Yahoo Autos Icon's 1965 Kaiser Jeep Wagoneer Revealed
If you're into vintage Jeeps, Icon's latest four-by-four restoration is right up your alley. It's a 1965 Jeep Wagoneer from the Kaiser years, rebuilt and upgraded to the highest possible specs with in-period looks and modern tech.
Icon's Jonathan Ward says the idea for this build came from a client who needed something subtle and retro for one of his beach houses (seems like a nice problem to have). Ward and his client decided on an early Kaiser-era Wagoneer, the one with four circular headlights and a narrower grille.
Ward, being the meticulous person he is, set out to upgrade or replace every single piece of the Wagoneer to bring it up to high-quality modern specifications. Like the Rolls-Royce Derelict we saw him built awhile back, the truck uses a custom-built Art Morrison chassis, with suspension borrowed from Icon's Bronco-based BR restoration series. Under the hood sits a Chevy LS3 V8 crate engine sending 420 horsepower through an automatic transmission. Power goes to all four wheels via a shift-on-the-fly transfer case and a set of beefy Dynatrac axles. The brakes are Brembo units all around, designed in collaboration with Icon.
Of course, Icon restorations are all in the details. That's Ward's specialty, after all. Because the client wanted a subtle, vintage look, the truck doesn't look like much from the outside. The body color and matched billet wheels are correct for the era, while the inside looks totally stock from a quick glance. But get a closer look, and you'll see all of the upgrades. Every original plastic piece has been scanned and replaced with a CNC'd metal copy, and the dash has been completely redone with working period-correct gauges, a bluetooth audio system, and working air condition courtesy of Vintage Air. Ward says the hardest part about restoring the interior was the steering wheel-his team had to manufacture the casting mold needed to cast the wheel itself. There's a reason these trucks cost well over six figures to build.
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