The “2nd Best” ‘60 Chevy wagon build…

Rat Power!! This things gonna be cool

 

Did you say Justified ?

Did you not wake up this morning thinking this was another opportunity to mess up some bad guy's day? I did. eputy United States Marshal Raylan Givens

I believe you dictate the river of fate through your own actions. : Boyd Crowder

 

Boy, you've made a lot of progress since before I left for Austin. Looking great!

 

good luck with that roger. my limited experience with dropped springs is that when they are installed the vehicle will sit higher than it did with the old worn out springs. hope you're luck is better than the ones i've seen.

i'm already in envy of the future owner of this car. i'd love to have it. alas, that's just not in the cards.

for most folks this would be a keeper, but "most folks" don't have the other cars you've got.

thanx for showing us your work.

 

Looking good, guys -- nice work!


Malcolm

 

subsribed!

 

Thanx Atch...fortunately, for me, your experience with coils doesn't match mine...engine and coils are in, watch for the next update...

Malcom, appreciate the comment...and Boomsoby, thanx for looking in...

R-

 

It took about 100 miles of driving to let my drop springs settle but I went a little stiffer than stock, but I can see if the factory springs were really shot how the car might set higher.

 

oh, yeah, we're watching. we're watching...

 

Subscribed....my wagon my be a plymouth, but this'll keep me motivated.

 

I think we’re getting close…

This is the next update…# 6…

Before we get into this update, I have to answer Atch’s post

C’mon Atch, what makes you think you can’t have this wagon…??? It’s only money…I know you’ve got a good job, all you need is a friendly banker, a loan from that bank and making payments for a couple of years…!!! It’s easy and you sure as hell will enjoy this wagon better than some late model foreign car you’ll spend the next 6 years paying for…LOL…!!! Better yet, want me to bring it to the HAMB drags in August so you can see it up close and personal…???

Well, now that’s out of the way, and Atch, I hope you take those comments in the spirit they were given …back to the build updates….

It didn’t take long to slip the “rat” engine back in…that is, once we got it cleaned up and painted.

FWIW, here’s a little history on the “rat” engine just so you all won’t think we pulled this engine out of some junk yard POS - I don’t “build” like that. The engine was removed from a ’79 Chevy two wheel drive Blazer an acquaintance had. Said acquaintance was a friend of my son, he’d had the engine and tranny gone thru and then poked it into a two wheel drive Blazer…said it ran like a scalded dog…that is, until him and a pole got into it…took out the driver’s side front end and frame…and he didn’t bother with insurance…!!! Oooops…!!! That’s a definite no-no when you sink more than a few thousand into a rebuild by a pro shop…and have to pay for the pole you took down – the State frowns on ruining their property…!!! According to the Blazer owner, the engine is supposed to have less than 4,000 miles on it. Suffice to say, he had to sell the carcass to pay off some of the accident damage. My son bought the wrecked Blazer from him for $1500…then sold the Boyd wheels (and tires) off it for $750…pulled the engine and tranny and then sold the remainder of the Blazer for $1500, so he ended up on the plus $$ side. Then he said that engine/tranny would be good for the ’60 Chevy wagon…who am I to argue, could I say no to that…??? He said there wasn’t anything he was going to put it in anytime soon so I’d just as well take it and use it, so basically, I got a FREE engine and tranny for the ’60. To top that off, I just sold the extra large Holley carb off it for $200 and will put an Edelbrock carb on it, I like them better and that even puts me on the plus side of the money on this engine.


So, here’s Dan doing his thing again on the engine…he doesn’t mind cleaning –anything.

It’s the one thing I don’t like to do…but then again, when it comes to sanding, Dan doesn’t like to do that and I don’t mind sanding a bit…it all works out well when he and I build a car.

It took Dan a couple of days to get the engine and tranny cleaned up good enuff for me to shoot some paint on it…and an hour or so to mask it off…and about five minnits to spray it…why is it the prep seems to take longer than the actual finish…???


Ready to shoot some Champagne paint…it’s all shiny because of the “bulldog” paint softener I sprayed on it.

We covered the top of the engine since the manifold was somewhat clean and we didn’t want to paint it…I went ahead and shot the tranny silver while Dan was cleaning and let it dry before covering it. Once we had the engine all masked off, I shot some “Bulldog” on to soften up the paint and let it set while I mixed up the Champagne color.


It didn’t take long to cover the Chevrolet Orange…couple of passes with the small gun and the engine and tranny are starting to look new again…have to wait til it dries before we can poke it back in…besides, it was lunch time…!!!

When we got back from lunch, the paint was dry enuff to slip the engine back into its berth…and hopefully this’ll be the last time it goes in…we’ll see…!!! Never say never…!!! Notice the nice clean manifold on it now…we cleaned it with pre-cleaner and sprayed it with some Eastwood Alumablast color…looks like clean aluminum, doesn’t it…???

It took all of 20 minutes to set the engine on the stock mounts and for me to crawl under the car and bolt the tranny to the new mount I built. I did manage to put a scratch on the firewall with one of the valve covers…but it’s nothing that can be seen after I touch it up. Would have hated to try to stuff that engine/tranny in over the top of the radiator support and full front clip on the car. Once it was sitting on the mounts, that added enuff weight we could slip the coils into their proper place. As you can see from the photo below, the coils went back in without any problems…


Now all we have to do is the brakes…and the brake lines…and the rear brakes…and new brake lines…and…well, you get the idea.

And once the brakes are completed, then we’ll do a little research on what dual master cylinder will work the best and attach it to the firewall and then run all new brake lines…

I’m not going to do power brakes on this thing simply because I don’t think a booster will fit on the firewall and get past the valve cover on the driver’s side…that’s a lot of engine sitting there…FWIW, when we took the brake line off the front of the car (for the front brakes) we found the line was copper…and that’s a definite no-no as far as I’m concerned for brakes, someone some time in the wagon’s life decided copper was “good enuff” for the brakes - not me…!!! While we are waiting on the research, we’ll start on the rear end and the brakes back there, get that done…


One thing I noticed about this wagon…the brake shoes were really wide…

I learned something new working on the wagon…the front brake shoes were 2 ¾” wide…not your normal Chevy shoe width…and, of course, the drums were as wide…and that was something I didn’t know about wagons…and in this shot you can see the sway bar…I did not know a wagon would have a sway bar either…but we rebuilt it and stuck it back in. But, one thing I did notice, the price was a bit more for these brake shoes…FWIW, in order to do it correctly, we had the drums turned…there still was enuff metal left on them to turn…so the whole suspension will be all new…

It took an hour or so to put the brakes all together, we even bought a new brake spring kit for both front and rear…no sense using all the old rusty stuff when everything else is new…

While I was assembling the brakes, Dan crawled under the rear of the car and started cleaning the rear end…and was it ever dirty…years of oil, grease, mud and who knows what else was covering the rear and the u-joints…!!! Some of it was pur-teee hard…had to get a chisel out to remove it…prolly been on there for at least 24 years…and getting harder every day for close to 50 years. For some unknown reason, the passenger side had more old hardened grease/oil/dirt on it than the driver’s side did…wondered if it was because of the old 283” road draft tube dumped on that side…or if the oil pan/valve covers/rear main leaked profusely on that side…??? I’ll prolly never know…!!!

When I got done with the front brakes, I raised the car and put the wheels/tires back on, then I got under the car with Dan and started cleaning the rest of the floor and the frame…because we were going to use up the rest of the Lizardskin back there…and if we didn’t have enuff, we’d go buy some normal undercoating and spray that around after we got all the old off. It took us a full day to clean the rear of the car…by the time Dan was done with the rear end, I was done with the floor and frame…we musta took off 30 or 40 pounds of crud…


When cleaning the rearend, Dan “found” the original tag bolted to the third member, he pulled it off but I couldn’t read it, it was too rusty…so don’t know what ratio the rear end is…yet…!!!

The next weekend we pulled off the old brake shoes (they were down to the rivets) and went and bought new ones…in the meantime, I sent the drums out to be turned since the shoes were worn badly, figuring I’d have to round up some ‘new’ used ones, maybe off that ’60 at the junkyard…or spend some $$ coin to buy new…ugh…and wow…those babies are not cheap. However, word came back that there was enuff metal left to turn them, so spending big bucks again went out the door…

FWIW, after I put the wheels and tires back on the front end, and set the ramps back under it the way it was when I first measured it, I got out the tape measure and measured in the same place I did before…sure enuff, the suspension was down 1 7/8”…I’d imagine it’ll settle a bit more once we get everything tightened up and aligned and driven…and Atch…looks like your experience with shorter coils is not the same as mine…the catalog said “two inches shorter” and 1 7/8” is close enuff for me and the girls I go out with…!!! (I’ve always told her 8 was…ehrrr…uhm…never mind…!!!)

Next is to purchase the master cylinder and get brake lines run…we’re almost done with the bottom of the car…so much so that ‘I think we’re getting close’ to being done…

LOL, no, now we get to start, again, on the upper part of the car…we still need to refinish the rear floor pieces (the cargo area metal - we’ll clean and paint them before we put some new floor covering on them –and not carpet) before we can put them back in…we still need to clean and insulate the roof, we still need to have the steering column fixed with new bearings and add the ‘61Impala wheel to it and get it slipped back into its proper place and hooked up to the steering box and buy some new Borgeson u-joints for the column, oh, and then back to the bottom of the car, still have to put the e-brake cable back in, still have to have the gas tank cleaned, sealed and painted and put back in, then we have to run some new fuel line to the front, still need to figure out the shift linkage when the column gets done and in, still have to shorten a driveshaft, still have to replace the carrier bearing and u-joints, still have to paint the exhaust manifolds and install them, still have to buy a good Edelbrock carb (anyone got a rebuildable 750 cfm laying around they want to get rid of..??), still have to add dual exhausts (prolly the last thing we’ll do, and still have to work on our deadline…but the worse part of that: my goal of being able to drive the car to GoodGuy’s event in Ft. Collins on May 31st is closing fast…think we’ll make it…???

That’s it for this update…we’re closer…stay tuned…

R-

 

"and add the ‘61Impala wheel"

This must be the new flat black....or great minds think alike...?
My 58 wagon got the 61 wheel treatment too(on top of an unidentified 60s GM tilt column). My favorite Chevy steering wheel ever.
I'm loving your build, Roger.

 

Thanx Earl...yeah, I think it's the "great minds think alike" part...and I also think the '61 wheel is the best looking of the popular Chevy wheels...I had one on one of my '57's waaaa-aay back in 1977.

R-

 

So, I guess Im the only one who wonders what was under your brother's tarp.

 

Tarp...??? Brother's...??? Oh, you may be talking about my son's place and the covered car next to it...???

R-

 

Yeah, in the beginning you say there was a tarp for you and him....

 

Great lessons in economy building, knowing where to pay to replace versus making do. Good old fashioned elbow grease.

 

Nice job with the build, AND the story! It's refreshing to read well composed prose and complete sentences. And, you build cars like I do. Well, maybe better...

Now off to the shop to finish ironing out that rumpled Diamond T fender.

Brian

 

Ahhh, under his tarp was the front clip my son gave him for Christmas...we just got it over to my place a week ago (between snow storms) and we've since torn it apart and will send it out for sandblasting soon...here's a shot of me tearing it all apart the day before we got the third snowstorm this month...

Thanx Brer...my son accuses me of living in the 1970's...but I think I live farther back than that, especially when I can go to a junk yard and find what I need.

Thanx Brian, I'm not sure I'm "better" at building but that's one reason I always check out your threads, cuz you think a lot like I do...

R-

 

Roger, good seeing you and Dan on Sunday, always a pleasure. Been reading Faded Thunder and Dans Navy book before I go to sleep, good reading. I enjoy both of em. Saw a shot of the Image Maker on The HAMB a few years ago and saved it. Always thought that car looked bitchin with chrome reverse wheels, I'd love to clone it today. Even if she was a piece o' work, she was a looker.

I'll stop by next time I'm in town, and I'll be watchin this 60. It's lookin damn good so far keep it up. Thanks for everything. Kev

 

Man Kev, those chromes cleaned up really nice didn't they...??? Your '5 is looking good...when's it hitting the road...??? Get those rear windows replaced yet...???

That "Image-Maker" was a PITA...IF you'd been around then, I prolly would have given it to you. That photo was shot about 1968-69, near Sheridan and I-70...some magazine was doing an article on the Tri-Five club I belonged to back then and we had a bunch of Tri-Five's out that day. Anyway, that car hated me...owned it several years and don't think I put more than 500 miles on it cuz it was always breaking on me...!!!

R-

 

I love reading the updates here. It's like I'm in your garage, helping with the project. Thanks for sharing.

 

Closer yet…yeah,…it’s the small things that take time…!!!

Mini-update…this’d be number 6.5…

Didn’t get much done on the wagon simply because we had to get Dan’s Cadillac ready for the summer. His water pump started leaking last October…so we didn’t want to tackle it during the winter since the car wasn’t being driven anyway. We finally decided to change it. Dan found one at Svigel’s here in Denver (and wasn't as expensive as McVey's or USA Parts), besides, we like to keep money local... so we spent the day removing power steering brackets, alternator brackets, fan, belts and hoses…and thermostat housing. Decided we’d just as well add a new thermostat while we were at it. Plus we had to paint it…

And of course, there was stuff needing done on my Caddy as well…I hadn’t put the skirts back on it since we got back from Salt Lake in mid-February and it’d been sitting in my front garage since then…and got quite dirty from me driving in and out my daily…so I had to get that out and do some minor stuff to it, getting it ready for our summer trips.

Of course, when we were done with that, it was such a nice day we had to take Dan’s Caddy out for a cruise…had to make sure the water pump was working…!!!

Sunday morn, it was back to business as usual…since we’d gotten the front clip pulled apart, we decided to bolt the fenders to the body…see what it looked like…

Once we had those fenders in the garage and semi set in place on the ‘60, it didn’t take long to find the plastic bag that held all the fender bolts…we found the two we needed, tossed the bags on the cowl and hung both front fenders.


We put both fenders on…not bad eh…??? Looks like the front end needs to be lowered more...

Looks like when we eventually get the car moving under its own power, we’re going to run the car with a complete front clip in red, a cowl in copper color, the tailgate in blue and the rest of the body in off-white ‘patina’…oh wait, can’t forget some primer spots where I replaced rust.

Once the fenders were in place, the cowl looked like it had a huge gap, so the first thing I figured we needed was to put the cowl cover on…and before that goes back on, the windshield trim…so we dug the windshield trim out of the pile of inside trim against the wall and Dan got to polishing…had to knock a couple of hail dents out of one of the pieces cuz we got both these pieces off the ’60 at the junk yard…as well as the cowl cover…that’s why it’s a different color.


The original cowl piece on the wagon was trashed…

Looked like someone wanted something out of the wiper well and stick a huge screwdriver or something between the ‘vents’ and twisted…needless to say it was bent up…so we got a ‘new’ one at the junk yard….all it’ll need is a little sand (or media) blasting, but since we’re driving this sucker first, before we tackle the body…it’ll suffice…besides isn’t ‘patina’ the latest look nowadays…???

Since I didn’t feel like doing anything ‘mechanical” on the wagon the rest of the day since my ‘mechanical’ got used up on Dan’s Caddy, I went out to my shed and got out the original door panels. I needed the metal piece for the top of the doors. I cut all the staples off it and trashed what was left of the original cardboard door panel-it was in sad shape. I cleaned the rust off the metal piece and sanded it inside and out and hung it on the door…then went and pulled my plastic door panel material off the wall where I’d stored it and cut it to size…got the drill out and found my panel clips…drilled a few holes to hold it in place and then marked it for trimming the corners with a white pencil. Took it off, trimmed it to shape, popped it back on and drilled more holes for more clips…then took a couple of small screws and put them in place to hold the metal to the plastic – these will be replaced by glue and pop rivets to hold the two pieces together…presto-chango…that covers the door nicely and looks a lot better…!!!


There, doesn’t that look better than holes all over the door…??? I spent about an hour or so doing this door…and plastic is sure better than cardboard…and certainly better than wood, besides it’s a lot thinner than the thinnest wood you can buy…and it WILL NOT warp if it gets wet…and it will…!!!

Not only that, but plastic is a good insulator against heat from the outside…

The final thing I did that day was to mount the new master cylinder…yes, I found a dual that simply bolts on, uses the bottom two bolts of the four bolt original set up…


Here you can see it’s bolted on, but the rest of the lines aren’t run just yet…

And that’ll be next weekend’s job…stay tuned…

R-

 

Good stuff Roger !

 

Man, you're fast.

 

Brookwood 2-dr wagon = wood! These are so damn cool, best o luck on your project. ~sololobo~

 

Great progress, congrats...love the Champagne color...

 

I AM ENJOYING THE WAGON BUILD i HAVE A THREAD GOING ON A WAGON BUILD MYSELF.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=688685

 

More info on the dual master cylinder, please. That is a nice compact unit and I might need that in the near future. Love following this build. thx, Greg

 

compact mc s are in great demand for Chevys and Pontiacs..