Building a Wagon Queen Family Truckster.

It did make me dizzy. That's my excuse for my present conditions. That, Bondo fumes, and acrylic enamal.

 

Like airplane glue...

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! LOVE IT!

 

We had a guy who painted cars in the building next to us. We all thought he was on drugs because he was just out there all the time, mouth hanging open and all. I was helping him out one day and came in while he was painting a car. No mask, no mouth cover, not even a t-shirt, just painting away, mouth hanging open and all. Old tight pants Danny, my buddy called him. Turns out he was also on drugs and closed up shop after a pair of henchmen were lurking around the buildings asking questions about him. Then there was another guy I worked with in the carpenters union who would spray glue and do laminate, foreman would always be on him for not wearing a mask or while spraying . On top of that he kept a rag soaked in paint thinner in his back pocket "to wipe off excess glue". He would pull that rag out and sort of crack it like a whip before taking a long draw."Nobody likes the glue men" he said to me oncereally nice guy and boy he was hell on that big table saw. Get outta his way! Really, literally move out of the way, someone's bound to get hurt

 

How did we get from a wagon queen to fumes. Truthfully to come up with these crazy ideas many of us have been sniffing something in the garage or shop for years. When many of us were young, we knew nothing about the harms of chewing on our painted baby crib, the window sills, or playing with that little ball of mercury. Even white school glue made a great afternoon snack after sucking on Milkweed stems. Did you know Milkweed came in white and chocolate milk flavors?

Drinking out of a rubber or plastic garden hose and putting together our latest model cars while locked up in a tiny bedroom while leaning over breathing those great smells was normal.
No wonder Ed Roth, Barris, and so many came up with wild custom car ideas. Old laquer paints and thinners, even the original Rustolium, was enough to make garden mushrooms seem like candy. Imaginary rainbows and sugar plums brought new ideas to the heads of future auto designers in back yards all over the world.

Washing my hands and parts in kerosene, gasoline, and other toxic liquids wasn't half as bad as the various Bondo type products, and my favorite, liquid boat repair fibreglass. I could spend hours in the garage drinking beer, turning rust buckets into future show cars, and feel safe that my wife wasn't gonna bug me as she stepped up from outside the walk in door to ask a honeydo favor.

So grab your plastic easel, fill it full of body filler, and build a wagon queen before those amazing products get taken off the shelves at auto parts shops near you. Bring back tail fins and tunneled headlites. Turn that rusty old station wagon into a truckster or trailer queen for future generations to admire. No respirators or face masks needed. It's only chemicals. What could go wrong?
WAGON QUEENS IN PROGRESS.

 

I have had an amazing stroke of luck with my Truckster project. Before I go into it I will give a little background on where my parts search and research was going. This is a long read but I will try to tell it in an interesting light.

I have been doing a lot of research on the early Panther body Fords. By studying those I am learning a lot about the Truckster that is not obvious in screen shots. The research is pretty tough because unlike a Mustang or Corvette, nobody gives a crap about the 79-91 LTD'S. Information is very hard to come by but by studying surviving cars, talking to owners, buying shop manuals, sales literature and lots of help online, I learned that in the first few years of production they updated a lot of parts in a hurry. The 80 LTD was basically a lot of Disco era stuff in an 80's body and taste were changing quickly. That means a lot of 1980 specific items were in the original Truckster. I also figured out what the Truckster was before being modified by looking at the options the car had or in this case lacked.

It was a 1980 LTD Wagon (not an "s" or a "country squire"). They built 11,718 of them.
The car was white and had the base interior in "sand" (same interior as the "s" model).
The only options on this car were.
AM radio
Rocker panel mouldings
SelectAire Conditioner with manual controls
Tilt columb
Heavy duty Suspension. (15" wheels were optional and I think they were in this option group)
This was a pretty typical "fleet car" destined to go to work for the police department, coroner or other county facility. But 5 became Trucksters.

Now the hard part about learning all this is that half of the parts I have are wrong in my coushy Country Squire and finding the correct interior parts are going to be impossible.
All squires have the wrong interior and most of the LTD Wagons opted for the deluxe interior that was standard in the Squire. The only one that would definitely have the right interior was the S model wagon and only 3490 were built. Then there were 4 possible colors......
I needed to find the "s model" steering wheel from a 79-81 w/o cruise w/o wood grain. Very rare.
Full vinyl door panels with manual locks and windows from a 79-81. Very rare.
Clock delete plate. Hard to find.
A/C vents 79-81, hard to locate.
Bench seat from a standard LTD or LTD s w/o side trim. Very rare.
Dash w/o lower woodgrain 79-87. Not to hard to find.
Radio plate for standard radio w/o woodgrain 79-87. Very rare.
Non color matched seat belts with the old style latches 79-80. Very hard to find.
AM Radio. Easy
Standard antenna. Easy
1980 Speedometer w/o trip minder. Very hard to find
Sun visors w/o vanity lights and mirrors. Not to hard to find.
Rear tail gate glass w/o defrost, very rare.
Manual windows and locks, somewhat difficult to locate.
Sail mirror and glass 79-80. Very difficult to locate.
Front bumper 80 only, very hard to find.

Now to my amazing stroke of luck. I have been calling junkyards all over the country and driving to junkyards here in GA and in neighboring states looking for LTD's. There are not many left. And even though these cars are pushing 40 they don't have a classic look or following that makes yards want to keep them around very long before they go to the crusher. I had just got off the phone with a classic car yard in Texas that was looking for some parts for me and I decided to do my daily online check of the local pull a part for new arrivals while waiting on him to call me back. There is was, a 79 LTD. I called to inquire about it and make sure it wasn't a 73 LTD or a Dodge Diplomat (Both have happened) The guy was a moron and basically said "come look at it, I don't know what it is".

I drove an hour and typically I have high hopes but after constantly finding the typical split bench, ragged out busted wrong color interior that is full of piss, I didn't expect much. I would compare it to going on a bunch of blind dates and every time it's your sister, the ugly one at that. Instead I found a unicorn. This car is the equivalent of that blind date putting you in the bedroom with the super model of your choosing...... and her hot friend. It was a 79 with the tan "S model" base interior. Correct everything! The Steering wheel, columb, Seat, Seatbelts, door panels and dash. It has the 100% correct Truckster interior other than the Speedometer and radio. I have an NOS AM radio and fuel gauge on the way and after finding this car I lack only a few items to having everything I need. I think when done, mine will be the only one with the correct interior.

The car I found is a single headlight, base trim LTD, what would be called the "s model" in 1980. It was last tagged in 2001 and has very low miles. All the maintanence records were in the glove box and I believe the 30,313 miles on the clock are all it has. You could tell it had been outside since the tag expired but it would be a very nice car with a bath. They would not sell me the car so I stripped it clean. Later I Googled the name on the registration. The lady that owned it died in Feb 2001 and her husband just passed recently. I'm guessing he held onto the car not driving it and when he passed away the kids called the we buy junk cars people. Kinda depressing really, give it a bath and a battery and drive it. It is a better car than anything they built today.

 

That's awesome!!! For you and the yard I'm sure as they probably got more $$ out of it than they probably thought (or didn't think because he didn't even know what he had.) now about going on dates with your sister, your in Georgia, I'm in Tennessee and it's common knowledge around here that it's ok, as long as your both drunk enough and didn't plan on it...

 

Nice find and great work taking the time to get it right.. Most people creating a "copy" of another vehicle really don't care if it is an exact copy. They just get it outwardly close.
We had a friend in Florida who built two different TV ? Pontiac copies. Heck I forgot what they were but see them in my mind.......... what's left of it!
His cars actually were local car show winners yet not near original. I'm thinkig Firebird with the blinking lites on front!
Maybe I should come back after the glue and paint fumes settle! ---- Oh David Haselhorf sorta actor! Nite Rider!

To be honest it wasn't the strange looking wagon I was always looking at. I was in lust with the front passenger.
Silvertwinkie the hobo will know every detail.

 

We lived in Illinois, Florida, Illinois. I avoided most southern states until after I married a redneck farmer's daughter from Minnesota. I'm sure she's not my cousin or sister.

 

And don't you forget it! I actually preferred Patricia McPherson, the dark-haired brunette, myself.

 

60Buick: do you still need a speedo unit? I may have an '83 one without the trip odom, and a couple other pieces and parts from the '79 Grand Marq I parted out so long ago.

 

That's great, I might end up needing it for parts if I can get it silkscreened in the right colors, 83 was a little different.

79, 80 and 81 were all 1 year only speedometers. 82-87 were identicle as far as I know.
1979- was the only year the numbers read
0,10,20,30,40,50,60,70,85
1980- was the same with the numbers
5,15,25,35,45,55,65,75,85
They also relocated the highbeam indicator to make room for the "45"
1981- was the same as 80 with a different fuel gauge and idiot light markings.
82 up they changed the colors on the speedo to blue.

Can you snap a picture of it? Especially the idiot light areas and turn markers?

The first pic is 79 and 81. The km/hr were yellow. They are faded badly.

The second pic is an 82-87.

The 3rd is the different turn indicators. The triangles are the ones I need.

The fourth pic is the highbeam indicator.

 

I can snap a pic and post it up. Give me a couple days so I can dig it out.

 

Sounds like you had a very successful trip. Glad to hear it turned out well.

 

Mmmm, no go. The few parts I have left are the speedo frame with speedo drive, trip odometer, gas gauge, faceplate and lens. The faceplate has the newer turn arrows, plus indicators for low fuel and washer fluid. The mileage odometer I have was from the '79 Grand Marq, but the frame for it is different than the Crown Vic one would have.