The Jeep was not a showroom piece. It was a daily driver type of car, which is what we wanted. The trademark Wagoneer wood paneling was long gone, someone repainted it white and didn’t do a great job, but I thought it looked great though, like it was much older than it is since the previous owner put on the “rhino chaser” front end.
I replaced the transmission with one I pulled from a pick-a-part with 50k miles on it. I put new brakes on the front (disk) in spring of 2023, and changed the oil every 3,000 miles, but otherwise she never needed much in the year I owned her. The water pump, power steering pump and alternator were all done shortly before I bought her.
Unfortunately, somewhere along the way the oil pump failed and the engine wasn’t getting properly lubricated. I pulled the heads and dug down the to cam, which definitely needed to be replaced. New pistons wouldn’t have hurt either.
She was an incredibly fun car to drive. The best I’ve ever driven. I love almost everything about it, but I did not have time to fix her, and ended up giving her to a friend of a friend in the Outer Banks. I believe he is about half way through restoring her as of June 2025.
