Headers Are Finished!

After many hours of work, the headers are finished!

These were quite the challenge to take on as I have never done anything at all like this, and it was tough at first. Double, triple and quadruple checking everything as still getting things wrong and having to go back and redo them. But, as time went by, they definitely got easier.

They aren't perfect, or show pieces, but they are beautiful to me. Here are the pictures!

Because I wasn't as concerned about maximzing performance as I was about having something that worked well, I opted to weld the pipes on the inside. They will no doubt outperform the factory truck manifolds that were on the car when I purchased it, and I have a lot more clearance around the bolts for installation.

I also found it was easier to weld up the collector if I cut the end off and did it from the inside. A LOT easier. Since I wasn't worried about dressing the welds and wanted to keep that homemade look, it was a super easy decision.

I also stripped, cleaned up, primed and painted the inside tailgate panel. It looks much better. Still see signs of some of the old dents that I just couldn't work out, but so much better.

This was the first of the large panels (including the third row seats) that I need to refinish. The seats I think I will end up having soda blasted as it will be a ton of work to strip those down. I'll have to pull the out again and decide for certain.

I also had a chance to work on the body a little bit. Still trying to get the body line on the driver's side right. not easy with all of the dings and dents on the body line itself.

So, I took a break for that and start stripping the passenger's side. The doors look pretty good, but the rear quarter was tagged at some point in the past. Ugh! The body work was awful. They at least tried to pull the dents out some. Why pull them when they could have easily bumped them from the inside without drilling holes I'll never know.

And the same is true for the body line at the lower area of the quarter panel. They created it out of Bondo. Nearly an inch think in places. Best part: It wasn't necessary. They built it up without rhyme or reason. There was so much Bondo, that after 45 minutes I still haven't cleared it all from the quarter. Once I get that out, I can finally get a look at what I'm really facing.

Anyhow, time to call it a night!

Started The Bodywork!

Just set things into high gear and got a great jump on the bodywork today, and there are plenty of dents to address! It looks like someone drove this drunk down a street with cars parked up and down it, or they were playing tag, because both sides of the wagon are dented up front to back. But, with a little help from my friend Tim, and a bunch of hammering on sheet metal, I am almost ready to start putting down a layer of filler to true up the panels.

We got the windows, hardware and trim removed from all 4 doors, and in the next couple of days I will be sending my dew wipes from the doors and the tailgate out to be redone. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this goes smoothly. If so, I will be set for about $150 which is pretty awesome.

The rear tire is off the car because, unfortunately at some point, someone thought it would be a good idea to flatten out the lip of the wheel well with a set of pliers. I straightened it out as best as I could, but I couldn't true the underside up 100%. I guess if it has to be off, that is the place to do it. The wheel well trim is quite rough, but I picked a decent set up some time back. I will have to see if thwy are a correct fir now since they are off a full-size Merc, but not a wagon. I hope so, because finding even those was almost impossible.

I also got to spend a little time yesterday working on the second header and have the first tube's run tacked up. That's the hardest part, but now that it is done, I can run the other three around it down to the collector. Should be interesting since I will need to work around the steering.

More to come soon...

Door Panel Restoration...

OK, so this is a bit more of an overhaul than a true restoration, but the first panel is done and it looks sooooo much better than before.

This first picture shows the complete panel with a spare used that is very similar in condition to where the completed panel started.

What a difference! But these aren't going to be perfect. The vinyl is 46 years old and has cracks, chips and other imperfections, and this isn't going to be show care, so I'm cleaning these up only so far, and I drew the line at actually repairing the vinyl.

I started by giving the panel a good wash. From an appearance standpoint, it really didn't have much an affect, but was critical to prep for the dye. I opted to use my old standby, Simple Green, to clean the panel.

Next, I carefully removed the backerboard. It was warped (like almost all of this age) and starting to deteriorate. The lower section of the panel was glued down to the backerboard where the lines are. I carefully separated it using a putty knife, and that seemed to work reasonably well. The staples at the edges came out easily, but the vinyl at the edge is very brittle, so care when working with it for all processes was important.

The last step in removing the backerboard with popping it free of the top steel panel. 22 holes were punched through and the points were stamped flat. I used a long, wide-bladed screwdriver to pop these free. It did damage the board at the holes, but left plenty intact for use as a template.

Once off, I had to decide what to use for the new backerboard. I knew I didn't want to use fiberboard of any kind, so I did some looking. Home Depot had a plastic panel smooth on one side, and pebbled on the other that was slightly thinner than the original board and $25 a 4' x 8' sheet. One sheet is all that is needed.

Probably the biggest impact on the appearance was redying the panel. It was already cleaned, so now I had to remove the old "chrome" finish on the thin rule trim. A little quality time with a flat razor blade and it all came off. Then I taped it off. Using SEM Color Coat in medium heavy coats, the dye covered nicely after just two coats without plugging the pattern, running or sagging.

I carefully traced the old panel onto the new material taking care to flatten it out as I worked, and then cut out the perimeter using tin snips. I could have used a saw, but with a little care I could trim out the panel and make a much smaller mess without having to clear an area and set up with tools. I suspect from the way the material cut it is made with fiberglass. It did score and crack pretty easily and cleanly.

Next, I measured out and drilled the holes for where the panel attaches to the metal cap. 20 of the 22 were in line and evenly space. The last two had roughly 1/8" and 1/4" run out. I drilled the holes to be almost exactly the size of the part that would poke through them. They fit very tightly. To keep from cracking the board, I placed a small deepwell socket over the hole and gently (relatively speaking) tapped them down. Then, using a punch, I flattened the tips back over then panel where I could. As tight as the holes were, I have little fear of the panel popping loose.

Here is a close up of the two holes that were out of line from the others.

The holes for the door handles and window cranks I actually waited to drill out until after I mounted the panel. It seems like I was doing it out of order, but it helped me make certain the holes weren't off. They were 1" dia, so I used a paddle bit which made clean holes with a support board behind the to prevent tear-out.

The holes for the door clips were drilled, and then square cuts were made by scoring and snapping small areas out. They aren't as pretty as the factory, but they work well, and the door clips aren't loose.

Next, using double stick foam tape, I cut thin strips and applied it to the back of the vinyl where it glued originally. We'll see how it holds up over time. The edges got the same treatment with a slightly wider slice and seems to hold quite well. If it holds until they are hung, great!

The last thing I needed to complete was the trim. It needed to math the factory chrome trim, but without having to be removed, and it had to be affordable. After trying a couple of options, I ended up with a sealant tape. The chrome isn't quite a bright as some other options, but it performs much better for my purposes, and is a close match on brightness.

I cut 7/16" strips that I laid after supplying a small amount of water to the trim with a spray bottle first. this makes it easier to reposition if need be without trashing the tape.

The end result? I'm happy. I just need to get started on the next three...

You Know You Buy A Lot On eBay When...

With three projects going, I buy and sell a fair amount on eBay, so it isn't uncommon to come home to find a package or two on the porch. That is, unless I haven't purchased anything, and then it's really odd.

In the past week that has happened twice from people that I have never purchased from, nor have I sold to. I didn't realize the first package was sent in error as I hadn't had a chance to open it and it sat for several days before I did. What gave me concern was when I had everything I had ordered, or so I thought, and two more packages showed up. Very strange!

So I did the honest thing and contacted eBay. Their customer service rep listened to my story carefully, and then asked to put me on hold. When he returned I was informed that he could neither confirm who the seller was, nor the buyer. Further, they had no policy on record to address this scenario as they have "never had anyone call to say they received something they didn't pay for," so their position was this: I could keep the items, or I could try to figure out who the sellers were and talk to them.

Morally, I can't (and won't) keep them, but now the burden of finding where these belong has fallen on me. Fortunately there were enough clues for me to locate the original auctions and sellers without having to chase them down via their return addresses. I have contacted both. The problem with this is this only gets me half way there. The items are no longer legally theirs. They belong to the buyers.

Further, I have to hope that both items were purchased by the same person, that they weren't using my name and address intentionally to commit fraud, or in an attempt to defraud me, and convince them that my shipping address is showing up in their account through no action on my part.

Fun.

And if it's two different buyers, I now have a whole host of potential issues to worry about.

On the bright side, at least I don't have to worry about eBay coming after me. They could care less.

Many happy returns!

P.S. More on wagon progress soon (now that I finished redoing my daughters bedroom set!)

Replaced the Rear Springs...

Got a little time out in the garage today, so I replaced the rear springs. I bought them over 6 months ago, but they haven't been a priority. While cleaning the office today I had to keep moving them, so they moved up the list. Easy project to take from start to finish and the car sits level again.