What were the most popular station wagons of the 50s, 60s and 70s?

Her hubby likely thinks so. A lean, mean car-buffed dream!

 

Found it!:

http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3001

 

Yes you did!..Find it,that is...And the link also answers the question,"Does she have a sister?" Maybe she's waiting till she's done working on that rstoration to post again.

 

Back on subject, for now at least.

The first wagon I remember was my Grandpas 1977 Caprice 8 passenger, he bought it new (the same year I was born).

My parents brought a 1956 Bel Air 9 passenger wagon home out of the blue in 1988, that wagon is the one that sparked my love for wagons. It was a mild custom with purple and silver paint and salt disc wheel covers. It was hit by a drunk driver less then a year later and it was totaled out by the insurance company.

The next wagon my Dad had was a 1979 Impala wagon bought in 1993, it was a beater that had a dying engine in it so we found a good running 350 and put it in. I drove that car through high school.

I met my wife in high school, she was driving a mid seventies AMC Hornet wagon, in 1994 and was crushed when her mom traded it in for a GEO metro one day while she was in school.

My Dads next wagon was a Pontiac J2000 wagon, I do not remember the year of it but it was a handy little wagon.

My first wagon was a 1985 Dodge Aries wagon that my wife found for sale at work for $350. The body and interior were mint, it had less then 100k miles but it did not run. I was hoping that the timing belt was broken but it ended up being a burnt piston caused by a broken heater control valve that overheated the engine. I lucked out and came onto an accident scene involving a K car of the same vintage, I waited until the police officers left and offered to buy the car from the owner. The driver was a high school kid and I assured him that his insurance company would total the car out and I would pay him $100 above what a junkyard would. The kid called me a couple weeks later and told me I could have it for $450, he ended up being the second owner of the car and it had less the 60k miles on it verified by the title that was only dated a couple months prior. I put that engine in my perfect wagon shell and my family enjoyed that wagon for a couple of good
years.

My next wagon was a hand-me-down from my wives grandmother. It was a 1987 Ford Taurus, it was purchased new and had close to 300k miles on it but they were all documented. We traded it in on a small sedan after it began to overheat with nothing helping.

My forever wagon is the one I have now.

 

Things happen, Uber. My 88 Electra was my forever wagon. It got wrecked and I miss it a lot. Now, at my age, I don't know if I should spend time building one (IF I can find one!) again, or, go the LT1 route and play with that. At least I would be able to drive it sooner. And it's fas to start with.

 

have you ever thought of building a tbi wagon...supposedly its easier?

 

that is true but only if you are good with wiring

 

I have considered buying an earlier model, yes. But if I did that I would probably build a 454 and drop that in. I've become sort of curious as to what I can do with an LT1 engine and wagon in general. The only thing that bothers me about the LT1 is that it was a short lived engine and thus it does not have a lot of after market stuff I wish it had. That means doing your own which is costly and time consuming. But...it IS fast out of the factory to begin with. Surprisingly so in moving that wagon around.

 

Like what?

 

Where have you been looking?

 

Jegs and Summit and over at impalass and at GM performance. Better heads than are available and better intakes than are available (at least better than I have been able to find). Also, I have heard of guys using turbos but I can't find one specifically for the LT1. Well...there IS a guy over at SS that makes one or two...don't know anything about him though. If you take the whole Edelbrock program, intake, loaded heads, hot cam kit, rockers etc... you gain about 40 HP for about 3K. Things like that.

 

Dart, AFR, Edelbrock et al all make LT1 heads.

These guys do good work:
http://www.advancedinduction.com/AiProductsLT1.html

There are forced induction kits available, and I think more than 40hp can be made.

Not that these engines aren't fast enough in stock form. A stock 94-96 Impala/Caprice will go 150mph. Like who needs to? My Caprice 9C1 has an L99 and it rocks, I don't really want to go any faster. We've already got the tickets to show for it.

 

And intakes along with headers,go to summit and look around you can do a search by engine

 

Thanks for that, Andy. I know about the Summit and Jegs stuff...Dart etc. But that other site looks interesting.
That's another thing SS...I haven't seen any headers for the wagons??? There may be some that I haven't found. Haven't been looking real hard at stuff for the LT yet though. Not sure what I'll end up with. Right now I have too damn many ideas and too many desires and too many wagons I love!!

 

well with our wagons if they fit a Camaro then they should fit. I think