One of my projects has been to dress my Vista Cruiser up as a 442. There were no 442 Vista Cruisers, of course, but in 72, the 442 had reverted to an "appearance and handling package", which included a special grill and badges that identified it as a 442. That's about it. Well, after I "fixed" a missing issue involving a rocker arm, I didn't have much time to put the top of the engine back together before these grilles arrived via Fedex. Thinking I could just pop the old grilles off and install the 442 grills, I got immediately to work. Man, no such luck! After about 3+ hours of removing all different sized bolts and finally realizing I'd have to drop the bumper, I was no closer to having even one of the grilles on. So yesterday, I got home, dropped the bumper (I've got a pair of bumper guards to install anyway), removed the other grill and headlight housings and stood back and realized that the entire front end of my car was torn off! Lol. But then I decided to see what it will look like with the new grilles. I bolted them to the stoneshield and just set them in place and I feel confident that when they're on and everything is put back together complete with a NEW stoneshield and headlight housings, it should be all worth the while. So here are a couple pics I thought I'd share.
Boy, you messed up a nice station wagon. I'll give you $500 for that whole mess with the new grilles. I do like the new look. Let us know after the three day weekend how far along you are on the installation!
OAI hood is next! Not all 442's had em Won't be able to go any further until after I get the new stonesheild and headlight housings and paint them. That's about 2 weeks out, I think. But I'll have her read for Cruisin' the coast for sure!
have to say it looks nice with the deeper grilles. Also have to say, after I have done many hundreds of such "quickie" projects on my cars, how do they build these things with any kind of accuracy or repeat-ability so fast, even on an assembly line? I have had my car torn completely apart, and many time reassembled it to same as assembled condition in the like size sub-assemblies, and it always take hours if not days. But when they built them new it took minutes to put the stuff on!
Minutes to put this puppy back together?! If only! Lol. However, I suppose when you know what you're doing, have the tools to do it, and also have lots of practice, you can get just about anything down to a simple job.
And they are put together in subassemblies using special tools and work stations set up for that job. Plus they are making $19.98 an hour while I bend over for hours in the hot sun on a dirt driveway swatting mosquetos and looking for a 10mm socket amongt my SAE tools.
