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

Picked up a few parts needed for Lil Sis. Changed the air filter this afternoon and hubby changed the spark plugs.

 

I cleaned on the beast today and then drove 35 miles (one way) to a local cruise-in. Longest journey I have taken in the tank. lol. Several people looked at the car, saying how their folks had on when they were little, etc. One man stopped me as we were leaving. He knew his cars apparently. He asked me if it was a '72 and I said yes. He said he had been going to that cruise-in for years and that was the FIRST "clamshell" he had seen there. I haven't either other than that '74 Grand Safari a few years ago and that was only once.







Oh yeah, I got the 402 sticker for the air cleaner... not sure if correct for this car, but I like it on there. lol.

 

Hubby got the fuel filter, after a couple of hours, on Lil Sis.

 

That is a great little wagon you have there. I love it. I would love to find one to drive to work... if I hadn't of just got the Subaru wagon that is. lol. I am out of space! lol.

You do not see many of those with the wood-grain.

 

The Zeph

I found a Mustang GT front sway bar at a swap meet a couple weeks ago for 20 bucks and installed it while I was filling up our white trash pool. I have a $300 compressor to blow up our $25 pool! It's considerably fatter and handles MUCH better than it did. I did install new sway bar links while I was at it. The pool sure felt good when I was done!

 

67 Country Sedan and camper

Call me a romantic, call me nuts.

I purchased my 67 Country Sedan last summer (Rosie)
Put a bunch of work into her. Now she runs like a top.
I even spent a grand having a custom hitch and tow package installed.
Today I towed my 61 Shasta Astrodome for the first time over to the hitch and welding joint with the intention of getting a hvy duty battery and having it wired to the power converter.
Harry at Kirby's hitch and welding pointed out that the old coupler is unsafe because there is no way to keep it from popping up besides the spring that comes with. There is also no way to lock the coupler.
After doing some research I come to find that I am not the only one that feels that the old coupler is not that safe.

Long story longer I had the old cut off and a new one installed and was talked into adding a stabilizer hitch with sway bars. (something that I was intending on getting sooner or later)

One of the guys at the shop inflated my passenger side airbag and it burst! (sounded like a shotgun blast) I think I will get a replacement under warranty.

Anyway they made good and took some off of the bill for the mishap.

Blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda 800 clams later.

Am I crazy to pull a 2000 lb camper with my Country Sedan 390? Even with a tranny cooler? I was thinking that the God's were not on my side today. :banghead3:

 

Yipe you've got it bad...you romantic nut you.

 

Swapping the coupler makes sense - they wear out as too often folks did not put a bit of grease in there to keep things lubricated, they get rusty, and they were never intended to last so many years. Good move.

As for towing - you have it easy with a 2k trailer. We have towed many different trailers with our '57 since we bought it and currently tow a 4,000 Airstream with it all over the place. If you think about what people towed the trailers with when they were new it was most often the family station wagon. And for many years they did not have equalizer hitches and sway bars/controls. The thing is to get used to towing it around the local area, then drive at a speed you feel comfortable with. We attend many vintage trailer events each year and there are large numbers of vintage tow vehicles, wagons predominately. Check out Tin Can Tourists for events near you and also check out their website for pictures. Also a great place to get advice on towing. And for mirrors we use McKesh which fit the older wagons perfectly, easy on/off, do not damage paint or trim. A tad pricey if you buy new but well worth the safety and convenience and they are quality products.
http://www.tincantourists.com/

 

Been busy the past few weeks. Finished up the electric fan addition, turns out the fans I got were just too noisy. Neighbors say they could hear the fans coming down the street before they could hear the car or even see it :banghead3:.

Swapped back to six blade fan and shroud and a pusher electric I had on previously and back to quiet and it still keeps things cool. I did change to an in-block temp switch to turn the fan on at 205 and off at 185, from the set up that inserted into the radiator hose at the upper neck. Never did trust that not to leak.

Fixed my one area of rust - a small area on the spare tire well. Cut out the old and built a replacement that looks factory. Ugly job as from before we bought it in 1981 it had been repaired with fiberglass, bondo, some type of screen in between, and then heavily undercoated. With that done had the car safety inspected so I could apply for Modified Collector plates which will make a substantial difference in annual insurance - drops it by almost 70% in this instance.

Buggered up the radio . No disappointment for me but apparently it needs a decent radio for upcoming camping adventure to a vintage trailer gathering, so I guess I'll be under the dash tomorrow finding out what I did there. It's hidden in the glove box and is an older aftermarket radio so probably time to get a decent one anyway. Oh well.

Oh yeah, and have been doing a lot of :2_thumbs_up_-_anima and really enjoying having it back on the road.

 

I have been on the tincantourists site. Besides the forum it is my favorite.

Thanks for the advice. Having someone else give you the thumbs up makes one feel better. Thanks again!

 

My Grandparents pulled a large Airstream with the wagon for a few years before they bought the pick up. In fact the Fury still has the trailer brake lever hooked up under the steering column. It's not a big block car or anything like that and it's got drum brakes all the way around but it did the job just fine. Grandpa did put overload springs on it.

 

Grandpa must have been one hell of a driver with nerves of steel!

Thanks for the input. I feel better already.

 

Yep. He finally decided to hang it up though this spring when he turned 93.
But honestly, if you think about it, everyone who drove back then must have been.
Manual drum brakes, manual steering, manual transmission...
If those things dissuaded people from traveling and pulling a trailer no one would have ever gone and done anything.

 

That's right about pulling trailers. Look at the old pictures of mostly larger cars, wagons, and pick up trucks pulling RV's. Few had more than a hitch mounted to the bumper and no sway control.
I only bought my first sway bars and equalizer hitch after a single axle RV would sway when pulling with my 1/2 ton supercab truck. The wheel base on the truck made the difference. After that i always hooked up a heavy frame hitch, and equalizer hitch.
We didn't have power brakes and disc brakes were only on small sports cars. Mostly traffic wasn't as bad and we paid attention to our driving, not texting or tuning stereos.
You young whippersnappers are a bunch of pansies. Now git off my lawn you romantic nut!

 

Finally got some good motivation on my 66 Malibu 2dr Nomad conversion. http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29015&highlight=rmay
This week I finished installing the slider tracks for the rear passenger windows. Saving parts I removed has been a big help in my design. With some minor modification I was able to use the inside part of the original C-pillars to finish off the shape on the inside of the new B-pillars I replaced. I also was able to cut down the old inside sheetmetal from the rear doors and use them between the B-pillar and rear wheel wells. This provided additional structural stability and will give me the "factory look" when installing the interior panels.
Yesterday I completed some rust repair on rear ribbed floor and gave it a nice base coat of POR-15. This will eventually be top coated and probably will get carpet