Our New-to-Us 1978 Electra Estate Wagon Project

Thanks to our good friend's Rich and Robbi, and much to the horror of my wife, we welcomed another gigantic old Buick into the Massey household over the Holidays. My son Eddie has claimed it as his project.

It's ROUGH (especailly what's left of the wood), but it's black over carmine red, with the 6.6 Olds 403 under the hood and a tow pack, so it's a neat starting point!

Made the 100-mile drive home from Fredericksburg to Round Rock with no issues (sadly my Roadmaster wagon was not so lucky, as posted elsewhere here).

A/C works, Cruise control works, it actually runs pretty well too, and it floats down the highway! It came from the Carolinas and was last registered in Tennessee....in 1992! We'll make it a good home here in Texas.

-Mike

 

Very Nice. Looks like a solid car.
It is cool to see how you stay consistent with what you like for all of the cars in your fleet (even though they're all GM flavor)

 

Fantastic photos, as always. Eddie sure looks comfy in there...




Congratulations on your latest project... condolences to your wife.

 

The car looks sensational, the woodgrain looks like that's the only rough part. Great color combo, classy all the way.

 

Very nice. Where you live you could probably get away with driving that car as-is for a few years before worrying too much about the paint condition!

 

My wife is making me keep it hidden behind the fence until I do something about the wood. She said it's the ugliest car she's ever seen! Ha!

It's a little crusty here and there, more from salt air than salt roads. The car is originally from North Carolina and I think it spent time near the coast. It was last in Tennessee. The chrome is pitted some, and it has surface rust around some of the windows, but the lower body and underside is solid, so again, salt air...the lesser of the two evils.

Frankly since getting this car home last week I have not touched it. I hit the deer in my '96 Roadmaster wagon and between that and the holidays, the '78 is sitting right now.

Funny, I only got one set of keys, and went to Home Depot, and the Lowes, trying to make a couple more spare sets. Turns out, neither store stocks the round keys for the doors anymore, and only one had the square ignition key blanks, and I bought their last two. GM used the same style keys for at least 25+ years....makes me feel old that I had to go to an actual locksmith for the door keys!

-Mike

 

Hi Mike, looks like a good car for a project. Nicely equipped...does the auto AC work?

Sorry to hear abt the Roadie, hope Misty comes around on the new addition!

Get Eduardo busy on that woodgrain!

 

The a/c blows cold...but only on the floor! I can't get the dash vents to switch positions. Vacuum ball under the hood is new...it must be something inside the dash. Projects.

 

Window sticker on the new '78 Electra project wagon. Think it sat a while?? What does it mean, DAYLIGHT USE ONLY?? Seriously???



Today's word-of-the-day is "Patina"....





-Mike

 

Ok HOW do I get this wood mess off??? It's SO dry that I don't see heat-gun doing it. I removed the wood on my '89 Custom Cruiser with a hair dryer and razor blades (hell of a week...my fingers hurt remembering it), but it was not NEARLY this crusty. I'd like to not destroy the paint under the wood, so I can just order new wood and install it... That said....how do I remove the metal wood outline trim? Little help car folks??? Give me some magic!!

 

When it's that weathered and dry I'm not sure you can remove it without damaging the paint. It's not a big deal to repaint under the vinyl if you have to because all you need to do is make it a uniform color since the vinyl is somewhat transparent. I would scrape what I can off with a razor blade and then probably sand the rest off. It will be time consuming for sure. Good luck.

 

I would not even waist time trying to scrape that old wood off, sorry but it's sanding it off time IMO.

As for the trim removal, well the wheel well trim is self expiatory but ue to age you may have to whack f*** some of the screws to loosen them with......



Not sure about your year but my 87 Buick, the front fenders have holes from the factory where the trim inserts plugged in.... over half of mine broke in removal.

The rest of the wood trim doors back are clips attached to nubs ( don't know what they are really called). I removed mine with a set of these and patience ........ patience to pry and not snap as many plastic clips as possible, still a few brittle ones broke.



The above similar to mine kit "should" have them, but I found piece A,B,and C below worked great to remove the trim without any damage to the trim itself. Any parts store should have these and remember you should be using 2 at a time..... pry with one, pop with the other and the slow guy wins this race

 

I ran into a similar problem with a set of keys on my '70 Caprice Coupe. For my coupe and my '75 CE, I had good luck finding the proper blanks on eBay. As you probably know already, the codes alternate every few years. Here is a sample of what should work for your '78:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chevrolet-C...m337b54a85e:m:moDejU2pVKSTg0ks9lLdf0w&vxp=mtr

 

Looks good to me, and nice red interior too. How else is it optioned?

Kinda strange as far as I can say, did the headlight wires burn out or what? I have something like that with my Caprice Sedan, only the high-beams work at the moment and it's not the dimmer switch so I'm not driving it at night like that unless I really need to.

 

About the daylight use only question, my son just yesterday mentioned that in some states, upper east coast I think, certain years of older vehicles can only be driven during daylight. He did mention NC as one. Maybe they think no one can see the lights or the cars. Maybe it's another government gimmick to get older cars off the road.
Good luck with the wood trim. Looks like a nice wagon to play with.