Another 70 wagoneer build

[Frank Ziebert]

Still waiting on steering coupling boots to show.
While wandering around the internet I found the correct turn signal switch WITH the correct hazard switch at Just Jeepsters page 2 of electrical. This is the right part for early steering columns. Correct wire colors, terminals and all.

https://www.justjeepsters.com/product/jeepster-commando-turn-signal-assembly

I started on the brakes and why the low pedal. I apparently forgot to adjust out the drivers front star adjuster and after about 8 - 10 turns the rotating drum just starts to touch the shoes. Well duh....I redid all the other wheels and the pedal feels way better. I can't really tell till the column is back in and engine running since the column clamps the mount and brake pedal bracket. If it is still a bit low I will carefully remove the master cylinder enough to check the power brake booster push rod depth for just touching the cup in the master cylinder bore. I know I set it up when it went in. Then possibly one more power bleed. Hopefully the pedal will be high and firm.

Just ordered mine from Classic Chevy! Like Al said, the CROWN PART NUMBER 8132676K will NOT WORK.

Anyone have pictures of the internal of the steering column on a 70? Can't find my pictures-lost a ton in a computer crash- and the illustrations manual doesn't help much. Al's pictures of the lower part were great but I need to look up

[Kaiserjeeps]

Got your PM Frank. Phone number sent...

Here is a picture from the factory parts manual. The detail is not the best. I am now making the flanged bushing 7.038-6 from a very durable thermoplastic. If you need one send up a flare.

Carefully insert the square head bolts in the bullet shaped barrel, then carefully slide the upper barrel on the column housing past the wiring harness making sure the bolts go through the upper so you can get the nuts on. Don't forget the flanged bushing I mentioned between the two. Steering shaft feeds in from the bottom last. Get the wiring harness in there too.



Closer shot. Bolt 10.338-2 is the square head bolt.




Even closer in case you need it.


Now you can see why I dug the beater 70 wagoneer out of the snow. It has helped me over and over again in getting stuff back on correctly. That was the best 300 bucks I have ever spent. Well so far anyway...

[chubbinius]

Thank you for the correction to use the PC11, Al...hopefully the steering wheel crack repair won't require any bricks or need to make use of the fuel/oil proof properties of pliobond...windproof maybe as I leave the windows down a lot.

[Kaiserjeeps]

I know bricks can be handy for the gas pedal. You have to be tired of working on the rig and be near a cliff. Those two combined at the same time are pretty rare. Good luck with the repair. PC 11 is sticky as you will find out. But it does a good job.

******

Ok I tomorrow I hit the dozen or so thrift stores around town and look for a toaster oven that can keep a low temperature. Then I can proceed with finding the raggety edge of when vinyl melts using small pieces of metal. I decided to reglue Sadies existing door panel vinyl on new flat panels. Using the two fronts and rears I obtained from the water jet sampling, I have cut back one set to fit the shrunken vinyl. The sample panels needed to be altered anyway and this is a great use for them. One of my stops is my cousins to get the other front and rear vinyl since I left them with him to help with the metal stamp file writing. The panels won't fill as much real estate on the door, but they will work. I have chrome tape coming to cover the plastic extrusion. Hopefully it will stay on in summer heat.
This will get something on the rig and buy me experimental time.

Today I cut, fitted and sealed all the rear panel boards. And one front and rear door. They are ready for vinyl.

The two piece passenger side. I need to find a big finger grommet for the back panel. That should be fun. I don't think I can save the original. It was crimped on the board and vinyl.



Drivers side. I am sealing the boards before drilling the clip holes. The board material shreds easily.



Sealing with wood hardener. I used a whole can and need more for the other front and rear door. Stinky stuff. I did both sides and left.



More soon....

[Frank Ziebert]

Al I need to start printing your post for reference!

My steering wheel is repaired and ready for paint. I know you told us what you used but I cant find that post--even using search. Do you remember what it was and are you satisfied with it?

[Kaiserjeeps]

Al I need to start printing your post for reference!

My steering wheel is repaired and ready for paint. I know you told us what you used but I cant find that post--even using search. Do you remember what it was and are you satisfied with it?

I just went and looked. I don't have the can anymore. I am just about positive it was a SEM paint for plastics. I still have the SEM prep spray.. So I am sure it was SEM. I pretty much post everything I do, I would bet it is posted way back when I built the column the first time. It would be last year or the year before.
Since it has been 9 years now... It could even be the year before that.
Sorry I am not much help. But it was a SEM black paint for plastic.

[Kaiserjeeps]

Spring is officially here! I got my first knat bite right in the small of my back.
So I found a 14 dollar little oven at Goodwill. It was perfect for testing my vinyl patterning using heat. The oven is a nice little unit, but inaccurate as heck. I picked up an oven thermometer and I was shooting the metal with a digital temp gun since it was never what the air temp was inside the oven at the time.
I figured about 175 degrees would do it. Not even close. Nothing exciting happened till I hit 250 then 280 and 300ish. Then it started doing something.
I messed around with temps, time on the vinyl, and tried some clamps.

It took a while. 175/20 means 175 degrees and 20 seconds on the vinyl




This is what I am looking for. I can tell that mass and how fast it cools matters. The ribbed aluminum started to cool as soon as I grabbed it. It needs to be bonded to a thick piece of metal to keep the heat. Anyway this is super close to what happened at the factory.





This is all the hot and cold results so far. I am not really pleased with much of it. I will keep on it.





I will go ahead with the metal stamps. But this is going to require a LOT more work to produce something worthy. So I finished all the interior panels. I am also cutting back the 4 sample panels from the water jetter to fit the original shrunken vinyl for all 4 doors. They won't fit perfect but they will sure do for a driver.

Everything got sealed with wood hardener and carefully drilled for panel clips.




I cleaned up all the clips and brackets. Then sealed them with clear coat to keep them from corroding later. Using a surplus of rivets from the front door division bar repairs, I found they were the same basic rivets.



There is a lot of them. The clips for the removable panel. They look bent to me. But they were not. All of them I had on various panels were exactly like this.






Everything fits like a glove. Everything is ready for vinyl. I still need to find the two dash pad style wire clips for the front edge. I have 2 but need 4.
The 2 I have are rusty. I will send them through the bucket full of must for rust and paint them. I also want to emboss the vinyl with the bars that are on these panels. I need to figure that out before attaching the vinyl on these back panels. Never a dull moment.

The wheel houses will get black carpet. They both came in the kit grossly oversized. I will trim them back and get it all to fit.



I reglued the loose foam on the old door panel skins this evening. I should be able to attach the old vinyl to the new panel boards tomorrow. I will need an extra set of hands for that. My wife is helpful.

The passenger side rear removable panel that has the 7/8th ID nickel plated grommet for your finger was just about impossible to find. All grommets have flanges that are way to big. After hours of looking I found 7/8ths nickel plated candle holder of all things. They resemble the factory part almost perfectly. I will have to trim back the backside and probably make a crimping die on the lathe for it, but that's half the fun right? I ordered a bag of 10 the smallest I could get. We will see how that one goes.

**************>>>Million dollar question<<<*****************

What was stored in behind that rear removable panel? A jack and tire iron?
I have never known with all the wagoneers I have been through. Nothing has ever been in there but rust and dust and housing for mice.
Anybody know?

[SJTD]

My '84 had the jack in there. I don't know if there's supposed to be some kind of holder for it.

[Kaiserjeeps]

My '84 had the jack in there. I don't know if there's supposed to be some kind of holder for it.

It seems like the stuff in there could dent the outer skin. So a mount would not have been hard to mass produce and spot weld in. But it is a Jeep right?

[Kaiserjeeps]

Sometimes I love the internet. It took me about two hours of late night searching to find these. Of all things, candle stick holders bought from a cigar box guitar shop! For the back removable panel. A little work to secure them, but I would call this a score.





A 7/8ths hole saw and it fits perfectly.



If I could only get so lucky on the door panel chrome trim extrusion. That has been a tough one. Both for standard and deluxe panels. No one seems to make anything like it anymore.

[Towtruck]

Have you seen the rubberized door card material? It's sort of fibrous like the stuff you're using, but it's impregnated with something like rubber. I had to have a door panel resized for my Jaguar project and the trim company (OSJI in Muncie, Indiana) sent me a new card made from this material. Much better than the traditional fiber board in my estimation...waterproof for starters. You might call them and ask about it...maybe a number for their supplier. Nice people. (And I'm going to need a new set of front door cards for my pickup).

[Kaiserjeeps]

I have not heard about that. I will have to check it out. Now you have me wondering. I used an acrylic impregnated panel board (that accepts water) and then sealed it with wood hardener. Ideally this should waterproof and seal the board. At least that is what I have been saying about it. So now I need to seal a sample of the same panel board and get it wet. Completely soak it. I will post the results.

The other thing is all the work in creating a very accurate reproduction of the door panels means I want to use what I have invested in. It has taken a lot of work to get the help from my cousin to draw up the file for the water jet. Then to wade through the corrections and run several sets. I am still real curious about rubberized door panels. I will have a look see. But if the sealed panels I am making resist water, I will be selling blank panels so jeep owners can top them with what ever suits them. Just today I was wondering if I will need to stick plastic on the door before the panel. Like the factory did. The panels I am getting cut will fit exactly like originals on the earlier rigs. So keep that in mind later when you want to replace your truck panels. I believe the wags and J trucks take the same panel.

EDIT: I was wondering how they knew what size to make your door card. I get it as they are a specialist in Jags. Nice looking place and high quality work.

https://www.muncieimports.com/interior.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpKbSksy64QIVhBh9Ch1BSQ2gEAAYASAAEgJuNfD_BwE

OSJI
Original Specification Jaguar Interiors.

[Towtruck]

EDIT: I was wondering how they knew what size to make your door card. I get it as they are a specialist in Jags. Nice looking place and high quality work.

https://www.muncieimports.com/interior.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpKbSksy64QIVhBh9Ch1BSQ2gEAAYASAAEgJuNfD_BwE

OSJI
Original Specification Jaguar Interiors.

I removed the vinyl trim on the original panel in the kit, then transferred the original outline and all the hole locations of the card to a sheet of brown paper. Then I carved the panel until I had an exact fit. The new outline and hole locations were transferred to the same sheet of brown paper, which was annotated with copious notes...arrows, etc. So I had a before and after overlay of exact positions for everything. I sent the paper to OSJI and they made a new panel in that "rubberized" material and returned it overnight mail....no charge. They even included a new piece of vinyl, since the holes had moved. Again, great people...do call them and let them know you were referred to them by a very satisfied Jaguar customer. They'll help you out. I think you'll be pleased with the card material. (I'll purchase a new set of front door cards in either material, but would prefer the black impregnated stuff if you can make it work).

IMG_5033 by Rufus, on Flickr

[SJTD]

I think you still want the plastic. It's there to keep water in the door so it goes out the drains.

Even if you have a waterproof card water may still get on it. It'll run down and get under the edge of the upholstery or run down the inside of the door.

Even if it doesn't soak into the card it doesn't seem a good thing.

Newer vehicles with formed ABS cards still have the plastic.

[Kaiserjeeps]

Very important points SJTD. It will get plastic.

Towtruck, thanks for the info on the door cards. I looked for information on the rubberized cards and could not find specific info on them. I did get to check out the site and see some cool stuff.
That is a stunning Jag. I bet it is a pleasure to drive. It reminded me of the old movie Harold and Maude. One of my old favorites. I have read up on your build thread. Very cool work. Flat black is unforgiving and your work is really nice looking.