Rob's 1988 Baltic Blue & Tan Grand Wagoneer Restoration

[SOLSAKS]

everything looks great.
those catskinz sure fit nice &
the fog lights and air damn are a nice improvement too.

dave in NC

[rang-a-stang]

Tell us about the seat belts. Do you know who made them? What the application was for? What does the buckle look like? It looks like they have a plastic sheath on the buckles. True? Did they bolt right in? How much of a match were they?

Unbelievable what you did with those lights!

[MysticRob]

Have been enjoying your build quietly for some time.

Very Nice Work !!

everything looks great.
those catskinz sure fit nice &
the fog lights and air damn are a nice improvement too.

dave in NC

Thanks! Getting to a point where I can put her on the road for a shakedown cruise to work soon.

Tell us about the seat belts. Do you know who made them? What the application was for? What does the buckle look like? It looks like they have a plastic sheath on the buckles. True? Did they bolt right in? How much of a match were they?

Unbelievable what you did with those lights!

I swear both belts have 'seat belt planet' tags on them but the fb seller said he'd purchased them from TGW a couple years ago, then took them out when he switched over to 3-point belts. Odd though, the TGW belts don't say anything about coming with the sheaths in the description.

These 2 do have the plastic sheaths and the buckles are the typical all-metal stock-looking ones. I completely lucked out considering they're black and match my carpet, etc.

[MysticRob]

Yesterday I permanently terminated the Howell brain box to my fuse panel using an 'add-a-fuse' tap adapter going into the IGN fuse location. Also terminated my sunroof power lead the same way in a different location. Great product!

Not knowing the maintenance history on this old girl and finding that rubbery crap on the rocker bolts, I decided to pour some Berryman's Engine Change Flush into the case and let it run about 20min. This was with fresh oil that had maybe 30min and 3 miles on it, so it looked very clean and clear on the dipstick before running it.

I then quickly changed the oil and filter and was surprised at how black the oil was when I changed it. I poured some into a water bottle and couldn't see through it, but thankfully didn't find any odd particles in it. I also dumped the filter slowly and didn't see anything odd, so I'm hoping any rubbery, or plasticy, or metallic crap has been removed.

Cold start running was very smooth, but had it almost die on me when it switched over to closed loop, where it also had a slightly rough and hunting idle. I'll see if I can hook up the new OBD1 adapter Marc sent me, and reset a couple things discussed in my Howell thread (see my sig) now that I trust the mechanical bits.

[MysticRob]

Painted and remounted the front license plate bracket yesterday:
PXL_20210724_183622925 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

Also washed the underside of the hood prior to putting it back on. Right side done, left side still dirty:
PXL_20210721_001351255 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

Hood remounted prior to final adjustments:
PXL_20210724_183614364 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

Ran into a problem with the original hood release cable. It apparently was frozen inside the sheath, and since the sheath itself was cracked in various places, I had to really cranked on the release handle, which then caused the cable to cut right through the sheath. Good news is I'm still able to open the hood with a long screwdriver, bad news is the new cable is backordered on BJ's site and will be a few weeks:
PXL_20210724_183934769 (1) by Robert Stone, on Flickr

[MysticRob]

Probably going way overboard but decided to sand and paint the jack and base. Will find the jack handle and do it at some point too. Used my steel wheel brush and disc sander to get most of the rust off both the base and the jack.

Base before:
PXL_20210724_184158258 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

Base after:
PXL_20210725_185752235 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

Jack before:
PXL_20210725_181201579 by Robert Stone, on Flickr


Jack after sanding:
PXL_20210725_185951033 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

Painted and will remount the assembly in the right rear quarter soon:
PXL_20210726_024211292 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

[SOLSAKS]

going to far ? no way,....

a nice rig deserves that,....

and it is nice knowing even the jack has been restored,....

I have done this to every restoration.

and as always,....very nice job.

hope you never need to use it, cause that means a flat tire....

dave in NC

[Theodore]

Great thread, Rob! Thanks for taking the time to document your build - am following the progress & working our GW accordingly - the pictures help me replace/restore things back to original.

I've also got TBI EFI & am currently running a K&N air filter. I'd like to run an original breather for appearance & to quieten down the noise. I noticed that you're also running TBI EFI w/a factory original breather.

Question: Did you have to modify the original breather to fit the TBI throttle body? If so, what'd you have to do?

[MysticRob]

Great thread, Rob! Thanks for taking the time to document your build - am following the progress & working our GW accordingly - the pictures help me replace/restore things back to original.

I've also got TBI EFI & am currently running a K&N air filter. I'd like to run an original breather for appearance & to quieten down the noise. I noticed that you're also running TBI EFI w/a factory original breather.

Question: Did you have to modify the original breather to fit the TBI throttle body? If so, what'd you have to do?

Thanks for the cheers. As with most air cleaners from the day, the stock one is a standard size that'll work with just about any carb or TBI/EFI setup from what I've seen. I did absolutely nothing to my air cleaner beyond putting those rubber hose bits in to keep the vacuum operated door open full time, since there's no need for the choke mechanism anymore.

[MysticRob]

Received my new front 3-point seat belts from TGW a couple days ago, so put them in:
Driver side:
PXL_20210729_010825865 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

The new floor mounted receivers, with the hard plastic sheaths installed:
PXL_20210728_181935885 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

The new seat belt retractor assemblies are a bit different than the original belts, but I think I can still make the original covers work, so cleaned and painted them:
PXL_20210729_010858934 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

The original belt end covers were in surprisingly good shape so cleaned and painted them:
PXL_20210729_013855420 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

[Theodore]

Thanks for the cheers. As with most air cleaners from the day, the stock one is a standard size that'll work with just about any carb or TBI/EFI setup from what I've seen. I did absolutely nothing to my air cleaner beyond putting those rubber hose bits in to keep the vacuum operated door open full time, since there's no need for the choke mechanism anymore.

Good deal; thanks for the insight. Will be on the hunt for a factory breather.

[MysticRob]

Started back up on the beast after taking some time off to organize the household for an impending move to Arizona for a career change.
Got the seatbelt retractor covers and floor anchor covers reinstalled.
The new style belts/retractors required that I cut the bottom right part of the cover so I could slide the belt into the hole, otherwise it's not possible to feed the entire seatbelt assembly thru that small rectangular opening.
After that I touched it up with black paint again to hide the cut:
PXL_20210910_173534525 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

Same thing here on the driver side:
PXL_20210910_173509701 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

[MysticRob]

Also had time to install all four new Rockford Fosgate Prime R1525X2 5.25" speakers front and rear, and get the Jensen MPR419Q stereo wired up and installed correctly. I dig how it's a new Jensen deck and the Jeep's original speaker covers still say Jensen:

Right rear:
PXL_20210909_174407499 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

Left rear:
PXL_20210909_174355778 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

I didn't take a pic of the Qi wireless phone charger (for my Pixel 3XL) coming out the bottom, but I verified I wired the speaker polarity correctly and could stream some good old heavy metal from my cell phone and make phone calls. Pretty slick setup, considering it cost a total of ~$160. I didn't install that screw on the right, it was already there since some of the instrument panel clips had broken prior to my purchase:
PXL_20210911_015508130 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

[MysticRob]

Got my new BJ's ignition cylinder and keys, so installed it today. Needed a new one since the beast came with 2 keys, but I discovered the ignition cylinder was broken and would start the engine without any key. Also the keys I had were the wrong keys for both the doors AND the tailgate, so those keys must've belonged to the previous owner's other waggy.

I'm also having 2 new door locks shipped from BJ's since I don't trust either of the existing locks, plus the driver's side is abnormally loose and the cover drops. Once the new door locks arrive I'll have them and the tailgate rekeyed for the new keys so I can use just one key to properly operate everything on the beast.

The new ignition cylinder fresh from BJ's:
PXL_20210911_220618774 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

Pic with steering wheel off, and blinker assembly removed to get to the now-loosened T20 torx screw holding the ignition cylinder in place:
PXL_20210913_151632403 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

Pic showing the lock clip about to be pulled out to allow removal of the front door lock cylinders:
PXL_20210912_003213836 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

Gratuitous pics of newly installed front speaker:
PXL_20210911_215952687 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

PXL_20210911_215935713 by Robert Stone, on Flickr

[SOLSAKS]

NICE WORK ALL AROUND AS USUAL.

really love the speaker photos

I used the same R.F. speakers,
the plastic moisture barrier is nice too.

well done.

this will pay off big time.

dave in NC