87 Waggy daily driver

[Metal Masher]

I got this truck in 2013 and I'm just now getting it on the road. the back story is a bit long but a good read.

years ago I had a 76 Cherokee that I put tons of time and money into (10" lift, super flexy, rebuilt axles, 36" swamper, lot of body work, custom bumpers and sliders etc.) and never had it on the road and eventually sold it.

Even before I sold my 76 Cherokee I knew I was going to have another FSJ, it was just a matter of when. Well in 2013 I decided I needed something to replace my 88 4-runner. Even though I always wanted the 4-runner, with only 2 doors and 2 kids it was a pain to go anywhere and I really don't have the money to build it like I want so the search was on for something 4WD and 4 doors.

I really wasn’t specifically looking for a Wagoneer as my searches came up with anything from 2nd gen 4-runners to explorers to XJ’s but when I would find something that was in my price range and what I thought I was looking for I just wasn’t “feeling it”. Now during this time I was also looking for Wagoneers but as most of you know the prices can be all over the board and most were out of my range. I wanted to stay under $2000 on the road. Then I found the perfect waggy. It was a dark grey 84 with no wood grain, white leather interior with all the bells and whistles, and a 6 cylinder for $1500! The guy told me he was heading to the PA jeep show and was going to go right by my house so we made arrangements for him to stop by for me to look at. So the day came, I had the money in hand and no jeep! I called several times and nothing until the next day. He sold it the day before and claimed he left his phone on the jeep.

Distraught, I stopped looking for a few weeks then one day for whatever reason, I searched on line again and noticed a Craigslist ad for an 89 that I saw weeks earlier. The description was vague but it looked ok in the pics and he wanted only $1700 so I sent an e-mail but no reply.

About a week later I saw the ad was relisted again and although I don’t normally send replies to Craigslist adds more than once, I noticed in the add that he would only reply if a return number was in the e-mail so I thought what the hell and sent it. The next day(last Tuesday) I get a call. It’s the guy with the waggy. I gave the normal series of questions and tried to make it sound like I wasn’t that interested but that I would try to get there sometime over the weekend.

Wednesday, just for the heck of it, I looked for the add and would you believe, he changed it and reduced the price to $1000! At this point I’m thinking “man I should go up right now and look at it before it’s gone” but I wasn’t going to have the money until Friday. With no other option I decided to wait until Friday. I got off of work, stopped at the bank then went home and called the guy. Sure enough he still had it but it was too late to look at it that night.

He wanted me to come over around noon on Saturday but my daughter had been bugging me for a week to go to the Carlisle all truck nationals to see the monster truck demonstration and the car eating Megasaurus. I wasn’t going to deny her that so I tried calling the guy back but his inbox was full. So I e-mailed him asking if I could look at it earlier. His reply was no so I decided to leave it up to fate and told him I would call when we got back from Carlisle.

Later that night I call him and amazingly enough it was still there! We set up a time for 9:00 the next morning. I would take me over an hour to get there so I told him I would call around 8 so he knew I was leaving. Now it gets better. That night I looked for the Craigslist add again and it was gone! He deleted it! Now I’m thinking someone surely bought it. Regardless the next morning I called and left a message stating that I saw the add was gone and to let me know if he sold it. I wasn’t gong to make the trip for nothing. 8:30 passes, no call. 9:00 passes, no call. I figured oh well it’s gone and set about the rest of my day. 10:45 he calls and apologizes for not calling back then says it’s still there and we could come up that night.

5:30 I arrive and just as he described was an 89 Waggy (it was actually an 87). Gray with wood grain which is in amazing shape save for one fender. The body is strait, very little dings and scratches and only 2 pinholes of rust behind the passenger’s side wheel. The rockers are solid, the dog legs are solid, I could not believe it! The frame was solid without a speck of rust, even the springs and axles are clean! He also just replaced the front brake lines, calipers and pads. Then the clincher, he casually mentions that the previous owner told him it had a new Jasper motor in it and that it was installed only months before it was parked 5 years before. I quickly looked underneath and saw the telltale gray paint and sticker on the pan! and to make it even better, when i got home i looked it over real good and it appears to have a Jasper trans as well!!

Now for the bad. there is a couple spots of rust in the floor. A rather large one behind the driver’s seat, a small one above the exhaust shield and a tiny one behind the passengers seat. The interior was completely removed so there may be some missing parts and the carpet and headliner were thrown away. The battery was dead so he couldn’t start it and there is a piece of trim missing from the rear side window but considering everything else I thought it was well worth what he was asking even in parts. So I shelled out the $1000 (after I tried to haggle it down of course) and brought it home.

Oh an one last thing, if you believe in fate, he told me the reason he removed the add was because of the dozens of calls he was getting once he lowered the price but I was the only one he called back. For some reason he knew I was going to get it and kind of held it for me over the weekend by not showing it to anyone else. Weird huh?

So after all that here is my new pride and joy! It needs some work but I should be able to get it running and driving without too much effort. I’ll be on the hunt for a carpet and head liner as I know I’ll need those and i'll get more pics posted later.

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[Metal Masher]

Shortly after i bought it in 2013 it got washed and looked pretty good.








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Then it sat for 2 years while i tried to get time and money to work on it. during that time i did manage to get a proper grill.



I always liked the late 70's grills ans picked this one up for a good price with all the related parts.

Finally it was time to start working on installing the grill.

I knew there would be an issue switching the light buckets from square to round but it was much more involved than anticipated.

Side by side you can see the mounting tabs don’t line up (the square light bucket is on the left)



At first I thought I could use the square light bucket and just switch lite housings but the depth was different so the adjusters would not work.
I decided to simply move the tabs on the round lite buckets to match the square ones.

First I drilled out the rivets to remove the adjusters on the square light buckets and sat the round ones inside to get an idea of what needed changed.



I realized that not only would I need to rotate all the tabs, they would all need to move out as well.

Now it was time to get the tabs off. A few minutes with a drill is all it took.



Next I needed to flatten the locator tabs



now I could set them back in the square buckets and marked the new locations



Then it was into the blasting cabinet to remove the galvanizing where I plan to weld them back on



Finally I plug welded them in place and painted them to keep rust at bay.





Before I could install the lights I had one issue with the retaining ring.




It was easily resolved by simply drilling some holes, relocating them, and plug welding them in place



Now I could install everything on to the truck. They fit pretty well and I was now able to put the grill on for good



Or so I thought…

[BLKXJ 96]

So badass... Those things look so good with a little bit of lift and 32's or 33's , just enough to make em look burley. What are the plans for this one?

[BigSki]

Can't wait to see what you do with this one.

[ScGRaceR]

awesome truck!

[87Matchief]

I really dig this jeep! keep the work coming! ill be following!

[Metal Masher]

Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by BLKXJ 96

So badass... Those things look so good with a little bit of lift and 32's or 33's , just enough to make em look burley. What are the plans for this one?

right now it'll stay stock. i want to do a mild lift maybe only 2" and 31's. time will tell.

I've been so busy working on this I haven't had a chance to update the thread.

so shortly after I put the grill on I took it for a spin around the property. it was still not road worthy yet and when I got back saw drips going up my driveway. it turns out in the process of messaging the tranny cooler to fit the grill, I opened up a bunch of cracks. so off came he grill again as well as the old cooler.



As luck would have it, I co worker gave me a brand new aftermarket cooler that he had no use for. a quick check and sure enough the lines were the right size so on it went and now I have plenty of room for the grill and still maintain a tranny cooler.



I am going to paint it before I put the grill back on so it's not so noticeable.

Now that the important cosmetic stuff was done I figured it was time to actually get it road worthy.

I wanted to tackle the big stiff first which meant rust repair.

I know there was a large hole in the passenger side when I got it that also ate through the carpet trim.





so I started cleaning everything out to get a better look





it looks pretty bad but it's all flat panels and should be easy to repair.

the rest of the floor was not quite as bad

The spot above the gas tank will be tricky to fix without dropping the tank



passenger side rear floor



driver side front



now the wire brushing can begin

[Metal Masher]

before I could start to clean the rusty areas, I had to completely remove everything from the floor. the previous owner had ripped the carpet out without removing the belts leaving tufts of carpet here and there and when I pulled the drivers side belt mechanism off the floor I realized the rust was creeping into the floor mount for the seat belt.



Not a bit deal, just more to patch but that belt bolt was quite stubborn to remove and took some creative persuasion to get out.



but once out I was finally able to clean things up real good.



most of it was as I expected.

a few small holes in the top of the tranny tunnel



the mount for the hi-lo shifter was worse then I had hoped but it will have to do until I can find another cover plate.



the driver side floor looked pretty good. just a few small spots to repair.



but the passenger side had a surprise for me



oh well just a bit more cutting to do.

But before I did any cutting I wanted to stop the cancer from spreading so all the exposed areas got a coat of POR 50

[Metal Masher]

I'm really far behind updating this thread considering I've had it on the road for over a month.

Anyways after I got all the rust painted over I started cutting out the offending material.









then patches were made to fill in the holes



forming the lip was tricky but didn't take that long and if the shape of this piece looks familiar it's because it came from a spare wagoner door. I reuse everything.



I didn't want to drop the gas tank and since it is plastic I felt welding right about it would be a bad Idea so I decided to use rivits and seam sealer instead.



On the drivers side I had to cut away the floor under the seat belt mount so to recreate it I removed the bolt plate from the original floor.



then drilled holes in the patch panel to match



and plug welded it in place



finally all the patches got welded, seam sealed and painted.











now that the floor is sealed I can move on to other issues.

[DaddyJeep]

Look at that...you can work with real metal on real vehicles too. Nice work. Looks good.

[chino63]

Nice job on the rust repair.

The Waggy is coming along nicely.