What have you done to your wagon lately? (Let's keep the thread going!)

Going way back down memory lane. There was a love song that this brings back memories.

"She's got freckles on her... ...but.... she's cute."

 

So, I bought 2 acdelco parking brake lever kits from a site that said they would fit my 1987 pontiac safari but as I tried to install them today I found out they were the wrong size.
I really don't understand what's wrong with places and trying to pass off the 9 and a half inch bars for the 11's, GM has discontinued them so I can't even buy them from a dealer, and this site was the 2nd site to mis label the compatibility for size, dorman lists the 9 and a half's for the full sized wagons but when you contact them directly they say they don't fit, think they'd remove the false info from the sight? no.
Anger insues.

 

yikes that's painful.

 

Well, it's taken a little longer than I had hoped, but about as long as I had planned!

After I dropped it off, they got right to work on it. Tore it apart, cleaned the block, bored the cylinders, cleaned and polished the crank, and such.

It was mostly ready to go about two weeks ago, until they started chasing things.

Found a leaking A/C hose, so replaced the hoses. Found the compressor had started leaking as well, so replacing that with the dryer/evacuator.

The wiper motor stopped working, but that was only 2 years old with a lifetime warranty, so I went and ordered a new one of those.
When they hooked the new one up, the factory wired the washer pump backwards so the pump was blowing instead of sucking, so I had to get another one.

Today, as they were finishing up, I stopped by and took a look at it while it was on there lift, and noticed what appeared to be a small leak from one of the rear brake lines.

I pointed it out to one of the mechanics, and they agreed that it was leaking.
In the course of fixing that, they found that my rear brake cylinders were leaking and needed replacing!

Now, I have seen and heard the engine run, and they guys who worked on the engine said that it was overdue for work.
Cam lobes were severely worn, oil rings on the pistons were stuck, piston rings were pretty badly worn, timing chain had about 2 inches of slack, the original nylon gear was in bad shape and both the gear and chain were ready to both explode.

They did say that now that they've addressed those issues and more, I should definitely see some increase in both power and gas mileage!

It should (fingers crossed, Lord willing, knock on wood) be ready to pickup tomorrow.

 

Nice.
Always a good feeling when an upgrade is in the homestretch.

 

Mild lowering job to make it a little easier on the eyes.

 

Love it. How did you lower it

 

Thank you. I appreciate it.

1 coil cut out of the front springs. G body springs in the rear out of a cutlass supreme. New sway bar linkages, and all that stuff. Currently still on stock shocks.. so needs a little final tweaking. I'll more than likely go with a 215/70 in the front. Right now, all stock 225/75.

 

Just did the upper control arms and stabilizer bushings on the Mercedes, I was surprised to find that although 32 years old the ball joints are worn but they're not sloppy. Now to order new nitrogen accumulators for the rear suspension.

 

Gotta love that German efficiency. Were they squeaking or did you just feel the need. What's a set of ball joint cost for that benz?

 

Actually not too bad both control arms ran under $100.oo Cad, on the other hand the rear accumulators are costing me $92.00 US each plus shipping.
I figured at 300,000 miles the suspension was due for an overhaul.

 

Wish I would have lookes & found this forum before I decided to sell. Either way, this is the most recent thing that I tried to do for my wagon.

I tried (and failed) to buy the correct size hose online without looking anything up or double checking.

Hose is from back of carb to pcv*...

 

Are there two steel lines going to the exhaust manifold? There should be. And the PCV should have been up front, nestled in a factory oil fill cap, and hooked to manifold vacuum. The big hose you refer to is just attached to a fitting for the PCV to pull fresh air into the passenger valve cover so it would draw the fumes from piston blow-by and oil breakdown through the PCV into the intake stream for burning.

 

Finally got the headliner covered and installed in my Electra Estate Wagon.
Just in time to list the car for sale...DOH!!!



Cleaned all the old foam with a combination of wore brushing, 40 grit sanding discs and lots of vacuuming.

20170213_170655

Here's the front panel before final trimming:
20170213_175644

And here's the final product in the car:
20170218_114210

I apparently applied a little too much pressure when laminating the front section. My roller left some depressions in the foam. It's noticeable in this photo, but they are smoothing out now.

 

Spent today chasing an a/c leak in the Mercedes, turned out to be a loose fitting at the condenser. I cleaned and re-tightened the fitting and recharged the system, I'll check it in a couple of days to see if no more leaks appear.