You bought what?? 88 Eagle Wagon - Overlander Build

[amcfool1]

hi, as for your dash controls for the AC, here is what it (probably) is: the switching is controlled by vacuum, and there is a vacuum connector that connects to the ac switch. This was made out of some weird rubbery, opaque, material, and after 30+ years, more or less disintegrates. This piece is unobtainium, so just replace it regular vacuum line. that switch can also be adjusted. may be all you need. look at a diagram of the heater/ac controls.  good luck, gz

[amarshall]

I got an update on the AC from the shop this morning.  Looks like the HVAC head unit has problems.  They said it looks like somebody was in there playing with wiring, and the AC controls are beyond repair.  Luckily the fan speed still works.  They added a new toggle switch and ran it to the "pressure switch" and everything came to life.  I may try to find a new control unit, but for now I can manually turn on the AC.  Looks like all the expensive parts are fine, that's good news for sure.

This is the first outside shop to work on the Eagle, and I really don't like it!  I hate not seeing the details of the repair, and i'm having to just trust that they are doing the right thing.  I have control issues, I guess!

[amarshall]

While the car is out at the shop, I cleaned up the garage and started to prep a bunch of parts for paint.  This is the stuff I'll do myself with rattle cans.  The bumper caps and flares will be black.



I took the two long interior panels from the cargo area, just to get access to take the tail lights out for paint.  While they are out, I'm scrubbing and hitting with some Duplicolor Fabric and Trim paint, burgundy. The top panel shown below has already been sprayed with a light coat.



Here is an "after" shot on one of the panels (left side of pic) compared to an original kick panel that has not been painted.  Color is not perfect, but close enough for me.  Looks a lot better than it did, for sure.

[amarshall]

Some good news, and some frustrating news:  The shop has fixed the AC, though they were unable to repair the original HVAC control unit and had to wire a toggle switch for the AC.  But it blows cold and seems to be holding it's charge.  They did have to convert to R134, but I've felt the temp personally and it seems ok, even at idle.  I might look into a small pusher fan to hang in front of the condenser if it isn't cold enough later.  Also, somebody PM'd me and had an HVAC control head, so it's on the way now.  Thanks bud, you know who you are!

The frustrating part is that they kept finding stuff that isn't quite right in the front end.  I'm out of time (have a trip planned with buddies late June) and still lots to do, so I am having the shop replace the steering including pitman arm, idler arm, tie rod ands and adjusters.  They also rebuilt the front wheel bearing hubs, and called today to report that the old bearings were very damaged.  There was a low hum in the car,so hopefully that's the cause.  They have held the parts so I can inspect - probably not much chance that they have another old set of Eagle bearings laying around and are pulling a quick swap con on me!

While they are in there, they talked me into an upper ball joint (I had already done one side that was obviously bad), and new rotors and pads since they were already taking the old ones off.  Still not happy that so much was needed after almost a year of my effort, but this thing is jacked up 2" on big mud tires and at least now everything will be tight and fresh for offroad use.

In the meantime, I'm drowning my sorrows in black paint.

[vangremlin]

Hey, your paint job looks really good!  Too bad that so much was needed on your car but its good that you have a shop that will work on it, and that way your car will be ready for the road.  Can't wait to see pictures of the trip!

[amarshall]

Not much progress to show.  I sprung my Eagle from the shop (ouch $$$) and had a quick session with it this past weekend to do some odds and ends.  I tried to attack the headliner with thumbtacks, but they were falling out as fast as I could put them in.  I did amuse myself by making some fun shapes, but in the end I pulled the headliner and will fix it the right way - new fabric is on the way.

Lots of little screws to take out the headliner! Hopefully I will still be able to make sense of my notes when re-installation comes around.


I dropped it off on Monday at the paint shop, and hoping to get it back this Friday or Saturday.  Nothing fancy, just a one-stage enamel job to clean it up a bit.  I asked them to do it in AMC's "Frost White" found on everything in the late 60's and early 70's.

While the car is gone, I'm digging through my parts bin and trying to clean everything up.  Not much time left until my deadline hits, and there is a lot of stuff to re-install after the paint is done.

The center cap on my steering wheel was pretty beat up.  The fake woodgrain was mostly gone, so I mounted it in the drill press and hit it with some sandpaper.


This is probably a good idea...just trying to find a place to mount it.

[amarshall]

Yay, got my wagon back from the paint shop!  Looks pretty good, though man the overspray is everywhere.  Got what I paid for though, and they threw in a can of flat back spray paint for me to hit the wheel wells, hah!





I guess it's time to start putting all this stuff back on!



And time to get some new fabric on the headliner too - so it stays off my eyebrows!

[eaglefreek]

That's coming along great.

[amcfool1]

hi, i just redid my 84, and putting all the trim back on was a piece of work! More trim on the Eagle than your standard gingerbread house! good luck, gz

[amarshall]

I'm excited to get it back into my garage, but man there is a lot still to do.  I have a hard deadline and need to leave for a trip on June 23rd, so I am going down the to-do list trying to decide what can be skipped.  I doubt I'll be able to swap the transfer case at this point.   

We'll see how fast it all goes back together, wish me luck!

[vangremlin]

Looking good!  And good luck, I'm sure you'll get done what you need to get done for your road trip.

[djohnston89]

Lookin good!

[amarshall]

I'm making some progress getting this all back together.  The big pile of parts is getting a little smaller, day by day.

I got new fabric on the headliner, not quite the same color as original but it will do fine.  At least it won't be hanging down.  Plus, if I flip over this is a good color to hide the blood.



I started on the top and I'm working my way down!  Got the roof trim back on after modifying some clips and drilling larger holes for the trim.  I snuck some silicone under there too, so I hope it's water tight.  There's a hole in the very front where a CB antenna used to be.  I'm going to use the same hole to run power to the roof for a couple lights, and maybe an external trail camera.



I got my second-hand cargo basket mounted.  I'm using the factory roof rails in the back, and using gutter mounts in the front.  So there are 4 cross bars, hopefully that will be plenty.  I need to get some U-Bolts for the rear bars still.  I had to clean up the threads on the factory rail locks, they were pretty rusty.  They are left hand thread though, so I couldn't use a tap - just soaked in PBlaster for a while.





Close up of the gutter mounts.



I also got this picture from my fab shop.  Looks like the winch bumper will be here by the weekend.  I hope I can get it mounted in time!

[eaglefreek]

Good job with the headliner. I used 3 factory crossbars to hold my cargo rack and it held a bit of weight. You could hold more than you need there with the 4 bars you have. The winch mount looks great. I hope it fits as well as it looks.
  Seeing your garage door reminded me of when I used to install garage doors in FL. After hurricane Andrew, the building codes got really strict and those large struts were a way one manufacturer got their doors to meet the wind load requirements. You have 4" struts. Doors installed near the coast had 6" struts. I installed a couple doors where the homeowner could no longer fit their car in the garage because the struts stuck out too far. They weren't too happy.

[amarshall]

Thanks eaglefreek, I'm hoping the winch setup fits too!  It should be here today so I can find out for sure.  That's funny about the garage doors, there certainly is something different about Florida.  I'm still getting used to a few things about the way houses are built, etc.

In fact, here's one: Water gets everywhere and does not go away!  I noticed my hi-beams were starting to fog up inside, and now they are swimming.  This is after being in my (mostly) dry garage for a year.  It's very humid here, but come on!



Things are coming together, lots of little things happening.  My pile of parts is getting smaller.  Bear with me for a few pics!









I was working on wiring up some LED lights late last night.  Got to finish that before the headliner can go back in.  There was a hole for a CB antenna, so I used that for the wiring.






I'm hoping to get some more time this weekend to play with the winch.  Getting close now!