Junkyard Find - nearly complete 89-90 GW w/Original Sand Seats, Leather-wrapped Steer

[Theodore]

Junkyard Find - nearly complete 89-90 GW w/Original Sand Seats, Leather-wrapped Steering Wheel, etc. - WooHoo!

A friend of mine was cruising a local junkyard a couple of weeks ago for late 80s Ford pickup parts, when he came upon a neglected GW sitting on the ground. Walked over to it & was surprised to see a nice set of original leather seats that matched what i need. Other than missing the 2 front doors & axles - the GW appeared complete. Over the next couple days, we went over and pulled the seats, steering wheel, radio, instrument cluster bezel, clean seat belts, back arm rests, tail lights, side markers, charcoal canister, air cleaner & snorkel, and the rear air deflector. All for $225! Can't wait to get all this stuff cleaned up & installed in ours. After cleaning, we found the seats had a few scratches, and the arm rest has a tear; so, yesterday, we dropped the seats & center armrest off with Creative Color Int'l (CCI) in Hendersonville, NC- for reconditioning. If things go according to plan, we should have them back in a couple weeks. Tripped across CCI in a forum post here that pointed to: https://fourwheeltrends.com/leather-...e-front-seats/

GW as seen


Interior as found - the steering wheel appears black from mildew.






Other parts pulled - looking forward to adding the rear air deflector


Radio - apologies for being upside down




Before / After cleaning



Armrest


Cracks will need repair


Steering Wheel - almost gave up on it - took 3 sets of bolts (2 sets of grade 8's) & PB Blaster/WD-40 to pull it


Mildew's rubbing off


With cover off & cleaned



Here's what it's replacing:


Other random parts found:

Original Jeep Fog Light covers for ROL-branded lights. Was able to get one good ROL fog light; other one was broken/rusted out.


Gas cap - found next to GW on the ground; can see it if you look close in the junkyard pic.


While we wait on the seats, a snowball's started rolling; am working on getting pulled parts installed & new parts collected for a few other things:
1) Charcoal canister - Added back along with a 2-port vacuum switch, fuel tank vent lines and associated vacuum hoses. Afterwards, took GW out for a fill-up & for the first time was able to pump gas unimpeded!. I've got a post elsewhere re: issues w/pumping gas - will update /details/part#'s there.
2) Fresh Air Vents - Cleaned out the vents & found them full of leaves & compost - no rust tho!
3) Carpet - am on the hunt for carpet, and am wondering whether to go with cutpile or essex? Have cutpile samples, and am waiting on essex samples from ACC.
4) A/C - removed the underdash duct work to ease the vent cleaning, and am going to re-do the A/C. The compressor had r134a fittings on it, so had a shop pull vacuum & fill it back in the summer; but i never got air cooled below 70 degrees... Back story: the PO pulled the motor & body together from the four-winds, so even though the compressor had r134a fittings, i don't think the body had had a proper conversion done; am going to start from scratch.
5) TBI EFI wiring harness reroute - PO used a shop to mate the engine & body, which resulted in the ECM being installed in the engine bay - ugh. Have been reading/following MysticRob's post on TBI EFI installation as prep to jumping in. Looking at getting a new wiring harness from Hamilton Fuel Injection - existing one is hacked up.

[nograin]

Nice find and nice haul!

[Theodore]

Originally Posted by nograin

Nice find and nice haul!

Thanks; it's still hard to believe we found this stuff all in one place.



On another front, continuing to install parts from the junkyard haul:

Next up, the radio - installed & it works! It replaced one that had a dead display.


Non-vented Gas Cap


Underhood - installed air cleaner & snorkel; adding to the charcoal canister that went in the other day. Still need to move the ECM under the dash & clean up the EFI wiring. Even so, still looking more original than ever.

[backroadin']

Wow - that steering wheel cleaned up nice!

[rang-a-stang]

SCORE!!!! Thanks for posting this!

Make sure you post up some pics when you get the seats back!

[letank]

Very good finds... cheers...


Yes JY parts can be really grimmy... once I pulled a steering column and while I had my nose almost against the steering wheel... with the summer heat... That leather had very strong BO...


The center console top leather seems to always be gone, while the bottom part is usually fairly new

[bluehwy]

Man alive, I need that dash and windshield!!!

[bluehwy]

Mainly I need that instrument cluster. Too bad my buddy was just in Lenoir on the 2nd. Could've sent him on a hunt for me.

[threepiece]

I suppose this is a great discovery but I do not share in the excitement.

Between roughly 1995 and 2007 is what I call the heydays of FSJ collecting. This was a time when FSJs were old enough to be neglected and young enough to be uninteresting. It was also a time before the Cash For Clunkers debacle and the price of scrap steel went very high.

During this time I was buying about one FSJ per month. Rarely did I pay more than $200 or drive more than 50 miles for one.

[Theodore]

Originally Posted by bluehwy

Mainly I need that instrument cluster. Too bad my buddy was just in Lenoir on the 2nd. Could've sent him on a hunt for me.

I may be heading back over this weekend to pick up the heater box; realized my box has a chunk missing on the bottom - assuming it took a hit during the engine swap. If the cluster is still there, Ill pull it & give you a yell. If there are other things you need, let me know & ill ck.

[bluehwy]

Originally Posted by Theodore

I may be heading back over this weekend to pick up the heater box; realized my box has a chunk missing on the bottom - assuming it took a hit during the engine swap. If the cluster is still there, Ill pull it & give you a yell. If there are other things you need, let me know & ill ck.

That would be incredible!

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2mVvmbt]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2mVAcD7]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2mVAcCW]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2mVAcCW]

[bluehwy]

Originally Posted by Theodore

I may be heading back over this weekend to pick up the heater box; realized my box has a chunk missing on the bottom - assuming it took a hit during the engine swap. If the cluster is still there, Ill pull it & give you a yell. If there are other things you need, let me know & ill ck.

Just let me know how involved ya want to get. Ha... Easy stuff would be the door lock pulls and interior door handles. Mine are tarnished pretty bad from smoke damage.

[Theodore]

Originally Posted by bluehwy

Just let me know how involved ya want to get. Ha... Easy stuff would be the door lock pulls and interior door handles. Mine are tarnished pretty bad from smoke damage.

Ow - hate to see that. PM me your contact info; will send pix of what is here & we can go from there.

[bluehwy]

Originally Posted by Theodore

Ow - hate to see that. PM me your contact info; will send pix of what is here & we can go from there.

Will do! And sorry for highjacking the thread! Wasn't my intent...

[Theodore]

Update on the Leather Reconditioning

Just received notification that the leather reconditioning work is done; rep sent the following pix - they look great. Winter storm is headed this way, so it will be a few more days before we can head over the mountain to pick them up.

[MysticRob]

Sweet!
Great score, and nice job by the restorer with everything.

[Theodore]

Originally Posted by MysticRob

Sweet!
Great score, and nice job by the restorer with everything.

Hey, Rob - question for you; one thing that bothers me, is the sun damage on the plastic back of the steering wheel makes it look like coral; know you worked at a resto shop - wondering what to do about it? Armor-All & leave it alone? Replacing it with a nicer example looks difficult, as the collar is staked. The existing steering wheel is worse.

[MysticRob]

I've honestly never tackled something like that pitted plastic, but I wonder if using a heat gun close to it to pull the oils back to the surface would help on the majority of the surface, then follow up with something like JB Weld Kwik Weld to fill in the pitted areas prior to repainting. Certainly would take a while to do, but results would likely look much better than what you started with.

[rang-a-stang]

Good lawdy!! Those look amazing!!

[Theodore]

Picked up our GW junkyard-find seats today from CCI, a leather reconditioning company; am very pleased - look even better in person. Will probably be Spring before they're in; have a few things ahead of them: EFI-related wiring work under the dash, fix the A/C, replace the carpet, then we'll be ready for seats.