Kitty's ride

[BMThiker]

Some of you have seen Bertha, but if not, she's the '86 Grand Wagoneer that my wife has owned since '94 (their relationship comes before me )

We've been making strides over the last 2 years to get her trail ready and a little more reliable. Lately we've been attending to the interior. We completely gutted it a few months ago only to discover that the floor pan was almost gone in the front. I'll let the pictures tell the rest.

 

[BMThiker]

We did some grinding to expose all the rust and prep it for repair. The guys at ACC have done most of the work on her lately and helped us out with the new floor pan panel and patching other sheet metal areas too.

 

[BMThiker]

ACC patched all the unnecessary holes we found in the floor (the carpet was actually t-nailed to the sheet metal!) Then we did even more grinding to the rear area to prep it for herculiner.

 

[BMThiker]

Herculined!

 

[Southeast Overland]

Very nice. Those pics remind me of the rust on my Pig's floorboards. How did you apply the Herculiner? I POR15'd mine and now am putting down QuietCrap sound deadener which is easy.

 

[BMThiker]

A few weeks back we picked up some seats from Summit because they were on sale. We didn't know how we were going to install them since the floor pan was so uneven around the tranny hump. ACC said they could make some brackets or cut off the old brackets from the seats we were trashing to make something work. I took a closer look when we had the seats out for grinding and noticed the whole motorized system was only attached by 4 bolts into the bottom of the stock seats. Voila! all we had to do was weld the new seats to the existing brackets and make tabs to hold the switch panel...new seats with motorized adjustability!

ACC tacked them, made some adjustments and got everything lined up. Then welded the new seats to the cleaned up brackets. Looks great and has the same functionality as the plush electric seats she once had. Even better is these new seats actually tilt back and tumble forward, which the old seats never did.

We topped it off with brand new seat belts to match the new black interior. Eventually we'll put in floor mats or some carpet, but now we have a clean sealed floor that doesn't smell like wet carpet.

 

[BMThiker]

Very nice. Those pics remind me of the rust on my Pig's floorboards. How did you apply the Herculiner? I POR15'd mine and now am putting down QuietCrap sound deadener which is easy.

Sprayed in. ACC masked off the door openings and windows and went to town. Even covered inside the rear quarter panels.

 

[BMThiker]

The story will continue when the AMC 360 comes back from the rebuilder in a few weeks...

 

[Southeast Overland]

Very very nice. I've read that Herculiner does a fair job at quieting down internal noise. Have you located if/where water was leaking into the cab?

 

[BMThiker]

Probably a few things. The sun roof drain tube that runs down the A-pillar. Discovered the tube didn't run out the bottom but only stopped at the upper door hinge. Also the carpet and wool padding under it were just holding water, it never dried out. There was no water proofing between the carpet and padding - it was basically a big sponge. And there was a cardboard/particle board kickplate insert that also just held moisture. I don't know what kind of undercoating the body had either. That floorpan was rusted all the way through.

I don't think the Herc is going to do much sound proofing or insulating from tranny heat, but its a good first step. We are exploring options to just carpet the front cab. We have a heavy rubber mat in the cargo area and it will probably stay in there.

 

[Southeast Overland]

Not sure what to do for carpet but McMaster Carr has some inexpensive padding that several on MUD have used with success. You can also get 50 sqft of QuietCrap for $100 which should be enough to do the interior firewall and the floors (not including cargo area) with enough left over to throw some on the inside of the doors and probably the underside of the hood also. That is about how far one roll (50 swft) will get me on the Pig.

 

[Trollhole]

Very cool. Maybe I could make her some nifty rug floormats.

 

[BMThiker]

So far I have found BJ's Offroad is offering front passenger area replacements from $135 to $255 depending on whether you want mass backing or regular poly backing. They have all the stock colors, but something tells me stock colors are not really a concern. I seem to remember '91 4R red being discussed recently.

 

[dbenke]

Rick, reminds me of the floors in my jeep before I replaced them. I hope Bertha is GSMTR bound, I don't want to have the only Jeep there!!!

 

[71-CRUISER]

The story will continue when the AMC 360 comes back from the rebuilder in a few weeks...

Its Engine Builder bound in the AM...

 

[BMThiker]

We got some initial news on our engine block. I believe his words were, "It's a crying shame..."

We didn't know any history on this block prior to sending it out - but it was free. The engine had apparently been rebuilt and then abandoned...uncovered from the elements...and now has 3 inches of water on the top of the cylinders.

He'll finish the tear down later this week (we hope) and give us the full report, but looks like we may have to replace pistons if badly pitted.

 

[Trollhole]

Sorry to hear that Rick.