Hello all I just joined today and wanted to share my experiences with you about my 75 Colony Park. I bought it in 1982 and it was a real mess. The front cowel was hanging off the front. The wood transfers were cloudy and faded and there were more vacuum leaks than outer space. It was a 9 passenger 460, white with light tan vinyl interior, completely loaded with every option and it was love at first sight. It took me two years to restore it, replacing vacuum motors and lines and check valves all over the car, even the brake booster which finally kept the headlight doors closed overnight, actually for weeks. But I couldn't make the auto climate control work at high elevatons. I skiied at Mammoth in the California high Sierras. The air was so thin at 8,000 feet there wasn't enough vacuum to operate the ATC. The system was designed to heat all the air the system used to dry it, with no vacuum all you get was hot air. I read high altitude cars were equipped with smaller carburetor jets, but that cuts engine power, and it didn't work. I installed an electric vacuum pump that Cadillac used for their door lock system, but it didn't create enough vacuum to help. I even looked into converting the system to electric motors,, but to have custom motors made was to expensive to make sense.. So I went to the salvage yard and added extra vacuum storage cans to the system. That helped but didn't solve the problem. So after 2 or 3 years of this, I was driving everyone around me crazy, losing hair and not sleeping at night, I finally bought a hand vacuum pump tapped into the system and kept it on the seat next to me and when the vacuum dropped I'd hand pump more in and had enough vacuum to operate the ATC for a while before having to do it again. It worked, it was good exercise for me, but I have to believe there's a better way.
Like I said, it was love at first sight and I always will love that car. I did national dealer searchs to locate new wood transfers and after cleaning out the country of stock I found the 9 transfers needed to replace them all. At the time, Ford used transfers that had transparent areas mixed into the wood grain so that the color of the car would come through the transfers to help bend it all together. That meant to replace the transfers meant stripping off the old ones, repainting the entire car before replacing it with the new ones. When I was done the car looked brand new. I was so proud of it. After all that I had to make it run as good as it looked so I bought a Genuine Ford remanufactured 460 long block, brand new Motorcraft 4300 4 bbl carburetor, starter, alternator and power steering pump, and gas shocks all around. My brother and I installed it all. It then ran as good as it looked and I have no regrets spending the time and money on "TheWagon" as it affectionately became known as to all my family, friends and neighbors. It became the backdrop of all our important family trips and events. After reading my two posts I realize how much that Wagon meant to me. I was a lot younger then, but if I had a project car like that right now I wouldn't hesitate to do, or help someone do it all again. Parts permitting.
Bill. Welcome from another Bill, and another Colony Park owner. They indeed are great cars. I enjoy them all, but especially my ‘77. Learned to drive in a ‘76. Please put your car, with pictures, cause we love them around here, in the American Station wagon thread. I wanna make sure to give it some likes!
Welcome to the forums Bill ! Your stewardship of your wagon sounds like a hell of a journey! Do you still possess "the wagon"? Like the other Bill said, share some pics. when you can .......Longroofs Rule!
