John's - '81 Wagoneer Limited

'Old Blue'

Old Blue's web page with the RTI results.

Old Blue: The SNOHOMISH SJ:

When I went to check out the ad for the 1981 Jeep Wagoneer I wasn't sure what I was getting into. It looked "ok", lots of faded paint, low tires, missing trim pieces, woodgrain edging hanging loose, and so on. It took over 45 minutes to resuscitate "Old Blue". It nearly resulted in burning up my Oldsmobile and the Jeep when the jumper cables melted down. Old Blue's paint was severely oxidized, two small children had run rampant through the interior with stickers, most of the emblems had fallen off on one side or another, and when he finally woke up, he was squirting water from the water pump, oil from the valve covers, and power steering fluid from the lower hose. Neglecting all these MINOR details, I saw the beauty of the beast. He has NO rust, a padded vinyl roof with no tears, a straight body, frame and solid axles.

I actually drive it home, some 14 miles, turned it around, stalled it, and couldn't start it again. It sat for 3 months. The previous owner said the starter was new, so I didn't look there at first, but when I put a new one it fired right up. (Morale of the story: go with logic, not with someone else's story...).

Old Blue's first 'outing' story was told to some of the founding FSJ members about the 'weed-eating' Wagoneer and the minor fire that ensued when the alternator wire laid against the exhaust manifold and took out a section of fusible link, thankfully. I've since rerouted and tie wrapped or electrical taped any wiring I could reach...

The next step was the 'emissions test'. Mark, my son, and I drove over to Everett, paid our $12, and severely failed the test. It registered 1152 of something nasty when the limit was 200. Back in the 'shop', the tune-up found two dead cylinders because of bad plug wires. I installed Bosch Platinum plugs, new wires, changed the oil to AMSOIL 100% 10W40 Synthetic Oil and installed an AMSOIL Lifetime Air Filter. Back to Everett (Sept. 1, '95) and now the reading was 34 and we had tabs...

I rubbed his paint out three times with all kinds of cleaners, and cutters, to no avail. Finally, one of the guys at Schucks in Snohomish suggested TR3 Resin Glaze. It did an outstanding job!

The shelf paper on the tailgate was very faded, for some strange reason my military background caused me to think about using shoe polish on the tailgate! I did and IT WORKED! It still looks good some 4 months later... (actually I used Cordovan, did the spit shine trick of melting the polish down first by allowing it to burn in the can and then allowing it to cool...) Another FSJ Meisterizing trick, no extra charge...

Jim Startup's in Everett fixed a multitude of oil leaks and charged up the A/C. Another mechanic friend, Tom, and I worked out a number of minor electrical problems in locks and windows. Once the basics were done I installed a low-end Alpine and Pioneer speakers from a previous rig, installed a remote control for the electric doors locks purchased from JC Whitney (mostly because I didn't want to fix the key cylinders - turns out later the electric remote thing died and I fixed the lock cylinders anyway), and inserted an old 40 ch CB where the ash tray used to live. Mounted a 'Diesel' brand CB antenna from the Wilsonville, Oregon truck stop on I-5. Installed larger single point truck mirrors with blind spot mirrors for navigating the roughest trails in the area, I-5 and I-405...

[ Picture of Old Blue ]

Long term plans include a 6.2 L Diesel.

Did a mild lift of about 2" by way of Rancho Add-a-leafs and RS5000's. You can see the results in the picture above.

The interior got new seats with headrests, from an 85 GW.

Which brings me to the story of my first 4WD, a 1967 Wagoneer with a 327 V-8, 3 on the tree and Dana 20. I got it by trading a Pinto Wagon that I had traded 3 cords of firewood for. It was in sad shape with very little in the way of clutch, brakes or tires. The rear window was held in place by a block of wood. In the course of working over the Indian Ceramic (the locals called it Salmon) colored Wagoneer, I ended up in Four Wheeler magazine's Garage Scenes, probably because I was standing in my grease pit and partly because the Wagoneer was being put together with parts from every kind of vehicle I could find... (January 1992) It ended up with a Buick 3.8L V-6, TH350, Volvo seats, and is still happily traveling the greater Snohomish countryside. My next Jeep was an 85 Cherokee with a Turbo Diesel, once again we found our way into Garage Scenes, January 1993. Two things made me sell it. No automatic trans., and no room. The next 4x4 was a full-sized Jimmy Diesel. Which turned out to be TOO big. So I'm back to the FSJ as being just right. Off-road there's nothing like a Jeep, of any size.

Other past 4x4's:1953 Willy's Wagon, 1965 J-200, a 1969 and a 1977 Wagoneer. Also had 4 XJ's, and an 86 MJ (Comanche). Also had a '64 Scout & the 83 GMC Jimmy with a 6.2 Diesel.

The goal for Old Blue: Diesel Power, nice ride, good economy, plenty of lights, good sounds, handle and corner well, yet will take on any local trail in a way that will earn the respect of the little Jeepers who think only a CJ is worthy of off-road...

About the nut behind the wheel: (ed. - John wrote that)

Basically a jack-of-all trades. Grew up (?) in Crystal Lake, Illinois, joined the Army in 1974 at age 17, met my wife Becky, who is from Mitchell, South Dakota, at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. In March 1975 while studying Cryptographic Equipment Repair at Fort Gordon, I read Hal Lindsey's book the Late Great Planet Earth and accepted Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. In November 1975 I flew back from Germany to Illinois, Becky flew up from White Sands Missile Range and we got married. We traveled a bunch in the states. We both ended up in Germany, where we traveled a bunch more. ("First" class, of course, I've even got the picture of us heating up a can of Ravioli on our Sterno stove on the beach at Monte Carlo...) I got out of the Army in July 1977 and we moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon, where I planned to get an engineering degree at OIT. Well, we ended up back in Germany (and the Army) in Jan 78. In Darmstadt, got to drive a lot on the Autobahn. Favorite Army vehicle was a mid-60ish International Harvester Crew Cab 4x4 Pickup, with a real nasty looking brush guard, not fast, but solid. In my '67 Mustang the fastest speed was about 138 mph. By the time we left Darmstadt, I had finished three degrees at Central Texas College and the University of Maryland, was on the promotion list for E-6, had a daughter, Christine (July 80), and were on our way back to Georgia where I was assigned as an Instructor. While at Fort Gordon I taught electronics evenings for Georgia Military College. The Army figured I'd make a good recruiter, so the Department of the Army sent me orders. I politely told them I had plans to attend seminary and sorta quit.

That brought us to Portland, Oregon in 1982. I had a job with ITT Technical Institute as an Electronics Instructor before I was out of the Army. I taught electronics and attended Western Conservative Baptist Seminary. After a year, funding and energy ran out. In the middle of all that, our son, Mark had been born (Mar 83). My students suggested that I join some of them at Intel. INTEL was and is a great place to work. While working at Intel I discovered the AMSOIL LIFETIME AIRFILTERs and became a dealer. At Intel, I worked on all kinds of cool photolithography equipment: lasers, computers, solenoids, gears, air bearings, arc lamps, optics, and all kinds of other really neat stuff. Unfortunately, 1985 was not a good year for R&D in the semiconductor world. Intel was very nice to me, but sent me along my way, along with about 49% of the other technical and management types...

Meanwhile, to the north, Boeing had been asking me to join them in the circuit design world. So in September 1985, we moved to the Everett area. At Boeing I designed the Flight Instruments Accessory Card for the 737-500, the 747-400, and worked on all commercial jet models (707,727,737,747,757&767) doing sustaining circuit analysis and modification. In 1987, I responded to an inquiry from a publishing company called Marquis, to what I thought was someone's idea of a practical joke, and ended up listed in who's who in the west and a few others. In 1989 I moved into Systems Analysis (software engineering). In 1992 I joined the 777 team developing software for functional test. In 1994 I started teaching UNIX classes off-hours. In November 1995, I started teaching computer and network stuff full time, mostly UNIX classes.

Snohomish is a beautiful place to live, good schools and only minutes from some half way decent four wheeling... Plenty of Espresso stands... Nordstrom... and Antioch Bible Church. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for us and Old Blue... The King is coming, and quite possibly very soon, but in the meantime, I'm going to try and put a Diesel into this here Jeep...

John Meister

John is one of the charter members and one of the more active participants on the FSJ-List(FullSizeJeep).

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