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

Yes, probably. But she'll never know!
I always thought it was regular Coke that works on rust and chrome. I guess since it's a compact wagon diet works better.

 

Why Yes it was her Brush from the kitchen

ha ha ha ha ha That was Hilarious.... I read a forum that the guy said he used Diet Coke because it wasn't sticky... Well Didn't know I had Diet Coke so I grabbed Pepsi It seamed to work..

 

I made this mistake a few years ago, by driving customers' cars for 9 days before I realized that year was my renew year! Had Dad pick me up from work and take me straight to the DMV to renew it!

I would still recommend staying in the shadow, as UV likes to act on the clay and paint before you can finish cleaning it. Ask me how I know.
Oh, and Just so you know, I wasn't able to get your package out Saturday; doing that is my first thing to do tomorrow morning. I'll call you to let you know that it's on its way, and give you the tracking number.

 

If it is a double contact socket, someone along the way has put the wrong replacement socket in. The easy way to make it work, with a double contact, is an 1157 bulb, and they are on the parts store shelf, and dirt cheap.

 

If you have the owner's manual, and it's a complete one, they sometimes have a list of the common light bulb types.

 

At one of the auto parts stores, they did pull a double-contact bulb off the shelf, but the prongs on the sides were offset, where as the prongs on this bulb are mounted symmetrically on either side. I can't remember the part number of the double-contact bulb at the parts store, but I think it might have been 1157, as that is a common bulb part number I recognize.

I looked at some LED bulbs online, but the diameter of the bulb housing looks larger on most of them. The backup bulb housing is tiny on this car and I had difficulty getting my fingers around the existing bulb to get it loose, so I don't want to put a larger bulb in there.

That does make sense, though, that someone probably switched out the socket at some point. I should check the backup bulb on the other side of the bumper, and see what bulb it takes.

 

I have heard of usin Aluminum foil but I don't know about the soda. How do you use the soda? with the foil?

 

They said the soda lubricated the foil, I just pored it on the bumper and scrubbed with the foil

 

I DROVE my wagon (first time it had been on the road in almost 20 years) about 2 miles to the mechanic that will be removing the transmission, then having it rebuilt. I have never had my car on the road and was impressed with how smooth it drove!

I now believe for a fact that my "low power" issue has been the transmission all along. I had the car as speeds as high as 50 mph and it only shifted ONCE at around 45 mph! First gear appears to not be working and all along it has been pulling out in 2nd gear, hence the low power.

It is going to cost me about $500-550 to get it rebuilt, plus fluid. Also after I got car there and he put it on the lift, the water pump started pouring out anti-freeze out of the weep hole. He is going to replace that, check for leaks, check the rear end grease, check the fuel lines and brake hoses. Looks like this is going to cost me about $600-650.

I should have the car back by the middle of next week and hopefully have my '72 back on the road again... finally.

 

I have been driving and enjoying my '92 Roadmaster, have taken it to a cruise night for the last 3 Saturdays! I have put almost 2,000 miles on it since getting it. I have fixed several small issues like the exhaust, coolant temp sensor and a/c. I am confident to drive it anywhere now and I usually go to Fort Morgan, Alabama at least once in the summer and I believe I will take it this year. Now for the other wagon, well guess I will eventually have it together.

 

Took me long enough. But I wanted to do the entire replacement of the engine on my own at my own pace.

. Broke 455 engine and at the same time broke the flex plate - trans shop forgot to put the spacers between the flex plate and torque converter. I have an adapter plate so I can run a 700R4 behind the Pontiac engine. Grrrr, that happened twice.

. Noticed while doing some towing that the engine seemed to have less power. Was doing something I shouldn't have :banghead3: and from then on the car had way less power. A compression test showed I hurt a piston. The engine was tired and I knew that but still.........grrrrr.

. Was about to rebuild mine when I found a deal on a just rebuilt 455 done by Pacific Engine and Machine in Seattle (good reputation for their rebuilds) done to 1971 HO specs that was installed in a 73 Grandville hdtp and built for towing a 26 foot boat. The fellow put a few miles on it over a few months, then lost his job and I bought the whole car for less than the machining on my old engine. Although it was a nice Grandville it is now an excellent parts donor for the wagon.

. Pulled the engine from the Grandville last fall, then the wagon from the Safari, and ran out of steam. Ordered a flex plate for drag racing and it is twice as heavy as the stock units.

. Assembled the engine and trans in December, then really ran out of steam so took a hiatus to warmer climes and healed. Just can't do what I used to at the same pace. Some days an hour or maybe two, some days 5, some days go out look, shake my head, go drive the 70 Chevelle to work off my disappointment.

. In April cleaned engine bay, cleaned up some wiring, dithered around a lot, drove the Chevelle a lot. Love that car, its fast, gorgeous, brand new, but...........it isn't the Safari.

. May = more dithering and tinkering, finally popped the engine in and began hooking everything up. Egads, even with pictures and notes it took a lot of fooling around to remember how everything was routed, etc. Fun stuff, some days just sitting in a lawnchair thinking and healing, some days on it for several hours.

. Today, bring it back to TDC and reinstall distributor (oops) and hit the key, one pump on the pedal, and it started right up. Runs great even with gas put in Sept. 2012 and then Sta-bil added that December on a full tank.

. Interesting - I always had an exhaust tic on the old 455 and could never find it. Also had a "gets darned warm" issue and could never find the issue, even with change of exhaust manifolds to factory HO header manifolds. When I was swapping my Edelbrock intake over I noticed that the exhaust cross over was cracked on the underside of the manifold. A good six inch crack. I found one last summer in Kalispell MT from a fellow who was kind enough to hold it for me for two months till we were driving through heading to a wedding in Saskatchewan.

. I have a water pump leak and for those who know Pontiac engines its the rubber grommet between the water pump and the intake. Guess I did not have that little sucker lined up right. I'll see if that is the problem tomorrow, tonight I am totally whacked.

Finally - and CS54 was kind enough to come in today and provide a couple of hours of assistance or I'd still be out in the shop, or my wife jokingly says she would be calling the coroner. That is the only assistance i was willing to take on the whole deal. I felt compelled to do it end to end myself to prove I could do one last one. I used to do a complete engine swap from Friday night after work till Sunday afternoon, then drive it Sunday evening to dinner. Egads, those days are long long gone.

. I did take the black button tufted front seat out years ago and tucked it up in the attic, installing bucket seats. The interior is all sixties style and all good so I am pondering putting the bench back in. Will see. The buckets are extremely comfy.

Any way, that's it for me. Next up is maybe towing to a nearby vintage trailer gathering in a week. It sure felt good behind the wheel with gauges showing signs of life, engine purring sweetly, life is good. Darned good!

 

Excellent update Safari. I thought you've just been out enjoying the warm climate state side with your wife and camper. It must be gratifying hearing your baby running again and having done most of it yourself.
Thanks for sharing.

 

Nice report Safari. Glad to hear your Safari is back on the road again. As for running out of steam, I haven't done a thing with any of my cars.
Sometimes we need to just sit and relax.

 

Yeah, I know all about that dithering and pondering.........Marcia says it's my main job. We're total opposites in that regard. She seems to get more done in one day than I do in a week.

 

I don't have a camper trailer, heck I don't even have the Beateor on the road but while at a community garage sale yesterday I could not pass these up for $10. Got 2 passenger side and one drivers from a really funny nice OLD man who asked me "do you even know what they are for son?", they were used on his 71 Ford wagon back in the day and are in near new condition still.



On a side note, we loaded up the Buick packed to the roof and set up a table at the garage sale, a few hours later we had almost nothing to pack up for home and made over $450 for who else but the German Shepherd Rescue of BC