About half way home I stopped for a good inspection. I was amazed at how little rust this jeep had - nothing significant in the body which is amazing for an old jeep. They were not really built with corrosion protection in mind and anyone who finds an old jeep with no corrosion in it is doing well.
I actually thought the vehicle was blue in colour based on the pictures emailed to me, but quickly realised that this was the original green colour with 32 years of fade on it. All in all I was pretty happy with my find.
I got the vehicle home and started the rebuild. I began by cleaning 32 years of grime, grease and dust from the vehicle. I than began to polish the paintwork to see how it would come up. I minimised any painting on the vehicle, trying to preserve the look of this outback survivor, but in some cases I elected to put a little paint on to keep the vehicle looking good in general (a bit on windscreen frame and a little on the LHS and RHS body panels.)
I had the diffs, steering box, engine, gearbox and t/case rebuilt. I fitted an overdrive and also (not original I know) 11" drum brakes.
I got the upholstery redone as close to the original seats as I could.
I also fitted an alternator - these small enhancements greatly improve the day to day driveability of the jeep.
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