My new wagon is loaded and heading home

Backseat is mint

Backend is clean

Notice the two small rips in the headliner(Leftside but on the Rightside in viewing this picture)

All the door panels are this clean


Here is the 72 I am after. Horrible picture but I have seen the car in person. Love the color of it with the tinted windows.

 

And here is the side view of the 73 after installing the SS wheels and buffing the paint. I am contemplating just touching up the entire bottom for now and just cruising the car for a year or two then doing a full restoration on it. By then I should have my sons Camaro done and get this thing in and done within a month or so. It has one dent on the driver's door and then a couple in the tailgate. Otherwise the car is straight and pretty much rust free except for the rust shown in the pictures. What's everyone thinking. I will be honest and tell you I paid $2,500 for the car, $800 freight, $400 wheels-tires, $200 misc items like fuel line, clamps, cleaning material, plugs, wires, bumper fillers and a quart of paint. I have roughly $3,900 in this 73. Another $2,000 to completely paint it and install new wood grain. I would have just under $6,000 in it and still have money left over from the difference on the 72. And I would have my wood grain wagon I have always wanted, but a plain jane version. What to do.........I should have just bought that 76 Caprice Estate in Florida...............GGGrrrr, can't believe I let that one get away

 

I say keep that incredibly nice '73, continue to fix it up, and forget about the '72. If you want a power tailgate, then keep your eye peeled for one that is being parted out, and buy all the power bits to convert yours. Shoot, you could even install power windows if you wanted.
The point is, focus on this bird in the hand, and make it wonderful.

David

 

I don't see much work for the minimal rust, and it appears to all be below the woodgrain. I might just fix the rust and paint below the woodgrain and call it wonderful.

 

Thats what I am thinking busterwivell. There is a little rust around the rear windows. I plan on pulling the rear windows to get them tinted and addressing that area then.

 

I'm with wixom61 and busterwivell - I'd keep that 73!
It looks beautiful, the rust repair certainly is within your abilities AND you can add teh power tailgate.

Plus, I know colors are subjective, but I much prefer the color and the woodgrain on the 73!

 

Well you know what I think, 73 73 73 all the way. Your 73 is fantastic for what it owes you and I really think that the rust you can see is not major except for what may be lurking in the channels under the those side rear quarter windows, and the only reason I did not attempt to make any contact with the seller of your new 73 back then was because it did not have the power gate option (as you know). But if that was not important to you at the time, then I think you have a great base to work from imho.

Also letting the 76 in LA go after having an option to buy may come back to haunt us all too (me included) if it ends up on ebay for twice the price!

You may not have the best optioned Caprice but you do have the best looking Caprice of them all imho. Keep the 73.

 

I will also say the '73 because I love wood-grained wagons and I love the '73 wagons... also since the cars are basically optioned the same, another reason IMO to stay with the '72. If the '72 was loaded, it may change things some for me even if it was an Impala, but I would probably still stick with the Caprice. lol. I absolutely love that Caprice wagon... '73 is my favorite year. For the extra money I had to spend, if it were mine I would try to figure out how to put in the 3rd seat, but then it would be a shame to remove that perfect rear seat that is already in the car, so I would live with it being a 2-seater. Those are nice wheels as well, but I love the stock '73 Caprice hubcaps and I think it really sets them off, so I would keep it with the factory hubcaps... again, if it were mine, because I love the stock look these cars have. I don't think you can go wrong with either car, but again, I really dig that '73.

It really has me motivated to get my '72 on the road before the end of August... hopefully will have the engine reassembled by the end of the weekend.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

Has anyone converted a manual tailgate to a power tailgate? I have two complete wagons withpower gates I can take all the parts off of. Just wondering how hard it will be to convert

 

Swanny, look at the clamshell tailgate thread, and you will see the power regulator. You will need that, the wiring and switches, and the chrome molding at the top edge of tailgate, although I've seen power gates with the handle.
Remove the manual regulator and misc bits, and then install the power regulator. These tailgates are really very simple, and if you have your own parts cars, very straightforward.

David

 

If they still have the handle, does that mean that they were converted after the factory? Also if you keep the handle and still use it after the conversion, then this also could work like an aid (when no one was looking that is!) to take the load off of the actuator when it was in operation, which could in turn reduce wear, would this be correct?

 

I wonder how hard it will be to get it to work with the key switch as well as the dash switch? I didn't think it would take much to convert it over

 

Hmm dunno you may find more gremlins hiding it that 73 than your ready for. Unfortunalty you will find em AFTER you start on it. woodgrain can hide a LOT! and she has started to rust in the "normal" places, and from my experience they tend to rot apart quickly after that.

 

I have owned probably 12 different driver wagons. Everyone had rust, there is no such thing as rust free on a clamshell. This one is by far the best I have had. Spare tire hole is mint, bottom of every door is mint. It might have gremlins, but I doubt there is hidden rust issues

 

Clamshells that have been in salt will rust badly just like most any GM car from the '70's, but my Buick was from Redding, CA, and even it had a little very minor rust in the rear glass area from the molding clips that mount on the little posts. When these metal clips are pushed onto the painted metal posts, the paint is usually knocked off, and they start rusting from the factory. Mine also had a rust/metal fatigue issue on the bottom LH mount area of the tailgate where no paint was applied inside when built. It also had some water damage inside on the carpet-covered cargo panels, that resulted in some rust on those panels, but nothing serious. I think it's safe to say that only salt-area clamshells tend to rot away.

David :2_thumbs_up_-_anima