Wagon love

[Bobbyg83]

Hey everyone, thanks for the add!

I have a 83 Malibu wagon with a 350 TPi out of an 87 corvette. Had the wagon for 8 years or so and finally getting around to fixing things here and there. It’s always been running expect for a year when I was chasing wiring gremlins all over from the previous owner putting the motor and harness kind of poorly, but since I put a new fuse block it always starts and runs pretty good.

Just did shocks all around, Bilstein fronts, koni str.t’s in the rear and air bags. Rides so much nicer.

I love the TPi setup, tons of low end torque, takes off quick even with whatever stock gearing is in the rear.

Need to do:

1. Vacuum leak somewhere in the intake/runners/ throttle body. Going to try to tackle that in the next couple weeks.
2. Fix door popper. Previous owner shaved the doors and even though it looks cool I’d rather not have to mess with them, but finding a driver door with a handle is proving to be a pain, so I’ll try to fix the poppers. I have to kick the door to get it to pop open, hence I need to do this before 3..
3. PAINT, the paint is horrible.

Want to do:

1. Rear end. Want posi but am still not sure what gearing I want. It’s a cruiser and I live 25 miles outside of Portland, OR so it spends a lot of time on the highway so I don’t want to go too low of a gear. I’m considering whatever gears are in it, or 3.08 with the stock axles and going with a truetrac posi. It cruises now at 1800-1900 RPM at 65 which is nice really, and TPi puts out plenty of torque on the low end as it is.
2. More suspension/ handling components like control arms and sway bars, to clean up the front end and get some header clearance. Honestly not in a big hurry for the control arms, but considering sway bars front and rear since it doesn’t have them now, and the wagon tends to roll around corners fierce.
3. Rewire the whole car, although I think I’ll wait until I need to pull the motor.
4. Custom center console. 3 of my band mates, are carpenters so I get a center console made to replace my current igloo.
5. Find the chrome trim for the large rear glass! Tough to find and mine are ugly as hell.

Love my wagon though, it’s only broke down on my twice, one time was out of gas. It’s been reliable and can haul whatever I need. Looking forward to getting more into it!

 

[Bobbyg83]

Oh, and I want to get the factory AC going again. I know I’ll need the condenser, evaporator and lines, and will probably do the heater core also. The previous owner put oil and temp gauges on the center vents so I need to move those and get the center vents. That will be another bigger project.
I considered getting factory oil, temp, and tach gauges, but are they not worth it? I don’t know why but I don’t expect them to be that accurate.

 

[Longroof79]

Welcome aboard Bobby!
Looks like a nice solid wagon despite all the little things that need attention. It's always fun trying to rectify someone else's screwups.
These cars are a lot of fun once you get them to the way you like 'em. Suspension is usually the first thing that gets attention.
As far as finding a replacement door, The cars to look at are 4-dr Malibu's, and 4-dr Pontiac Lemans and Bonnevilles. As for the rear tailgate glass trim, it's probably easier to find the whole complete rear window. Down the road if you plan on removing the door poppers and going back to door handles, you might have to cut door handle grafts from another model of vehicle. In the meantime you might be better off just getting the poppers to work properly.
All in all, the car sounds like a nice cruiser. Good luck and give us an update on your progress.

 

[Bobbyg83]

Welcome aboard Bobby!
Looks like a nice solid wagon despite all the little things that need attention. It's always fun trying to rectify someone else's screwups.
These cars are a lot of fun once you get them to the way you like 'em. Suspension is usually the first thing that gets attention.
As far as finding a replacement door, The cars to look at are 4-dr Malibu's, and 4-dr Pontiac Lemans and Bonnevilles. As for the rear tailgate glass trim, it's probably easier to find the whole complete rear window. Down the road if you plan on removing the door poppers and going back to door handles, you might have to cut door handle grafts from another model of vehicle. In the meantime you might be better off just getting the poppers to work properly.
All in all, the car sounds like a nice cruiser. Good luck and give us an update on your progress.

Haha yea fixing other peoples problems is always interesting. I have a 1990 k2500 that’s totally stock and it’s funny to go work on that and everything matches the service manual, not quite as simple with the wagon.

But thanks for the door info! Around here all I ever see for sale/part out is 2 door, but I’ll keep an eye out, I didn’t think the 2 door would work with the 4 door so thanks for the verification.

It’s a great ride though! Rides real nice now that the shocks are fresh, looking forward to getting the vacuum leak sealed asap.

 

[WAGOOON]

Love them Wagoons!

 

[ssn696]

Pontiac sedans can donate the doors - same body lines in the door skins. You'll have to swap out the window frames and glass.

 

[Bobbyg83]

Pontiac sedans can donate the doors - same body lines in the door skins. You'll have to swap out the window frames and glass.

Good to know 👌🏼
I think I’m going to try to get the door poppers to work, but overall the popper system just doesn’t seem that great. But I’ll try to fix them before looking into whole doors altogether. Really even if it’s just the driver door so I can get in and out that would be fine with me haha.
Mainly want to figure out the door situation before paint.
The nice thing about the wagon is worst come to worst, it’s easy enough to get in through the back