BUILD - 1990 XJ Wagoneer Limited

BALTANAKT said:
Lookin good.

You going to do a profesh repaint?
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Yeah. We're going to get the body knocked out first since rust doesn't really slow down. It's pretty bad under there. Rot typical of the years from what I'm gathering.


Not sure how true it is, but had two bodyshops comment that in the late 80s/early 90s AMC/Eagle was using a lot of foreign (Chinese) steel that wasn't treated properly.


It has a lot of hail damage the inspection didn't catch and the roof is bowed in, like something fell on it. It's earlier (MUCH EARLIER) than we initially planned for a repaint - we were basically going to do that last - but it seems prudent to just do it now while it's apart. We're not doing this part of the restore wholly ourselves, so it should "save" us a little cash down the road.
 
arto_wa said:
Any idea how much it will be worth once it's rebuilt?

🤔
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That is the question, lol. We're not planning to sell or flip it after the resto. We'll definitely have it for a long while after we're finished...if "finished" ever happens. After this step of the restore it's going to camp out for awhile, as we'll be doing the rest of the process.



Hagertys and Hemmings don't have any information on this particular year of Waggy. Not sure if it's because there's not a demand, or that the quad-headlight setup was only made for a limited period (3 years?)....or both. We'll have to figure out a value for insurance purposes alone, though.



When I dumbly stumbled on this one (I was mostly looking for FSJs), I had seen an average price of about 2 to 3k for them, but always in rough shape with high mileage. Some in worse shape than this one. The two highest I saw were 18k (appears to have sold) with 120k miles, and one near me at 22k with 45k miles, still for sale.


I guess the short answer is who knows? If we ever sell it after this we'll have to be patient enough to find a collector. :)
 
GreaseMonkey17 said:
Curious as well. Why spend so much on it when you could buy a very nice rust free no issue XJ for much , much cheaper ?
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Kind of happened into it I suppose. It will end up being a lot of money for sure. Maybe even bordering on the absurd, but I kind of feel that's any "resto" once you attach the resto word to it, right? It should be a bit of a labor of love.


I suppose we could've bought a newer XJ and slapped some woodgrain decals on it if we had too, but there's something about (almost literally) snatching an old, uncommon vehicle from the jaws of the crusher to revive.



I've always wanted to take on a resto project. This is the first. Honestly thought it was going to be a Grand Wagoneer first, but...found this one instead. Didn't plan on shelling out the kind of cash on it that we did immediately, but that was the risk of buying it online/at auction. Had an inspection done, but I see now that our inspector wasn't so good. Maybe he just needs glasses. :)


Anyway - it's going to slow way down after all this stuff is done. It basically needs everything. There is still so much to do.



Hope you all stick around for advice, because XJs are just awesome, and to poke fun at us along the way too.
 
TheWeeWaggy said:
I suppose we could've bought a newer XJ and slapped some woodgrain decals on it if we had too, but there's something about (almost literally) snatching an old, uncommon vehicle from the jaws of the crusher to revive.
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+1

It is a redemption theme. Same as Pygmalion (or My Fair Lady for those who don't recognize the original).

I get it. We paid $7K a few years back to repaint The Bride's '96 Impala SS. We could have easily bought another Impala for that price, but the point was to take care of the one that means something to us. In a few months I will be pulling out the engine and trans and once again probably spending enough money to buy another Impala. But this one will stay with us.
 
Anak said:
I get it.
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+1 for the Pygmalion reference, lol.



And yeah buddy - the 96 is the one to have too. Best of the three year production run as I recall, though I don't recall why it's the best, ha ha.


A 96 Impala SS is still on my long wish list of vehicles to hoard. Considered a Mercury Marauder years later, but man I don't know, it just didn't have the same soul as the Impala.
 
The '96 was the only year to come with a factory floor shifter. And you can figure that any '96 that gets parted out, that shifter setup goes into another vehicle that was originally a column shifter.

I wanted to buy a '96 new, but The Bride insisted we first buy a house. About 6 months after we bought the house we got this car. It was a lease return and was immaculate. I even made them put it up on a lift so I could inspect the undercarriage before we sealed the deal. The Bride wouldn't let me modify it while it was still under warranty, and this was while I worked for Hooker Headers. I had some one-off custom exhaust parts made for this car and they have never been installed. We are now at the point that this car is an unmolested original and I should probably leave it that way.

Every now and then I get the itch to get a wagon and convert it to a 6 speed manual. Then I could really play around with it and not feel like I was messing with something valuable. But I have Varmints, and they take priority over my toys. Maybe someday after I kick the last one out.
 
TheWeeWaggy said:
Kind of happened into it I suppose. It will end up being a lot of money for sure. Maybe even bordering on the absurd, but I kind of feel that's any "resto" once you attach the resto word to it, right? It should be a bit of a labor of love.


I suppose we could've bought a newer XJ and slapped some woodgrain decals on it if we had too, but there's something about (almost literally) snatching an old, uncommon vehicle from the jaws of the crusher to revive.



I've always wanted to take on a resto project. This is the first. Honestly thought it was going to be a Grand Wagoneer first, but...found this one instead. Didn't plan on shelling out the kind of cash on it that we did immediately, but that was the risk of buying it online/at auction. Had an inspection done, but I see now that our inspector wasn't so good. Maybe he just needs glasses. :)


Anyway - it's going to slow way down after all this stuff is done. It basically needs everything. There is still so much to do.



Hope you all stick around for advice, because XJs are just awesome, and to poke fun at us along the way too.
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I understand ! There’s a 72 Bronco I know of id like to redo
 
Anak said:
The '96 was the only year to come with a factory floor shifter. And you can figure that any '96 that gets parted out, that shifter setup goes into another vehicle that was originally a column shifter.

I wanted to buy a '96 new, but The Bride insisted we first buy a house. About 6 months after we bought the house we got this car. It was a lease return and was immaculate. I even made them put it up on a lift so I could inspect the undercarriage before we sealed the deal. The Bride wouldn't let me modify it while it was still under warranty, and this was while I worked for Hooker Headers. I had some one-off custom exhaust parts made for this car and they have never been installed. We are now at the point that this car is an unmolested original and I should probably leave it that way.

Every now and then I get the itch to get a wagon and convert it to a 6 speed manual. Then I could really play around with it and not feel like I was messing with something valuable. But I have Varmints, and they take priority over my toys. Maybe someday after I kick the last one out.
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House schmouse! That's right. It's the floor shifter. I knew there was something different with the 96. I kind of feel like with a car like that you have to have the floor shifter. Not because it adds anything performance wise, but just general feel.

I'm with you. At this point probably best to leave it be. I'm sure it's still plenty fun to drive.

I have one varmint, but he's only just about 2. Ideally this Waggy will be his one day. I figure what the heck, right? We have another 10 years to worry about saving for college, LOL.
 
Progress update! I've been slack about posting but work has been progressing on the Waggy. The front header panel is off and repaired, there's a new hood waiting to be installed, and all the exterior trim has been stripped. The top coat of paint has been sanded and the dents and other imperfections have been popped out or filled.


(here's hoping I have my crap together with picture links now)
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We are getting close to prime and paint time.


Went over to the shop yesterday morning and pulled the interior. Saves us time and $$$. Got a full view of the state of the body. The passenger side is the worst of all with one rather large hole and a lot of rot. There's some rust around the striker for the tailgate that has gone all the way through.


nIG1juw.jpg

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Discarded the carpet because it was ripped and torn and just generally nasty. I mean...nasty. That was nasty work. Did I say it was nasty? It was nasty. Full of bandaids and dead things and all manner of....nastiness. Even if it was salvageable, which I don't think it was, no thanks.


There was some kind of make-shift cover on the front seat. Removed that to see the underlying seat. Not in awful shape. Like everything else in the WW it needs some cleaning. We'll likely reupholster it with something other than factory spec - assuming one can even find factory spec anymore - maybe plaid.


yBI8ksg.jpg



Overall, not counting the passenger side section, the metal appears to be in pretty good shape. The roof was better than expected under the headliner as well.


7f6Mpjs.jpg

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Donor floorpan/section for the passenger side:
QqOAgIv.jpg



Annnnnd a wagon full of WW parts:
LZcajyv.jpg



Those are probably the next intermediary project. All those trim pieces are filthy and need to be cleaned. It's clear the door panels got wet at one point, so we need to decide if we should keep them or try to replace them.


There's a ton of other things we should probably do - preventative if nothing else. Window motors and the like could probably stand to just be replaced.


Humoring the idea of adding sound deadening and/or insulation while everything is out as well.
 
Ralph77 said:
I did some when doing work on my '00 XJ. For it me it was part of my "Well while we are here" thing. More a turn up the radio kind of guy. Did a little write up. Have not done the floor yet.

https://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f177/sound-deadening-2000-cherokee-sport-4086497/
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That is super helpful, thank you. I will most certainly be doing my research on it to see what the best way to go is. Hadn't thought about the vapor barrier, so glad you mention it there. Mine are gone (and out of mind until then).


Obviously I'm doing this to increase mileage though.
 
TheWeeWaggy said:
That is super helpful, thank you. I will most certainly be doing my research on it to see what the best way to go is. Hadn't thought about the vapor barrier, so glad you mention it there. Mine are gone (and out of mind until then).


Obviously I'm doing this to increase mileage though.
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I am glad it helped. I tried to research this stuff. This was one of those there is no completely right or completely wrong way to do it things. And I don't like that. I like specifics. I poured over a bunch of info on the internet. Then just made a plan. As stated. "Right or wrong this is what I did". LOL.

I did not post it there but as far the vapor barriers to this is probably something good to use:

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/3m-bwp-strip-calk-08578/10551367-P

This was recommended to me by a friend. I tried to use it for something else but it did not work out as well as I wanted. I deliver for an auto parts store and dropped some of this stuff off to a customer. Out of curiosity I asked them what they use it for. That is when they told me they use it on the vapor barriers. When I did that work my vapor barriers had plenty of stuff still on there and would stick. But the fact that I already had some of this stuff and it never occurred to me that it could work for that kind of bummed me out. LOL.
 
Forgot to mention. Putting it in the freezer before use will keep it more solid and less messy for a bit when using it. It will get all gooey and lose shape in warmer weather and from the heat from your hands.
 
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