Mad Wagon II, '79 Cutlass Pro-Touring Wagon

[SRD art]

Hey all- I'm at it again! With my Pumkinator torn down for some serious updates that will blur the line of street/ autocross car a little more, I needed another car for a daily driver. I've been driving my 454 powered 2500 '77 Suburban for over a year now and I've about had enough of big and clunky mixed with horrible gas mileage. I bought a '78 Monza station wagon earlier this year and planned a 5.3 LS swap driver for it, but as much as I like burning the curves there just isn't much aftermarket suspension support for these cars so I wasn't totally sure I wanted to follow through with this one...

As many of you also know my son's Coppertop '78 Cutlass wagon got creamed by an elderly driver with her brain turned off, and a year later we're still fighting to get an acceptable insurance settlement so it's been on hold. To make Coppertop's rebuild a little easier though we picked up a '79 parts car from a kid down in AZ. Recently my work hired a a really good new paint and body guy who took a good look over Coppertop and says he can fix it without needing the rear 1/4 panel off parts car. With nothing better to do than get myself neck deep into another 1st gen G-Body Cutlass wagon build things have started to come together to resurrect the parts car!

For the first phase build of Pumkinatror click here. I'll be updating this thread as I upgrade a bunch of stuff too.

 

[SRD art]

So the story of the Mad wagon- A nice kid down in AZ bought this car and over time customized it to his liking with a Mad Max theme. I remember cringing when he first started bolting stuff to the outside and saying to myself as soon as you get bored with it please let me give it a good home. After a while I started to appreciate that he was doing his own thing and kept my thoughts to myself. In time he eventually had a healthy motor in it and then found a 2 door Malibu so he swapped the drivetrain over, and the wagon sat in the back yard for a while.

After Copper got hit I contacted him to see if he wanted to sell it and he gave me a great deal hoping I would get it running again. That wasn't my plan at first but I didn't have the heart to tell him. For close to a year it's sat in my driveway waiting for me to decide what to do with it. Eventually I did a rendering of what I would do with it should I ever put it back together, and based it on the first look for Pumkinator with a color change. When my 17 yr old daughter saw it she asked if she could autocross it with my son and I and that was that, it was a done deal.

To Pay homage to the car's former life I decided to keep the Mad Wagon name attached to it and am calling it Mad Wagon II. Obviously the Mad Max theme is nixed, but after watching the Mighty Car Mods guys say "mad" to describe what we US guys might call "bad" I figured it all works out. Here's also the artwork for "haul in the family"...

 

[SRD art]

A couple years ago Roman bought a wrecked Tahoe for a 5.3 swap into Coppertop. He bought a Texas Speed 224R cam and some other parts for it but thee accident put all that on hold. A few months later I did some artwork in trade for a 6.0L LS and I decided that Roman could better hit Copper's performance goals with the 6.0, so we traded. So the general plans for MWII are-

Box and notch frame with a few basic bracing mods.
Mostly stock 5.3 with the 224R cam plus headers and a good flowing exhaust.
4L60E from the Tahoe
Pro Touring suspension, I haven't decided how far I want to take this one yet.
My old 17x9.5 MB Old School wheels and 275-40s all around
98-02 Camaro brakes
7.5 rear with an aftermarket posi center.
Bucket seats and a console with an interior upgrade.
Body work and paint.
Drive and enjoy.

 

[82_wagon]

Thank you for saving that poor wagon. Can't wait to see the build progress

 

[ItsnotaGN]

Did the kid do unholy things to the 2 door Malibu?

 

[SRD art]

Thanks Caleb, and no comment on the Malibu question. 😉

 

[CaliWagon83]

Awesome. I love seeing wagon builds. I hope mine is half as cool as yours when it’s finally done! 🙂

 

[Longroof79]

Hey Ben,
It's nice to see that your daughter wants to get involved in the wagon craziness. What's the plan with the Monza wagon? That would make an interesting Auto-X car.

 

[liquidh8]

Ben, I'll be following this one also.

 

[SRD art]

Hey Cali- all wagons are cool!
Jack- She's been my co-pilot at autocrosses since she was 14 and loves it. She's pretty anxious to get behind the wheel now!
Liquid- Yep, another cool Cutlass wagon joining the group. Too bad we're at opposite ends of the country, would be a lot of fun to get us all together for some pics.