82 black laredo

[Will_Texas]

Finally found my scrambler... And I'm loving it.
82 black Laredo, mostly stock right now. Since it is a black Laredo with about half original paint, I'm going to try and preserve it for the time being. I do have a few things planned for it though. Namely safety and convenience upgrades.

I have already replaced or fixed the 4 or 5 things it needed for inspection. The main problems it has right now are electrical bugs... Those will be fun. I want to be able to drive the jeep through the rebuild/repair process, so no major tear downs.


The scrambler runs and idles great. Also, the factory plastic valve cover doesn't leak. It looks like a PO sealed it up really good at some point.

That's the plan for everything right now. More pictures later!

 

[gr8dain]

Looks great. Enjoy it. How is the interior? Electrical gremlins can be fun.

 

[jerseyjeeps]

Awesome! One of my favorite combos - the 1981-1984 SL... Ill take electrical gremlins over rust any day

 

[red mistress]

Triple Black SL

Congrats for finding nice first Scrambler.

Patience paid off.

 

[skiptown]

very nice

 

[spankrjs]

Looks like a really solid Scrambler

 

[bobbysjeep]

Nice find. Was it local? Do you know any history on it?

 

[Polarfire]

Congrats! Waiting for the right one is always the best course of action! Looks like a good one. Put some OEM Chrome wheels on it and it would look REALLY good!

 

[Will_Texas]

Thanks everyone for the comments.
I do not know any specific history on the jeep, other than it was owned by an older gentleman in central Louisiana for several years. Then it was auctioned off, and I bought it from the guy who bought it at the auction (He resold it immediately). I do hope to dig a little more into the history someday.

The interior is unoriginal at the moment, I plan on doing all the interior restoration at once, after I do a couple things to the jeep.

Yep, one thing you gotta love... NO RUST
Atleast nothing I would consider serious rust. There is some light surface rust on the frame and underbody that needs to be Por15'd, but that's it.

Rough plan of action:
tune up the motor and do some misc. maintenance
Fix the electrical bugs(fuel gauge, clock, and other misc)
Do something about a bad p/s leak(boot behind the steering box is busted, I think this is the main cause)
Also need to do something about the speedo. It's off pretty bad.
Rust prevention
rebuild the doors
Start cosmetic restoration (interior, light bodywork)
Experiment with HHO power

Also going to replace the clutch during my winter break this year. Might rebuild the tranny while its out. That's going to be lots of fun.

More pics tomorrow, I've been slacking...

I'm going tomorrow to go install my spare tire carrier, take more pics, see if I can fix the fuel gauge, and check my rear axle fluid.

 

[Will_Texas]

I haven't been able to update in quite awhile, school picked up in September and hasn't slowed down since. On my last day before the break, I noticed a pretty steady fuel leak while I was at school. It didn't last too long, so I decided to try and chance the ride home. 1 breakdown, lots of curse words and a temporary gas tank later, I found myself in the middle of a daring plot to at least partially rebuild the jeep while I have the time, before school starts back up again in January. And I'm visiting relatives after Christmas, so that leaves me about a week and a half to do everything I want to do. The jeep is my daily driver, so unless I get it going in time I'm out of luck. Since I'm off school now, I'm going to work a solid day every day on the jeep until it's time to put if back together.

So far, I've got some 15x8 wheels to paint up and add, several electrical bugs to fix, lots of small bodywork and repaint jobs to do, a major fuel leak to stop, a clutch and rear pinion seal to change, and an undercarriage to wire brush and paint in POR-15. Besides that, I'm just going to give the jeep the general inspection and maintenance I have been meaning to do for months, add a few accessories and make it look a lot better.

This jeep is an 80's time machine, and I like it that way

So anyway, I plan to update every night for several nights in a row. Here's the progress pics from today, mainly just disassembly while I wait on new parts to come in.

Most of the areas under the rocker trim and flares was clean, there were a few surface rust spots on the drivers side. Nothing a wire brush and some POR-15 can't easily fix
Thankfully, No Holes! So my job is pretty easy.

I spent a lot of time today on the pass. side door, it has some pretty strange damage that the PO's pitifully tried to cover up with bondo. As you can see, it all came off in a 5 lb. slab.

Whatever the damage was, its only on that door. None of the rest of the body has it. Maybe that door is from a different jeep

That's all for tonight, more tomorrow!

 

[Will_Texas]

I didn't get as much done today as I would have hoped, mainly just fought with torx bolts and the stubborn gas tank. I figured out what my fuel problem was, a busted main line (It was the factory original). This caused the slight leak, and gave the illusion that I was out of gas or there was a clot somewhere since the fuel pump started sucking air after I took off for home that day. While I'm at it, I'm going to go ahead and drop the tank for painting, skid plate repair, fuel line replacement, and so I can double check the sending unit. This will also make it easier to POR- 15 the underside.

The gas tank would be on the floor right now it it weren't for one stubborn spun carriage bolt.
I'm going to go ahead and weld some nuts on the frame in all the rounded carriage holes so I don't have to deal with this problem again. I was planning to only do the holes that spun, but I might go ahead and do them all for uniformity. I prefer my jeeps stock and normally I would just repair this problem, but I'm definitely not above modifying something to make it easier to work on.
And the main place where originality matters for me is looks anyway

There were quite a few more demons in the windshield frame than I was expecting when considering the condition of the rest of the jeep. My windshield frame looks terrible, but the cowl is nearly spotless
I'd prefer it that way, a windshield frame is easier to replace than a tub

Maybe this is why my defrost pressure sucked

Sometime in the next few days I'm going to fire up the blasting cabinet and start cleaning up hinges, hardware, brackets, etc. If you don't have a blasting cabinet, get one. They are invaluable. They don't take up much space, and only require a medium air compressor if you go easy on it. And they make cleaning parts so much easier.


Anyway, here's the pics. I ordered some goodies this morning, they should be in next week sometime.

I was really hoping to save the original windshield frame, but oh well. I've got another one I can use, but its not for an 82, so I'm hoping to find another 82 windshield somewhere.

Busted fuel line, I had already started to clean up and label stuff for reassembly

 

[Bushmaster6]

I see you've found how to open the can of worms

looking good... you've got an ambitious objective for the holidays, hope you can make it!

 

[red mistress]

X-2

I see you've found how to open the can of worms

looking good... you've got an ambitious objective for the holidays, hope you can make it!

Just remember things come apart real easy...it's the reinstalling and fixing that take forever.

U gonna install that bumper & dash pad that came off my 82 Oriental?

 

[Will_Texas]

Just remember things come apart real easy...it's the reinstalling and fixing that take forever.

U gonna install that bumper & dash pad that came off my 82 Oriental?

I'm going to use the bumper, but I'm saving the dash pad for when I have a different jeep as a daily driver.... It's in too good of shape to use on this jeep!

I'm just going to clean up the one that's in it for right now. Its in tolerable shape.

 

[Will_Texas]

I see you've found how to open the can of worms

looking good... you've got an ambitious objective for the holidays, hope you can make it!

Thanks! I'm pretty sure all jeep owners know how to open up a can of worms when they want to.....

I hope I can make it also, cause I'm SOL if I don't

 

[Will_Texas]

Not a whole lot done today either.... I blame my ride up to the shop letting me down till about 4:30 in the afternoon (thanks dad). Still worked till about 11 pm or so so everything worked out. Since I had just filled up the tank before the fuel line busted, I have a full tank of gas to siphon.... fun. I did a little this evening, I'll finish tomorrow and finally get the tank out.

I started tackling the wiring bugs tonight. I've never read a wiring diagram or done any of this stuff before, So it was a learning experience.... I fixed my brake light for about a minute. The wire on the brake had been removed, and cut up by the splice. The little switch was also bent up (see pic). I soldered the wire back in, cleaned the connections down by the brake and straightened up the switch. It worked like it should for a minute or so, then died again. At least now its not on all the time, so I can live with that.

I found the source of my blinker problem, which was the most pressing issue. All the other wiring bugs were just minor annoyances. See the pics, it was the square switch like the guys on the forum said
Going tomorrow to go pick up a new switch and some more goodies.

I have pretty much found the extent of how far I want to tear into this thing this winter, I want to drop the tank, replace the clutch, fix wiring, replace the windshield, take care of some rust prevention and a few other minor things... and that's about it. Everything else I'm saving for next summer. That includes most of the bodywork, paint, most of the interior restoration, exterior details, and whatever wiring bugs I can't work out before its time to assemble everything.

Anyway, here's the pics of the carnage from today.

Piece of cake.

See the broken wire?

Bent brake switch.... It was bent just enough to be out of the way of the e-brake.

 

[Will_Texas]

I didn't post updates the last couple days, mainly because there wasn't much to update. I have been tracing and retracing wires, cutting and re-soldering, looking at diagrams and hopelessly confusing myself, and trying to apply it all to the jeep's wiring. I now know from first hand experience that wiring will drive you absolutely insane. I eventually fixed the blinkers, and I'm still not 100% sure what the problem was. I was trying different combinations of flashers and poof, everything started working again on the original configuration. There's still a lot of wiring things to do, there's some melted wires up under there and several things that still need to be cleaned up, removed, and re-soldered. The factory wiring diagram makes sense to me, but the PO's have had a blast messing all that up. I'd like to restore the wiring to factory configuration one day so it will be easy to trace and work on in the future, but I'm just going to leave it for right now. The only wiring bugs left are minor annoyances.

With 3 days of wiring work behind me, I got to do some fun stuff like paint up my new 15x8 wheels and center caps. I didn't take too many pictures cause my hands were pretty sticky from all the paint.

I finished removing the tank the other day also, and got all my new fuel lines cut. I know where a good tank and skid plate are that I can eventually replace the rusty skid with. I think its weird that the skid plate rusted out, but the frame and body around it look fine

Anyway, heres a few shots from the past few days. I started to paint the inside of the hardtop, but I ran out of paint


Wheels before:

And after:

For 30 year old seam sealer, I can live with that. Not too bad.

Nobody gets to laugh at my masking job, I did the best with what I had...

That little square switch that I posted a picture of before turned out to be the horn relay. Oh well, live and learn. It didn't fix my blinker problem like I hoped it might before I knew it was the horn switch, but the factory horn button worked again, so I got to ditch this ugly looking horn button the PO's had wired up. Unfortunately, that button was also what they wired the radio to (like I said, they had this stuff wired very weird) so I lost my radio in the process

So far on the wiring, I have repaired the blinkers, e-brake light (sorta), repaired the taillight wiring (it was a mess) courtesy lights, and tach backlight. And there's still more left to go, but I'm not going to worry about it for now. I've got other problems to worry about.

I was not originally planning on using white wheels, but at $400 for 5 15x8 wheels, brand new tires, and a set of center caps it was a pretty easy decision.


I thought the problem may have been a corroded blinker switch, so I partially dissembled the steering column. I didn't have a steering wheel puller, so I made my own!

 

[Will_Texas]

edit: Double post

 

[Will_Texas]

Rusty skid plate:

And the tank w/ new fuel lines. My fuel sending unit's ground wire had been cut, that may have been one reason why the gauge didn't work

Still don't get what made this thing rust out

I'm going to eventually replace these as a unit, the tank has been patched before on top of the skid plate being rusty. They are going back in for the meantime though.


My POR 15 and new clutch come in tomorrow, as soon as I am done with the POR 15 on the underside the tank should be ready to go back in.

Then I just need to replace the windshield, install the new clutch, finish painting everything that I want to repaint, change fluids, replace the pinion seal, and put everything back together. Piece of cake.

December 27th is my deadline, I can make it!

 

[spankrjs]

Great progress on an ambitious time frame/schedule

It is always "interesting" to discover the joys of previous owner wiring "repairs"

As for the gas tank skid plate rusting out, I think they rust out because moisture/dirt/crud get trapped between the skid plate and the bottom of the tank/factory furnished pieces of plastic