79 Cutlass Wagon G-machine build

[Longroof79]

Looks like that's going to be one rigid frame. Nice work Mr. Ben. 🙂
Fat friends come in handy sometimes...especially for testing the strength of a cross member... :lol: No offense, Jay. :wink:

 

[79loserbluebu]

That crossmember will be more than enough for any trans except maybe an Allison or like size trans. Tubular crossmembers flex and I've never seen one that has broken before.

 

[brettlaage03]

I'm so envious of both your car and even more so of your skills. I love it. And I dont even like wagons that much. But they are growin on me.

 

[LSCustoms]

beautiful!

 

[SRD art]

Got my rear bracing finished up Friday. First I started by doing some measuring and with the table plasma cutter cut out some rectangular 1/8" thick plates. I tack welded them to the frame rails and then drilled some bolt holes.

Right side then left side...

Then I took some 1 5/8" tubing and bent it according to a design I've been working out. Got it welded in and started on the bars to connect the control arms. Again I started with cutting out some mounting plates and used the control arm bolts to hold them in place.

I used the tubing bender to slightly curve some 1" tube, then flattened the ends in the press, and then welded them all together. Here's the end result. The smaller tubes on the cross tube go to holes that are pre drilled in the frame. I'm patent pending working out mass producing this brace so hopefully I can sell some in the near future.

And I tried out some orange paint on them. On a black frame with orange suspension parts these should look pretty cool.

My last little bit Friday I started on the heavy trailer hitch brackets. No school Monday so I'll wrap them up Tuesday and start bracing the front. By the time I'm done this car should be one rigid bad doggie.

 

[SRD art]

I'm so envious of both your car and even more so of your skills. I love it. And I dont even like wagons that much. But they are growin on me.

They tend to do that. When I was 19 I bought a 65 Nova wagon for transportation while I was building my street /strip 73 Nova. That was back in '89 when they weren't considered something special, and I loved driving that thing around, even with its worn out 6 banger. Unfortunately I had to sell it when I went on a mission for my church for two years. I've wanted another wagon for a while but a big 'ol 4000lb Impala wagon seemed too clunky to performance drive. I never paid much attention to the g-body wagons until this one fell into my lap. While this car is in the shop I had to buy a commuter car and picked up a 2000 Daewoo wagon for a great price. I'm already thinking about my next build and now feel weird thinking about buying a regular two door car, lol!

 

[Longroof79]

I like the braces, Ben.
The orange gives it a cool anodized look. 8)

 

[warbird]

awesome build, incredible skills. your illustrating skills are awesome too, wish i could draw my car up like that. i gotta ask... what is the name of this school you are going too? where is it located? got a website?
the reason i ask is the wife is air force and we are looking to change bases and she said this time i get to pick one close to a school i want to go to. and this school looks promising... sorry to go off topic. back to the awesome build

 

[mebe007]

Now for some new goodies.

I got this dual gauge pod from gbodyparts.com. They had the best price I could find at $50 including shipping. Seemed a bit steep for a mass produced thermoformed thin piece of plastic, but I guess you gotta pay if you wanna play. My interior is currently totally stripped out but mocking it up where it will go it looks like it won't be a perfect fit for my car, for sure one of the screw holes doesn't line up at all and not so sure everything else will exactly either. Maybe the wagons have different pillars? Either way I don't think it will take much to make it fit well.

I have the same pillar pod on my regal and only one screw lined up. i drilled another. Ride looks great man. Fab work is outstanding. Keep up the great work bro.

 

[liquidh8]

The wagons pillars are different. I took a 3 gauge pillar for a 2 doors, the a donar wagon pillar, and after a bunch of molding and fiberglass, I got a factory looking pillar. Alot of work, but worth it IMO.