hello fellow wagon lovers

[Longroof79]

Dana,
Have good safe trip. Lookin' forward to seeing pics of the event. It should be a good shakedown for your new motor.
Now get out there and win some gold.

 

[Rktpwrd]

Dana stopped by my garage on his way out of town to the show in Montana tonight, and I have to say his wagon looks great and sounds fantastic. He's put a lot of hard work and effort into it as of late, and I for one am really happy to see him finally be able to reap the rewards. Nicely done Dana, enjoy the hard earned seat time. It was good to see you again and finally meet your better half. Have a good and safe trip!
Donovan

 

[1983mailbuwagon]

did you find a tact cluster ? I have two that I was about to put on ebay, both 78-82 style,
one is a 120 kph cluster and the other one is a very rare 200 kph cluster

also have a factory floor shift console with bread box and shifter that I was going to put up.

have a seat of 78-81 factory power buckets but they need a lot of tlc. there baby blue

was keeping for my wagon build but have bought a 4 speed stick conversion and have a 200 kph sweep style cluster im putting in .

 

[finkous]

roughly 1700 kms (1056 mi) and 17 hrs (not all at one time) in the seat of the old wagon and made the trip and back... motor ran smooth, transmission held up, exhaust rumble wasn't too annoying, and wife smiled all the way... I am very happy with this maiden voyage. 120 kms/hr, rpms were about 2200 and i did a quick calculation to be about 8litres/100 kms or 23 miles to the gallon, i will have to look at my gas receipts vs gps kms to be more exact, but i'm pretty happy with that. can't wait for the next long road trip...

the starting day...

stopped at West Glacier Park for lunch

Main street Bigfork MT

there was only 2 other gbodies registered in the show and both were elcaminos

 

[finkous]

Donovan, you are much too kind but I thank you... It is always a pleasure to walk around your garage and look over your build and raid your fridge! when I have more time we will pull out the lawn chairs...

As far as clusters go, I am still thinking about what to do... I might end up fabricating my own personal touch with some aftermarket gauges.
but I am still wanting some sort of a console, whether I make my own or find something.

I am thinking that the next big mod is to get the can opener and make the hole in the roof for the rag top

 

[finkous]

Donovan, you are much too kind but I thank you... It is always a pleasure to walk around your garage and look over your build and raid your fridge! when I have more time we will pull out the lawn chairs...

As far as clusters go, I am still thinking about what to do... I might end up fabricating my own personal touch with some aftermarket gauges.
but I am still wanting some sort of a console, whether I make my own or find something.

I am thinking that the next big mod is to get the can opener and make the hole in the roof for the rag top

 

[Longroof79]

Hey Dana,
Glad to hear that the trip was a success and that the car ran flawlessly. That was quite a haul to Montana. Glad the wife was in good spirit and enjoyed the drive.

Is that a selfie of you in that picture?

 

[finkous]

ya Jack, thats my ugly mug... sometimes it gets in the way of the camera haha

 

[Longroof79]

ya Jack, thats my ugly mug... sometimes it gets in the way of the camera haha

Hahaha....don't be hard on yourself, we can't all look like Clark Gable

All kidding aside...running @ 2200 rpm is nice. The engine is just humming along. If I recall, you mentioned something like 2.41 gears. That would also explain your great gas mileage, too.

 

[finkous]

haha your absolutely right Jack, Clark Gable I am not...

currently I am running the TH350 with lockup and 2:56 gears, my donor that I just parted out and put on the shelf has 2:73's and figured its not worth changing that out. eventually I wanna go with the 700R4 or 200R4 along with 3:73, that way I get the lower off the line gear and the higher top end over drive. I have another friend that has that set up behind a high perf 350 as well and we are heading out together for the last car show of the season in the mountains, so I will be curious how mine runs compared to his, and compare gas mileage.