fit. Bummer.

I guess I'll continue searching and it's back to body work for now.

Lunchbox, I do plan on keeping those gears, maybe even just swap out the 4.09 ring and pinion into a nicer housing.

Stuka, I do plan on keeping it as stock as she currently sits, right down to the 5 lug, closed knuckle axles.

A local "used" parts place has a 3.73 axle but it's 275.00 plus a core charge... plus they'd need a tear down... I'd need both axles to do the swap with that new gear ratio and that's out of my budget for now.

[66Stepside]

The locals here coughed up another part!



3.72 gear, open diff. He was going to cut it up for his Scout, but he sold the scout to his uncle as a parts rig and did not need the axle. Between this one and the parts that are usable from my stock one, it all just might work.

I did have to sell off a spare rhino conversion set up to a fellow jeeper that I happened to meet at the local Sears (but he was from Canada!) to put towards the axle purchase, but it was worth it... we're back on track!