57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'

[Vic1947]

So the more I looked at the sides of the tailgate, the less I liked what I'd done. I realized there was no point in keeping the raised area where the liftgate stop attached. There's another stop a little further down on the tailgate that's in better shape anyway. At any rate, out came the cutoff wheel and I removed the hump and some of the adjacent area. I formed a piece that connects the liftgate and tailgate on the sedan deliveries and welded it in while I was at it. It may not be exactly like the SD's but looks better to me. I then duplicated the look on the other side, removed the braces and mounted the tailgate back where it belongs. I had to tweak it about 1/8" in the upper left corner, but other than that, it fit just fine. I reattached the sliding supports and tested it and it works nice and smooth.

When I was in St. James, MO last week, we dropped by the big salvage yard there. They advertise a lot of seats on eBay and I wanted to see if they had what I had in mind for the wagon. They had four sets in stock and as luck would have it, there was a 20% off sale on all their seats. I picked out a pair from a 2008 Silverado that are full power, etc. The upholstery shop will cover them with new material in the color I want, so I was mainly interested in the size and style. If they look familiar, it's because they're exactly the same as what went into CRLS. I knew from experience they were comfortable, so there was no need to reinvent the wheel.
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[Ol Blue K20]

Nice job Vic, I never doubted you could get it done. Awesome

[mongocanfly]

Looks great Vic....how heavy is the tailgate when lifting it?....I've been thinking about it and wondered if you could hook a scale to the bottom of it and see how much force it takes to open..and how heavy it is when in the open position....may help determine what gas shocks you may need..but I'm guessing you dont have hinges yet...

[Advanced Design]

Really nice work on the tailgate Vic! And the chassis....drool!

[RockinKees]

Awesome build!!
Just saw this and read it through.
Very, very creative work here!
I will for sure follow along.

I am on the hunt for a ‘57 Wagon too. Have seen three wagons now, the fourth (the best until now) is “in the mail” Let’s see what comes out of it.
Did I see this Wagon over on the Trifive board?

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Nice job Vic, I never doubted you could get it done. Awesome

Thanks, Dale.

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Looks great Vic....how heavy is the tailgate when lifting it?....I've been thinking about it and wondered if you could hook a scale to the bottom of it and see how much force it takes to open..and how heavy it is when in the open position....may help determine what gas shocks you may need..but I'm guessing you dont have hinges yet...

Hey Greg. I installed the window and hardware temporarily the other day and the whole thing weighs approximately 52 lbs. according to the bathroom scales. The center of mass is almost exactly halfway from the top to the bottom. The gas struts I have range from about 50# full open to 60# closed. I think the only way to know for sure if the struts will work is to wait until the tailgate is fully assembled and try them. Until then, the stock sliders work just fine.

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Really nice work on the tailgate Vic! And the chassis....drool!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by RockinKees

Awesome build!!
Just saw this and read it through.
Very, very creative work here!
I will for sure follow along.

I am on the hunt for a ‘57 Wagon too. Have seen three wagons now, the fourth (the best until now) is “in the mail” Let’s see what comes out of it.
Did I see this Wagon over on the Trifive board?

Yes. I have a parallel build thread going there as well. I have a lot of friends on the truck forum, so when I found this wagon, I wanted to take advantage of their suggestions. The tri-five forum is more suited to this build, but I have a feeling that only a few members are following it since I have no history on there. Good luck with your search. I passed up several before a buddy tipped me to this one on FB marketplace.

[knomadd]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

I have a lot of friends on the truck forum, so when I found this wagon, I wanted to take advantage of their suggestions. The tri-five forum is more suited to this build, but I have a feeling that only a few members are following it since I have no history on there.

Even though we may not have quite the experience with the tri-fives like the other forum, metal work is similar, no matter if you're working on a C/10 or a tri-five. Same goes for wiring, body work, paint, etc... The specifics may not be something we can relate to, but you know as well as any of us, car guys are full of ideas. Sometimes it takes a group outside the specialized stuff to come up with a plan that will work with custom work. We will keep following and offer whatever pointers or thoughts we can along the way.

Keep it up. You're doing great!

[Low Elco]

Great Lookin' work!

[cornerstone]

I hereby proclaim Vic the Michelangelo of Metal.....wait.....the Sultan of Steel.

As opposed to me with my old low budget high school rides, I was the Picasso of Putty.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by knomadd

Even though we may not have quite the experience with the tri-fives like the other forum, metal work is similar, no matter if you're working on a C/10 or a tri-five. Same goes for wiring, body work, paint, etc... The specifics may not be something we can relate to, but you know as well as any of us, car guys are full of ideas. Sometimes it takes a group outside the specialized stuff to come up with a plan that will work with custom work. We will keep following and offer whatever pointers or thoughts we can along the way. Keep it up. You're doing great!

Thanks, Duane. You guys have been a big help both from "you might want to consider this" to "don't even think about doing that!"

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Great Lookin' work!

Thanks, Chip. Good talking to you the other day. Let me know when you're ready to zap some aluminum.

Originally Posted by cornerstone

I hereby proclaim Vic the Michelangelo of Metal.....wait.....the Sultan of Steel. As opposed to me with my old low budget high school rides, I was the Picasso of Putty.

Hey, Brian, I hung out at Bondo Bob's Body Boutique in high school too. Aluminum screen wire and plastic filler were my tools of choice back in the day.

I've been prepping stainless trim in advance of having it restored. Kathy and I will probably head up to WI the middle of the month to drop it off at Vintage Vehicles. They did the trim restoration for my 57 Ford and it looked better than new when they finished. My experience with reproduction stainless is that it rarely fits like OEM. I have a few pieces that may be borderline, but we'll see what Paul and Bruce think.

The easiest way to get the front stainless spear off the fender was to just go ahead and remove the fender completely. Needed to do it anyway, so now was as good a time as any. In the process of taking it apart, I ran into a couple of funny things under the heading of "automotive archaeology". Long ago, someone had used bailing wire to fasten a spare key under the air scoop. I checked and sure enough, it works in the ignition.

There were also two wrenches that fell out as I was lifting off the fender. They're obviously homemade, but I'm not sure of the purpose for the 1/2". At least the 14mm could work as a distributor wrench. Regardless, someone lost both of them down in the depths of the fender well. I can relate to dropping something like that and having it completely vanish into thin air. Then finding it days or weeks later 20 or 30 feet away from where it dropped - under and/or behind a piece of equipment.

[Vic1947]

Finished removing the remaining pieces of the front clip. The bolt on the lower right front fender behind the wheel well refused to come out, so I had to drill in from the outside with a hole saw to access the nut. It was packed with about an inch of bondo which explained a lot. I'm planning to use the fender, so a patch will be needed as well as the rear support brace.

I rented a small storage space around the corner from the house and started loading it up with the clip parts and interior/door pieces I've removed. With the new chassis sitting in the spare shop bay, I'm rapidly running out of room to work.

I found a pair of BelAir wagon / Nomad top fin crown mouldings on eBay. They're the correct 41.5" versions. My quarter panels only have holes for the three clips that are stock on the 150's and 210's. So I removed the retainer pieces from the stainless trim and used them to locate where the new holes need to be cut into the tops of the quarters. The holes are rectangular, so it will be a PITA to put them in there, but it will be worth it in the end.

On a personal note, I may not be able to post regularly for awhile. My best gal, Kathy, has been diagnosed with breast cancer, so we're gearing up for her treatment. She goes under the knife next Tuesday to remove the tumor, followed by 4-6 weeks of recovery and then another 4-6 weeks of radiation. We won't know until after her surgery whether chemo will be needed as well, but we're hoping that won't be the case. Even though the tumor is the most aggressive grade, she was extremely lucky they caught it very early on. So the doctors are highly optimistic she will recover fully. So for the next few months we'll be schlepping back and forth to doctor appointments and/or daily visits to the big zapper.

[mongocanfly]

That cancer crap sucks Vic...hope all goes well...

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

That cancer crap sucks Vic...hope all goes well...

Thanks, Greg, I feel sure it will. We have a good team of doctors.

[Ol Blue K20]

Tell her to stay positive. From my experience that's hard to do sometimes. But my girlfriend, kids and friends are good support and help me maintain positive attitude and mood. So, moral of this rant. Make sure she leans on the people around her. Best of luck and good thoughts for you guys.

[swamp rat]

Sending my prayers and best thoughts for a full recovery, I have a friend going through radiation treatment right now and we just lost a coworker to liver cancer as well.

Keep plugging away when your mindset is into the task. Take care and let her know I’m praying for her!

[sduckworth13]

My thoughts and prayers are with you and Kathy. Sad to hear that Kathy has to deal with this.

[rustytruck50]

So sorry to hear about Kathy...sounds like there is a good plan in place and she has a great support group! Our prayers go out to you

[knomadd]

I'll keep you both in my prayers. I hope everything goes well and she gets a clean bill of health soon. I've lost a cousin to breast cancer, and a few other family members in my wife's family to other types of cancer. Dale is right, make sure she leans on those around her that are there to support her. They can help her share the burden so it's a little easier.

[NONHOG]

Best wishes for quick, full recovery!
(oh on a secondary note-cool car!)

[Vic1947]

A great big THANK YOU to every one of you for the support! Kathy had surgery on Tuesday and is doing very well. The doctor made two incisions, one to remove the lump and the other to remove some armpit lymph nodes. He used superglue to close the cuts, so she won't have to go back to have stitches removed. They took a preliminary look at the lymph nodes and they showed no sign that the cancer had migrated beyond the lump which was very good news. If the full pathology results we get tomorrow confirm that, she won't require any chemo. Four weeks in the bug zapper and she'll be done except for follow-up visits. So, hopefully, she's out of the woods. I can't wait for her to be back to 100%. Fixing meals, doing dishes and laundry, running errands and etc. makes me appreciate how much she does for me on a daily basis.

Crusty sold yesterday. They didn't provide many details, but they did say an international buyer purchased it. For those who have never sold via a consignment shop, take if from me, you really need to go over the fine print carefully. Turns out the bottom line, net-to-owner figure is all you get. The commission percentage they quote is their "minimum". So anything extra over and above the seller reserve goes in their pocket instead of increasing the net figure. A bit of a burn there, but water under the bridge. Hope the new owner appreciates the amount of work that went into it.

Deconstruction on the wagon continues. The interior is pretty much gutted at this point. A PO must have bought a bunch of 3/16 plate steel on sale. One of the shock mounts and the rear passenger floorboard were both patched with it. They just scabbed it on over the rot, but that makes it pretty easy to cut out. The storage closet I rented is filling up quickly. I should have just enough room to stash the parts I've been removing. If I can remember, I'll take a photo next time I'm there. More later.

.

[Vic1947]

Intermittent progress on the wagon continues. Kathy had a bit of a setback last week. The surgeon didn't quite get enough of the tumor on the first go around, so she went back under the knife on Friday. He seemed confident this time that he'd removed enough margin for her to proceed with the radiation after she heals up. Added a week and a half to the plan, but better safe than sorry. She's doing great, though. Meanwhile, I've been doing some small stuff when I get the chance.

The windlace/kick panel holders were in pretty good shape except for the channel that holds the windlace right at the bottom. I was going to order a pair until I found out they cost $300. Whipped out the shrinker/stretcher, spot welder and some scrap sheetmetal and proceeded to repair them instead. A few hours of time and no hole in the wallet.

However, I couldn't stand the rust repair I did on the lower section of the tailgate. So I caved in and bought the reproduction tailgate skin and cut it in half to patch the area a bit better (hopefully). I'm not a big fan of butt welding long stretches of sheetmetal, so I spot welded a backup strip on. It will act as a lap joint. I could have used the bead roller to flange the new piece, but this seems to work better for me. I'll spot weld the new piece to the strip and then MIG the seam. I used panel adhesive to close up the hinge openings to avoid any warpage. Some hammer and dolly work and the patch should good to go.

I also dropped the gas tank out. It had a pipe plug in the bottom to use as a drain, so I got all prepped and carefully opened it up with a five gallon bucket under it. Much to my surprise, less than a quart came out. No wonder it died making the turn into the driveway when I drove it home. I'm embarrassed to say that it never occurred to me that it could be out of gas when it wouldn't stay running. Auto repair 101.

[sduckworth13]

Any progress is good progress. Looks good Vic!

[swamp rat]

The gas looks like varnish!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Any progress is good progress. Looks good Vic!

Thanks, Scott.

Originally Posted by swamp rat

The gas looks like varnish!

It didn't smell all that good either, Mike. But the weird thing was that I'd filled up on the way from St. Louis to KC so whatever happened to the gas must have occurred since the car was parked in November. They say today's gas blends can go bad quickly but I haven't noticed any ill effects with fuel stored in plastic jugs over the winter. If I can remember to do so, I add some StaBil if I know it will be awhile before I use the gas. Don't know what the deal was with this batch.

[Ol Blue K20]

I'm glad that your wife's prognoisis is good. Hopefully she's not real sore. Looks like some decent progress on the car too...