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

What wagon do you have?

 

I've just started to remove the aluminium wheel arch covers and the rocker covers for restoration.

So far I've de anodised two wheel arches and began the task of removing all the scratches and most of the dents. I've worked a section (about 8 inches) of the arch with 400 wet/dry paper, then 1200, then a metal polish to almost finished. Rubbing down the trim with paper took a bit of getting use to, looks like you're doing more harm than good initially, that's for sure!

The results are amazing, and judged on the time it took to get that done, I should be done sometime around Christmas I reckon!!

Some before pics, and the test section (de anodised, but no scratches removed to the left of the hole, finished on the right end)

 

Its been a spell since my last post. 66 Volvo Estate went from my wifes hand to my boys hands. Still MY project, how does that work. We added wheels and lowered it a little bit. added carpet, some sound deadener and a dash cap. (for now) needs much more.

 

My daughter came home from school this year and drove her 96 road master wagon. As one would expect from a collage student car care is close to last on the list. In my daughter's case let's sprinkle in a little abuse as well. She is doing a nanny job for the summer and the parents took one look at her car and said NO WAY are my kid's getting in that thing! (Good thing) She is using one our other cars and now the story begins! After driving her car to work on the first day I never made it home! Car came home on the back of a flat bed. The fuel pump quit and to make matters worse the gear box lower seal let go while loading on the truck and what a mess that was! the car was now sitting getting the work done that was needed. First it needed to get running so down came the tank and what I saw happen in our other road master about 5 years ago. The hanger/ sending unit had some loose connections and the connector that feed through the top to the outside harness had melted and burned! (stay away from spectra premium hanger units). New AC Delco hangar and fuel pump installed. Next the car still was not running right and found that the diaphragm in the fuel regulator was no good. New AC Delco unit installed there as well. Now the car was running but needed the gear box changed. That was done and an alignment was done (whew). Now there was a loud growling coming off the front...... That's right water pump bearing! So a new AC Delco water pump assembly installed. Now the cars engine is running right and quiet. Moving the back of the car the back end was hanging so low the front looked like it was launching to the moon. New rear cargo coil springs w/ Delco air shocks (AC Delco is loving me right now). The back end now sitting up correct (rechecked alignment all was good). Moved over to the tailgate that would not open. The rods inside the gate came off (no I don't know how) and after struggling with it was able to reconnect and get the gate working. So I thought. The striker latch at the bottom passenger side was pushed into the gate and had to be reattached. The metal had become weak and the screw heads tore through the metal. Now the gate was fixed. Moving on to the inside her three dogs had managed to tear off the seat backs and make an awful mess of the interior. That was all cleaned up and repaired to pretty descent condition without spending any cash. The tires where replaced (very bald) when I had the alignment done earlier. (are we done yet?) The car then ending up with one hell of a bath and a engine power wash to beat all power washes. After all of this work I can only say that God and his angel's are what brought her home safe on Her 1500 mile trip home. There is no way that car should have ever made it home! And that folks is what have been doing on one of my wagon's lately!!!

 

I bet you and your wife read her the Riot Act. I cannot believe she allowed it get to that point, and yeah, big miracle she made it home. No such luck with me and my niece driving the '93 Taurus I gave her after all the work I did to it. Too much to say, and I get upset when I think about it.

 

The problem with where she lives is that there are no descent (honest) mechanics in the area. So she feels inclined to "bring it home for daddy to fix" The Dogs tearing up the interior thing has been 2/3 handled since she gave away two of the three dogs. The third one is old and much more chill. As far as keeping it clean she feels there is no point since it is so dusty there. I can't fight with her from 1500 miles away. but she has been told this is the LAST time I will do this.

 

Lil'Sis seems to be better now. After having a new throttle position sensor, a coil, an exhaust gasket and a few clamps put on she seems to be feeling better. Hubby picked her up from the garage, I haven driven her yet, but he says she's working a lot better. Were heading to the cottage for a couple of days, she's not coming on this trip. I'll have a chance to drive her on Sunday. Let you know then how she's doing.
Play nice.

 

Alright. Sucks that more parts had to be bought, but at least she's behaving now.

 

There are actually a few more things that need to be done. We took her to a different garage the local guy just didn't seem motivated.

 

You'd think money would be enough to motivate.

 

Power washing an engine equipped with an Opti-Spark is a brave thing to do.
I changed the oil in my wagon.

 

I have done quite a few times with no problems. But definitely understand your concern. The killer for me was the crankshaft positioning sensor plug was beat up from all the years. That would take in water and them break out the WD 40

 

If you need any Opti-Spark parts, you're on a fool's errand. Actually, one of tbe mods on Fullsizebronco just worked on his Caprice, and has a bunch of new parts left over. I told him he wasn't finished yet. X^))

 

I like the LT1 but who was the angry little man that put the distributor behind a water pump that likes to leak?

 

Here's what I don't understand: if you have to not have the distributor in the original spot, for whatever reason, why on God's Green Earth can't you just use already-existing tech and give the damned engine DIS? That would've been the simplest way to deal with the problem, and you wasted far more money than the bean counters led you to believe that would cost GM to deal with warranty issues on it. Such a failure of otherwise intelligent people, to not tell the bean counters to bite your shiny metal @$$.