1968 Chevy Bel Air Wagon Project

[flatbed67]

Yes, Advanced Design, it will be interesting to see if there's a noticeable
difference to the gloss.
I sprayed on the blue paint myself, but the shop owner, who's a friend of mine
promised to do the clear coating tomorrow.
Exciting times.

And boy, do I look forward to getting the bumpers, lights and new wheels
mounted, to see if it changed any from last summer.

[mongocanfly]

Looks good flatbed...I'm liking that blue color.....

[Getter-Done]

Nice job

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks great in the pic. I can't wait to see it cleared..

[flatbed67]

Thanks guys, your supportive comments mean a lot!
I got the wagon cleared yesterday, and the gloss is much better now, it really
looks nice in the sunshine.



I drove it home in the early evening, and driving, looking out over the shiny
straight hood was a real inspirational boost. I still have a hard time realizing
how I could buy this POS.
This morning I backed it out of the garage, and most day went by while I tried
to get the garage into a somewhat usable condition, sweeping and washing the
floor, and putting gazillions of things onto their right places. While I do a project, I
tend to leave things lying around in the shop, so in the summers I do about a
week of getting all into order again.
Late last night I just had to try one of the new wheels in the front, but I
couldn't find the new nuts for the rear wheels.
After hours of tidying up the garage, I found the new stainless acorn nuts,
and changed the left rear wheel too. I think the new wheels make the wagon
look a few hundred percent better. I like 15" wheels with plenty of rubber.
And I do like the go fast white letters too
I've been thinking of doing black SS stripes on the hood and tail gate...



I worked on some details today, that still aren't painted, such as the fuel filler
door, rear side window trim (painted on the cheaper wagons), and a couple
parts in the front. They are in primer now, and will hopefully be painted in a
few days.

[mongocanfly]

thumbs up!!!!

[Getter-Done]

flatbed67
That is going to be a Head Turner for sure.
Top Notch Work.
I'm at a rod run in East Tennessee now.
I have took 200 something pictures of Truck & /stuff.
I took a few of the Station Wagons here at the Rod Run.
Of course None of them LOOK as good as yours does right now.
I will post pics of them in a thread soon and let you know.
Once Again Great job!!!

[Bean Counter]

Just found this thread. All I can say is you've done an AWESOME job, Flatbed! Can't wait to see the finished product!
David

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks fantastic! The wheels do set it off very nicely.

[flatbed67]

Thank youmongocanfly, Getter-Done, Bean Counter and Ol Blue K20 .
Looking forward to get the link, Getter-Done, always good for the inspiration
to see other wagons!
Not much progress on the project now, as it seems like every part needs to
be either polished or painted before going on the car. The sheemetal part
that screws to the grille and goes inside the top of the front bumper was
pretty badly wrinkled up, so I had to hammer and dolly, and even weld it a bit
before grinding, sanding and filling. It's so cold in the garage now, that the
filler wouldn't harden, so the six foot long thingy is standing in the shower
stall for the moment being The wife wondered what the smell was. Grins

I mounted two of those "body by Fisher" treshold moldings today, after
spending a lot of time polishing them. They're all pretty badly oxidized, and
should really be scrapped, but as the carpet isn't new either, they still look
pretty decent when polished. Everything is relative.
I also polished the thingy that almost look like a park/turn signal (in the pic
below), and mounted it. The left hand one had been glued in place because
the nuts were missing. Something was wrong with the two "stalks" that the
nuts swrew onto, so the usual sheet metal nuts wouldn't take. Using a die I
made1/4" threads on them,so now they take standard nuts.
Then had to call it a day and go vote. We had parliamentary election here
today.



As can be seen in this pic, the chrome is pitted, as it is on most parts. Still it
polishes up, so I think it'll look decent seen from a few feet away. In this very
case the worst pitting goes inside the bumper.

Edit: The wife looked the car over as it sat outside, and in a thoughtful way said:
"It looks a bit high in the front"
She's learning! And yes, a few coils might eventually just disappear.

[Getter-Done]

Looking better and better each time.

Here is the link to my Station wagon Pics.

Link: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...43#post8507243













.

[BossHogg69]

WOW!!!!!!!! I've missed out on a LOT of progress! I love the color! All that hard work definitely paid off!

[Ol Blue K20]

I can't wait to see it completely assembled.

[Clyde65]

That car sure brings back memories of my dad’s 66 blue BelAire wagon. You have done an amazing job on her!

[flatbed67]

Thank you Getter-Done for the link. My favorite is definitely the '60
buick wagon, I really love '60 Buicks.
Fun, BossHogg69, that I had made some progress since last you looked
at my thread. I work on a pretty tight scedule, MOT last of April, and there's
loads of stuff to do.
Clyde65, I wish I had memories of American cars from my childhood,
but, as I wrote at some point earlier, I do my best to make memories of
American cars for new generations.

Slow progress, as always. Feels like swimming in glue at times. The last few
days I have been working on the last things to paint, and today I cleared the
rear side window moldings, the horisontal center piece that goes under the
head lights and inside the bumper, fuel filler door and front valance plate (the
sheet metal under the grille), which usually is gray on the '68s. Mine's blue
now.
When I came home I mounted the tail lights and rear side markers. The four
on the tail gate don't work yet, but the outermost ones do. That has to
suffice until after the May cruising.



The Chevrolet emblem on the tail gate is the only emblem who's holes I
didn't weld up. All others were in such bad shape, that they were of no use anyway.

[flatbed67]

I had a bit of luck recently. When I was going to paint the wagon, I opened
the tail gate to mask off the jambs. As I was buzzing down the electric
window, it suddenly quit, and would not do anything. I checked the fuses, and
all of them looked ok. Luckily the widow was just enough lowered, that I
could open the tailgate. I left it, and just masked over the rear window
opening with paper.

I read on a forum about a guy, who asked if he should break the glass, as it
was stuck closed. Apparently a few screws are under the floor height, so
you're in real trouble if the window doesn't open.

Yesterday I found what caused the window to not work. There's a switch in
the jamb, that earths the motor when the tail gate is closed. One of the
leads had loosened, and fallen off the switch. I could reach in (inside panel of
the tailgate was removed), and just earth the lead, and get the window up,
while the tailgate was open, to get full access to the mechanism and the
elecicals.
Of course I cut the lead, that had fallen off, to length, crimped a ring terminal
to it, and put it under the head of a mounting bolt for the motor. Now it's
possible to raise the window when the tail gate is open, but why would you
do that by mistake?
At least now I can do it to change bulbs in the tail lights.

[BossHogg69]

Man oh man, those taillights are KILLER!!! I'm so jealous!

[flatbed67]

Nice words, BossHogg69

I'm excited to get to see them with sequential turn lights, to me that will be a
long time wish come true. Still waiting for the controller, so that might be an a
month or two. I'll post a clip on youtube when I get it all done.
The 327 has a bit of cam in it, so with new exhaust, the sound might be pretty
nice too. Definitely a clip coming up.

[Ol Blue K20]

It's looking really nice so far. Good progress.

[flatbed67]

Working on it Ol Blue K20
I've ben polishing parts and mounting them. Vacuumed all five doors, if you
count the tail gate, and rust proofed them with Dinitrol ML.
Today I finally got the left side head lights mounted and connected, even
adjusted, and the front suddenly looked ready for the road.
I changed the wheels on the right hand side (only had the left hand ones
changed for photographic reasons earlier *grin*). When I was at it, I
adjusted the toe, as the ride had felt a bit erratic when I came home from
the paint shop.The old tires were worn on the insides too. I had to adjust a
good amount before the wheels tracked parallel.

Then I just couldn't help myself, but went for a bit of a shake down test. It
now rides straight and nice, and the 327 has a much better bite, which stems
from a really poorly adjusted throttle linkage. The previous owner has
probably never had the secondaries open at all! How much is in the last
quarter of the primaries and all the secondaries? Can be a hundred ponies?
Small ones perhaps, but it sure feels a lot quicker.



Still lots to do, but it looks almost ready for the mayday cruising.
Oh, and still a week to go.

[Ol Blue K20]

I wasn't worried about the ponies....I was worried about it's appearance. ...lol! Keep up the good work

[Getter-Done]

That is an Awesome job you have done.
You will make the May Fest.
Do you have a Picnic basket to put in the back
Like you did with your Flat bed.?

[flatbed67]

Thank you Getter-Done for the kind words. I actually have put a
surprising amount of hours into this project this winter. I almost beleived my
friends, that say that we don't get as much done nowadays when we've grown
so old. I have had a hard time swallowing that as a fact, and feel that
judging from this winter, my age (53) is not yet a problem.
Oh yes, we're hard core picnicers, so now that we don't have a pick up bed to
sit on, we just bring the old picnic table I inheritad from my parents, a few fold
away stools, gas burner, coffee grounds, water... You get the picture.

[flatbed67]

Ol Blue K20, we need ponies to get the wagon moving. No use if it
sits like furniture. I worry about everything *grin*

I took out the wagon to be able to change my dad's tires today, and as we
had a wonderful warm afternoon, I stayed out, and cleaned the windows
inside and out. I just had to snap a pic of my wagons.



I worry about the interior too, so I mounted the driver's door panel. The vinyl
on the original armrest was broken, so I had ordered new ones from
Eckler's.

https://www.ecklers.com/late-chevy/i...-332000-1.html

On that page the text says among other things:
These door armrest pads are manufactured to perfectly replace your
originals, while giving your Full Size Chevy a great renewed look.

The edges look like a 12 year old with a sharp knife would have cut them
out, and I had to re-drill the mounting screw holes. I actually threw the right
hand one back into its box, because the original looks better.
The result is good enough for me, as this is no restoration, but these arm
rests are definitely no concours quality.
New cranks provide some bling to the interior.



The lock knobs, that supposedly are for this kind of Chevrolet weren't
exactly a "bolt on" deal either. I had to drill and tap them to get them to fit
low enough, so that the ends go down into the door panel. These
aftermarket parts really make time fly.

[mingoman]

The old wagon looks wonderful! Really like the color you chose too.