Fixing up a '71 Grand Safari

Brandon - being away for many months it was great to see how far you've gotten with your wagon. It's gorgeous. You have a lot more ambition than I have

As for vintage trailers, you can check out Tin Can Tourists website for some price comparisons, what to look for, and it is a great group of family oriented campers. Very kid friendly, and they love vintage towing vintage.

http://www.tincantourists.com/

 

I wouldn't worry too much about it. I bet these things leaked back there when they were brand new. lol.

Beautiful car.

 

He has a point. Old cars leak. Of course for a perfectionist, this isn't an acceptable answer. I hope you find a fix soon Brandon.

 

Yeah, it would drive me nuts.

I know these things were trouble though when new. My great uncle that lives in Los Angeles bought a brand new 1971 Impala Kingswood wagon in October of 1970. It was one of the first ones. By Christmas, it was back at the dealer because the tailgate would not open/close properly. It was always trouble... no leak concerns that much because they do not get much rain where he lives. His had the optional power gate. I am not saying they all have trouble, but his did have and may have been a lemon, lol.

It is still a car I would have loved to own. He said that he ordered it pretty well optioned, power everything. I told him he should have got the "Estate" wagon.

I think he finally traded it in 1975 for a new Caprice Classic 4dr sport sedan. Today he drives a new Nissan Quest minivan because they do not make Chevy wagons anymore. lol.

 

That's a neat link, thanks for passing it along. I can't have the car leaking. It will cause rust and damage to the interior. I've made some progress but I've yet to get there and I continue to look for NOS pieces weekly. If I can ever find them I'm going to have them 3D scanned and then we can manipulate them in the program, that way if they need a slight amount of size added due to shrinking over time or just because they weren't right to begin with we can do that.

I can't remember if I told you guys or not but the powder coater completely messed my wheels up. They went out of business and didn't tell me. I got the wheels back, but they're toast. I spent hours taping the Rallye 2 wheels off for the two-tone paint and they left them on for so long it pulled all the paint off when the tape was removed. I'm going to have to find another powder coater and start all over.

One of the barns blew down up at the old family farm so I had to drive up and inspect the damage.

 

Hadn't heard about the powdercoaters/wheel situation.
That stinks. I hate it when that type of thing happens.

 

Good to hear from you Brandon...sorry to hear about the wheels and the barn. Nice to see The Clam out of its barn!

 

Vette - did you ever have to remove the instrument cluster from your '71 Pontiac wagon? I have some bulbs out now on my '73 Pontiac (the one that lights up the speedometer) and while the bezel looks different, I think the cluster itself is the same. Do you have any info on how to remove these?

I am thinking I also have to remove the headlight switch knob, but I wonder if I will break it getting it off.

Thanks!

 

I have everything I did documented here with pictures. I didn't actually remove the cluster itself. On the '71's the switches appear to be part of the bezel assembly but they are actually separate, so you won't need to remove the headlight switch, unless it's different than the '71. The interesting thing I noticed was that heater and temp selector assembly is dim on one side and appeared to only be lit on one side. I thought a bulb was out. I found that it only had a bulb on one side and there was no place for a second bulb. Apparently the light used to shine through the clear plastic and illuminate the panel. My best guess is that as the plastic has gotten older the light cannot travel inside of the plastic as it did when it was new, no doubt due to cracks and imperfections, and this causes it to be much dimmer than it was intended.

 

Rose helped me work on the wagon today:








And what the heck, here's one of her driving The Cadillac too.

 

Priceless memories Brandon!

 

She's a cutie pie!

 

Brandon, those photos are awesome. Even after all of the in-depth photographic documenting you have done with this car, I think those photos with your daughter are by far the best.
Thanks for sharing them with us.

 

Those are great pics

 

Thanks guys.