Renegade rescue/ Bill and Techs excellent adventure

Monday Aug/10th Seattle Wa.
The day started off like any other morning, checking EWillys and ECJ5 to see what is new. Looking in the Ebay/Craigslist post on ECJ5 came across a post titled "could this be a Renegade ?" Alright, having a R1 already I'm interested in what it might be. Click on the link and sure enough, by the pictures it looks just like Grampa's Prairie gold R1 I'm currently restoring only in pieces. Starting to get a little excited I decide to wait and show my cousin when he gets in to work. Not really needing another project jeep but thinking I probably can't pass it up I'm trying to justify going to get it even though it is in Colorado and how to make it happen.
Well the other guys get in to work and I show them the photos and they start getting excited too, maybe more than I. I'm still trying to figure out how to get them and make this work but more and more thinking I can't pass it up. To my surprise they all offer to go with and share driving duties if I decide to jump on it. Well that's covered now to get it past the parents who allow me to keep my Jeeps at their place and to come up with the money for it and the drive. So I stare at the photos the rest of the day and wrestle with logistics until the evening when I can call Dad and see what he thinks about me bringing home another project to his place, I already own 5 other jeeps stored there. I give him a call and direct him to the post for him to check out and he agrees that I can't pass it up Being rare in it's own right plus it may have some of the few things I am missing to do a 100% restoration on the R1 I already have. OK so now two obstacles down.
I then give the guy a call to get some more info and to see if it is still there as well as if he would hold it till the weekend, seeing as I am coming from Seattle clear to Colorado Springs. The call goes well, he verifies it is a R1 and that it is mostly complete just disassembled for the last 30 years. He agrees to hold onto it till I have a chance to get there.
Tuesday 11th
Get to work and let the guys know we are on after talking with the boss who I do a lot of work/maintenance on his Jeeps agrees to loan me the cash in exchange for future hours on his projects. All hurdles covered at this point the rest of the week drags by waiting for Friday.
Friday 14Th
The 4 of us are all anxious to get going knowing what we are getting ourselves into drive wise. 1300 miles plus one way and only having the weekend to do it in as we cant have the whole ARB tech dept gone on Monday. We need a flawless trip both ways. We leave work at 5:00pm and head out. Taking shifts driving and trying to sleep in between it takes us 25 hours to get to the jeep going through a couple wild fires burning in Oregon and Colorado. We meet Michael and the jeep and start loading as we know the clock is ticking! Half an hour later, title in hand, we are back on the road the other way. By now we are thoroughly exhausted but are only half way done with the trip. The trip back actually goes better, no wildfires to slow or wait for the road to clear and we make it back in 24hrs. 2,738 miles and 49 hours later, trip accomplished. I now have 2 Prairie gold Renegade 1's.
Thanks to all the Guys At ARB tech, Mitch, Phil and Eric who eagerly jumped in to help make the crazy trip possible.

 

A memorable trip for sure!

What are your plans for it CARTER?

 

Plans are to use the bits and pieces needed to make Gramp's R1 a 100% restoration then go through it and inventory what is there. Will re-assemble it, do brakes and other needed things and make it a running survivor for now. Will possibly restore it at some future date as the Prarie gold R1's seem to be scarce. Of other note; the new R1 is only 6 digits later than the one I already had. First one ends in 17 new one 23.
You can follow the road trip on facebook or instagram at #renegaderescue or #renegadetour.

 

nice !!!!!

 

Thats a great story. Made me smile.

 

Sa-weeeeeettt! I absolutely love those early Renegade stripes. Looks like a nice body. Glad to hear it'll be restored. Congrats on an awesome purchase.:lurk:

 

Congrats Carter! I was getting tempted by that one also!

 

Cool!

Now if I could just fine a 6 like that!

 

Warloch; You guys just have nice stuff out there, couldn't pass this one up.
Zoomer; yeah it was too tempting, luckily the guy agreed to hold it till the weekend, would have been a real downer to drive all the way out there for nothing.
Glenn; yeah couldn't have been done with out the help. Boss wasn't going to go for missing work to get a jeep even though he is a jeepaholic as well.
Just did the math and we travelled 2,738 miles in 49 hours averaging 55.87 mph the whole trip. including pit stops and wildfire stops. Now if this week would just end so I can get back up to dads to check out whats in all the crates....

 

If I could find the like thumbs up symbol on my iPhone I'd click on it.

 

So I got to dig into the new R1 a little more this weekend. Found some good and some bad things. Trans and t case are definitely shot as the photos show but the motor appears to be fine. Can compress all the valves by hand and the main and connecting rod bearings look great. No water or contamination in the motor oil. Finally got to go through the milk crates of parts and some things are missing but nothing that can't be found. Harness is intact and not too modified and auxiliary gauges appear to be correct.








Took a little time to make it look a little more like a jeep.

 

The body seems nice...

 

Umm, that transfer case inspction cover looks like you are develloping new life forms. Good luck.

 

Nice project....

 

So I have had some time to compare the two side by side so to speak. The major difference I see is the axle gear ratio. The new one is 3.73 with no signs of ever having an overdrive and axle tags in place. While gramps has 4.88 with tags in place and has the overdrive. I suspect maybe the overdrive was added at the dealer but my dad doesn't remember, he was 14 at the time, and grampa has been gone for awhile. I know he had the dealership add a front limited slip before picking it up, so could have added overdrive as well. Other than that they appear identical, long lost brothers reunited.

 

I've got the Prairie Gold paint / trim tags, and Kaiser plaque removed from a parts CJ5 I picked up a couple weeks ago. Will be mailed out to you this week Carter!