Customs RainierHooker's '62 Chevy II Wagon

Well, we got the car home last night.

I'm going to be working for a few days on getting a place to do the engine swap, or at least a place elsewhere to stash the vehicles that inhabit the garage so I have the space here, and all the bits, pieces and tools laid out to make the swap as quick and painless as possable.

While we've got the mill out, we will probably spruce up the bay a bit while we can. Only makes sense to...

 

We spent the day with Chevy II shenannigans. Picked up a donor Chevy 250 out of a rough, but low-milage '70 Chevy 2WD truck, and got the car pushed into the garage. Its gonna be a week of long nights prepping everything so that hopefully we can complete the motor-swap next weekend and not foul any Easter plans.

Any one need the Three-Speed Tranny that came from the donor truck? If not, its going into the future-project-squirrel-hole...

 

bummer about the motor! had i been following this thread i would have sold you a chevy 2 motor for peanuts!

 

No worries, I got the 'new' mill for a song. I'm in the middle of tear-down, taking it methodically and cleaning everything along the way. All the basic peripherals and gaskets will be new before the engine gets dropped-in.

From what I can tell so far, this engine is pretty low milage and very un-screwed-with. I'm probably gonna pull the pan tomorrow morning before I head off to work and give the internals a good look-see. If all goes to plan (which it never does), I hope to have the swap completed and the car running by Saturday night, even If I have to pull an all-nighter...

 

if i remember right the oil pump pickup on the chevy 2's were bolted to one of the mains using a special bolt/stud combo. when we did our swaps we just brazed a support onto the pickup tube.

 

I like the look your going for.

Rolling the stainless skirts.



The painted skirts.



And no skirts.

 

1badnov,

Your rig looks killer. Frankly, I love the skirtless look.

55 Dude,

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm planning on swapping the pick-up from my old motor to the new one, if I can. If not, some crative brazing or welding might be in order.

The little lady and I got to cleaning last night, depending when I get home tonight, the new block should get a final sweep and a coat or two of paint. Then the parts transfer and assembly can begin.

 

Looking forward to seeing your progress on the long roof. Heres a link to mine.
http://bangshift.com/blog/car-feature-bitchin-blue-custom-1965-acadia-wagon.html

If you need any parts, hit up Walt at http://www.classicnova.com/ Tell him 1badnov sent ya.

 

miss mine some days, had a ton of fun with it for not much money.

 

Here is a pic of my 64 Acadian. I got it about 4 yrs ago and I don't plan on ever selling it.
Getting any Acadian trim parts is getting harder to find. Unlike Nova stuff, there are none made in reproduction.

 

The 'new' motor is in. Just gotta hook up all the peripherals, fill it up with all oil and coolant, and (fingers-crossed) everything comes to life...





The engine came apart and went together well, only one broken manifold stud really held me up. She's got all new gaskets, oil pump, water pump, belt, t-stat, and a freshened distributor. Hope allt that work pays off...

 

Last night was spent getting everything hooked-up and filled-up. The engine cranks over, the fuel pump pumps and everything sounds good, except that it doesn't fire. No spark. I was going to chase the problem starting with the timing, but by that time I was in the after-my-bed-time-grumpy mood. So I'll tackle that when I get home from work tonight...

 

Good job, love the Wagon!

I too have a Chevy II Wagon.....

 

you gonna put a big red flake "R" on the hood?

just kidding man. sweet wagon!

 

Nice, I've always had a soft spot for wagons. Probably stems from my childhood family vehicle being a '60 Chevy Parkwood. Lots of grear memories in that thing. That, and I've always loved first-gen Chevy II's. When the other half mentioned, "I'd like to have a Chevy II like the one I had in High School," I replied, "how 'bout a wagon." We started looking that day...

I'd love one, I painted a Rainier logo on my aircraft when I was in A'Stan the first time, a few years ago...


Alas, I don't think it'll fit the theme of the build this time around.



Anyway, I got the distributor all adjusted to TDC and the like, apparently in my haste and grumpyness last night I had it a little off. Also I really need a new positive battery cable, one of the ends is falling apart and when you crank it, it arcs pretty good. Definately cause of a week spark. Off to the Auto Parts Store I go...

 

Ok, so it took a little longer than expected. Mostly due to the weather being nice enough to lavish all my attention towards being able to drive my Buick around. But anyway, my dad drove down this weekend and brought a bunch of things with him, including a dwell-meter which is the one tool I didn't have, but really needed.

An adjustment here, a tweek there, a little gas down the carb...

...and its alive. Got good idle, got good vacuum, got plenty o' oil pressure. Things are looking up. It should be on the road for the first time in many weeks tonight.

 

Congrats. Look forward to the upgrades as I have a 62 Wagon myself.

 

Glad to hear you got it going - sorry I didn't see that you were in SoCal having problems. I have 3 L6s sitting in my garage

My buddy just picked up a '62 a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday we went out to takes some pics of our cars:

04.15.12 - A short cruise, a hike, and another short drive....




.

 

Glad it's working. Nothing more frustrating than putting all the time and effort in then having more problems.

Looks like there's some cruising in your near future.

 

I have really enjoyed reading this chain of events. A darn nice choice of vehicle, super useful...practical.....different. I like it!! And your words are perfectly written so as to capture the overall experience.
Enjoy every mile!!
Thanks for the story!!

 

great news !

 

Thanks guys. I'm really happy with the progress, even if it took a little longer than expected. But even that is expected. If anything, this car being out of service has 'forced' me to enjoy the others in my stable, I've been driving my Off-Topic BMW E30 M3 and even the '38 Buick to work. Still got a few things to button-up before it goes back to the daily-grind, to-and-from-work duty. But it'll definatly be back in the rotation by the end of the week.

In the mean-time, I got a small package today...


...decisions, decisions.

 

The upholstery's nice, but that is a BEAUTIFUL kitchen table.

 

I am so jealous. Love the car

 

Nice and I like the plans. I've been seriously considering getting one and redoing it as my wife's daily to replace the mini van that is getting pretty close to 300K on the clock.

Good choice on going back with another six as a V8 in one of those will cause a severe increase in your profanity vocabulary the first time you go to change spark plugs.

 

Way cool deuce kids. Love it. ~sololobo~

 

Got the last of the interior samples in today. Here's what the final low-down is gonna be...


Seats and door-panels clad in Beige 'single-pleat' vinyl
Carpet in 'dark gold' loop
Tan Seatbelts
Fawn Windlace
Medium Fawn Painted Dash and other Metal Bits

...should be 'warm' looking while keeping the greenhouse at less than a swelter on all those summer road trips we have planned. Oh, and I got my Moon pedal to replace that billet monstrosity that currently resides in the car.

I also got a couple of rolls of lobucrod's insulation (a big thanks to an Alliance Member), a big can or POR-15 and a whole bunch of wire-wheels, so I can hardly wait to start stripping out the current interior. Well, all but that wire-wheeling part...

 

Well, the biggest progress in the last few days has been in getting the garage cleaned-up. That was no small task. It did leave enough time this weekend to begin on the interior tear-down though...


My helper snuck into the background on this one









...as you can see, while the body is reasonably solid, there are more than a few cases of tin-worm damage.

The passenger-area floor panels were replaced recently. That's good. However, they weren't coated with anything. Just left as bare metal. That's bad. The cargo-area has scattered surface rust, nothing too deep, but it was painted with what appears to be house paint. The tail-gate and areas around the wheel-wells are the worst, with a few areas of rust through, but a little time with a welder and steel shoud have those sorted easily.

I also cleaned up the dash and fitted my radio delete panel and a 1962 Biscayne steering wheel in place of the silly pep-boys-special Grant wheel that was in it...


And now the wheels are all one color...

...the front wheels are Fenton Torque-Thrust knock-offs, and the rears are ET Torque-Thrust knock-offs. I like the look of them much better now, and while they don't fit with my end goal, I'll keep them around a while so I can spend money elsewhere in the project.

And last, I got a good stock hood which I started de-rusting and straitening...

...I hope to have it resonably done in short order. It'll be stock, minus the front badge delete.

All in all, I should be busy for a while.

 

ThI have come to the conclusion that I may need to farm-out the floorboard repairs on the Chevy II. The more I dig into it, the less viable my borrowed, piddley-little, 110V MIG seems, especially with all my other projects, work, and schools stacking up. I'm going back and forth between just buying rear floor pans and having someone install them, or just have someone fab-up something along with a half-dozen other repairs in the rear wheelwell, toe-board, and elsewhere. Anyone have any suggestions for a person or a place in the Tacoma area?

In the mean time though, I've made a little progress on the dash. Since I'm probably gonna wind up driving this car to a shop, I figured i'd start putting the essentials back together. The dash is one of those things, and since I only want to put it back together once...


As it turns out, myself and Goldfinger have at least one thing in common. We both like gold, plenty of it. A lot.

 

The dash is 'done'...