My 83 Wagon

[mikester]

Very fragile though ! Im worried about it cracking putting it back in ! Its like a very thin potato chip !

 

[CaliWagon83]

Very fragile though ! Im worried about it cracking putting it back in ! Its like a very thin potato chip !

Yeah, things start getting a little brittle after 30+ years.

 

[airboatgreg]

All I can say is sweet. OK.. a little more as it is just deserved
Nice ride and I can appreciate your dedication to the ride

 

[mikester]

OO boy thats a nice dash!

I had to make a quick change to the gas gauge and the idiot lights. Didnt notice they were different until Kevin pointed it out. Just one more thing taken apart multiple times. This is why craps never finished. LOL

 

[CaliWagon83]

It cracks me up there's so much wasted real estate in the standard clusters! Guess it was cheaper to make one design that they could add the "Rallye" gauge package to.

 

[aj1434]

I took the car apart a couple of years ago to redo the front end. I also sold the SB that was in it and bought a new GM crate motor for it. Nothing crazy. 350/330 with the serpentine set up. I had a bunch of extra parts from the 81 Malibu coupe that I have so I figured Id use them in the wagon.
I was making good progress on the car until July '15 when I had a little health glitch that laid me up until this spring and the car sat on stands out in my driveway.
I really wanted the wagon to look good so I hunted around for a body shop that could do it over for what I had in my budget. I dropped it off at the place the Friday before Easter this year and just got it back about 3 weeks ago.

Im sure some folks have read about the fiasco on FB but for those not on there I'll give you all the quick version. The car was painted with PPG waterborne paint in July. One week later the car had to be totally stripped back to bare metal because the paint failed. It was coming off in sheets.
The second time it was sprayed they did it with Glasurit solvent based paint. This time theres no issues at all. I have no bad feeling towards the body shop and to be honest I think the owner did the right thing. The cars laser straight.

These are pictures of the car in the booth, being put back together and the following week. I was pretty disappointed. View attachment 56196 View attachment 56197 View attachment 56198 View attachment 56199 View attachment 56200

The cowl hood looks great. I have a 78 and thinking of doing the same. It looks like your is steel and thats the way I would go. Was it hard to fit or did it fit well with no real issues or modifications.

 

[mikester]

The cowl hood looks great. I have a 78 and thinking of doing the same. It looks like your is steel and thats the way I would go. Was it hard to fit or did it fit well with no real issues or modifications.

Youre right about it being steel. Its an AMD hood. To be honest the guys in the body shop put it on when they were redoing the car so I really dont know if there were any problems getting it lined up. I will say theres a clearance issue with the scoop hitting the hood when the hoods open. I havent worked that out yet since the hoods now off the car. Took it off to finish detailing under the hood so the motor can go back in.

 

[ssbrewskyaz]

I've been working on my car for so long, I built the cowl induction hood for it from a rusted out Chevelle hood because you couldn't buy one at the time. ...

 

[mikester]

Now THATS funny !!

 

[liquidh8]

Hey, I've done that!