1968 Chevy Bel Air Wagon Project

[flatbed67]

It took a while to get the wagon back on the road. All kinds of stuff need
attention in the summer.
Anyway, after cutting an undisclosed amount of coils off of the front springs,
the stance is more or less exactly what I wanted. In other words the same
distance between the rim and the top of the wheel opening front and back.
I think that makes for a well balanced, and nicely defined forward rake, just
as I like them



So no, I couldn't resist making the hazard sequence animation. Too bad it's
still only in my imagination. I really hope to get time to splice in the
sequential turn signals into the electrical system soon. Just now, we're
leaving for a one week road trip with the blue wagon. It will only be some 800
miles, but she's old and technically I don't really know her that well yet. I
wasn't going on a trip with only an idiot light, so I mounted a temp gauge
yesterday to be able to keep track of the health of the little 327. There's
going to be a big cruising saturday evening, and my Pontiac has had its only
over heating tendencies in this very cruising in past years.

[mongocanfly]

Looks much better..!

[Ol Blue K20]

It looks sporty now. I like the sequential light idea.

[Clyde65]

Damn nice job! Looks a lot like one my dad had way back

[Getter-Done]

Great Work as always.
Looks Great.
As for your cruzin trip.
Take plently of water for
The Wagon and You and the wife.






.

[flatbed67]

Thank you mongocanfly, Ol Blue K20, Clyde65 and Getter-Done for the kind words!

Back from a 1000 mile trip last night. The wagon ran perfectly all the time.
Total fuel consumption was 17 mpg, which is about what I had expected, a
good chunk, almost one third, being urban driving/commuting.
(327, original Rochester Qjet, points ignition, new rings, bearing shells, and
a bit bigger cam a couple years ago, TH-400 and who-knows-what-cogs)

It ran great, but when we had a hundred miles to go, we noticed a bad smell.
It seemed to come out of the technical end, and sniffing around under the
hood, I found it was the battery that was cooking. I had brought some tools
along, and put the multimeter to work. Over 16 volts. We continued cooking,
and this morning I checked the battery voltage,and it was 13.6Volts(engine off). I put in
another battery, started her up, and got 18 Volts. After some digging around
the regulator, I found that the ground lead was loose. The hole for the sheet
metal screw was too big, which seemed to be the problem. I found a bigger
screw, sanded the connecting surfaces with some emery cloth, and
connected the ground.
Now we have 14,25 Volts, and all is good

I topped up the battery with distilled water, and will try to use it. A lot of the
acid had boiled off, so I guess there's a good risk it's shot.

[Ol Blue K20]

I like simple solutions. I hope the battery is ok. 1000 miles! sounds like a good time.......

[notsolo]

Nice work, Beautiful car. You should see what Ford used for sequencial turn signals in the 60's.Yikes...Stance looks great, 68-72..last of the great looking wagons. Friend's dad had the Olds Vista Cruiser, from my way back when.

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by notsolo

Nice work, Beautiful car. You should see what Ford used for sequencial turn signals in the 60's.Yikes...Stance looks great, 68-72..last of the great looking wagons. Friend's dad had the Olds Vista Cruiser, from my way back when.

I had 71 Vista Cruiser with a 70 W30 455 engine. Man, I miss that car!

[flatbed67]

Over two years past due I suddenly noticed a mistake I made:



The caption for this pic is wrong, some will probably have caught it. You adjust the CAMBER with this excentical bolt. In other words you adjust the lower ball joint in ot out to the side, relative to the centerline of the car.

The wagon was sold in to gain funds for a new project car, a 1930 Buick Marquette, a hot rod Build.
Follow this link to HAMB to see what I'm up to nowadays:
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...moval.1223573/

[Getter-Done]

Good too hear from you

I checked out the Hamb Stuff