An economical way to fix your wagon is to source an engine at a local Pull A Part yard. They sell complete 8-cylinder engines with accessories for less than $200.
Our main old dude at the local NAPA and many older junk yards (recycle centers) still use the Hollenders manuals along with their computers. The NAPA guy calls his his bible and nobody better be messing with it! I like old timey car guys and gals. They don't care how many doors my wagon has or what color it is, they just wanna know what the engine came out of and what I want.
Polly theres lots of your wagons and 4door parts cars laying around at the 'auto wreckers'.....parts shouldnt be to hard to find ....so i say keep it ! ...but then Im a car hoarder according to my friends...so dont listen to me
Welcome to the nuthouse! You're going to love it here. The dash pad is a VERY easy thing to change. Look around the front of it, tucked under the lip. There will be a bunch of screws. Undo all you can find, and don't forget the ones on the side, facing the doors. There may also be one in each defroster vent. Once all the screws you can find are out, GENTLY lift the lip of the pad, and feel for resistance. Where you feel it, there is another screw. Once they are all out, it will simply pull out and off. Interchangeability is easy on these. The dash pads from 1980-1990 are all the same, I believe, and it doesn't matter the body style. Depending on the year, the same pad was used in the Bel Air, Impala, Caprice, Caprice Classic, and Caprice Classic Brougham. It was also used in the Pontiac Parisienne sedan and Safari, starting in 84. Chances are you will find one fairly easily. I believe they may also be available brand new from some of the interior shops. It certainly is possible to wrap the old one in either vinyl or leather as well, provided you know someone handy with a sewing machine. There are also kits to repair the vinyl skin on the old one, and they can be pretty good if done right. For the seat, I would be temped to throw on seat covers and call it done unless and until you are doing a full on restoration. As mentioned, there are a plethora of engines available for these cars, some quite inexpensively. Which engine do you have, and what makes you so sure it needs a rebuild? If you are talking about the puff of blue on start up, that is a $250 repair, no rebuild needed. The valve seals are what cause that, and the heads do not need to come off. My brother had a Chevy 305 in his 86 Parisienne wagon and it was running perfectly, no oil burning after the seals done, and it had 400,000 miles on the clock when the floor fell out.
Hi Polly, so glad you found your way to us. There is so much help here, you'll have that awesome family member shining like new before to long. to SWF, nice to meet you.
I agree with the 'sentimental' aspect, but when I look at the newer cars in the junkyards and how cheaply they're made (tupperware and paperthin steel), and the small mortgage you need to buy a throwaway car, it just makes more sense to use the deposit bucks for a new car to restore these older road warriors. I LOVE my 1979 Fairmont wagon. Why? I can get parts and engines from the older 1960s Falcons right up to the 1996 Mustangs. The same applies to Polly's Chevy. perfect car-bridging era. Heck, even a 1955 Chevy engine would fit in there, and all the way to the mid-90s. If it costs $5,000 to bring that Chevy up to snuff or even $10,000, what would a new one cost??? $40,000 for the same options? The nice thing is that it can be done on the fly - no monthly payments, no high interests. My wife's from Mexico, and we lived there for 5 years. We bought this 1979 wagon down there, rust-free, and I'll probably buy another rust-free one from there, and ship it up, or drive it up (my friends in Mexico have nice shops to work in and get a car roadworthy.) New cars just don't cut it for me. I can buy all the new options and adapt them to mine, even rearview cameras and auto-parking systems (not that I would), and my gas mileage is just as good as today's cars. I'm pretty sure the CEOs at the car companies make sure their hubbies and wives have fine clothes and homes, but so does my mortgage-free wife. Especially for vehicles that barely survive past the warranty or the 8-year payment schedule. But I'm sentimental about my Fairmont wagon, most of all. She's got all the toys and comfort and features I could want. And she's reliable. She loves me back everytime I give her some TLC. We've had her since 1997 (16 years) and she's kept us safe. AND... If my guess is right, Polly, I'll bet your hubby would enjoy the adventure of getting in there and tweaking that fine wagon back to her pristine dignity. Have him take a peak in our website's Projects: http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=32
