1980 Eagle Wagon - Great Beater Challenge Build

[Taylor]

Ouch, so sorry to hear about the accident. I think from reading your other post. You can fix it. Made some excellent progress. That would be a good transmission transfer case swap for it. Would like to do that swap myself.

[86Woodgrain]

Ugh!! I think my parts Eagle has a 1980 grille if you're interested, you can see it here: https://youtu.be/Emumwji-Shw?t=95

[Jobflobadob]

86Woodgrain, It certainly is very close, but not exact. Mine had no silver bar along the bottom, and had a spot in the bottom right corner for a chrome eagle badge. I will PM you tomorrow, but if you happen to see this, please PM me with your price plus shipping to Alberta. Even your hood is different, mine does not have a raised cowl area, and the chrome strip is not the full length of the hood.

Taylor, I would have no problem with the A998 if I had 2.35 or even 2.72 gears, but my car has the medium tow package with optional 3.54 gears, and 3100rpm at highway speeds sounds like the 258 is ready to fly apart, and probably chugs as much fuel as my kenworth. Can't find a 4wd T5 these days, and I didn't want to deal with the reverse gear issues of the NSG370 6 speed, so it came down to the NV3550 or AX15, and the ax15 is supposedly tougher. A modded TDI will easily produce over 350ft/lbs of torque, and the AX15 is stupid easy to rebuild, so I'm happy with that choice. I absolutely had to have the NP242. It did not feel right to use a NP231 as I wanted the full time 4WD ability that makes the eagle so attractive to me, and I certainly did not want to deal with any case that utilized a viscous coupling (non repairable). Plus having 4 low, 4wd part time, and mainly 2wd for summer and smokeshows (after I have ditched the crappy two-piece axle Dana 35 in favor of a Chrysler 8.25) may put me in this car more frequently than my Mustang.

[MIPS]

For the fender and other non-80 specific bits I can again offer you whatever parts are on a subframe rusted '87 has over here in Logan Lake. Once the fronts of the fenders are pushed in I've never seen someone hammer them back out again.

[TheBirdman]

I put a NP242 in my eagle, its a great box and youll like it. If you can find the transfer case shifter from a xj, you can connect it with this https://www.boostwerksengineering.com/242-HD-Shift-Linkage-V20_p_27.html and not have to bother with the silly z-bar linkage or buy the expensive novak shifter.

Sorry to hear about the accident, that really bites. While you cant buy body panels anymore, so can still buy parts cars for around $500 and thanks to the galvanized panels theyre rarely rusty. As for the slat grille, I replaced my eggcrate grille with a slat grille from a concord becasue I like the look better, so those do fit if you can find one.

[86Woodgrain]

86Woodgrain, It certainly is very close, but not exact. Mine had no silver bar along the bottom, and had a spot in the bottom right corner for a chrome eagle badge. I will PM you tomorrow, but if you happen to see this, please PM me with your price plus shipping to Alberta. Even your hood is different, mine does not have a raised cowl area, and the chrome strip is not the full length of the hood.

Are you in Calgary by chance? I am driving to Calgary Saturday, getting there after supper, and leaving Sunday morning.

I will try to get you a picture later today of it's condition today. I looked at your pic and yours does have the silver bar across the bottom. My grille has mounting holes in the same spot for the Eagle emblem, but my emblem is missing.

I **suspect** either the alternating black bars have faded off on mine or someone used some acetone in the past to remove the black and make all the bars the same. Either way mine is almost definitely a 1980 grille now that I look closer, and in fact you could paint the alternating bars black to make it look new again.

[86Woodgrain]

Here is the grille I have. I painted it using trim black and removed the black from alternating bars so it looks factory original for 1980.

It's not perfect but it's in very good shape, all mounting tabs are intact. It had a few cracks which I affixed back together (no missing chunks).

If interested PM me and we can discuss a price. I do not appear to have a box to ship it, I would have to secure one if I ship it.