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84 Australian Overlander frame off restomod

ag4ever

Average Nut
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Richmond
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Ha! Yeah it’s a YJ, back in the CJ years Jeep was struggling against a strong US dollar, competition from Toyota and local conversion costs on some models to RHD. This resulted in a CJ being 20-30% more expensive than the equivalent Landcruiser of the time. This and other factors meant Jeep pulled out of Australia for about ten years so the first wrangler we got was the TJ. My understanding was that their were about five RHD YJ’s brought in for evaluation purposes and perhaps a few personal imports so they are pretty rare here.

AnywayView attachment 70886 this one was cheap and in surprisingly good condition and after a couple of months I flipped it for a good price
View attachment 70885

A YJ in that condition would be rare, even in the US of A.
 

The Buzzcutter

Basic User
City
Brisbane
State
QL
I was also able to source a tail gate locally from eBay. Part of the plan will be to install some extra ribbing on the underside of the world cab roof running front to rear. This will incorporate some threaded holes that will allow eye bolts to be screwed in from the top so the whole world can can be easily lifted off and on and barn door removed to run as a scrambler during winter months. With the hard top going back on for summer. Not a typo, the summer months are 110 plus here and this is also when we get the majority of our rain so very hot and humid, this is when the aircon that I am planning will be doing it’s work. All the extra ribbing will be hidden under some custom head lining
 

ag4ever

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What model a/c do you plan on running?
 

bigwalton

Alaskan Postal nutjob
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Dexter
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MI
Wow. Always so jealous when seeing someone doing a Scrambler up "right." :bow: Mine needs all of this and more :banghead:

Interesting on the top removal setup plan. I took mine on and off twice a year when we were down in North Carolina where I could drive it all winter with the top on. I just disassembled the pieces and hung them from the garage ceiling. I made a chain/2x4 setup that stored the top against the ceiling and the two side panels laying flat directly beneath the roof. Everything was up above the garage door when it opened and out of the way.

Loving watching this!
 

bigwalton

Alaskan Postal nutjob
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Dexter
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looking at options currently

I killed my defroster when I did my Speedhut gauges (I added two small gauges that took the space for the defrost duct behind the dash) and I was thinking I'd go back and replace the whole heater box setup with something aftermarket to get it back. Interested to see what you do with this.
 

The Buzzcutter

Basic User
City
Brisbane
State
QL
It wasn’t long before the sand blasting started to reveal what was really going on underneath that re spray. I knew that a couple of repairs had been done over the years and suspected there would be others that would reveal themselves after all although this was a dry climate Jeep it had spent many years on the beach.
9CACABF1-1493-4C42-A17A-40FF975D28ED.jpegE01BA52F-9C32-4EBE-A9B3-872180B6B89F.jpeg84993258-29AB-4555-8F29-33056C92A8F8.jpeg8A1E7B00-81DA-48C0-8FA2-B63FB3A18359.jpeg4A65E16B-A830-4E89-AAA7-4A8040A408EF.jpeg
 

The Buzzcutter

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Brisbane
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QL
looking at options currently

Sorry about the previous reply being a bit short I will give a few more details here.

I have looked at the ‘original style’ options from Jeep Air and I do like that under dash style. When I originally looked at these I thought I saw an option for RHD models, I.e the controls being on the right of the unit rather than over by the passenger as they would be if I used a LHD fit. When I looked again a couple of weeks ago I couldn’t find the RHD option again so now I am not so sure. Once again the exchange rates and shipping make this an expensive option for Australia.

In my previous Overlander a cassette type unit was fitted which I really liked but made access to the underside and behind the dash difficult if required in the future. There are some other options locally from companies like vintage air and I am looking at these now. I am aiming to keep the dash looking as standard as possible. I don’t intend to keep all of the vent pulls but will replace these with switches, similar to the one for the wipers, to control aircon and some auxiliaries. I will also re use the little rectangular indicators next to each switch but will change the writing to match the circuit.
62AD0922-76BC-49E7-B707-231849B41213.jpeg
 

The Buzzcutter

Basic User
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Brisbane
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QL
I had a set of four gauges, batt volt / water temp / oil temp / oil pressure that I ordered about 3 years ago for a planned restoration that didn’t happen. For this build I have added a GPS speedo, tach and clock. These were all from speedhut.
1D45E72A-C025-4FA7-B844-9457BEC40DD1.jpeg
 

The Buzzcutter

Basic User
City
Brisbane
State
QL
Wow. Always so jealous when seeing someone doing a Scrambler up "right." :bow: Mine needs all of this and more :banghead:

Interesting on the top removal setup plan. I took mine on and off twice a year when we were down in North Carolina where I could drive it all winter with the top on. I just disassembled the pieces and hung them from the garage ceiling. I made a chain/2x4 setup that stored the top against the ceiling and the two side panels laying flat directly beneath the roof. Everything was up above the garage door when it opened and out of the way.

Loving watching this!

Thanks for the comments. I was hoping to achieve something similar in functionality to the JK setups I have seen. The goal is to have four points on the roof with tapped holes that I can screw a threaded lifting eye into and use these to lift the roof and sides in one piece. The holes in the roof would be hidden when fitted with a flush mounted bolt and gasket to prevent any water ingress, something like a sump plug.

My only concern is being able to get enough rigidity in the ribs to prevent any distortion. I also want the setup to be a one man operation and to take about an hour to changeover.
 

Belizeit

CJ-8 Member
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City
River Ridge
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La
Salt from the beach really plays hell on older jeep sheet metal.
 

jerseyjeeps

Crazy about AMC Jeeps
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Landing
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NJ
Whilst this was happening amongst one of the rarest Jeeps in Australia popped up for sale at a great price about 100 miles up the road. So you know the routine, went for a look, brought it home!

As mentioned these are rare here, at most there maybe 5 or 6, I have a few photos that I will post if anyone can guess what it is.

Thanks for this amazing post Andrew! I just read pages 1-4 so I am playing catch up. My guess during that read was going to be a true woodie Grand Wagoneer late model....I have heard that only 6-8 of them made it into Oz, but their are countless more non woodie 4 doors and some 2 door chiefs too.

What I really like is you provided even more evidence for the reasoning that Jeep pulled out of Oz during that time...i had heard the dollar and cost issue...now we see it coincided with deciding not to bring the YJ Wrongler into Oz...that turned out to be a great decision that made AU a much better looking place!

Question - what was your original paint code? And trim code ? (firewall tag) Starting to compile some things on the exports. Looks like this one started life as a non overlander stripes one or do you have evidence some of the stripes were there? (the trim tag would not say this, but was curious what you found from the original owner or evidence of striping under the brown paint etc.
 

The Buzzcutter

Basic User
City
Brisbane
State
QL
Thanks Eric. I thought I had a pic of the tags but can’t seem to find it so will take another next weekend.

No evidence of Overlander decals that I could see but the re spray was pretty thickly applied. The hard top was still original, Copper Bronze metallic?, and the roof looks like it was white from new. Original interior was nutmeg / tan I always get the two mixed up!
 

The Buzzcutter

Basic User
City
Brisbane
State
QL
All the ribbing was also removed. In every box section there were large congealed lumps of rust. Took a while to figure out exactly what this was especially as it was also magnetic! As I mentioned the Jeep was originally from Western Australia which is incredibly rich in iron ore, so much so that the soil is reddish brown hence the massive strip mines in the states north that mine and ship millions of tonnes of iron ore all over the world. Over the years it looks like the dirt build build up and moisture has caused this iron to rust together.
FD911CDB-6B58-4267-8C12-3947BDF477E3.jpeg93C903A2-D74E-4599-A717-1B305BD27189.jpeg
 

jerseyjeeps

Crazy about AMC Jeeps
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Landing
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NJ
Thanks Eric. I thought I had a pic of the tags but can’t seem to find it so will take another next weekend.

No evidence of Overlander decals that I could see but the re spray was pretty thickly applied. The hard top was still original, Copper Bronze metallic?, and the roof looks like it was white from new. Original interior was nutmeg / tan I always get the two mixed up!

Thanks....i notice your tub has "joop" stamped sides...so maybe its a later 84 or even early 85...the color may have been dark honey metallic...but the firewall tag will tell.... also on the interior colors...for the model years...up to 84 here in US is nutmeg, 85 started honey.
 
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