It's a go on the '85 wagon project (AUG2010)

[Desolo]

now that's resourceful!  never would have thought about nabbing a comp case for that...

[maximus7001]

Test fit of the rocker skin:



This is what was left of the passenger side rocker:

[IowaEagle]

Did you need and inner one too?    I would  say the OE rocker definitely had seen much better days.  Great work!

[jim]

I don't know why you didn't wait until it really needed replacing.
That replacement looks really good.

[maximus7001]

Bad news:

Nothing got welded but it is ready to weld everything. I have all the equipment, one cheapo 120v flux mig with 030 wire, one Lincoln 5000hd 220v flux/gas mig with 035 flux wire, a lincoln autodark mask, but have never welded before. I got stood up by three welder guys in a row. So the car is still sitting there with 2 feet of snow (I have shoveled the car out since).

 I did get frustrated at one point and after being successful trying a 3 inch long bead on an old fender, I tried tacking in one of the pieces but determined that the borrowed autodark mask was not darkening so I stopped for safety reasons after 3 tacks and bought a new Lincoln autodark mask. The snow came the next day.

During sandblasting:


Where it stopped:

[priya]

How did you get that outer rocker formed in one piece?  My sheet metal break will only do a piece 4' long.

[duane2171]

WOW!!  Nice work on the rockers!  Being a former Winnipegger, I know what you mean about working outside in the cold.
Not much fun when you can't feel your fingers hey?

Where do you live?  I grew up in East Kildonan and moved to Alberta in 94.

[maximus7001]

Good news. Over the past few days a lot got done.

New coil springs arrived with KYB shocks. Got lucky with 3156 springs and the uneven height issue and it seems to be level. Pics to follow.

All four shocks are in. Trans has new fluid, filter, gasket, dipstick and bands adjusted. The mystery of the stuck in 4wd problem turned out to be a broken clip that goes here:


A cotter pin was used for a temporary fix. Anyone know where to get a proper clip? Jeep part number: J3241415, #15 in this diagram.


The rockers are fixed. After welding, the inner rocker cavity got 3 coats of Krylon bbq paint then the seams were filled with Plus 1 off white paintable seam sealer. After it set up it got 3 coats of Permatex smooth undercoating.




Now the rocker skins go on. After this all the welds were ground down and coated with Rustolium cold galvanizing compound, looks like primer.



More to follow....

[maximus7001]

Finally had some time to post updates.

After sealing the seams I covered it with krylon enamel. This was the only red colour I had at the time.



I am quite happy with the 3156 springs and KYB GR-2 shocks although the bushings and washers for the top were the wrong ones and still need to swapped for the larger ones. The rear shocks are Munroe matics. Should have never got them but that was before finding the KYB ones for the front.



Drove it straight to the local Rust Check and for $30 they drilled holes, blasted the insides and put body plugs in. I was going to take it to Ziebart but they were rude grouches and it seemed that they did not want to do it and they wanted $120.



On the road again, this is just before going to Rust Check:

[maximus7001]

How did you get that outer rocker formed in one piece?  My sheet metal break will only do a piece 4' long.

Used a digital hydraulic metal break at a metal roofing/siding place. Had to convert my metric measurements to thousanths of inches to use the machine. It can do probably 15 feet, never actually measured the width.

Have been real busy lately so have not posted much about this project. On a good note I have been driving it at least every second day since my last post and at one point had to make it a daily driver for about two weeks when the new water pump (six month old) on my safari exploded on it's own (fenco brand). It also took out the belt, fan clutch, fan and power streering hose.

Not much further work has been done during the winter except emergency repairs to keep the car going. Had to get a 3 foot piece of pipe welded in before the muffler. On the way there the front brake pads crumbled and fell apart. Had to turn around and pick up the rotors and pads at home before driving to the muffler shop metal on metal. This happened at the wrong time since the front brake hoses were still in the mail.

At least the front brakes are working good now.


On the way back from the muffler shop I was informed that I was not getting the safety the next day with the drivers side doors looking so bad so I made a call and got into a friends heated garage at 9pm that night and on the way picked up a can of krylon epoxy paint and a roll of masking tape at crappy tire.


Turned out sort of ok considering the outside temperature was -20c and I uses a green dish scrubby to skuff it up and then about 1 hour of drying time with the heater blowing on it.


Then the very next day I was downtown at 8pm and the battery decided to die for good. Had to get a ride to part source, closes at 9pm and bought the best battery they had along with an 80 watt battery blanket. I always get dual terminal batteries so they can fit any car.

[maximus7001]

Some good news. While checking out carb/manifold options for the 68 Javelin I discovered that it has a ford 2100 carb. Will this come in handy for the Eagle?

Some bad news:

Some guy with a 1998 chrysler concorde figured he could turn right from the left lane. I was in the right hand dedicated turning lane and hit him pretty hard. Almost no damage, a little scuff in the paint but his car is going to be a writeoff. Hit him on the passenger side where the fender and door meet. Smashed off his mirror, broke his passenger door window and when he tried to open the door it buckled and would not close. Very fortunate that the bumper caps were not on at the time and safely stored away

I see this as revenge for chrysler taking the Concord name putting it on an unrelated car.

So now the worse part:

I am worried that since the insurance company wants to see the car that it may be taken off the road for looking so distressed. They have been known to do that.

The only real damage seems to be the need for an alignment since it pulls to the right now. The collision did happen while in a right hand turn entering a turnpike.

[IowaEagle]

Keep us posted.    The revenge thing may not be it.  The Chyrsler Concorde platform started life on AMC drawing boards before the takeover merger.   The Premier was the first incarnation of what was to be AMC's new line of midsize cars.

[maximus7001]

Told the insurance company that since there is no real damage that I would not be making a claim.

 The eagle is going to be out of service for a while due to needing a water pump, fan and fan clutch both of which have developed a death wobble but no leak yet. The only parts I need to buy for this is a water pump gasket and a jug of coolant.

 The back yard has a few inches of water in it right now and thats where the parts car is. So the eagle is going to sit until the yard is dry. Going tomorrow to switch the insurance to parking insurance until it is fixed and ready to take to a hoist for the control arm, hub and half shaft.

[maximus7001]

Progress today!

Took the fan and clutch from the Concord and got a new water pump, 195 thermostat, gasket and a jug of coolant. The only pump I could get anywhere except the dealer is a fenco and it is new. I hope it does not explode after 6 months like the fenco did on the 97 safari.

When taking apart the Eagle I noticed a few different things.

 The PS pump front pivot bolt is slightly longer than the concord one and had to be slightly forced past the pulley with no damage and has an 8.8 grade metric head but standard threads like the grade 5 Concord one, very odd bolt indeed. Had to use a crescent wrench on this one.

 The bracket that holds the upper idler pulley has a factory looking 3/16" black steel spacer between it and the aluminum L bracket that it mounts to, the Concord did not have this spacer.

Whoever thought it was a good idea to use hard gm style vacuum like was an idiot. What a dumb idea to use regular line for the devices then adapt to a flimsy line then hard line then to flimsy stuff then back to regular line. This junk has to go.
 
There was a 180 in there, no wonder the heat was lacking during -30c winter.

Anyways it's ready to put back together now. Thanks to the rain it is not done yet.

[Draekon]

Where did you buy the coil springs from?  Are they the same length between left and right?