79 Cutlass Wagon G-machine build

[Longroof79]

Welcome back, Ben.
Thanks for sharing your experiences, upgrades, and updates. I like what you've done to the car so far.
Very entertaining and enjoyable reading. Quite an adventure. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the car mags picked up your story for an article.

Hope things are going well at Bulldawg.
Maybe one day you can tell us what projects you've been working on at the shop.

Keep up the good work!

 

[81cutlass]

I still think this is absolutely an amazing build. Probably because I have a huge desire for a 78-80 cutlass wagon and the way yours is layed out is essentially exactly how i want mine.

I got a lot of funny looks when I pulled a 85 cutlass roller behind my dads 73 IH step side short box pickup. I cant imagine how many looks you get pulling a nova with a wagon!

 

[clean8485]

Thanks for updates and photos Ben. Looks like you've made good progress. Not sure what's causing your steering issue. I thought about the internal stops in the steering box, but your left tire is hitting both front and rear, so it can't be that. It might be the center link, but I'm not sure.

 

[SRD art]

Hey everyone, finally an update!

Things weren't quite what I expected in Georgia so after looking around I found an opening and was hired by Speed Tech Performance recently as a creative director and fabricator in the shop. Craziest thing is it brought me back to Utah!

Needless to say I'm loving it here! Speed Tech relocated from Western Canada to St. George, Utah in November 2012. When I came out to interview it was like coming home, even though it's about 4 hours away from the Salt Lake City area where we used to live. My wife has family up there so at least 4 hours is closer than 2200 miles away!

Thought I'd share a few photos from my road trip. Last August we packed as much as we could fit in our vehicles and headed out from Utah to Georgia. This time we were a little short on cash so I came alone in April, and headed back end of May to bring my family back. Much like the first time I towed my son's Nova project with the wagon.

I got started pretty late in the day, which may have been a bad omen, but was hopeful to get to Kentucky before stopping. When I got into Tennessee things didn't go so well. after climbing a large hill/mountain shortly beyond the Tennessee/Georgia line my right "drag bag" airbag blew out on the way back down the other side. As you may recall from earlier posts the right airbag blew on the way from Utah to Georgia. I guess these things are for spring rate adjustment and preload only and just weren't meant to help carry weight. This trip I had all my tools in the wagon along with other belongings so it was quite heavy. The car dropped enough that it rubbed the tire pretty badly in the couple seconds before I got off the road.

With the wheel off I got up inside the inner wheel well and beat it with a hammer to get some extra clearance. Here you can see where it was rubbing.

Back on the road it wasn't long before the left bag started to slowly leak down and began to rub on that side on bigger dips and bumps in the road. At my next gas stop I used some redneck engineering and crammed my jack handle up into the wheel well and inched the car forward to bend up the fender lip.

Normally my tires are close to the body and don't rub at all, but the extra weight pushed it over the limits.

Around 8:00pm I pulled into a Walmart to grab a couple items. When I came out I noticed that my turn signals weren't working. I went out back to check all the wiring and found that with my exhaust in the middle of the bumper, it got so hot back there the exhaust melted the wiring and fused the two halves of the plug together into one big blob. So I spent some time repairing that and replacing several fuses, and decided to call it a night and grab a motel room.

 

[SRD art]

So I got the motel in Tennessee and camped out for the night. I thought for sure I could get an early start and make some good progress the next day. Not so...

About an hour out of the town I stayed in, just past the "Bucksnort Rd." exit I heard a noise from behind me and looked in the rear view mirror to see the tow dolly tire was smoking. Nice! I pulled right over but before I could get to the side of the road the tire came totally unglued! It was my first blowout ever. It also blew the light off the fender in the process.

I called Uhaul and they put me on a three way call with the closest Uhaul account service station, which was 45 minutes away. He was a nice gentleman but I had to laugh to myself as he sounded like he was probably wearing overalls and a straw hat waiting to get home to that fresh batch of white lightning he brewed the night before, lol! It was also funny when he said to the uhaul rep after she asked him to send help to me, "well that's a long way, so as long as it's ok with Uhaul we'll run a tire out there." I'm thinking, uh yeah, I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with a blown tire, sending someone out would be a good thing. It was Sunday, so they had to call in one of their employees in to bring the tire, so 1 1/2 hours later the guy pulled up in the service truck. He did a great job getting me back together fairly quickly and said the tire on the other side was low on air and that's probably what caused the blowout. They didn't look all that low to me but what do I know. I had to sign the bill, the service call not including the tire was $250. Glad I wasn't paying for it. The Uhaul rep that helped me on the phone stayed in touch the whole time with phone calls and texts until I was back on the road. I've heard a lot of bad about Uhaul, but I'd have to say overall they all did a good job.

So now I'm back on the road and finally get to Memphis. Anyone ever traveled through there? Their idea of road signs, or lack of them, wasn't funny. I got all turned around and ended up lost downtown somehow. While getting gas I was a little concerned about the tire that was still rubbing sometimes on the driver's side so I pulled the wheel and got the hammer out to beat the inner wheel well on that side too. Glad I did, that west Memphis and into Arkansas has the worst roads I've been on for a long time. Another funny thing about Memphis is apparently they don't believe in making left hand turns at intersections. I found myself going into parking lots to turn around so I could get on the roads I needed to. What a pain that was.

Needless to say when I saw that welcome to Arkansas sign I was relieved to put the two day nightmare of Tennessee behind me. Here's a shot at a rest stop in Oklahoma I think. you can see how low it was without the bags working...

 

[SRD art]

I stopped at a rest stop somewhere in Texas. I liked this shot shot, this building was cool built into the hill with a huge star in the wall.

Another cool stop was a gas station IIRC near the New Mexico/ Arizona border. Inside the gas station was a huge car collection area. Neat stuff in there, cars and paraphernalia. They even had several large screen TVs playing old automotive based TV commercials. Really neat place, free to browse around and a nice break from driving. One of the few places along the way that reminded me I was traveling route 66.

This was my favorite of the items on display. Looks like an old Chevelle magazine ad. It says it all.

This was my favorite car on display. I really like the lines of the early 50s Chevys, and this shade of green was awesome. Dual carbs on the 6 banger and a BEAUTIFUL white interior. Super nice.

Some more cool stuff...

 

[SRD art]

When I hit Winslow AZ the highway was shut down because of 60 mph winds blowing across it and low visibility from all the dust. I was excited to see the town of Winslow because it's mentioned in the route 66 song. Unfortunately outside of a small downtown main street stretch, the town is run down and looks somewhat vacant. Too bad, I bet at one time it was a thriving little stop along the way. Well our option was to wait out the wind as many people chose to do, lined up parked along side both sides of the road. Another option was a detour south, go through the national park, and then back north to Flagstaff. I was already behind schedule so I chose the detour. I filled up on gas just in case and headed out. Fighting a 60 mph headwind wasn't fun, and I just watched my gas gauge drop as I rolled along at about 40 mph. Finally after what seemed an eternity I was headed up into the mountains and above the wind. Then it was a good long uphill climb. I started getting nervous on the way back down the other side as I got lower and lower on gas and not knowing how much further I had to go. I literally was on the bottom side of E when I got back to civilization and found a gas station. Glad I followed my gut feeling to fill up before I left on the detour. Once I hit Flagstaff it was a pretty smooth sail on through Vegas and up into St. George Utah.

All things into account, I'm glad to say my car served me well. I ran between 70 and 80 mph most of the trip. It never ran hot, had plenty of power to haul the load, braked fine even with about 3500 lbs behind me, and handled the drive fantastic. After about a 2100 mile trip twice within about 6 months plus daily driving in between, I say not bad for a car that was thrown together in 2 months of spare time from the point of an empty shell barely put back on the frame.

I used to really like daily driving my drag prepped Nova, but the pro-touring build philosophy is so much better, my Nova wouldn't have gotten far before I needed gas again and again, and it would've run a little hot along the way. No wonder the plans for that car are now my second pro-tour build... clickey for Trogdor build thread

 

[jmt455]

I'm sorry to hear that the Georgia move didn't work out as hoped, but it certainly sounds like it was a blessing in disguise.
Good luck with the new position, and keep those updates coming!

I always look forward to reading about your latest adventures and progress on the car.
Thanks for sharing!

 

[Longroof79]

Good to hear from you again, Ben.
I've often wondered how things were going with you and your family in Georgia. I won't even ask you what you've experienced living there. I even thought to myself, why would you even consider uprooting your family and moving to Georgia from Utah? I know it was based on your job endeavor.

Well, I hope you guys are happy and settled in. From the sound of it, I assume you made the trip back solo.
How did the rest of the family make it back?

Man, what an odyssey. You can't write an adventure like that... :lol: All in all, I'm glad you made it back safely,despite the mishaps and vehicle related setbacks.

You'll have to fill us in on your projects at your new place of employment...when you get settled in and begin working.

Thanks for sharing your adventures with us..what a nightmare. :? You've managed quite well despite the adversities.
Good luck in your new position.

 

[1evilregal]

glad to see you're back! I hoped that we hadn't seen the last of the build, as I've been tuned in since page 2 was posted!
sorryto hear things didn't work out in GA, but is sounds like the experience was worth it, and helped in the career path. keep us updated as you can!

This was my favorite of the items on display. Looks like an old Chevelle magazine ad. It says it all.

this was actually just a part of a billboard ad campaign celebrating chevrolet in detroit several years ago....
http://www.rockinghammemories.net/chevybillboards.html