Hey everyone, I figured with my new purchase I should hop on one of these boards to document my work / get some advice on my 78 4x4 wagon project.
I picked it up about a month ago and have been having a great time driving and owning it. It was a pain to pass smog and get all registered, but now that I've got the title It's time to start fixing it up and getting it ready to be a solid daily driver.
The body is straight and the 64K original motor runs like a champ, but it's got some hidden issues that I need to repair and it needs a lot of love to get it back in good shape. I've got a lot of plans for this car and I'm starting to line out everything I want to do.
I'll start off with the good. Like I said the body is straight and the tub is really solid. Original motor runs great and the car is fun to cruise around in. The trans was also replaced by a previous owner and shifts great, plus the 4x4 climbs some impressive little hills and will keep up with my Jeep! I had never seen a wagon like this before I bought it. I get waves from tons of people on the road every time I take it out. The loud exhaust helps get peoples attention haha. The interior is pretty clean and the headliner is perfect, something I was happy to see. And it was pretty cheap for being in good shape, always a good thing.
And then there's the not so good. The car has one rust hole behind the rear passenger tire. It's not terrible being a California car but still needs to be cut out and a proper sheet metal repair before I can repaint it. There's plenty of sketchy wiring that previous owners have done. That means I need to start cutting stuff out and soldering in new wires the right way. I keep finding more wires just twisted together and taped over, something that needs to be fixed asap. Windshield is broken and I'm looking for a new one. Dash is cracked and seats are torn which I'd like to cover or replace. I'm trying to find a new speedometer cable to fix that too. My biggest issue now is the front brakes which I'll get specific about soon.
The previous owner had a some extra goodies that he threw in that I still need to put on. I have the full Redline Weber kit to put on it for a little more power. He gave me an EA82 electronic distributor, but I'm still trying to figure out all that goes into that swap. I know that requires replacing almost all the wiring and the coil, but I'll do that in the future in since my points distributor is in great shape.
So far I've done a bit of work to get it going. When I bought it the alternator, coil, and voltage regulator had been replaced but was not charging the battery. A half hour with a test light and found that one connector at the regulator was plugged in the wrong way when he put it all back together. All I had to do was spin the round connector one notch clockwise and everything worked! I had to buy tint because it was a complete fishbowl, so It's rocking 5% on every window. I built a custom front bumper which turned out great, and built a matching roof rack basket and slapped 8 cheap LED lights to get that old school rally vibe (too cheap to get any hellas but I'd like to in the future). I'm waiting to hook up the lights for once I get the wiring straightened out so for now it's just for looks haha.
I'm excited to get started doing more to the car, but I'm already finding out just how hard it is to find parts for it. I'll be taking any help I can get on this board to get stuff to retrofit on here. Here are some pics of when I first picked it up and after with the tint and bumper / rack. Feel free to help me out with any knowledge anyone has for working on this beast! I'm not looking to do a full restoration since it's already too far from stock, but I'm looking to make it a one of a kind ride that I plan on keeping for a long time.