FrankenJeep (Turbo Wagoneer) build thread

[Ghinmi]

Finally getting around to posting this over here for those that don't frequent fsjnetwork. This is the build for my current project 1977 Wagoneer. More or less the direct replacement of my 1976 Wagoneer that was totalled due to fire. Same build but nicer, with a few minor tweaks, and blue instead of black. I thought about re-building the '76 but decided to start with a cleaner body and frame and do everything right.

About a week after the incident I made the 19 hour round trip to the upper part of Wisconsin and picked up this rough but non-crispy '77.

[Ghinmi]

I decided to tuck the '77 away in storage and focus on building a rolling chassis with a spare I had laying around. It allowed me to minimize the amount of clutter in the garage.

The chassis for the build: 1983 WT Cherokee





Chassis disassembled. Surprisingly clean.

[Ghinmi]

Frame stripped and painted.



Motor pulled from the black Wagoneer.





2wd front axle from the black Wagoneer.



Front axle and suspension cleaned up and installed.

[Ghinmi]

Got the fuel tank, pump, and turbo/crossmember/exhaust mounted. The turbo is a Bullseye CompR83 which is a modified Borg Warner S400 platform. 83mm cold side, 96mm 1.32 hot. The wastegate is a JGS 50mm unit. Piping is 3.5" into the turbo flange, 2" wastegate piping, and 5" exhaust. Fuel pump is a Magnafuel Prostar 500. The rear axle and springs are just temporary to hold the back end up while I work on it. The good axle is getting sent out to check straightness and to swap from 4.10 to 3.55 gears and I'm having a set of custom springs made.

The cool part about this setup is that I welded a spare turbo flange to the crossmember and sandwiched it between the turbo and exhaust flange so that the turbo is solid mounted to the crossmember. When I want to work on it all I need to do is break the v-band connections on the exhaust and remove two thru bolts and the whole assembly drops right out.

[joe]

Nice. Looks great for a midwest rig Starting with a solid platform greatly increases the fun factor on a build.

[Ghinmi]

Thanks Joe! The previous owner actually got it 10-ish years ago from Colorado in non-running condition and never touched it. Saved me an even longer road trip lol.

Got the motor more-or-less cleaned up and painted. Still need to pull the exhaust manifolds and paint them and the cylinder heads. I will be swapping the Torker intake to an Indy one. Put it in the truck to check position of motor mounts.

[Ghinmi]

Got a lot more detail work done and have been working on the intake and such. Still cleaning up sooty melty parts to see what I can re-use. Also, good news! My Tilton Super Starter fits with the manifolds (didn't fit with headers) so now I've got my ugly stocker for a spare. The solenoid is a little close to the manifold so I wrapped it. Will see how well it holds up.



Among other things, I got the other intake put on tonight. I had previously modified it with the intention of running fuel injection so I plugged the holes with some core plugs. Also look at the size of that plenum and runner inlets! Way better for forced induction than the Torker I was running.







And an overall picture of the rolling chassis so far. You can see that I've got the S10 steering box installed, oil scavenge pump mounted (behind the turbo), and most of the accessories on the front of the motor. Still need a distributor (two junk ones from the parts store so far) and a new balancer (stock one was about to let go).

[Ghinmi]

On to the motor mounts. The Indy intake and EV carburetor hat had no chance of fitting under the hood. Two options, move the hood up (cowl hood) or move the engine down. Since this is going to look stock on the outside the motor had to go down. This photo shows how far down I moved the mount compared to stock. Also welded in place.




Then sectioned the top off of spare mount



Painted and motor in place. This is the other side but you get the idea.



Also, picked this little guy up from a buddy. AMS 1000 boost controller, should help me get this thing down the track in a controllable manner. I got a screaming deal on it used and it still cost me more than the computer I'm typing this on lol. But I need it to control the power, got to pay to play i guess.

[Ghinmi]

Bunch of little tasks completed for this post. Minus a few things (shock mounts, brake lines) the rolling chassis is complete. Going to be able to start on the body soon.

Hot side piping complete, wrapped, and painted.

[Ghinmi]

Front brakes. Rotors are stock, Calipers/pads are '77 Chevy K20, soft lines are '84 Chevy C20. This is the same combo I use on the back, but only with '94 Chevy 1/2 ton 4x4 front rotors.






Also did the brake lines. Now was a good time to finally put in a line lock and adjustable proportioning valve. And all new brake lines. Not too bad of a job actually.










And glamor shots of the completed rolling chassis while I re-positioned things in the garage to get started on the '77 body.











New Jeep in the garage!

[Ghinmi]

Day 1 of stripping the '77. Pretty much ready to pull the body off and start bodywork.

[Ghinmi]

Body off the frame. Less of a pain than I remembered it being. And I got everything unhooked on the first try! Time to start repairing the sloppy work that the factory did putting it together.







More stuff gutted out and started investigating the questionable factory construction. Just have to pull the dash and firewall stuff and quarter windows and it's completely gutted.




Look at how nice the pinch is in the windshield area! They're never that nice, no work needed there.



B pillar where it meets the roof after I scraped a ton of seam sealer off of it. Yeah, that's all getting welded.



And the only floor spot that needs rust repair.



Finally found (hopefully) the last mouse nests. This thing had a hardcore infestation.



Dash removed.

[Ghinmi]

Got most of the spots welded up that the factory should have but didn't. The B-pillars were literally not attached to the roof! I could move them by hand! Wonder if my black one was that way too. Also, dug around the rear quarters and even though they're not rusted out, the pinch seam is rusted in between the two layers so they need to come off and new quarters put on. You win some ya lose some. Probably save me time in body work on the crunched passenger quarter anyhow.

Fixed the floor rust holes. I'm resourceful, used the stock oil pan sump from when I built the deep pan.





Went to work on the crunched up rocker panel. I gave up pretty quick on trying to pull it out and ended up cutting out a strip. Will weld it back together after I coat the inside with cavity wax. There was so much junk in that rocker panel!







Finally broke down and cut off the driver's side quarter panel. Didn't look bad on the outside but I knew the inside was rough. Here's the proof. So glad I decided to replace it.







And after rust repair and paint.





This is the upper door opening that I replaced. No idea why it was rotted out but it was rough. You can also see how the roof turned out.





Here's how the floor turned out. It's dirty already.





And the passenger side quarter panel I'm going to put on.

[Ghinmi]

Got the quarter fit up and glued on. Lots of screws and clamps. I'll unclamp it and fill the screw holes and then that side of the Jeep is DONE. WOOOO! Then on to the other side and underneath.











Found another repair I wasn't planning on. Cut out the pinch seam around the driver's side quarter, here's what they look like. Looked fine on the outside. Inside, not so much.

[Bjtgtr]

awesome