BUILD THREAD Do I get a membership card now?

[81cutlass]

Rear bumper for El Camino and wagons are the same

Thanks, yeah I realized that a few days ago and kinda kick myself for not checking the yard better last time. I assumed it was only pontiac and buick wagons that used that bumper since the fillers are different. The yard is overgrown at this point so it's going to be October before I get out there again when all the grass dries out and the leaves fall.

I'm not super optimistic I will find a clean bumper in the yard either. All the Olds wagons were as bad or worse than what I have, and this car is significantly better than all the other G body wagons at the yard. The elcos are all destroyed and most of the malibu wagons are picked over hard.

 

[Blake442]

I took the last good rear bumper out of Rohner's 15 years ago lol
Bumper is the same across all wagons and Camino's... Only difference is the pattern on the optional rub-strips.
Fillers are clustered Chev/Pont, Olds/Buick, then Camino.
Didn't I give you a set of rear fillers a while back or am I imagining things? If not, I should have some...
You're not gonna find any at Rohner's thanks to yours-truly lol The only ones left are the cars that are sunk in the ground...
If your inner support is clean just get the re-pop outer and call it a day.
Try removing the rub-strip before you order...
If it comes off nicely, order the one for the strips, if they break, order the smooth one!

 

[Blake442]

Also if you get your rub-strip apart without wrecking it and decide not to use them I need them for my Buick lol

 

[81cutlass]

I took the last good rear bumper out of Rohner's 15 years ago lol
Bumper is the same across all wagons and Camino's... Only difference is the pattern on the optional rub-strips.
Fillers are clustered Chev/Pont, Olds/Buick, then Camino.
Didn't I give you a set of rear fillers a while back or am I imagining things? If not, I should have some...
You're not gonna find any at Rohner's thanks to yours-truly lol The only ones left are the cars that are sunk in the ground...
If your inner support is clean just get the re-pop outer and call it a day.
Try removing the rub-strip before you order...
If it comes off nicely, order the one for the strips, if they break, order the smooth one!

What a jerk, taking all the good parts instead of letting them rot into a field! 😛

Well that solves that problem, looks like i'll order a repop outer My inner support is clean so no problem there. My rub strip is half broken so I'm just going to order the smooth one. I like the look better anyways. I think there was a century there with an aluminum front support without a rub strip so I'll probably grab that next time I am out there and swap my front bumper to match.

I did get a pair of fillers from you but I was a chump and had them on the back seat floor and tossed a half full bottle of oil on it last fall not realizing they were back there and broke one of them beyond repair.

If you are interested you should let Rob Synker borrow those last clean pair of fillers you have and he can make some fiberglass repops out of them.

 

[81cutlass]

Patched frame and painted the hitch with some enamel I had on hand. Says 24 hours to dry and I laid it on pretty thick. Also reinstalled the rear bumper and need to pick up some new j nuts and screws for the tail lights.

I probably should have cut back a bit more since it was thin in a few spots I was welding and I said screw the passenger side it's not bad enough.

 

[81cutlass]

Disco tire said they'd have a replacement tire Thursday last week, didn't get a call. Called Friday, guy said he thought he saw it but couldn't find it. Called today again and it never shipped from the warehouse and it will be Thursday this week.

In other news I got new j nuts and screws and put my tail lights in and the hitch on. I ended up peeling the loose chrome off and rattle can silver painting the rust until I get a new bumper, it's a comically ok match for how little work it took and how bad it has looked for the last 3 years I've owned the car.

 

[81cutlass]

Disco tire got my replacement 235/60 in Thursday and I picked it up Friday and on the car Saturday.

Took the car (as a spectator) to the 1/8 mile track an hour and a half away and watched the 'outlaw' low prep race with all the cars that do stupid stuff like run 4's in the 1/8th. Had a pretty good time getting out of the house and seeing a car related event since everything else has been cancelled.

It's still a good roadtrip car! Cold AC, cruise works well, relatively quiet and comfy, and sitting on the tailgate makes a good race spectator vehicle 🙂

Something a few people have mentioned in the past is how a big trailer hitch will make the rear end of a wagon less rattly and squeaky. My rear glass latch striker is worn and squeaks like a SOB. I have used a small brass tube that I install over the latch but it wears out about every month or 2. I did replace the bushing before I took the drive so part of the squeak went away from that, but the whole rear of the car seems better now. We will see if the latch bushing holds up longer this summer or now.

I have decided to hold off on the further updates to the car for the rest of the summer and focus my time into race prepping the 2+2 for drag weekend. I had planned to do body work on the turbo hood, swap the rear glass spoiler on the car, POSSIBLY rebuild the trans since the band is toast, and hunt down some of the last parts for the bucket seat and console conversion, buy a new rear bumper, put some bigger rear springs in the car, rear speakers, fix some small interior stuff, I could go on.

The car is running good as is. I will probably put the 2+2 in storage this winter and keep the wagon at home to work on in the garage this winter and address the other issues then.

 

[Texas82GP]

Check the bushings in the tailgate hinges. The hatch latch on my 84 S10 Blazer squeaked real bad. New latch, no change. New "striker", no change. These were genuine GM parts I was buying at the dealer. My late Uncle was an S10 Blazer guy. I asked him about the issue and he said "the pins and bushings in the tailgate hinges are sloppy." I had the parts to fix it when I got rear ended and the truck got totaled so I'll never know for sure but it makes sense to me.

 

[ssn696]

If there is a notch in your latch loop, you can clean, file and build it back up with weld. Did that 28 years ago on the blue wagon.

 

[81cutlass]

No huge news to report.

The battery I had it in was an 8 year old junker that finally died. Replaced it with another garage floor special and it was also old and also junk. Bought a new battery and installed it, fixed that issue.

Had a random coolant leak where it was pooling on the top of timing cover. Finally made the effort to diagnose it AND it disappeared. Awesome.

Still runs fine though.

Pretty much decided this car will be staying at the house this winter to address the trans and the 2+2 will go into storage. Probably going to work through the remaining small issues, hope Power Tour happens next summer and if it holds together I will probably put the car up for sale next summer. Getting an urge to start a new project since the 2+2 is getting close to being done and this is getting close to being done. TBD on where I end up.