Projects Return of the BelAired Wagon

Nice job!!!!!

 

This was on the Friday Art Show, thought you might like it.

 

It's been a minute since I posted, so let me catch you up. I was making a lot of progress for a while but, you know, kids, work, etc.. Also, we moved, and that took up all my spare time for months. I'm in a MUCH smaller garage now as well and I'm still trying to get everything set up. Anyway, this is the progress I made on the seat before I moved.



I got the pieces back from the dipper and welded the skins back on, and the strip I fabricated, and now I had to figure out a seat bottom. I found a rear seat bottom out of a VW bug for $50 and I figured I could cut it up and make it work. The lines are so that I can cut the upholstery apart, trim it, and make it line up again later.



The VW seat is waaaayyy to long, too deep, and too tall, so I just started t******* until I got it down to size.







Then I got some upholstery clips and pliers off of Amazon and looked for good ways to attach everything.

 

Finally something easy, securing the burlap with bullnose rings.



Then I deconstructed the upholstery and slowly trimmed and pinned and took it apart and did more t******* and fitting until I had pattern I could use to transfer the dimensions to the actual fabric.

 

Glad to see you're back and still pluggin' away on the old gal.

 

For sure, man! I want to do you proud on my upholstery job.

 

Made som progress on the seat this week. My first ever try at upholstery, and man was it nerve-wracking. There's a lot of fugly going on, but I'm not going to show it to you Learned several lessons that I'll apply on the seat back which I started last night.

The screws will be hidden by a trim strip.

 

LOVE IT!
And that license plate...is that a nod to Pistol Pete & the Twistin' Tarantulas?

 

Thanks! And yep! Thick Skull (from the 4th record) is a cover of a Heresy song (legendary Detroit punk band... Pete was in Heresy as well). I played with the Tarantulas for a long time and on the third record.

 

That's cool!
I plan my Autorama schedule around their set times. Always a great time!
I think I'll go sit on my *** and do nothin' for a while.

 

Finally got the rest of the sewing done and got the seats mounted! Man, upholstery is a black art. I was definitely challenged, and although I'd hoped for better results, I'm just trying to focus on the parts that turned out well, and the lessons I learned though the process.

It makes me appreciate even more how much work @1pickup did on the rest of the car!

I should have run a vacuum cleaner back there before I shot this photo

 

Looks good to me! I wanted the third seat, until I priced them. Wow. Crazy money. That's why I took the easy way out & put the cheapest air ride set up I could find in that spot. eBay purchase, new, but never installed. I think it was for a tuner car, or something. The bag mounts were made for that ch***is, and that made it easy, too. It was my first attempt at bags. It was successful(ish). That interior is probably my best work with a sewing machine that I've attempted. My current one - not as much, but acceptable. I'll need to up my game, if I do my Merc. Keep up the good work and enjoy the ride.

 

This summer has been non-stop fixing cars, I swear. I had a bunch of trouble with the Jeep ('87 YJ) and then there were a ton of things that I had to do to the wagon. The main thing was that the front suspension needed to be completely gone through. The control arm bushings were stock and had just turned to dust, so there were these horrible clunks coming from the front end and the front wheels were at different angles when you looked at the car head-on. Ultimately I went with Global West control arms. Not cheap but they are beefy and well made in the USofA. Also, Global West was the only place I could find lower control arms already set up to accept airbags.

I tore out all of the old stuff and started over. The main challenge was figuring out the lower shock mount. The new lower control arms are shaped a little differently than the stock ones, and now the existing location of the shock wouldn't work. Long story short, there was a lot of moving the control arm through its full range and taking measurements and ultimately gettin some new shocks from Airslamit that were shorter. The angle was still wrong though, so I had to cut and angle, and re-weld the upper shock mount. I got some tabs off or amazon that I welded on to the lower control arm and I was in business. I hadn't thought about the whole shock absorber thing. It was a horrible **** ton of work. But hey, if it was easy, everyone would do it and it wouldn't be cool.


She got all new tie rods, sway bar links... everything. Figuring that no one would want to touch this thing to align it, I bought alignment tools and did it myself. It wasn't bad! She drives so much nicer now.

 

The big event around here is the Woodward Dream Cruise. It's usually the third Saturday in August. The evening before the cruise, we have Berkley Cruisefest. We've done it every year except one since we've lived here. I took Wed-Fri off work to thrash on the front suspension and managed to get her down on the ground just in time to make the parade! It was down to the last second!

The next day, we cruised Woodward all day long. Bumper to bumper. And then, as I was pulling into the garage, I lost my brakes :0
It really shook me because I could have hit someone's car in the cruise, and I was driving my son and a car full of his friends around too. Years ago, my mom gave me what is essentially a mini Rosary keychain. I've always used it as the keychain for the wagon because I thought it looked cool. I'm not an especially religious man, but once I pushed the car into the garage, I sat down at my bench and prayed all 10 of those hail Marys! Talk about a lucky son of a gun.

The front flex hose had pulled out of the banjo fitting altogether. And before you say it was too short, I can ***ure you it wasn't. It was cheap ****py brake lines. They came with a disc brake conversion kit, and I bet they cheaped out on the lines.

Anyway, I decided to make every braking safety update I could. I installed a combination valve which was way more of an ordeal than it should have been, and adjusted the e brake just right, and of course got better flex hoses. The brakes feel better than ever.

 

WOW...
I'd be "havin' some WORDS" w/the clown-act that built those & then sold them...
Glad you're ok & nothing happened 'till it got put away.
Yup - time for the "Opportunity to Upgrade... " .
Marcus...