57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'

[mongocanfly]

very nice Vic..!!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by regan wilson

Very Nice!

Thanks, Regan. Super Street truck looks cool ...and hauls! Do they still have a strip in Tyler?

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

very nice Vic..!!

Thanks, Greg, fixing to see if I can assemble the Flowmaster universal stainless exhaust. Right now it looks like a pile of Legos for big boys.

[regan wilson]

Looks like fun Vic. As far as a Drag Strip around here? Our track Interstate 20 Dragway has been gone since the late 80's.

[Scott2]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Thanks, Regan. Super Street truck looks cool ...and hauls! Do they still have a strip in Tyler?

Thanks, Greg, fixing to see if I can assemble the Flowmaster universal stainless exhaust. Right now it looks like a pile of Legos for big boys.

Nice exhaust kit! I'm sure you'll make it look great!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by regan wilson

Looks like fun Vic. As far as a Drag Strip around here? Our track Interstate 20 Dragway has been gone since the late 80's.

Years ago when we lived in Houston and ran a S/G car, we made plans to race at Tyler (I-20) but seemed like every time we did, it rained out. So I never got the chance to make a pass there. Went to a lot of tracks back then, some of which are no longer in operation... Porter, TX, the old Houston International down by LaMarque, Green Valley up by Fort Worth just to name a few. Made my last pass in 1984 if that tells you anything.

Originally Posted by Scott2

Nice exhaust kit! I'm sure you'll make it look great!

Thanks, Scott. I've gotten a bit sidetracked with small projects and have yet to start laying out the exhaust. Both the oil and trans dipsticks needed to be shortened, which is easier said than done. I guess the folks that designed the ones I have wanted you to be able to check the fluid levels without having to lean over the fender. The oil dipstick is now underneath the header tubes and requires that I pull the spark plug boot above it for access. The trans dipstick now sits just behind the cylinder head instead of snaking way over the top of the injector rail. Both are hardened steel which meant I had to drill the holes for the retaining pins with a carbide drill. But, it's finally done.

The dust shield for the flexplate is another issue I'm dealing with. The one they sent me is for a manual trans setup and won't clear the Mast Motorsports pan. Plus the holes meant for bolting it to the bell housing are not at all like what I have. I think the 4L70E trans that came from Performance Automatics is a hodgepodge of parts. The bell housing is most likely from a 5.3L Vortec truck. In fact, I had to machine a press-in mounting boss for the trans dipstick because there's no corresponding threaded hole in the 6.2L block.

You can see the difference between the dust shield I received and the pattern I made that follows the actual contours of the bell housing and oil pan. Moroso makes one a bit more generic than mine, so obviously others have had this problem. I made a quick trip to the metal store this afternoon to pick up some .090 aluminum sheet to use with my pattern. Had to call in the order and when I arrived, there were no vehicles in the parking lot. They had a phone number posted by the door where you pick up. Called it and they came out and loaded my stuff into the back without me having to get out. Weird ...but necessary I reckon. So tomorrow I can whittle out the dust cover and then there's no other excuse I can use for delaying the exhaust fabrication.

[Vic1947]

So here's the finished dust shield fab'd out of .090 sheet aluminum. I riveted a small tab to the top edge on the driver side. It hooks behind the block where it and the trans meet to help retain the cover on that side. You can see from the bottom photo that the profile hugs the pan, starter and bellhousing cover. The two holes in the bellhousing I'm using to attach the dust shield are humongous. The 7/16 bolts are way overkill but anything smaller would fall thru. And I'm too lazy to machine a couple of T-nuts for smaller fasteners. Gotta move on.

[mongocanfly]

looks good Vic...

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

looks good Vic...

Thanks, Greg. With the dipsticks and dust shield finished, I got started on the exhaust. Spent more than a few minutes deciding where it would be best to locate the parts. In the end, it made the most sense to situate the mufflers about halfway back. The RS chassis has notches in it that allow you to tuck the components up out of the way.

The tube attached to the collector coming off the header needed a few more degrees of bend to line up the way I wanted. There are multiple ways to go about fixing it, one being to lop off the bend at the desired angle and weld a piece of straight pipe to it. Another is to slice the tubing in the middle of the bend leaving a small uncut strip at what will be the narrowest point. Then get everything situated the way you want and weld in a piece to fill the gap (which is what I did). Or you can get down and ugly with a rosebud which isn't my thing.

I've built some stainless headers and exhaust systems previously, so I have a nice little setup for purging the inside of the tubing with argon. This allows me to butt weld the tubing with little or no fill rod. But the main advantage is that it eliminates the "sugaring" that occurs on the backside of the weld that is normally exposed to the oxygen in the air. You can see from the photos below that on the inside of the tube there is intermittent 100% weld penetration (because I was moving a bit too fast) but none of the crust that forms when the molten metal oxidizes.

So the first leg is welded up back to the muffler. More later.

[Vic1947]

About halfway home - finished welding tubing on both sides back to the mufflers. Welded V-band clamps (red arrows) on both muffler inlet tubes and mocked up the H-pipe (yellow arrow). If I ever have to drop the trans for any reason, I can disconnect at the headers and mufflers, unplug the O2 sensors and remove the tubing as a unit. If you plan for the worst, you might escape it.

[mongocanfly]

that exhaust turned out really nice..

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

that exhaust turned out really nice..

Thanks, Greg, now I just have to get it over the rear axle and out the back while leaving room for the gas tank and battery.

[Ol Blue K20]

The exhaust looks fantastic.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

The exhaust looks fantastic.

Thanks, Dale.

I did a bit more exhaust work, got the tailpipes back over the rear axle on both sides but will need to wait on the gas tank and battery placement to finish. Meanwhile, I mounted the E-Stopp electric parking brake unit and connected it to the Wilwood universal parking brake cable kit. I decided to build a little heat shield for the e-brake unit. Exhaust tubing runs kinda close to it and I wasn't sure how much heat it could stand. Probably more than you'd think but no sense tempting fate.

[Vic1947]

Got shanghaied by the wife and pressed into service planting shrubs and flowers so the wagon took a backseat for a couple of days. I didn't actually work that long on the gardening, but I was too worn out to do anything much else for a few days. I have managed to get the fuel and brake lines formed and fastened to the frame. Didn't like the look of the inverted flare unions I'd planned to connect the 6' stainless fuel lines. So I machined a couple of sleeves and then soldered them together instead. I was a bit careless on my first try and didn't clean the parts well enough and had a leak under pressure. Second time around was much better. Left 120psi on them for a half hour with no leaks. Sooner or later I reckon I need to drop the body down on the frame.

[Vic1947]

After two and a half days of spreading seam sealer and masking, I applied the 3M Body Schutz to most of the underside. I left a small area near the rear until I get the gas tank situated. Need to drop the body on the chassis in order to do that so I'll finish the undercoat when I pull the body back off the frame.

I spoke to the shop that's doing the spray chrome on the grille bar. They're still on hold waiting for materials coming from Canada. I could tell he was frustrated. He has about 50 pieces backlogged and no one can tell him for sure when his stuff will get to him. Fortunately, I don't need it right this minute.

[Vic1947]

In keeping with my goal to do as much myself as I possibly can on this build, I taped off the firewall and dash and laid down some color. A good shop would be more than capable of two-toning the dash like I wanted, but as I found, it was a bit time consuming.

I started by taping off the exterior areas I want HR Express to block and paint. The goal was to wind up with tape lines that would be hidden under moldings, fenders, w/s gasket and the like. I applied the Millennium Silver to both the firewall and the dash. I then spent about 2.5 hours masking the areas that would stay silver and shot the Firethorn Red Pearl basecoat.

After it had flashed off, I applied a couple of coats of urethane clear. I'd originally planned to do the top of the dash with matte clear, but with the silver basecoat against the gloss red, it somehow didn't look right. I thought it might look cool to have a low gloss dash like they did back in the day, but I changed my mind mid-stream.

Painted the gauge pod, glove box lid, ashtray, speaker grille and misc other parts while I was at it. I can now assemble the Dakota Digital gauges and the USB charger that goes in the ashtray. Will post photos when that's done.

I'm still on the fence about what color to paint the steering column. The gauge pod is silver and the lower cover is red, so there's a dividing line that more or less splits the column tube. The way I see it, the column could be either color. At first, I planned to do it in the red, but more recently, I'm leaning toward silver. This is the crazy stuff that happens when you deviate from the factory schemes.

[mongocanfly]

Looks great Vic.!....I'd do the silver on the column...

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks good Vic. I'm a second on silver column.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Looks great Vic.!....I'd do the silver on the column...

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Looks good Vic. I'm a second on silver column.

Thanks, guys, I've been leaning toward the silver myself since the column is more in line with the upper part of the dash. Masking the column is the next time consuming activity. I don't really want to disassemble it, so I use tweezers and skinny screwdrivers to tape up the holes. I had it all masked for primer, but I knew it would be awhile before I got around to painting it, so I pulled all the tape.

Kathy and I got married on Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you) 52 years ago, so we celebrated by getting curbside delivery at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Came home and poured a couple of margaritas and fed our faces. Celebrations are a lot more low key at our age.

I did find the time today to install the Dakota Digital gauges in the dash pod. Also got the USB charger in the ashtray. Pics below.

[mongocanfly]

Like the cluster..!!...really nice..!!...
And congrats on 50+ yrs...

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Like the cluster..!!...really nice..!!...
And congrats on 50+ yrs...

Dang it!! Mongo always gets here before me! .....x2 on what he said....

[swamp rat]

Congratulations!!!

[Vic1947]

Thanks, guys ...all in all it was a very nice day given our present circumstances.

[67C10Step]

Super nice all the way around. Gonna be a head turner when finished.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by 67C10Step

Super nice all the way around. Gonna be a head turner when finished.

Thanks, I sure hope it finishes out nicely. Lots of stuff can go haywire between now and then.

Worked on a few small projects today including putting the a/c vent openings in the dash bezel. Called Hot Rod Express and got a recording that they will be closed until May 18. I emailed them to ask if they even know yet what their schedule looks like. It may be the fall before the rest of the color goes on.