70 Coronet Wagon Driver

[EJL]

So I figured I'd start a new thread for my driver project rather than continuing to add to my 70 Coronet Rebuild thread in the welcome wagon forum.

It's been a while since I've posted any updates. Recently I've bounced around working on several areas of the wagon. Figured I'd pull heater box out and check to make sure heater core was good. As much dirt that was on this when I pulled it out just confirms my suspicion the car was in a flood. Ended up heater core was still good and blower motor tested good so I refinished everything before putting it back together. I thought it turned out nice.

After I blasted and epoxy primed/painted the leaf springs, needed to figure out how to install new bushings. Reviewed manual which showed special tool, but god only knows where to get that. Measured bushings and sketched up what I thought would work to get them installed. Took my sketch to work and asked one of my buddies in our tool room to make up two pieces. Encapsulated the OD of the bushing while keeping clearance for rubber and center sleeve. Used a threaded rod and cordless impact and whalaa... Worked better than expected.

Got axles blasted and painted as well. Installed new bolts and rear end is ready to go back together. Might work on that this weekend.

A while back I tore down steering column and rebuilt that. Didn't want to put it back in all grubby.

All this work has been keeping me busy while waiting on the engine to get rebuilt. Lucky for me, my brother owns an engine shop and specializes in performance engines. Told him my only guideline was it had to be at least 500HP. As the saying goes, "speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?" He talked me into buying a set of heads from 440 source. Got those a few weeks back.

Block work is done. Waiting on him to balance crank before we start assembling. Looking forward to putting it back together.

My goal was to have her on the road before snow falls this year, but I'm not sure that is going to happen. I'll keep at it and see how things shake out.

 

[mmissile]

cool.

 

[ckessel]

Some ricer is going to be depressed when his little hot rod gets whooped by a wagon!

 

[Greg Ducato]

I like it!!

 

[ELLIOT]

Add to the watched thread. I've always loved the B body Wagon ! Keep on going with this car !

 

[EJL]

So I wanted to finish mounting the new power brake booster for my disc brake conversion kit, but found the wagon was robbed of the entire brake pedal assembly under the dash. Fortunately I have base Coronet parts car to save the day.

Removed the pedal assembly, tore down and restored everything.

I got the pedal assembly installed in the wagon last night, but ran into a problem when trying to remove the threaded receiver from the lever assembly that came with the conversion kit. The hinge pin is bound up and I need to remove it to thread it to the rod in the booster.

May have to ask for help from my brother to get another set of hands on it to get apart without destroying the paint on the levers.

 

[EJL]

cool.

Some ricer is going to be depressed when his little hot rod gets whooped by a wagon!

I like it!!

Add to the watched thread. I've always loved the B body Wagon ! Keep on going with this car !

Thanks for the encouragement!!

 

[barnfind]

 

[steved033]

RE: the 440 source heads. I've heard of people's spring retainer locks breaking. shell out for a set of comp 10 degree locks and retainers. i have their heads, and have been very very happy with their out of the box performance, but i haven't had the car out much, either (that's my fault)

sjd

 

[moparnation74]

This is a cool ride to be restoring...love it!

Great work so far!

 

[EJL]

RE: the 440 source heads. I've heard of people's spring retainer locks breaking. shell out for a set of comp 10 degree locks and retainers.

Thanks for the heads up. I will definitely look into this.

This is a cool ride to be restoring...love it!

Great work so far!

Thank you, I appreciate it!

 

[steved033]

Thanks for the heads up. I will definitely look into this.

also note the 440 source valves are single groove. the multi groove factory mopar one won't work.

here's a pic of the difference in COMP vs 440 source.

http://www.roadrunnernest.com/forum/download/file.php?id=3769&t=1
sjd

 

[EJL]

I was able to get the resto brake pedal assembly installed in the wagon as well as mounting the new power break conversion. I can't believe how much space this takes up. Now I'm wondering if I need to remove the booster and master cylinder just to make it easier to drop the engine in.

The wagon also was missing the wiper motor and arm assembly, so I removed what I needed from the parts car.

I'm in the process of cleaning and refinishing these parts before install. I found one of the pivots is seized. Does anyone have any tricks for breaking these loose either by disassembling or other process? Do they make replacement pivots I could buy??

 

[EJL]

My brother ended up having to soak the pivots in solution for 4 days to get them rotating again. He also added grease zirks too. I cleaned up the wiper motor and installed in the wagon today.

My brother also helped me put the rear end together today. Got it installed and put tires on to see how it looked. Plenty of clearance for the 275/60R15's back there.

Now I need to get the beauty rings and center caps put on rear wheels.

Also getting closer to putting the engine together. Having the wife order the remaining parts for that. Next big purchase is complete TTI exhaust system. Hate parting with that $1600+, but based on what everyone says here it's the way to go. I'll see if the boss approves that spend anytime soon, LOL.

 

[EJL]

I was able to get the last few fuel tank items cleaned and installed in car. Everything is clean and ready for fuel.

I also installed all new brake components for rear end. Wheels can go on permanently.

Boss gave me approval to order the TTI exhaust so I called Chicago Connection today to get that going.

Been working to replace under dash items before I reinstall the rebuilt heater box. The defrost vents broke into pieces as soon as I started removing the nuts. Thankfully I have a good set from the parts car to replace them. Also planning to replace dash speaker while I'm under there.

Making a little progress.

 

[EJL]

After wrapping up the rear end, been working on cleaning the interior. Got the defrost vents replaced and radio back in. When I removed the lower dash plastic I found the screw bosses broke off for all the switches.

Had to pull the lower dash out of the parts car. Someone already screwed with it as it is in two pieces. It was cut in half behind the steering column. Car was originally green and then someone painted the plastic red. I went ahead and bead blasted the panels so I could paint tan. It didn't turn out too bad.

Masked the switch pocket after I shot it with flat black, then shot tan color.

The crack was from previous damage and was already glued. Otherwise I would have tried to tighten the gap when gluing. Figured since this will only be driver, I wasn't going to stress over these flaws.

Once I found that bead blasting worked decent for the plastic, I figured I'd try it on the larger pieces in the back of the wagon. These have severe sun bleaching and erosion of the grain.

Here's one of the plastic panels pre blasting.

Post blasting.

Wiped down with a little acetone to promote paint bonding and sprayed.

Other than the texture missing on sections of the panel, I think it turned out decent. Moving onto other rear panels.

 

[MJF_]

Do you think could you cover rear plastic panels with vinyl? In my Chrysler, those panels are scratched and worn too...

 

[EJL]

I would think so. You would probably need to spray adhesive on the panel face to get the vinyl to stick which I would think would be non-reversible, but could work.

 

[GTXperience]

Love the resurrection of the wagon so far!

 

[EJL]

Been a while since I posted any progress so I figured I'd show what I've been able to accomplish.

This is what the back of the wagon looked like before I started cleaning and painting plastic panels.

This shows the amount of dirt that covered the entire car leading me to believe it was in a flood at some point. I gutted the parts and started to hand washed everything three times.

Still looks like there is some spots that need cleaned with a toothbrush, but it's a huge improvement. Here's a few shots with the plastic panels back in after cleaning and painting.

I looked numerous places for some material to replace the vinyl that covered the rear floor panels. Finally found some that I think will look good. It's the top sample in the pic below. Has decent color to compliment the interior color and a pattern to break things up a bit. I need to get it ordered and installed.

I also wanted to convert all the lights except the headlights to LED. Had to clean some of the housings first, but the finished product looks pretty good I think.

Also changed out bulbs in dash. Waiting on flasher relays with ground wires to show up to get hooked up and confirm the turn signals work on their own.