Projects I'm back - 56 Chevy handyman wagon

I have a '56 150 wagon now, Sold my '55 Straight axle car, Wish i would have kept the '55 and have both. you have a cool wagon enjoy

 

I'm embarrassed to see how long it's been, but I just didn't feel like working on the car. Biggest issue was an internal dialog about how far to go. I was having visions of body off frame, full on resto, but finally decided it's time to just get it in on the road and enjoy it for what it is at the moment. So the last two weeks I've been getting back at it.

I stripped the firewall and engine bay as much as was reasonable on this car. Nothing glamorous, but it's time consuming stuff.

1. General cleanup
2. Weld up holes that had been drilled over the years
3. Clean up some other holes that had been made for things like the clutch rod
4. A small patch in the passenger side fresh air vent, usual tri-five spot. (the drivers side is a mess, but I'll save that for later).
5. And clean up and finish mounts for the front clip support rails, which now bolt to the frame rails so they are removable.

 

I already mentioned that the axle pads and pretty much all of the weld-on parts (motor mounts, shock mounts, frame rails) needed finish welding and clean up. Most were also bare metal and therefore surface rusted.

 

Remember I said I hated how low the exhaust hung down? The exhaust got finished awhile ago, when I had the headers ceramicoated after welding the bypass flanges. Now the pipes run parallel to the car.

 

Cool car

 

I sectioned the motor mount crossmember and added flanges so the oil pan can be removed, sometime ago.

 

I don't even remember when I did this, but I completely went through the heater box, and bought a new gasket/seal kit and motor. Reinstalling now.

AFTER installing a new firewall pad, AFTER stripping the inside of the firewall and dash with ospho and an rust treatment paint.

 

Cool wagon, finishing someone's half-done work is frustrating, but rewarding when it's done

 

Luv it however it needs Cragers

 

It took me 8 days to get this thing started. It would fire a little bit, but that was it. So I was like, "it could be pretty much anything".

1. At first nothing but a clunk when hitting key.
2. New 65 series battery $225, same thing
3. It's been 6 years, and a ton of work after a bend rod, so it could be anything. Bang starter enough, it frees up.
4. Turns over REALLY slowly, but it works. Again, I can't remember if this is normal.
5. Open carbs. Look terrible! I swore I cleaned them when I tore the motor down, but maybe not.
6. Gas looked horrible. Pumped the tank clean.
7. Went through carbs probably 3 more times.
8. Checked the valves like 5 times.
9. Omitted the battery shutoff.
10. Checked and added grounds between battery, engine, and frame
11. New spark plugs.
12. Checked firing order and distributor 10xs
13. Checked the coil and distributor timing 10x's

Finally decided to try a new starter. Cranking problem solved. 100x' better. BUT I did have to reclock it. Seems weird that a starter for a big block Chevy needs reclocking: they're basically the same, right?

Now spark (via tester) looks crappier. When testing another coil, I finally found the negative terminal ring terminal at the coil had snapped, but you couldn't see it because the shrink tube was holding it together still (intermittent spark). Fixed that, and thing started to happen

 

The old radiator mount was Uber crude, like everything else, so I scrapped it and spent way too many hours thinking about how to make a new one that's a bolt in.

Now with the engine running, I wanted to get some coolant in it, if for no other reason than the water pump being dry.

 

Now that it's running, I'm finally ready to roll outside. BOOM, as soon as I hit the clutch, it sounds AWFUL! Can't do anything until I sort this out.

Finally track it down to the starter gear. Thankfully I have the old starter still, and I compare the stick-out on the gear, and I see my old starter has a spacer. I move that spacer to the new starter and problem solved.

 

The night before, when replacing the starter, I made my own cover. Always wondered why the PO didn't have one, letting all that grime in from the elements, and I couldn't find an off the shelf replacement.

18ga sheet with some careful cutting, but this made troubleshooting the previous issues that much harder because I assumed this was the issue. It was Not.

 

Finally had motor running, clutch working, and moving under its own power.

Once I remembered how to shift that damn hurst v-gate (still not sure I remember, half the time I'm in 2nd gear I think), I forgot how gnarly this car was

I can finally see the fruits of my labor in the front steering (can't be any more parallel than that) and cleanup of everything in the front clip of the car

 

Lots of work since then

1. Front clip installed back on the car (major milestone!
2. Finished all of the interior wiring, and dash completely back together
   1. All lights working
   2. Now have working windshield wipers (tight fit, but used the Newport Engineering 2 speed electric wiper kit)
   3. Made a hazard switch +circuit
   4. Added a horn button since I had an empty hole in the dash anyways
   5. Now have a working heater (i am a little worried about the core, but fingers are crossed)
   6. New/old manual trans cluster (old one was automatic)
   7. Added a terminal block under the dash for terminating all the grounds and positive terminals for gauges and switches
   8. Documented everything and spent way too much making a good wiring diagram
   9. Got an old ash tray and painted (mine was missing)
   10. Repainted the glove box door (it was really gross for some reason)
   11. Installed a new glovebox liner, so now I have somewhere to stash the registration and such
3. Spent way too much time for little return stripping paint off of the stainless trim on the pass side. No idea why someone wouldn't have spent an extra 5min masking it off more carefully.
4. Wired weather proof plugs for the front clip for easy removal. Worthwhile concession to any traditional look, but they're pretty well hidden.

 

Now that the car is running again, the kids said the inside was "gross" and they weren't wrong.

1. Quick cleanup of the door jambs. A quick sand and rattle can (rust reformer on any bare/rusty areas), new rubber bumpers (old ones were gone, so this should help with rattling, etc), strip paint from the non-painted orig parts.
2. Cleanup the floors reasonably well before carpet (RustReformer on any rusty or bare metal), which I've had in the attic for 6 years. Carpet is a PROJECT: patience and lots of fitting.
3. I finally installed the NOS Hurst Verti-gate boot that I boot 6 years ago. Hard to find, and equally expensive.
4. kick panels (these cardboard things are cheap, but oh well)
5. Start on headliner. This is a MAJOR PROJECT as I've learned, which explains why the previous owner gave it to me but never installed it.
   1. Most of the reddish looks like it's primer from the factory, but the rusty (surface) stuff I brushed on RustReformer
   2. The tack strips are brittle so that's where I got stalled. but that gave me time to paint mouldings, etc.
   3. I cleaned up the dome light housing (wire wheel referenced earlier), and ran new wiring. It's actually working now!
6. cleanup and paint all of the window mouldings (holy crap there's alot. I think I had at least 22 parts at last count.)
7. Let's be honest this is no show car, and a soft wire wheel is incredible for cleaning up really rough old chrome (Superior steering wheel, Hurst shifter, pot metal on the body, latches, etc.)

 

The "gross" part was really the original back seat, and what was left of the trim panels. Problem is I have nice one year only front seats from a '65 Sporty Fury that I will keep and a stock back seat, so there's no easy economical option. I did the crude upholstery in my '31 Model A pickup, so I'm going to try my hand on this back seat.

Now I know where the smell was coming from............... And gawd there's alot of trim part to paint...... I stopped counting. Disassembly and waiting on vinyl samples is as far as I've gotten, although the trim parts are all cleaned up and painted.






Started on the interior panels. The front doors were from scratch. The rear panels were based on what's left of the originals. This is that PVC or plastic cardboard type stuff.

 

Got new tailgate cables and retractors installed this week, so I don't have to keep crushing the tailgate against the bumperettes. Those things are not the least complicated thing I've seen, but pretty darn cool what the engineers came up with. Thank god for internet tutorials, or i never would have figure these out.

1. 1 new\used retractor
2. 2 new\used cables
3. hardware cleaned up nice (again, soft stainless wire wheel works well)

 

Very cool.

 

Was it really 6 years ago that you bought the shifter boot? Glad to see it on your car. Great progress!

 

Scott, I see you figured out the "full view" button thing that makes your images bigger. Thanks for that. Great job you are doing on the wagon. Hope to see it in person some time......Don.

 

Cool stuff. Reminds me if mine back in the day.

 

Lots of misc stuff that I'm not remembering I'm sure, but I'm still working on the interior.

1. Headliner is finally done. There's a few wrinkles but I'm OK with that. And since it sat folded in a box for 7 years, some of them might come out on there own.
   1. Any reputable shop that quotes you $1000 for a tri-five headliner is not out of line. I learned that those stupid tack strips are a project all by themselves.
   2. I decided that windlace was pointless, especially for this car and didn't do it
   3. I cut strips of Luan plywood and used adhesive and the stock metal tabs instead of tack strips.
   4. I rewired and cleaned up the dome light before installing the headliner
   5. I used 7/16"x1/4" staples in the luan
   6. **I happened to read somewhere about someone recommending installing screws for visors, rear view mirror, coat hangers, etc. so it's easy to cut holes in the headliner** This was HUGE.
2. Interior flat panels are done, for the doors and rear seat. I used #8 upholstery screws on plastic board.
   
3. Cleaning and rattle canning the window moldings as I go
4. Quarter windows both needed window channels and whiskers.
5. Finally, I was able to install all of the window and door handles
6. Front seats and seat belts are installed in the car again.

 

Cleaned up the bed to some extent. First time I've seen what was under the carpety stuff. Pretty good, except for a few spots that could use patching. The PO's modifications to the spare tire well for the gas tank are a bit crude, but that's OK too. I'm debating whether to lower the tank and put plywood+carpet down like stock anyways, so we'll see.

 

I got the dash 100% buttoned up awhile ago.

1. wiring all done\cleaned up.
2. Working switches (Lights, signals, horn, made a hazard switch, fan, fuel pump, wipers)
3. Installed a manual dash cluster that I bought 6 years ago ( speedo, temp+fuel don't work, but I don't plan to fix those) and a new speedo cable.
4. Gauges all working.
5. Heater controls working
6. new glove box liner for registration+such
7. Got a missing ash tray
8. Steering column was cleaned up a couple of years ago.

 

1. New window channels and felts in the quarter doors. I actually used the verticals for the front doors b/c they were more like the originals. Basically I found no good kit for the quarter glass, at least nothing that fits like OEM. Especially the little clips that were used originally. I ended up using adhesive for the most part which worked fine.
2. cleaned up the jam area on the doors so I could install new weather stripping. The bottom of the doors are rough (oddly enough the door skins seem fine), but so be it. The weather stripping was Danchuk I think. The plastic clips were hella hard to get in the holes: I ended up enlarging most of them to get the clips in.
3. Quick+dirty vinyl on the visors (I was just tired of looking at the pressboard).
4. Started sewing some covers for the rear seat (this should be interesting, and I'm not too hopeful, but anything is better than what I had)
   1. I went to get sheets of foam locally, and it was going to be $200, so that made the $275 pre-formed foam sound like a really good deal, so I'm waiting for that to arrive.

 

Here's some historic stuff from when and why the engine was apart. I got some rain water in the carbs. I knew this would happen, but for some reason I only pulled Plug #8 (not #7 too). For the only time in it's life, the car fired immediately, then immediately stopped. I'd bent Rod #7 and damage the piston.I later came to find out. But because of the circumstances, that was the ONLY damage.

But at least I got to see what was in the engine. The PO said he thought it was some fresh and crazy build (I think one time he said he thought 13:1, to which I scoffed): while it did appear fresh, it seems pretty stock:

1. Hydraulic cam, ~540/540 lift.
2. Heads - OEM 3917215 '68, and looks like stock chambers and valves. These are the large oval ports.
3. Pistons - Sealed Power 460P cast pistons, .030 over
4. Cranks and rods also look stock GM
5. Bores still had pretty fresh honing

So, when I finally started to put things together:

1. Cleaned everything up
2. New rod, piston, rings, and bearing
3. Not that it would do anything but I blended the ports on the heads to match the tunnel ram, and matched the gaskets

 

Looking great. It’s easy to let a project languish for years, or even decades. Nothing at all wrong with an oval port BBC. This thing should be a beast.

 

Thank you. But to be fair to myself, I wasn't idle. I just kept finding other projects to focus on. Mainly I really wanted to tear this car to the bones and do it "right", but couldn't find a way to make that happen, so then I just put it off. I finally came to grips with time, space, resource limitation; and said "just get it running and enjoy it".

During that 2017-2023 wagon-hiatus, I built five pre-'65 Harleys from the ground up. One was a completely one-off 1942 Magnum flathead motor, and another was a one-off set of dual carb'd panheads (I spent a lifetime welding and dressing aluminum on those), so both of those projects took GOBS of time. I also dabbled with a 1978 Jeep Wagoneer for 2-3 of those years. And then I spent 2022 completely focused on a 1978 Jeep CJ-5, which is now my daily driver.