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

as I said nut'n fancy, did'nt get to snap any pics while it was lite out...I'll do that tommorow. Pups needed play time, me and my honey shot the....ya know but....
......I put after market mags on my crewzer.....that is not like me....


Some mite remember me blowing a tire awhile back, well putting a spare on with no white wall just never did it for me, it looked od and although I have a full set of black walls, the look just did'nt do it for me,

Soooo I put th American Racing wheels on from my parts car, nice wheels, good tread, time for a change.....

 

Body work last night.. I'm working the tail light areas. Appears that it was hit from behind at one time. Doing the best to hide the blemishes.. won't be perfect, but that's ok.. this will be a daily driver (one day).

Have to have it done by June 2nd for it's "reveal party".. yeah!

 

not at that point in time did i have that stuff done yet. in that pic the front left tire was often rubbing the inner fender well from the springs being bad (actually both front spring were broke in the bottom coils) The head liner was being held up by paper clips... and the exhaust was rotting in the seam of the pipes.I love my girl and while driving her all winter long, thank you god for the great weather you gave me to get all of that done....

 

oh and i forgot shocks..... when i purchased the car it had 3 of the standard wheels on it. One (the left front) was a miss match. different off-set than the other three. it was further in than the rest. I guess to keep it from rubbing the fender. The car looks like it may have been in an accident. the left front is even with the fender lip while the right front is tucked in slightly. so when i put on the 15x8 truck rallys. the left front rubbed often and the suspension often bottomed out. so i took it in for an alignment after i installed the wheels. the shop said i needed ball joints. no problem. doing ball joints and find the springs broke so got springs and end links and shocks and put on a moog idler arm while i was there. love gm but their idler arm is junk and generally very sloppy. It is just so much easier to replace it all at once than to fight with old parts. so i did rear shocks and springs at the same time to keep the car having a "balanced' ride that is when i had seen how bad my exhaust was. Not a big fan of exhaust poisoning. shop said the y pipe and cat are good. so new from there back. I do all of my own work except for what take any kind of specialty equipment. S alignment and exhaust was done by someone else. other than that all was done by me.

 

New plugs, air filter, oil change, wash, wax and still had time to do the engine bay. Now the birds can poop all over it.

 

OOhhhh, don't mention birds....man did my wagons get crapped on today, I had to park them under the hydro lines today

 

Working on Nicole's roadmaster again today! This time its new radator/water pump/lower hose. then the new P/S high and low pressure lines w/new pressure switch. That's all the money for this month! next is the dropping of the fuel tank to check the condtion of the sending unit and the metal lines. Then clean and coat the back section of the undercarraige.

 

Safari - oil and filter change, top up rest of the fluids, cleaned wheels (this is when having spokes are less than fun), have it ready for air care on Monday and plates/insurance for summer fun. Also have the 8-3/4 rear diff on the jack stands to put the spring pads on and then I'll get to that in the next couple of weeks, but gotta drive it for a bit first.

Chevelle - oil and filter change, top up rest of the fluids, washed and fixed a door latch adjustment issue that has been bugging the heck out of me. Put a small chip :banghead3: in the drivers fender (this not having feeling in my hands is a real bugger when working around nice paint - crap, really bugs me) so will have to zip it out to the painter next week. Then took it for a toot down to the beach for dinner, along with our buddy with his '57 Pontiac Laurentian 2dr post car so felt better about the paint chip.

S10Blazer - have a small wiring bugaboo that is driving me nuts. So started the disassembly of the dash as it is too tight in behind. Will pop the seats out tomorrow so I can lay on my back and get better access. The former owner did a stereo swap and was clearly unaware that you can use black tape or shrink wrap to cover bare wires - you get my drift. So this one is going to be a couple of weeks worth of playing, a few hours at a time.

Airstream Tradewind - have rec'd the proper sealant and the applicator so I now need to scrape, very carefully, all the old stuff out of each seam top to bottom, then wipe it down with lacquer thinner, mask off each side of each seam, and go for it. The sealant is neat, it wicks in with a tiny bit of encouragement. Very time consuming, a once every whole bunch of years project that was not done by the previous owners for a long time given it lived in Fresno where rain is not quite the issue it is where we live.

So, I have been and am going to be one busy puppy for the next few weeks. My wife has already posted the phone number for the coronor so when I over do it, she will not have to go looking for his number. Her way of letting me know I need to do this at a measured pace. She doesn't want me being one of these any sooner than I should be.

 

Sold it :2_thumbs_up_-_anima

Maybe I'll start looking for another 59.

 

I was able to get my water pump fuel pump belts hoses, and carb installed, fired right up. Placed a master cylinder and a proportioning valve on order and maybe I can hit the road, for some road tests on the transmission. When I bought the car, that was the reason I was told the car had sat for 35 years, a bad transmission.

 

Finished up the work i started on friday (check post 817). Powerwashed the engine bay and drove it around then checked for leaks. So far all is GOOD!!! No leaks and now on to the next thing

 

Well, hit the wrecking yard and for a few bucks picked up a used scissors jack and a nice 6x9 speaker for the dash radio.

With the speaker installed the stock AM radio still fails to provide even a little static so time to get it checked. Have a shop here in town that repairs tube radios so they get it next week. Not to worry tho, the day was not a failure in any stretch as the sun was out all day and I listened Mott the Hoople on a great drive in the country! Good day.

 

Added a set of fitted coco floor mats, and also had the door striker catches and bolts powder coated. (they were the only thing not black or white outside the engine compartment)

 

I set out to take the snows off of The Mrs Sebring yesterday. That meant waking the Roadmaster out of it's hibernation in the garage. It started up like a champ without any issues and I eased it out into the driveway so that I could get the jack and tires from where they were kept behind the wagon. I noticed a few drops of fresh oil on the ground from where the wagon crossed the threshold coming out of the garage but I put it out of my mind until the Sebring was done. After backing the wagon back in again I noticed several streaks of oil on the garage threshold, as though someone had squirted an oil can. I put the wagon up on the ramps and crawled under to find a steady dripping of fresh, clean oil making a large puddle on my garage floor. It took a while to find it but apparently, the oil cooler lines run through a small gap between the frame and the steering column. The frame has rust on it and the gap has filled in with mud and silt from the previous owner having never cleaned it. It seems that mud and crap has managed to eat it's way through my oil cooler line over the winter. Rust truly never sleeps. It was too late in the day to do anything about it so I put my oil drain tray under there to contain the mess and I'll have to see if I can find new oil cooler hoses. The wagon has likely come close to bleeding to death overnight. Hopefully I'll be able to get the part and get it installed in the next day or so.

 

Here's my thread and post on how I got started cleaning up my polished aluminum rims.
http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=175746#post175746

http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=175746&postcount=219

It's been a long haul getting them cleaned up but the wet sanding with 2000 grit wet/dry paper seems to be working really well. So far I have two done and the other two sanded and ready for polishing. I've had a few spots that needed a little more effort and wet sanding those small spots with 400 grit seemed to work. The 2000 grit sheets work well but they seem to cut a little deep when fresh so after I sand the whole thing with a fresh 2000 grit sheet, I use a worn 2000 grit sheet to smooth it out. Once I've got the surfaces evened out without any obvious blemishes I rinse it off, let it dry and start polishing. I've been using Blue Magic Metal Polish Cream. Not only does it polish really well, but it leaves a coating on the rims to make them a little more resistant to water spots and brake dust. It will have to do until I find a wheel wax that I like.