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

Added a 455 to the grille

Waxed it with white Sonax and buffed it with new lamswool on my polishing machine, ArmorAll for the wood vinyl, cleaned the rims and chrome with chrome polish

Loaded the new coils, leaf springs, bushing and Monroe shocks in the back for the garage to install

 

I finally got the Fury out of the garage from it's winter heibernation about a week ago.
We have been dealing with a water main issue at our house for about a month, so all of my spare time went towards fixing that. Now that that is mostly behind us, I can focus on other things.

The day that I brought it out we had an incredible thunderstorm blow through that dumped a ton of rain in a very short period of time. The Fury had been all dusty and dirty from sitting all winter, but after the storm it was looking pretty good.

 

Took the Country Squire in for a complete interior detail yesterday. Since it's my daily driver, it actually sees rain, wind, dirt, and all the crap that gets a car dirty. The tan interior definitely shows dirt, and it was time. I had a guy do it that has been doing cars for over 20 years, and did a great job on the car. So, it's all good. All I need to do is rinse the car off for the all-Ford car show this Saturday. My son is taking the wagon t and a couple of his friends to that show (he digs the car!), so I can take my Coronet to the all-Mopar show the same day. Should be fun!

 

The JY struts were $6, and the retail is $20. Budget restraints say $6 is better than $20. I get to the JY a lot more than the parts store.

 

And as my son finds out JY parts are sometimes fairly new. He got a GM rebuilt starter and alternator with the paper sticker still on them. $8 starter, $12 alternator.
His $140 TPI engine turned out to be a good one too. Runs great. High oil pressure and runs cool. He had to use his serpinetine setup, dist, headers, buy the computer and wiring which were only $40, and minor parts. Found out it has Vortec heads and a fairly wild cam. All this in a 1993 Chevy van!!!!!! Just a used TPI carb is way more than $140.
A junk yard is a gamble.

 

Apparently you guys haven't seen Fred's posts over on the Impala forum.
He is the go-to guy for gently-used lovingly-pulled B-body parts.
http://www.impalassforum.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=1254633

 

True 2.5" dual exhaust on the '73:





Next up is rear shocks and top end gaskets to fix oil leaks.

 

Put the summer wheels back on the 83.........





............. Haven't done anything to the Buick for a couple weeks now



Shame to loose the mint wood on this repaint, but I had one spot of concern and the wood had to go, and no I won't be re-wooding the wagon but will tint the windows. No rust through just surface, looks a lot worse in the pic than it really is. My parts 82 will donate it's wheel well trim.



No surprises yet under the lower trim or the rear window trim, dirty but no rust at all and just a bit of surface rust on the side of the spare tire bulge

 

The rust does appear only on the surface. Hope you felt around under the lip of the opening.
I like those custom wheels on the 83. Same as on my 39 Ford from back in the 70's. Are those 15"? I neeed 15" if I do a disc conversion on the old Ford.

 

The Cutlass' LF wheel looks like it's missing a lug nut and stud...did one break? If so, you need to replace it ASAP. Those Torq-Thrust wheels love to loosen the remaining nuts if one's missing. They need equal torque on all five nuts.

 

I had to zoom in to see the missing lug and nut. Tedy's a lug nut short of a full set!

 

No, no rust through and yeah those are 15's on the Olds

I was gona leave that out of the post, but since you noticed...... On the steel wheels with hub caps I used the acorn nuts and mag lock nut that came with the mags. When I put the impact on it the mag lock socket shattered, first time that has ever happened to me. So out came the impact socket with extention and a 3lb sledge hammer to mash the socket on to get the steel wheels off, then into the shop put it in the vice and beat the **** out of it to get the nut out of the socket 4 times over. I was not a very happy camper by the time I was done and BTW this AM at work I stopped in the parts store and ordered 20 fresh acorns for the car.

As for the Buick, I'll be taking all the trim off for the paint, grill, bumpers the works and will loose the alum wheels.. It will have a new look, a look some purists mite not like but I believe it will be tasteful.

 

I broke a key socket on a customer's car using an impact (it literally stripped the keyway), so I couldn't rotate the wheels. Caught the red @$$ for that. So I now use the key, a long socket and a breaker bar to loosen them before I lift it to do the others. If I have to use an impact, I use the lowest setting and hit the air intermittently.

 

So what happened to the customers car, you just left it?, customer had to go to a different shop???..'Sorry Sir job can't be done as we stripped your keyway, just be careful you don't get a flat, Tires should be good for another 10k miles, sell the car before you need new tires at 9K miles, brakes sound fine but we couldn't inspect because of, that will be $$, thank you please come again"

I'm just eliminating it all together, as where I live..... since 1982 I've never seen nor heard of a car up on blocks because the wheels have been stolen. Way I see mag locks is if they want the wheels that bad they will steal the entire car, any lock is only good for a honest person.............

 

Replaced the left front window regulator, Put T-3 headlights back in, bought a driver condition(used) lower grill bar, and put an original radio back in the dash and got he dome lights to work(new housing)