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

Maybe the boy needs his sound system rattled !
What's gettin into those midwestern kids? I was never like that when I was raised in Illinois.

 

Excellent. Always nice to be surprised!

 

I agree with you. But very soon he will be getting himself another car and the bills and the work involved in repairs will be "ALL HIS" At this point we will see how cute it is to rattle a car apart when the repairs are all his! Then the old roadmaster will spend the rest of it's rusty life with me.

 

After 2 weeks of rain finally some sunshine so I lowered the tailgate to dry the soggy carpet under the decklid.


In the meantime I replaced a broken turn signal, off course no metric bolts so it took some time to get it out.
I found out you can easily make the black trim on the chrome like new with a permanent black marker.

 

hey fullsizelover, and all wagon lovers... every time it rains I got to go out and dry out the back. what are some of your prevention strategies? or is that just the way it goes having a wagon? it rains... make sure you go out and dry out the back again. 50 dollar wagon cover from ebay worked pretty good for me but they only last about 2 years.
Thanks,
Vance

 

I guess I'm lucky with our 1955 Chevy wagon. When I bought it the wagon was freshly painted so had no door rubber or little bumpers. Replaced it all plus the tailgate rubber back around early 90's. We've driven in very hard rains and parked outside at many campgrounds. No leaks!
In fact it's rained so hard here in Florida many small cars had to pull over. I rarely have to stop and still the only rain is a few drips at the wing vents on the front doors. A well placed piece of paper towel soaks it up as I drive.
However I've heard 55-57 Nomads and Safari's are terrible for tailgate leaks because of the different shape. I'd be willing to try if someone wants to trade wagons.

 

I ordered a set of Green LED lights and replaced my dash lights. Now I can see all my dials!

Such a great upgrade for only $8.

 

Couple of questions. What dash?
And do they plug right in the regular small round dash sockets or are yours the square holes?
I like that.

 

Sorry, I meant my control panel lights.

I don't have the square holes, these LED lights plugged right into the dash light sockets. I think they are the T3.25 indicator mini bulbs.
If you search "T8 LED bulbs, a bunch of color options show up. Red, green, white, blue, yellow. They are so much brighter than the stock bulbs, and work perfectly in the stock sockets.

I couldn't use them for turn signals though. I read that LED bulbs don't draw enough (watts? Amps? Volts?) something to activate the flashing mechanism. I also didn't swap out the brights indicator, because the blue lens with the green bulb ended looking odd.

They do work with the dimming function if you have that.

 

You are right the LED bulbs don't draw enough current to activate the bi metal strip in the flasher relay. There is a special flasher relay available for the LED bulbs if you want to convert all of them (Inside and out).

 

Bought some black Weathertech cut to fit floormats. I've had the custom floor pans in my F150 since I've owned it and those things are top notch. I figured I'd give them some more of my money. SO far they sit on the floor as advertised. I'd love to have a full floorboard one just to keep the carpet from getting any more wear. The only Mercury they have them for is the Cougar and I figure that is probably not at all similar to a COlony Park.

 

Here's a picture of the original bulb and the LED. LED is facing the camera so you can see what that looks like.

I didn't feel like bothering replacing the flasher, the stock bulbs work great, and I have no trouble seeing them. It was just a little hard to see my console with the stock bulbs, and I wanted an upgrade for those.

 

I see those are the more modern push in square, or actually more rectangular, sockets. I suppose on the older cars with the small round sockets they could be replaced with later sockets. I like LED's.
I had a 1987 Chevy van with round gauges recessed. They were nearly impossible to see at night. I added tiny lights that had no socket. Just a pigtail wire connected. I mounted those outside the regular guages with little colored plastic so they wouldn't glare. Worked well. It's the only car I had that dash guages were really hard to see.
I've bought little rubber covers to go over old car dash lights for a nicer look. My 55 Chevy has Dakota digital red gauges.

 

I saw some for the old socket type, I want to say the number was 1157. I almost grabbed a pair, but they were not white but red(I think). I was at Autozone when I saw them.
.

 

1157 is the old style double contact brake/tail light bulbs that have been used forever until LED's and brite bulbs. 1156 is the single contact tail only.
Dash bulbs are much smaller almost 1/4" sockets.