The War Wagon... decaring wars on the grocery store since 1966

[Shelty]

thanks guys. yeah the old lot could have been repurposed. it butts up against the civic center parking lot, but that place already has enough of its own overflow parking lot. This town used to have a lot more cools stuff back in the day. in an area where there is now a nice community used to be dammed up and was a large lake,

the next thing on the list is to fix the floorpan, which will probably be later this month need to make some calls to ppl I know with welders.
but, suspension work doesnt scare me, Ive upgraded the entire suspension on my mustang. it wasnt that bad, only pain in the butt was the front control arms cuz you had to loosen the steering rack, and the bolts were nearly impossible to reach. but just this time around id be dealing with bolts that havnt moved in nearly 50 years. its all just needing attention, though it does have new ball joints. I did just notice that the nose is a bit high, probably need to air up the air shocks in the back, cuz the rear is sitting low. I'll have to see what options are out there, I do want to replace the rear control arms at the very least, the stamped steel arms are flimsy.

[Shelty]

been a while since I updated this. not much happened with the wagon over the last month or so. I put in a new glovebox liner, still have to adjust the latch, the replacemnt lock I got is too long, so the glovebox wont wont shut all the way, put in a new air cleaner as well. I know riveting stuff haha.

speaking of riveting, there were two small spots in the back, under where the tailgate floor folds up that had some rust, cut it out, made some patch panels out of some thin steel and riveted them into place.

then, then I bought myself a welder. I got tired of relying on other people so I took matters into my own hands, I need to redo one patch that I screwed up on, but the main rust in the pass floor has been cut out and a new patch was burned in by your's truly. I got a few good beads, and moved around and the patch went in well without any noticeable warping. I have also cut out the other area of rust, I need to go get some more sheetmetal to patch that area. it seems that the floor rusted out on the pass side due to bad door seals, the floor rusted from the top down, since it was undercoated and thats held up well. I think that the door seal went bad and water just got in and settled in the low spots and just corroding.I should have it all put back together by tuesday ( have to work tomorrow.

pics to come soon.

[DanStokes]

Also check the windshield seal and the windshield track. On almost any car they are known to fail and the water can run down into the foot well, depending on the configuration of the car. Worth a good look. The best check is to give a buddy a hose and have him/her hose it down while you observe from the inside. You should see pretty quickly where the water comes from.

Dan

[Shelty]

thanks! I did not think of that. I know for a fact that the run channel seals are bad, cuz at least two of the windows leak. I now know why everyone said dont add up the price, cuz the more I think about the interior, the more money it is lol.

not much got done tonight, I hit the surface rust and such with por 15, and i got the 2nd patch panel formed up, I might need to adjust it more, possibly cut it into a couple different pieces, its not a big area but its got several bends to it.

[Stewzer55]

Nice wagon!

[Shelty]

thanks


carpets been ordered, about 50% done putting down new seam sealer. going to paint the floor, new undercoating and then i can get the seat back in. still got a ways to go with the interior, but at least the hard part will be done

[Shelty]

been a while since I contributed pictures to the thread. I didnt snap any pictures of the floor pan patches, or the sound deadener being put in, kind of got into a role and just was in work mode. but the carpet is in, not perfect, but its pretty good, the interior looks a ton better. its quiet inside now, so quiet I can hear the air leaks. I need to order floor mats, among other things.

[DanStokes]

Lookin' good!

Dan

[Scott Liggett]

been a while since I contributed pictures to the thread. I didnt snap any pictures of the floor pan patches, or the sound deadener being put in, kind of got into a role and just was in work mode. but the carpet is in, not perfect, but its pretty good, the interior looks a ton better. its quiet inside now, so quiet I can hear the air leaks. I need to order floor mats, among other things.

Those Bel Air and Biscaynes without the dash trim kinda look naked. Amazing how much better the interior looks with just a new carpet.

[Shelty]

thanks, yeah, its like a whole new car now. much quieter, a nicer place to be for sure. the next thing for the interior will probably be re carpeting the tailgate area or new windlace around the doors. Ive debating getting the trim for the dash, I like the way it looks and it would finish out the dash nicely.

[Stewzer55]

It's amazing how much a difference being quiet can make, want loud just roll down the window.

[Shelty]

over the last month the wagon developed a "cute" problem when you would hit the brakes as in the engine would cut out when you stopped the car.

pulled the carb, put some JB on the bowl plugs on the base of the carb, adjusted the idle screws and put some new plugs in, and actually gapped them correctly. I also found a spot where the choke linkage was getting hung up, so I fixed that and the choke works flawlessly.

I also finally shortened the throttle rod linkage, cut about an inch and a half out of the rod, when I put the rod back on the car after the transmission swap, it was hitting the the bracket for the TV cable. so I originally bent it and thought I saw good, well it turns out that the secondaries were not opening up enough due to the linkage hitting the firewall. so I cut it and welded it back together, my mediocre welding has held up. so now I have a 4bbl quadrajet instead of a 2bbl one.

just need to fiddle with a few more things and then I can focus on other areas, like the rest of the car lol

going to talk to my coworkers dad who built the 355 for his cutlass, see if he will help me build a 383 for this brick.

[68scott385]

Secondaries on a Q-Jet...there goes the gas mileage.

383...YES...you won't believe the difference it will make.

[Shelty]

lol, yeah I know I almost could se the gas gauge dropping. I want to find a good block to build on, get a decent set of flowing heads and go from there. which means Im going to go to the chevy Carlisle this year. finding anything on CL around here is hard


but hey, at least gas is reasonably cheap these days

[68scott385]

My best advice is to be patient, don't jump just because you are hungry. Good parts at good prices are out there if you are able to be patient and wait for them to come along. Of course if you have a rich uncle that is willing to back your fun you could buy a new block and all the goodies to fill it.