83 cutlass cruiser build.

[mikeselky85]

Hi all, me and my wife have had this wagon for about 8 years now. Purchased as a full stock vehicle, but it later came to where it wouldn’t pass delaware emissions test anymore. We decided to park it for a few years, but we found some rust lurking around under the vehicle. I’m currently starting the process of fixing the rust and planning on swapping in a different engine as well. I’ve got a lot ahead of me, some of the rust turned out to be worse off than expected.

will post pictures of the car itself first, and repairs after.

 

[mikeselky85]

Rear frame horns are rusty. Driver side is gone and passenger side has rusted put body mounts.
pulled out carpet and rear panels, and was greeted with a rather large rust hole in floor on driver side. Passenger floor is in a lot better shape, but we plan to replace it anyway.
the passenger wheel well is completely gone, I ordered an inner well, but am going to order the putter as well and fabricate the rear tire well too.
driver rear floor section near tire well has a little rust, although when pulled back the rust is a little worse than expected. So I plan to cut this section out and fabricate it as well.

as you can see with the pictures I cut the floor out and started fitting the Sherman floor plan on the driver side. The quality is real nice if you need to replace the section of the rocker too, but since our passenger side isn’t as bad, I’ll just order the basic patch panel for that.

stay tuned, will be assessing the doors tomorrow, 3 of the 4 doors have a lot of rust on the inner sections, but outer skins seem to be intact very well.

 

[Longroof79]

Mike.
It looks like a nice wagon. My friend is currently working on a Cutlass Cruiser as well. You're going to be an ace fabricator when this project is done... I'll definitely be tuned into your progress. Good luck!
Btw, what are your plans for the rear frame rails?

 

[mikeselky85]

Mike.
It looks like a nice wagon. My friend is currently working on a Cutlass Cruiser as well. You're going to be an ace fabricator when this project is done... I'll definitely be tuned into your progress. Good luck!
Btw, what are your plans for the rear frame rails?

thanks, it’s a nice car in general. Very complete and has all the chrome still.
As for the frame, I got in touch with somebody who had rear horns cut off, or I’ll order brand new el camino ones and modify them.

 

[Longroof79]

thanks, it’s a nice car in general. Very complete and has all the chrome still.
As for the frame, I got in touch with somebody who had rear horns cut off, or I’ll order brand new el camino ones and modify them.

How close in appearance are the El Camino rails compared to the wagon specific ones?

 

[mikeselky85]

How close in appearance are the El Camino rails compared to the wagon specific ones?

from what I’ve figured out is the wagon uses the same rearmost body mounts, but has mounts similar to the sedan/ coup on the second to last mount. So with elcamino ones you would have to cut the second to last mount tabs off and drill out the frame for thesecond to last mounts.
If any of that makes sense haha

 

[mikeselky85]

Okay so this morning I removed the fuel tank to check the floor and the rear frame mounts. Looks like all 4 rear frame mounts are trash for the most part. Also found a little bit of rust in the rear gate/ hatch area that will require some work. I looked on the inside and it’s all still solid, so it’s just outer rust.
Also got the time to assess 3/4 doors (drivers wasn’t pulled yet). Looks like they will all require inner door fabrication and repair. It’s strange cause the skins are in great shape, but I will remove 2.3-3” from lower skin and patch it anyway.
seems like all I keep doing is finding more and more rust, but on a good note I actually melted out the undercoating on the drivers tire well. Let’s just say I’m very pleased with the small patchwork I have to do. the wagons have a very unusual wheel well on the driver side due to the fuel filler, so I won’t be able to source a new piece if it was rotted. But for the passenger side I did order a coup inner well, and may order an outer well just to do it. It’s not a direct fit, but it will be my little secret haha.

 

[Longroof79]

from what I’ve figured out is the wagon uses the same rearmost body mounts, but has mounts similar to the sedan/ coup on the second to last mount. So with elcamino ones you would have to cut the second to last mount tabs off and drill out the frame for thesecond to last mounts.
If any of that makes sense haha

Thanks for explaining that. I recall a member using a frame from a coupe for his wagon. He also mentioned having to modify or relocate the rear mounts. It's been awhile, so I can't accurately tell you what he did.

 

[Longroof79]

You may end up doing a body off redo on it.

 

[mikeselky85]

You may end up doing a body off redo on it.

that’s the goal honestly. I just havnt gotten that far yet, I only started this Thursday. I was thinking of building a rotisserie but might just settle for a stand like I did with my elcamino before.