76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

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Topic author
WaggyGuy
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Location: Roswell, NM

76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

So, this is my first time making a build thread. Here's the back story. I had a friend who owned a 96 Dodge Ram 1500 with the 5.9L Magnum V8. I did more work than I care to remember on that truck. Well, the engine "died" (or so he thought at the time) so he gave the truck to me. My original plan was to see if the engine was rebuildable and use it with another Jeep project I had. Well, the engine was fine. The plenum gasket was toast, which caused the horrible running condition and a push rod broke, which caused a dead cylinder. I tore it apart and took it to the machine shop. That's where the Wagoneer comes in.

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I had been seeing and dreaming about this thing for 8+ years as I would drive by it, but I thought it was next to an abandoned building. It turns out it was in the yard at the machine shop. When I picked up my block, we made a deal and I dragged it home.

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Another shot:

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Topic author
WaggyGuy
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Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

So once I got the Wagoneer home I started planning the project. I sold my old Jeep to my neighbor's son and went all in with this project. I searched online for build threads about using a Dodge Ram frame under a Wagoneer, but didn't find much info. That's why I decided to start this thread. The plan is to sit the Wagoneer body on top of a shortened Ram frame and use all of the Ram drivetrain (360, Auto Trans, 231 t/c, etc).

The Donor:

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I took a lot of measurements and spent tons of time online planning the cuts. What I found from hands-on research surprised me. The Dodge Ram 1500 has 3 piece frame rails. The front two are welded together and then the third piece is riveted on at the front spring hanger. You can see the welded area between the four large holes:

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And here is the riveted section:

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Topic author
WaggyGuy
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Location: Roswell, NM

Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

So, once again I did a lot of research and came up with a plan of attack. I would cut the frame at the weld, remove a section of the appropriate length and then weld it back together. I settled on taking out 27 inches, which according to my research should have stretched my wheelbase by about 3 inches.

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I used the factory weld line as a reference and got after it. I welded it back together once I made sure that everything was square and straight.

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What I thought would be 3 inches longer ended up being less than 1 inch. This concerned me at first, but ended up being just fine in the end.

Topic author
WaggyGuy
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Location: Roswell, NM

Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

Now that the frame is good to go, it was time to work on the Jeep body. I had stripped the carpet and gutted the inside before working on the frame. Here is what I found under the carpet:

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Rust in the front corner of the floor:

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And some rust on the floor by the rear passenger door:

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Over all, not too bad. I can fix what I've found so far.

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WaggyGuy
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Location: Roswell, NM

Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

Then the big surprise came. I pulled the headliner and found this mess:

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Here's a close up

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Looks like a lot of surface rust that I can hopefully knock off with an angle grinder with a wire wheel or something. I didn't find any spots that are completely rusted through.

I tossed all of the headliner and the carpet. The front seat is gone and I might try to make the Dodge seats fit. The Waggy had a front bench and I'd rather have two buckets and a center console. The rear seat will probably get recovered at some point. There was a TON of hair in the Jeep along with an insande amount of mouse droppings. The floor will probably be covered in bedliner once the rusty spots are patched.

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WaggyGuy
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Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

If anyone knows of bucket seats that are a fairly easy fit, let me know. I am out of town this weekend and can visit the pull and pay while I'm there for some seats. The dodge seats are going to be a bit of a challenge to mount in the Waggy.

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WaggyGuy
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Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

Next order of business was to tear the front end of the Jeep apart so I could pull the body.

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This thing was DIRTY, but that is to be expected from sitting out in Southeastern NM for 8+ years.

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WaggyGuy
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Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

With the fenders and hood off, I pulled the front doors and the rear door. I don't have access to a car lift, so I improvised.

In the back I knocked out the drain plugs and put 1/2 inch grade 8 bolts through the holes. These bolts went through the channel under the floor, so I figured it would be strong enough. The bolts were then connected to a cherry picker by a chain.

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The front was a trickier process. I originally thought I'd put a piece of steel under the body and use camper lifts to pick it up. Well, I forgot that the tranny would be in the way. So, I came up with a different idea. Again I knocked out the drain plugs that are under the front seat. I ran 1/2 inch grade 8 bolts through the holes and laid a piece of 3" channel across the body. It rested against the tranny tunnel in the middle. I put the camper lifts under the sides and it looked like this:

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My buddy and I carefully lifted the body alternating between front and back. In the end, we had to get it high enough to clear the Dodge tires, which are roughly 32inches tall.

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With the body dangling in the air, we rolled the Jeep chassis out and put the Dodge chassis under it.

Topic author
WaggyGuy
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Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

We ended up with this:

Without front fender

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With front fender

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The Jeep is now sitting on the Dodge frame. The 1 inch longer wheelbase looks pretty good. I'll open up the rear fender to fit the tire. Tires are 285/75/16s. The floor of the Jeep sits 30 inches off the ground. It is as tall as I thought it would be. I plan to either run a 33 or 35 inch tire and it looks like I'll have plenty of room either way.

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WaggyGuy
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Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

The front end will end up sitting lower once the engine/tranny are in along with the fenders, hood and grille. Here are some miscellaneous photos from underneath:

Rear "cross member" of body sitting at the rear edge of the frame. I'll have to build all of my body mounts. Not sure if I'll build from scratch or just cut the mounts off the Jeep frame

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This is the cross member on the Dodge frame that sits in front of the axle. In my planning, I wanted this to sit right under the front of the cargo area. It ended up right where I wanted it. There is approximately a 4 inch rise in the floor, and it sits right in front of this cross member

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And that's where it sits now. I put the front doors back on. I need to do body mounts, but first I want to put the tranny/transfer case in to make sure I'm not going to have problems with where everything sits. I'd like to use the Dodge gas tank, but I doubt it will fit with the 27 inches missing from the frame. We'll see if I get lucky. With the Dodge frame I kept the rear tire carrier underneath, but if I have to I will pull it out and run a YJ tank in the back.

I got all of my engine parts back, so I'm just about ready to rebuild the engine. We found out it wasn't the original engine in the Dodge. It was a remanufactured engine that is bored .040 over. The machinist said the heads are in pretty much perfect condition. Plan is to freshen up the internals and leave it pretty much stock, except I'll run slightly oversized injectors. I got an aluminum plenum plate from Hughes, so hopefully that will prevent the plenum issue in the future.
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243
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Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by 243 »

Outstanding swap!

I considered dropping my 78 Cherokee on a shortened 2nd Gen Cummins 3/4 ton chassis but opted to stick to plan A and a 5.3/4L60 for less work.

After having owned a 99 1/2 ton and 99 and 01 3/4 ton diesels Plan B would make me happier!
1978 Cherokee NT, 5.3/4L60/NP241 in Progress

Topic author
WaggyGuy
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Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

I considered swapping everything into the Jeep, but it was going to be too much work. I'm building it as a hunting rig and knew I wanted at least 33 inch tires under it. By the time I did the SOA up front, reworked the rear, swapped in axles, and fabricated motor/tranny mounts it made more sense to do it this way. It is less work and less money.

My only concern is having a truck suspension under it and the back being too stiff. The dodge was pretty smooth on the road, but I guess I'll never know any different since I didn't get to drive the waggy.
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Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by Stuka »

Looks like that should work out pretty well. The stuff on the roof is mostly glue that has dried up. The stuff is a MESS to remove. Where a mask and goggles that seal around your eyes. You do NOT want it getting into your eyes.
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twisted frame
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Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by twisted frame »

Great looking swap. Those Wag body mounts shouldn't be too bad to cut off and re-use on the Dodge frame. If you go for buckets in the Wag, there are no direct bolt-ins but some people have good luck with 1st gen Durango buckets and modified brackets.
73 J4000. 360, MC 2100, T18A, D20, stock closed knuckle Dana 44 front, 60-2 rear. Warn Lock-O-Matics, Warn/Belleview electric winch, true duals with glasspacks, old-school front diff skid plate, used 265 Toyos on 16" AR wheels.

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WaggyGuy
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Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

Thanks for the tip Stuka, will definitely cover up when I clean the roof.

Thanks for the info Twisted, I'll check out the u-pull and see if they have any Durango seats. The Dodge ram seats could work, but I'll have to modify the brackets quite a bit and the driver seat is in really rough shape. I thought I had read something about some kind of seat from a Ford car working well, but I can't remember what kind of car it was.

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WaggyGuy
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Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

Been a busy couple of weeks. Last weekend I went to Albuquerque and visited the U Pull and Pay. I scored a pair of seats out of a 2001 (I think) Durango. The driver side is power and the passenger is manual with lumbar adjustment. They were the only seats in the yard that weren't ripped and missing parts. I lucked out because somebody had pulled the front bolts off both seats, but apparently didn't have the right wrench to get the rear bolts. The good news was that the rear bolts weren't too stripped to come off.

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Now I'll have to figure out how to mount them. I did test them out and I like the way they look and sit in the Jeep.

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WaggyGuy
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Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

So this weekend has been spent mostly cleaning engine parts. While the pistons were soaking in cleaner, I took the front clip off the Wagoneer chassis so it will be ready to sell.

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After getting off to a late start and slicing the crap out of my finger, I got it off.

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I also pulled the front and rear bumper brackets and got the rest of the body mounts off that were stuck to the mounts. If anyone is interested in a complete 76 Wagoneer chassis/drivetrain, let me know. I'd like to sell it as a complete assembly instead of parting it all out.

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WaggyGuy
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Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

Almost done cleaning pistons, I only have two left. The block, heads, intake and water pump are all cleaned up and ready to go. Cam and crank are ready too.

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Here's the piston from the dead cylinder, it was pretty clean from being soaked with unburnt gasoline.

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and for comparison, a "normal" piston from another cylinder:

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WaggyGuy
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Re: 76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by WaggyGuy »

As far as the project goes, I'm kind of stuck in a rut. I got the dodge body mounts cut off the frame, but don't quite know what to do next. I took some measurements and it looks like I can fit the Dodge gas tank into the frame where it belongs without hitting the transfer case. So, I think the plan for the coming weeks is to rebuild the engine and drop the drive train into the frame.

I'm reluctant to fab all of the body mounts just in case something doesn't fit, so I plan to build a rear cross member that will go at the very back end of the frame. Just like on the waggy frame, it will have the body mounts built into it. That will at least get the body attached to the frame and get it to where I can push the Jeep around without damaging anything.
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76 Wagoneer on a Dodge frame

Post by Stuka »

At this point most would throw the engine in and dry fit everything. Once the mounts are all figured out, then go through and rebuild everything. But would require throwing the heads and intake back on the engine.

You can do it the way you are planning as well, and would save some work in the short term.


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