welcome to wacky Wednesday's, where everyone has a chance to show off their
car mods, and here's this week's winner welcome to my 1988 Jeep Grand Wagoneer,
I bought this 88 Grand Wagoneer on eBay in 2010, the body and the wheels were in
very good condition, no dents and the paint was a fresh single stage
application, the simulated wood trim and side paneling had been replaced, the dash
wasn't cracked but the instrument bezel was, seats and carpet were in good
shape, but some of the leather inserts on the seats were replaced with vinyl, rear
seat and cargo area were complete except for the metal strips on the tailgate and
floor, in the engine compartment some electrical wiring issues were obvious
and the a/c hoses were missing, and the air breather tube was also missing, the
smog pump was not operational and all of the options except the rear window wiper
were on the Jeep, so what kind of engine I had to decide what kind of engine to
put in the Jeep, but eventually I narrowed it down to a generation 4 5.3
liter with a 6l80 automatic transmission I found this one on eBay out of a brand
new 2010 Silverado, there had been a fire in the cab and some of the wiring was
singed, but it was completely repairable it had 6 miles on it, so what did I do to
the Jeep, the first thing was to take the engine transmission and transfer case
out of the Jeep, next I removed the original
motor mounts out of the Jeep and bolted and welded in the new motor mounts, I
needed to patch up this big hole in the firewall, I fabricated this piece of
sheet metal and I riveted it in place, makes a nice backdrop for the dual battery
system, so I got rid of the old battery tray and the old AC mess that used to
run across the fender well, so all of the old holes were weld it up and the dents
were bonded in, on the driver's side I got rid of the old electrical stuff, that
was under the hood and then under the dash as well, I put headers on the new
engine so we dropped it into the Jeep it was ready to go, but I had to build a
new exhaust system using all three of those catalytic converters that came
with it, and I had to relocate some of the O2 sensor ports, so I used heat tape and
heat paint fit right in, I modified the fender well to accept a new battery tray,
I used bondo on the firewall and the battery tray fit right in,
next I started on the air box for the K&N system, I fabricated this piece of
sheet metal, then I had to cut this part of the fender well out to accept the new
box, left a pretty big hole in the fender well it's kind of scary, next I replaced
all the wiring under the hood and I installed this grounding block all
grounds went to a common ground I also replaced all the wiring under the
dash and installed the new air conditioning condenser core as well as a
new radiator and I mounted the new oil cooler and transmission cooler, then I
mounted this electric fan which is controlled by the ECU, we mounted new
springs and shocks under the Jeep there was no rust on this Jeep at all so the
job went fairly fast, I also rebuilt both of the front hubs, new bearings, new
rotors and new brake pads as well, i fabricated a larger heat shield that was
going to go between the new catalytic converters and the new transmission, I
was lucky to find a brand new transfer case an MP 229 just like the one that I
had taken out, a former Jeep dealer had it in his garage, I had new Drive shafts
built as the rear had to be shortened and the front had to be lengthened, and I
replaced all of the u-joints while we were doing this, later on I replaced
both the rear axles due to a vibration and I upgraded the brake shoes, so what's
under the hood everything is fully functional including
all of the emissions systems, so here's the new cold air box
it keeps the filter nice and clean here are the two batteries with a battery
isolator located between them, the wiring is a little messy but I'm working on it,
and the engine sits in there nice and straight, the fan is held in by some
brackets that I made, and this is what my electric mess looks like, but it's proven
to be very reliable on these roads that I live on up here in Northern Virginia, so
what does the interior look like, so I get rid of all the red color, I redid all
the door panels and all of the arm rests replaced all of the simulated wood trim
on the inside, covered the steering wheel in leather as well as the seats and
that center console is from a Ford van and I installed this digital dash that
runs off an obd2, this is the digital heater control with the two controls for
the heated front seats, I installed this large screen radio that also has a lot
of entertainment capabilities, and I have the ECM and the TCM reprogrammed
to accept his tap up tap down shifter and of course it also has a backup
camera capability which comes in handy new mats, new seat belts, and USB charging
stations, front and rear and heated seats in the back too, the back seat folds up and
it's held in place by this elastic band that's completely sound proofed in the
roof and on the floor, and this is the rear passenger control for the heated
seats and the USB charging station, the yellow battery runs this DC converter ,and the
rear seat belts I put in shoulder harnesses which this Jeep did not have
previously, Scotty thanks again for allowing me to feature this Jeep I
really have a lot of fun with it, it's great to drive, thanks for watching,
well that was this week's video and to have your car mod shown on my channel
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