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November 24/2009
This was a good day; namely because I finally came to own one of my vehicular heroes (the other; a 1951 Willys Pickup, I already owned, but that's a different blog that probably wont be written for a while).
a light dusting of snow had fallen the night before, and cemented itself to the Jeep. The new snow on top of the hard packed unplowed alley surface made for a treacherously slippery laneway; perfect for a test drive. My dad and I went to pick it up, since we were going to split it 50/50. We took it for a test spin and gave the 4 wheel drive a workout, no sweat. This is the first V8 I have ever owned, and I was pretty staggered at how different it feels from my family's Cherokee (XJ). Long story short, a mess of legal jargon happend at the lisencing office which played out inmy favour. the vehicle was new enough to be in the blue book, but not enough exchanges had happened for there to be a listed value. i was defaulted to pay gst on the purchase price, which didnt amount to much. what a bonus, I was saving money already. With that done, he tossed me the keys and said "good luck." I was on my way, with the family car following in case of the inevitable quitting.
SitRep (situation report) on the G-Wag: i made it to the end of the street and fueled up. How do i say it lightly... um, ouch; it took a fairly hefty bite out of Alberta's tar sands in one filling, which left my bank account a bit emptier, but I didnt care. It was at this point that i attempted to merge into busy Toronto traffic. the Big V8 would just sputter and choke when i put my foot down, rendering my accelerations to that of an electric G-whiz (google it). This meant that merging could only be done when there was absolutely nobody on the horizon, which took what seemed to be several epochs.
Finally on the road, everything seemed status quo, i had figured that the acelerator pump was seized, since it only sputtered when i punched it; cruising was fine. Having forgotten to check the tranny fluid when I left, I wondered why the tranny hunted between 2nd and 3rd a lot around 50-60 km/h.
As far as my memory serves me, those were the only 2 minor hiccups that I encountered, but the G-Wag made it home no problem (somewhere in the zone of 60 km).
November 19/2007:
The appointment was set for November 19; which just happened to turn into a particularly cold Monday. I had to stop briefly at a Variety Village to pick up a coat, since it was so cold, and I didn't feel like dolling out too much for a coat. A gray plaid "hick jacket" fit the bill at under 10 bucks.
I managed to pull the first gaffe of used-car buying right off the bat; which is checking out a vehicle at night (I heartily do not recommend this). I found the place fine, along with the G-Wag sitting out front, and I was immediately hooked. It had road presence like nothing else. The G-Wag's are big, but not obese like current GM stuff; they definitely have a muscular yet agile look to them.
The owner and I took it for a spin, and ended up at an all night car wash station, which was really brightly lit, so that took care of gaffe #1. I inspected the vehicle to the extent that I thought was pretty thorough, and the owner (who was really nice) pointed out anything that had ever given him a problem. The bad rocker panels were no secret. they were terrible. It was obvious that someone in the past had the bright idea to inject expanding foam into the rockers, sculpt it and bondo over everything. a few other rusted areas suggested the vehicle was rather neglected body-wise for most of it's life.
The price was flexible, and I was able to negotiate the price down to $500 (without any work really). Upon saying "sold!" I performed my second gaffe of the night; which is buying a vehicle without ever actually driving it. lucky for me, when i did drive it back to the owners place, it felt great. I went halfs with my dad on it, since he's a big fan of FSJ's too, so I count it as $250
I didn't take any pics that night. 1- i forgot my camera, and 2- it was dark anyways, wouldn't have been the most glamorous shots.
Ok, as an intro, I'll keep this quick. The point of this blog is more or less to get my experience of restoring a vehicle written down. I started it 2 years ago to the day, so now is as good a time as any to finally lay down what's left of my memories.
I've always been a Jeep purist type of person; only a jeep will do. One of my favourite Jeep models has always been the full size Wagoneer (or Grand Wagoneer, post 1984). For years I had been watching classified sites, taking note on country drives, looking for a suitable Wagoneer. The term suitable means that i could buy the thing for less than $800, and could drive it home from wherever it was taking up space. Tall order, which is why it took me years.
Big break: sometime in early November of 2007, I was perusing BuySell.com, when a fairly perfect 1991 G-Wag popped up In Toronto. the pricetag was $750, which was in my range, so i checked it out. The ad said (to the best of my recollection) that it had been used intermittently over the last year, and was licensed for the road. It didn't blow smoke, and had newish shocks, front brakes, catalyitic converter, windsheild and new tires. That being said, I contacted the guy and set up a time to check it out.
