My Project...1968 Bel Air Wagon

Found it in Douglasville.
Overall in pretty good condition. I had to replace a oil pressure switch only two miles away from the previous owners house, but then drove 90 miles home.

There is a little rust but nothing to really be too concerned about.
Its a 327 4bbl, TH350, rally wheels. The engine was built 10,000 miles ago according to the seller. He had owned it for 7 years and it only had about 2 tanks of gas through it. Used it to drive the kids around the neighborhood. Unfortunately the last year of its life was sitting outside(previous 6 were in his garage). So, with the leaking weatherstripping, the floorpans will need to be addressed but I don't think they will necessarily need to be replaces...maybe just patched or POR'd.

My plan...and not necessarily in this order.

LS1(at some point this will be built to handle serious power).
T56
Air Ride
Big wheels(preferrably staggered diameters) and tires, possibly a minitub.
Custom twin turbo setup.

The ultimate goal is a 1000hp twin turbo streetcar. That goal of course will be achieved a few years down the road. But I'd like to have it twin'd within the next year or two.

I wanted a driver project so I wouldn't get burned out with constantly working on something I'd never even enjoyed. The idea is to only have the car down occasionally with time to enjoy it in between.
This, I think, will turn out to be the perfect ride for me.
It already enjoyable to drive, just needs a little sprucing up.

I've already cleaned up the interior a little and accessed the car. I order weatherstripping and carpet and will do a tune up this weekend. I don't want to spend a lot of money on the current engine but want it to run as efficiently and reliably as possible.

Brad

 

more pics...

 

darn man....thats just plain purdy!!
congrats again!!

 

and WOW, that is nice!

...My condolences also Bro

 

Congrats on a great wagon. Again My Condolences.

 

Nice wagon. I like the color combo. All in all it looks pretty clean.

 

Thanks everyone for condolences...this car is kind my own sort of therapy. It will be dedicated to Adaleigh.

I did a tune up yesterday...point, condenser, plugs, fuel filter, air filter. Definitely seems to run a lot better. During my test drive, I found the brake fluid light was coming on....I'm just amazed it still works. The fluid was low so I checked for leaks. Didn't see any. I will add fluid and flush the system and see how they feel.

When i go to pick up the fluid, I'll see if Advance has ball joints for the car. At least one of mine is pretty loose but wanna change them all.

Might also pickup some CLR and try that out on some of the surface rust area of the underbody. Saw it used on some other projects and was amazed at the results.

 

Started to work on the front suspension this weekend only to find the looseness I felt was only wheel bearings. So I left the suspension alone and just repacked the bearings. I'll swap the suspension components when I pull the engine or when I do the airride....sometime further down the road.

What I need ASAP is floor pans...at least the passenger side front.
I did receive my carpet in the mail, so I'm anxious to install it.

I think I can save the drivers side, its still plenty solid. Kinda will depend on how expensive replacement pans are for this car.

 

This will help with the floorpan, they focus on chevies:

Has floorpans, download the PDF (8mb) catalog. Good prices too.
http://www.luttyschevy.com/pages/catalogs.html

Side panels and rocker panels
http://www.classicsheetmetal.com/chevy656.html

 

Hey Wicked, thats a wicked project. NICE!

 

Thanks Guys,
The progress will be slow as funds are available.

 

looky here

http://www.dynacorn.com/site/04home/home.html

 

About a week ago, I drove the car to work. On the way home, my rear brakes dragged all the way home. After changing shoes, springs, wheel cylinders, I finally found the problem to be a swelled/clogged 40 yr old brake hose. It was allowing high pressure in, but not allowing the pressure to release. So a new brake hose later, the drivetrain's doing much better.

I also pulled the seats, belts, and old carpet out. I cleaned up the floors and POR'd the majority of the interior. I received the new floor pan. I'll install that sometime this week.

 

That POR-15 sure looks like a better alternate than just paint. I used rust paint on mine, after resealing the seams, but I sure like the look of that job you did!

 

Great job....