Dismantled

September 2, 2011

Day one of the rejuvination prep is taking everything apart for painting. A trick I learned in modelmaking at Humber is to paint in pieces, instead of masking and painting the unit as a whole. this leads to a better, more complete paint job that looks closer to what a factory finish would look like; and since I was painting with tremclad, this would be paramount in helping me get the most bang for my buck.

Step 1 of the tear down was taking the doors apart. I pulled off the interior hardware and panel, unplugged all the electrical gubbins, and unbolted the outer door handles, which on a Grand Wag, require some very aerobic tool action and a lot of close quarters wreching around sharp steel edges. my tip would be to undo the door latch and let it swing out of the way slightly to make room for a universal joint ratchet.

Also, i had removed the rear bench and left it at home, so out came the mounts and seat belts. Shortly thereafter I removed the front seats for total floor access; but not before I'd taken the new lightweight Wagon Supperleggera for a spin up the road.

I must admit, the truck felt so much livlier with all this weight off. It sat higher and the backend was very frisky for a 6000lb truck. One of these on a strick bush-truck diet of no doors, glass, or uneeded bodywork would be very capable indeed.

I also took the time that night to mix up a pot of older tremclad gloss black with a bit of thinner and painted the entire floor with a brush. Since it tack-dried quickly I could redo a second coat as soon as I had finished the first, so I got 2 good coats on the floor to make it all even and dark. this really transformed the patchwork floor into a nicer uniform colour. The thinning was not so much for the rapid drying, but so the paint would self level better since it would be thinner and not so oily.

Northbound

September 1, 2011

Ah, the smell of the open road. Cargo packed to the ceiling, spare tire riding shotgun on the roof, and the whistle of wind over poorly-fit chrome trim. This is what Wagoneers were built for; taking you, and everything you require, anywhere you need to go. There is something to be said for the evocative rumble of a V8 as it stares down miles of open highway under a cloudless sky, drumming the tune of an era that has long since forgotten it. September 1st was one of those days.

Naturally, having only driven the Wagon on short trips close to home, I was trepidatious in light of the myriad of ways that long distance and heat can bring down an old V8 with ease. To counter this doubt, i opted to throw several jugs of rad fluid, oil, and tranny fluid in the back for the seemingly inevitable hiccups.

The Wagon was loaded with all the necessary equipment required to complete the bodywork, strip the paint, build the rest of the booth, and paint the entire truck twice over. Needless to say the back sat considerably closer to the road when I set out.

Having planned to spend 10 days up north, my family flanked me with our other 2 vehicles so that if anything happened I wouldnt end up taking out someone elses car. They would also play a critical role in helping finalize the booth, and run the air evacuation system while I sprayed the truck.

My sister managed to shoot a number of good "en route" pics; but the above proved to be my favourite of the bunch. Not only is the image sharp while taken from a car, the composition of the shot with the two generations of Jeep and the two generations of drivers is well laid out as well. If ever there was a shot that made the final edition grille look alright, this would have to be it (paired with that bumper as well).

I did stop about 3/4 of my way into the drive to grab dinner at the Subway in Marmora (another plug, they make the best subs of any Subway I've ever been to) and to gas up for the remainder of the drive. Here I was reminded of how picky a hot carburetor can be, taking a good 10 seconds of rolling before it finally atomized the right mixture to catch the spark.

I arrived at the farm with no mechanical troubles of any real nature. I knew my radiator was running sub par so I did have to run the heat to keep it normal, but it pulled as cleanly as possible for 40hp per ton, and never felt like it was about to fly apart when I hit 100 on the highway. I did enjoy the retro-stereo that pumped Led Zeppelin 4 through a single 1990's speaker, with all the clarity of a tax return form.