What have you done to your wagon lately? (Let's keep the thread going!)

Well, I was talking with my Dad about replacing the hood release cable, and I demonstrated how it doesn't work:

*Tries to shut hood.*

*Hood latches properly, and stays shut.*

So, that's one less thing to work on. "Wow, that was easy."

As for putting hose clamps over the fuel hose that surrounded the line? It didn't stop the leak. The car only leaks when it's on, though, so I have it in the garage at the moment, and all of the open flame heaters have their pilot lights off. Good timing for me to fix it, even though I've never replaced fuel line before. It's no problem if I do it right, I'm sure.

 

It won't stop the leak on rubber hose; the original rubber will deform, letting the gas gush out. BTW, you didn't say what wagon your mom has.

 

Thanks. I'm at the point where I'm not certain how to prop the car up higher; I thought of making some substantial wooden supports and lowering the wheels on them, though Father doesn't like the idea, and I've never tried that before. My late next door neighbor (passed to cancer last year, though his brother's still around) used wooden supports in the same way.

Really, Mom's car is a 2001 Impala Sedan. It has 54,xxx on it now (actual miles,) and I've occasionally tacked on other car repairs in a reply if I included a Wagon repair or subject.

 

You can use wood, if you crib it (grain of the wood in each layer turned 90° to each other). It also has to be wider than the contact patch by at least 50%. So if the contact patch is 4" by 3", the wood has to be 6" by 4.5" and centered on each tire.

 

I get nervous under jack stands... what a way to go...

 

People used to work under their heaps, back then, before jack stands entered the market

 

Poor fella sounded out of breath the whole time

 

I know those damned things gave you a workout, both going up, and going back to the ground. Could even bust your wrist if you weren't watching what you were doing.

 

Could even bust something else, depending on where the tire iron was located in relation to one's spread eagle. In which case, it would act like the typical vintage battle ax wielding the classic rolling pin

 

That's why I now have a very high pitched voice !

 

I had a '70 Delta 88 I had to replace a flat tire on the LF; the stupid car slipped off the jack, taking a few years off my life. In order to keep it from happening again, I had to jam a sneaker in between the bumper and J-hook. Bleh.

 

I replaced the carpet in my 91 OCC. It was easier than I thought, although it took me about 3 hours to get the holes for the seat belt receivers located. I tried poking through them from underneath, but the carpet would lift instead of the tool piercing the carpet. I finally got a long piece of threaded rod to stay in place while I could get out from under the car to see where it poked the carpet. After I got one side, the other was easy. The only thing I do not like about the carpet is the heel pad color. The carpet is red, and the heel pad is almost pink. My floor mat covers it, so it is "invisible" for the most part.

 

Sounds like fun Fred. I recently had the pleasure of install carpet in my wagon too, so I can relate. You have any photos?

 

Since the auto industry is shut down I've had some extra time and got more done on the 85, got the glass out and started on the rust repairs. The glass and gasket too a bit of work, I wound up cutting the glass out of the rubber seal first then I had to pull up on the gasket while at the same time using a scraper to get the urethane adhesive to release from the frame, ( MB did not want to make it easy for the windshield to come out). Found some rust on the drivers side also, you can see the extent of the corrosion below.


I got most of the urethane adhesive off the frame by scrubbing with acetone soaked rags then ground down the driver side rust and treated the metal with some rust converter.

Also took a pic of the frame after scrubbing the urethane off.


Today I worked on welding in the new pieces for the right side, though I didn't take pics of the cutting and fitting but you can see two of the three pieces I welded in.

After that it was grinding and trimming which is where I left off for today.

Next will be the usual filling, sanding, priming and painting which I'll need a bit warmer of a day for.

 

Nice! Always a good feeling when you can step back at the end of the day and see you made some real progress on a project like this.