Hello, Starting a thread on my 1970 Kingswood. I picked up the car back in July 2020. It was a running driving car but had its issues. Only one head light worked, a tail light was out, reverse lights didn't work and most of the markers didn't work. The tires were old and cracking, the muffler was jerry rigged, windshield leaked, hood wouldn't close due to an aftermarket radiator installed that wasn't built for the car, speedo doesn't work, etc. Below are pictures I have right now of the car. Suspension sags in the back and more on the driver side. Need to inspect to see if its springs or shocks. The bumper was in the back but the previous owner removed it to replace rear window motor. Barely fits in the garage. Makes it a pain to work on if its not nice outside. My buddy has a 55 Belair and swapped from a 305 to a 327 and upgraded his headers. He game me the old ones and this is the install. Only real mod I had to do was swap the old bulky motor mounts out for solid mounts from Moroso. I wrapped the headers with exhaust wrap and took it to get dual exhaust and exit out the back where the factory outlet was. Went with dual flow master 50 series. I might end up either going with shorty headers or building my own. The long tubes hang a little lower than I like and I plan on lowering the car a little bit. Removed headlight trim and all the screws seized in the buckets. Swapped out headlight buckets, and rings with all new bulbs. The trim fasteners snapped and I couldn't find anywhere that sold them. I ended up buying a 1"x1"x12" long plastic square stock and used a Dremel to make new ones. Got the bumper mounted and car registered. Original carb setup that came with the car. I was having issues with the float sticking when going around corners and it smoked a lot on start up. took the carb apart and found the float wasn't on the pin that holds it in there. It was only being held in there by one of the eyelets. Lowered the radiator and installed threaded inserts to properly secure the radiator. The old fan shroud was shredded and once lowered it hit the fan. Decided to ditch them both and went with electric fan. Also swapped in a 140v alternator cause the old one had a bad bearing in it. Removed windshield to fix the seal. It was only held in place by 25% of the old seal. Took very little effort to get it out. Good thing for the wagon. storage space.
You've got a good job ahead of you, that windshield frame rust will take quite a bit of work to remove, I dealt with that same issue on my Mercedes wagon last spring, most I could grind out and neutralize, another area I had to cut out and weld in new metal. The two pics below show part of the metal work I did on my windshield frame. Good luck on the task ahead and take your time.
Nice job on your windshield frame! I finished mine but I didn’t weld anything. I wanted to weld in new metal but I wasn’t feeling like being that adventurous yet. So I picked up a lead-free kit from Eastwood and filled all the holes once I got it down to bare metal and neutralized the rust. Then I found por-15 has a kit to degrease, neutralize any remaining rust and primer kit. Went over the metal with that and let it cure. The following week I used a 3m windshield sealant and cleaned prolly 20 years of gunk off the old windshield and installed it. I found classic industries has door seals and I’ll get those installed before spring comes.
Lokar throttle linkage, bracket , kickdown cable. Headers wrapped and installed “New” valve covers. And no I didn’t cut my a/c lines. One of the owners before me decided to cut and take out the lines, compressor, and condenser. So one of these days I need to get that repaired.
Looks like you have made tremendous improvements since acquiring your wagon, great pictures also! Keep plugging away!....Longroofs Rule!
You've got a lot accomplished, being an original a/c equipped car do you have any plans on rebuilding it in the future.
Yes I plan on rebuilding the a/c system. I have been searching for the replacement parts but I don’t want to order the wrong parts. I’ve had to return a lot of stuff because it said it was for my car and when I go to install it was wrong.
Replaced the windshield wiper motor and sprayer pump. Now just need to install the arms after getting new blades. Also here are some engine pics. Need to rerun the spark plug wires.
Awesome thread, DadWagon. Love to see the progress on it. Tomorrow AM I am going to move this thread under Cosmetic and Restoration > Station Wagon Projects where all the other build threads live. That way we can keep them all in one place for reference. So if you don't have a permalink to it, look there tomorrow if you can't find it.
So I have been doing a lot of research on the options I have for upgrading the suspension. I would like to lower it but I don't want to have to spend tons of money to do it if I don't have to. So here is the dilemma. I could go with air ride suspension which I think the best kit out there I have found it through ride tech. Comes with everything and there isn't a lot of fabrication work in order to make them work. The air compressor kit is sold separately from the air bag/ suspension kit. If I want to just use springs the only option I have is to lower the front and leave the rear stock. All the springs for the rear I have found, the manufacturer does not recommend them for the wagons. 3rd option is to go with qa1 coil overs but the rear is a build your own kit. I haven't looking into this one fully so I don't know what all is involved as far as fabrication. Just wanted to pick your guys brains on your guys' thoughts and if there is something I'm missing.
Thanks. I will give them a call to make sure they will work. I see they have heavy duty ones so maybe they will work.