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

Tedy, I have a set of trailer mirrors very similar to that for the Fury in the shed. My Grandfather used them to tow his Airstream in the old days.

 

I finally figured out what to do about the ugly looking center of the wheels for the Fury. I bought a set of Mr. Gasket chrome grease caps and popped them on. Makes a ton of difference in the overall appearance. It's the little details right?

 

Oh man, Fat Tedy ... I just got a set from my father that we used on the 78 LTD Wagon we took on camping trips. I need to clean them up real good - pitted with some rust and stuff.

Spent the afternoon trying to get the black to come back to life on the blue dragon wagon.

I'll have to do it again, I'm sure it's been a while since the black trim had any real loving.

 

Well I will tell you what I did. I just shelled out $760.00 about an hour ago for a complete transmission rebuild and a new water pump (parts/installation for all).



Glad to have it back on the road, but still a long way to go. Still need a complete exhaust system, windows removed and resealed (rust repaired if any under there) and a few other small repairs needed.

 

When I bought Big Blue, the old man told me he'd had the oil changed about 1500 miles ago. Which is cool, I hate when I look at a car and they tell me they had a fresh oil change. "What are you hiding?" is what I always think.

Anyway, I got to digging through his little book of records and that 1500 miles ago... was over a year ago. The belts that were replaced, "not too long ago" were done in 1998.

SO ... oil and air filter change, oil change, new plugs, wires, and belts.

A tiny bit of oil on the #8 cylinder spark plug threads, which for 161,000 miles isn't unexpected, really. The plug itself wasn't even really fouled up and goopy, just slightly more than the other 7.

And what a bizarre way ford has the tension arms on those motors. go behind the arm, loosen a bolt (14mm), loosen the front pivot bolt (15mm), shove a 1/2 inch breaker bar into a hole on the arm to push/pull. On the mustang engines that same year they've got the typical bolt-on-the-pulley lever action. Wasn't hard, just took me a minute to figure out what was happening.

 

Well sonny, I've still got the set of trailer mirrors I last used around 1978. Cain't remember why I bought them. Think it was for my 1972 Torino, 1975 Ford pick-um-up and my 1977 Ford truck. Mostly my wife used them at camp to put on her make up.
And Skink, to us older guys "a while back" was almost yesterday.

All you need now Tedy is an old Shasta or Airstream to look at in those mirrors.

 

Driving it!!!!

Been down since the second week of September 2012. Runs real well. Have a few rattles and squeeks that need to be dealt with and drive the wheels off it once again. I really missed it. The amazing comments I get when stopped and waves and thumbs up are surprising, you forget most people have never seen one. The scary ones are the folks who drive like nuts to make sure you can see that they are giving you a thumbs up.

Anyway, as I was taking it apart Fox was still active and when I was out for my first blast I made a mental note to let him know that all is well in my wagon world once again.

 

Great news, Barry!

 

Fantastic!

 

Hung two "new" doors over the weekend to replace the ones that I just couldn't get straight. Also changed the master cylinder and just need to bleed the brakes and hopefully that will cure the soft-pedal-while-running syndrome.

Two weekends ago I repaired one of the rockers, and should be able to do the other this coming weekend (weather permitting). I've already patched the inner wheelhouse and now need to fab up a patch panel for the rocker.

Car is running like a top, and I'm finally able to get back on some of the body work. Feels good to be working on it again, and can't wait to get it on the road!

 

I forgot to add the doors came off a sedan which has a different rear roofline and required removing the widow frame from the old door to put on the new one.

Never did that before!

 

Great work Paul - and good for you.

We do learn to do a lot of things when playing with our old cars. Not for the faint of heart - the satisfaction is huge when we get things done that others would pay a small fortune to have done.

 

Finally got the radio swapped out.

Front face doesn't exactly match the factory space, but it's close. Had to do a little creative use of screws to get it from rattling around goofy like.

I think I've got an idea to cover the small gap.

The face plate trim that came with the Sony had to snap into a cover that slid over the back of the radio. I couldn't screw the ford brackets into the radio through the cover so I left it off not realizing I can't snap the trim on now.

But I think a small strip of velcro in a couple places will allow the sony trim to stay put without being permanent like JB Weld or something.

 

Trying to replace the thermostat and stripped out one of the bolts, so tomorrow I have to go get helicoil to fix it.

 

New oil change is what I managed to get done to my wagon before the storms rolled in!

Easiest oil I have ever changed in a vehicle. lol.