Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

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

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

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

    Figure, now is best time to start kicking off my thread for my sort of project car, my 1966 Chevrolet Bel-Air station wagon.
    this thread will also help me keep track of where I am at with parts and budget, my goal is to have the car done to my standards for less than 8500 bucks.

    picked it up in the beginning of January,

    paid 4 large for a relatively solid running car.

    here is the run down
    a very dirty 327 small block (I think, still too dirty to find the block codes) what isnt covered in oil grime and 48 years of gunk is still chevy orange, some of which was applied with a spray can with the engine still in the car.
    powerglide
    10 bolt (probably open) rear end.
    6 passenger, crank windows, base gauges, non AC, power drums, power steering, no roof rack (or it was removed), probably an AM radio thats been replaced with a late 80s early 90s Kenwood tape deck that loses its preselected stations and "resets" everytime you shut the car off, so its wired wrong....

    its been converted to a 1 wire alternator, been given the highest quality Sunpro 3 pack gauges that sort of work and a decent set of American Racing Salt Flat rims.

    it was originally Gold, but it has been repainted a different shade of gold, guy I bought it from said its a chrysler color. it really needs a good polish and buff out to make shine again., I'd rate it a 7.5 out of 10.

    had it for about a month and the carb started spitting gas out of the vent tube, so I pulled the quadrajet off to rebuild where I found that it was junk. dropped a new summit rebuilt carb on the car and it ran, but had a cold start problem, so I got a new choke thermostat spring and now it starts which must less effort, still not perfect, but it will start.

    got new front tires because the old ones were dry rotted. still need to do the rears but they were in much better shape.

    currently stocking parts to ditch the powerglide for a 700r4.

    2.5 hrs from me I found a good 700r4 for a steal with the correct cable driven speedometer gear with torque converter.

    went ahead and ordred new weatherstripping for the front and rear doors since they were completely dry rotted. the rear doors were on back order but I got the front ones installed, took a while to figure out which way they went on but once they went in it was good to go.

    currently the car is running and driving, it has a pretty bad exhaust leak that I need to fix, going to ditch the rams horn manifolds for some headers, probably when I do the trans swap. it has an issue right now where idle quality changes depending on which way the wind blows. I have not touched the ignition system apart from the plugs. I need to go through it, make sure i dont have a burnt wire or something.


    current investment minus tune up parts.
    car= 4,000
    rebuilt Q-jet= 300
    front tires= 200
    700r4= 250
    choke spring kit= 30
    Bowtie overdrive trans mount= 195
    700r4 TC bolts= 7.00
    weatherstrip kit front and rear doors 120

    5102 roughly invested so far.


    anyway some pictures.



    a few days after I picked it up








    Its a start, the next updates will probably come during the trans swap. I dont have any pictures of the carb replacement or of the weather stripping replacement.. that and it was too messy
    Hellinor- 2005 Mustang GT-Bolt ons, in need of a turbo

    War Wagon- 1966 Bel Air Wagon-355 Crate motor, 700r4, flies pretty good for a brick...

  • #2
    I love wagons. That looks like it was a great buy. I like how you have a plan and are striving to keep it...hasn't worked for me 30+ yrs of playin with cars. LOL.

    Comment


    • #3
      Nice start for a great project!
      Patrick & Tammy
      - Long Haulin' 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014...Addicting isn't it...??

      Comment


      • #4
        that thing is COOOOOL!
        67 Fairlane 434 ci/464 hp/488 tq-RIP
        05 GTO torrid red/red gut, LS2, Auto (my knees hurt!)

        Comment


        • #5
          Very nice!
          Jim & Cathy North Mankato, MN Long Haulers '04,07,08,09,10,11,12,13,14,18,21Short Haul '05,'15,'17,’19 WST '14,'15,'16,'17,’18

          Comment


          • #6
            Beautiful car. You didn't get hurt with the buy-in price either, IMO. The engine & trans tweaks are the easy part anyway, IMO. Body work can be the challenging part, again IMO. I think you need a big block to take up some of that expanse of under hood area, wasted space and all.
            http://www.bangshift.com/forum/showt...n-block-wanted

            http://www.bangshift.com/forum/showt...-Blue-Turd(le)

            Comment


            • #7
              Chad has a '66 Bel Air wagon sitting in his backyard that he needs to get working on. Hopefully, he will see this and get some inspiration.


              What kind of wheels are those?
              BS'er formally known as Rebeldryver

              Resident Instigator

              sigpic

              Comment


              • #8
                I love long roof cars its the only way 4 doors are cool
                your kids can have their own racecar www.aasbd.org

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Scott Liggett View Post
                  Chad has a '66 Bel Air wagon sitting in his backyard that he needs to get working on. Hopefully, he will see this and get some inspiration.


                  What kind of wheels are those?
                  15 inch American Racing Salt Flats. they need a good polish.


                  rust wise, she isnt too bad, underneath the rad support is rusted, and the pass side floorboard needs a little attention, but she seems pretty solid for her age. she has a few bad spots that I can see, but for a 48 year old car from the north east, it aint too bad. I plan to drive this till the wheels fall off, put them back on and drive some more; if anything goes bad, I can always plop the body on a new frame down the road.

                  after I swap the transmission, I plan on tackling the interior 1 piece at a time. the seats are in good enough condition to leave alone for now. , but the carpets are shot as are the door panels and the dashpad. luckily all that stuff can be sourced from several Impala vendors online. I also need to fix the horn, someone cut the wires for some reason, just havnt had the time or the motivation to repair them. I also want to add a tach and see about maybe getting better gauges than the sort of functional sunpro pieces.. the oil pressure gauge works alright, temp gauge barely lifts off 100 degrees, volts is fine. but all in good time.

                  if the 327 ventilates itself, I plan on just dropping a new budget small block chevy crate engine into it.
                  Last edited by Shelty; March 23, 2014, 05:08 PM.
                  Hellinor- 2005 Mustang GT-Bolt ons, in need of a turbo

                  War Wagon- 1966 Bel Air Wagon-355 Crate motor, 700r4, flies pretty good for a brick...

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    killer wagon! looks great!
                    If you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower. - Mark Donohue

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      you mean a new blueprint engine, right? ;)


                      Bill, I'll be headed down south end of may- get the trans dropped out and I;ll swng by to help you punch in the new one!
                      Local person
                      sigpic

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by RustyRodder View Post
                        you mean a new blueprint engine, right? ;)


                        Bill, I'll be headed down south end of may- get the trans dropped out and I;ll swng by to help you punch in the new one!
                        yeah, pretty much. cant go wrong with those. small block chevy into a small block chevy.... how hard can it be?

                        thanks Alex, but I hope to have it back on the road by the end of may. just in time for summer cruising. already got a guy who will help me with fixing any and all issues with the floor once I get brave and rip the scuzzy carpet out of the car.

                        interior resto will go carpet, doors dashpad.
                        Hellinor- 2005 Mustang GT-Bolt ons, in need of a turbo

                        War Wagon- 1966 Bel Air Wagon-355 Crate motor, 700r4, flies pretty good for a brick...

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          the trans crossmember showed up, very nice piece, probably will be the cleanest and nicest thing on the car.

                          now if the weather will stabilize and stay nice for more than 12 hrs I can commence the swap, that way its ready for summer and I dont have to worry about driving my mustang in the snow at all
                          Hellinor- 2005 Mustang GT-Bolt ons, in need of a turbo

                          War Wagon- 1966 Bel Air Wagon-355 Crate motor, 700r4, flies pretty good for a brick...

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            So you'll be converting it to a 4X4 you're sayin... lol

                            Pretty clean old wagon

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              another awesome wagon!
                              58 Plymouth Sport Suburban. 526 cubic inches of angry wedge! Pushbutton shifted 9 passenger killer!!"

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X