August 1964: Fun With FSJs
It's been a while since a fullsize Jeep graced our cover, as one does this month---and as it turns out, 45 years ago this month, we showed that `wheelers have been modding up those beloved old FSJs from the earliest days of four wheeling. The Wagoneer featured here was the subject of an engine-swap conversion kit designed by Brian Chuchua's legendary shop in Fullerton, California, that gave the Jeep a 271hp dose of 289 Ford Cobra V-8 power. The matching Ford tranny was also swapped in, though a torque converter from a detuned (non-Cobra) version was needed, and a Studebaker Avanti shift control was also plumbed into the gearbox, which gave its owner a manual shift option if needed for Low and Second. Everything else from the transfer case back was left pure Jeep, and the Wagoneer's owner, a mechanical engineer by trade, was pleased with the conversion, though future mods were being planned even then. Already he'd installed some newfangled 7.50-16 Michelin tires with "radial steel cords," which, we noted were "seldom seen due to their general unavailability and cost." Some things really have changed a lot over the years.
Want to See More?
Want to see more? Log onto fourwheeler.com, where we've archived these great tire photos, and plenty more. We're uploading more old stories from the `60s, `70s, and `80s to our site every month, so visit the site often to see what's new--er, old. Er, whatever.