. This is dated June 2, 1969. The newest paper I found in the car so far was a receipt dated 1970.Too bad this is so brittle...What secrets do these papers hold?I attacked the car with a bucket of Simple Green and spray bottle full of window cleaner. The door handles cleaned up nicely, beautifully showing the pitting.The mirror cleaned up nicely and the adjusters were nice and tight.The door panels aren't too bad...Here's one of the differences in trim I noted earlier. Instead of a nice transition piece of painted trim merging the headliner rail into the windshield trim, an abrupt cap is used.This wagon never had a passenger side sun visor.The dash didn't clean up very well. I will attempt to polish it.The gauge cluster was nice underneath all that dirt.An interesting color.The shifter wouldn't go into reverse and didn't feel very solid when shifted into second. The overdrive cable seemed frozen as well.
. After spraying silicone mist on all the linkages (shifter, clutch, accelerator, parking brake, overdrive cable, brake pedal assembly) everything seemed to work as it should...we'll see what happens when I get the engine started.I became tired of the neighbor's dogs going ballistic every time I opened or closed the driver's side doors, so I attacked the groaning hinges with silicone mist.The lower front left door hinge quieted immediately. The upper one (see previous photo) needed to be worked a number of times before it finally quieted down.The floor seems solid underneath the brittle factory mat.That is not a stain on the driver's side door panel. That's a piece of windlace hanging down. The windlace literally turns to powder when handled. The vacuum hoses for the heater control are hanging down.The push buttons and cable seem okay.Ouch! That's a nasty dimple. Notice how beaten up the bottom edge of the bumper looks.A trail of silicone mist trickles down the tailgate from the window crank assembly.The stuff certainly smooths things out, but the proper grease is what really should be used.Hard to believe the contents of this bucket was once a nice, minty smelling green...This is how the overdrive cable is mounted.While my blue wagon is undergoing some refurbishing, this green behemoth will be taking over daily driving chores.
You are looking at about 5,000 pounds of 1968 Crown Imperial. 440/A-727 Torqueflite and leather interior. I suppose I can tolerate an automatic transmission under those circumstances.Twelve year old Karla poses with my compressor. I finally cleared out the garage and made progress in setting up shop. I hope to get the 220 wired in soon.Dusty and unused since late 2003, my blast cabinet is finally in place.
I am returning the wagon to its factory exterior color.Removing several months worth of dust...Making the compressor all clean and shiny. My plan is to anchor it into the concrete (on vibration pads) and extend the intake into the attic to keep the noise down inside the garage.Many of you know I am a big fan of '58-'64 Chevys. My personal favorite is the '59 Impala Sport Sedan, Chevrolet's four door hardtop. Here is the body of the one I plan to finish in the future. The car came from Phoenix and has not been registered since 1973.Other than damage from a rear end collision, the body was very straight and is one of the most solid '59s I have ever seen.The floor is absolutely solid.This is the first '59 Chevy I have ever seen without even minor rust through in the rear seating area. Even in desert cars, this section sometiomes collected water from the trunk and around the windows after the weatherstripping deteriorated in our extreme desert climate.Here is the 1956 DeSoto 330 Hank Dozier is building for the black two door wagon. This engine is being "updated" with electronic ignition, a full flow spin on oil filter and a PCV system. I already possess a pair of 1959 361 torsion bars to handle the additional weight. I have a choice between several differential ring and pinions, depending upon whether I use a stick with overdrive or a straight three speed manual transmission. I plan to order a new set of rear springs.I really hope this air cleaner will fit under the '59's hood. I prefer it over the newer, flatter style of air cleaner ('70 & up) or an aftermarket type. This one is from a 1968 440.I was hoping to install the rear quarter windows this week. I was getting ready to remove the items stored inside "Pink." Within five minutes of taking this photo, the light drizzle turned into a true rainstorm. Such is life. I did, however, trim the drooping palm branch to prevent it from damaging the driver's door glass.The anti-AAJ crowd doesn't seem to care about this tip, but check it out. If you install Roger's kit on a '59 & up Mopar, and have a low pedal after all the adjusting, bleeding and proportioning-valve setting you can do, this is a possible solution. A pre-'59 pedal to master cylinder rod. Roger recommended this to me years ago. I got away without it, but that was possibly because I had the just the front kit installed. Mopar went to one piece rod in '59, doing away with this adjustment. I have the rod set to it's extreme limit to show the length possibilities. I acknowledge that this particular adjustable rod, out of a '57 Plymouth, was set at the same length as a '59 one piece rod. But even a slight lengthening reduces a considerable amount of pedal travel. You could even make you own extension with a "long" nut and a piece of threaded rod. I just wanted to show this to somebody who might be a bit more receptive. All Roger did was design some brackets and use off the shelf components from GM, Mopar and AMC to make his kits. Maybe Wilwood makes the top of the line conversion kit, but Roger's kit works for me in hectic urban traffic.Well, it has been three years to the day since I have added to this album. Today, I picked up my blue wagon's 318 from the machine shop. It consists of a '59 block, with everything else from a '58. This engine was modified for full flow oil filtration and will be using a spin-on filter set-up from a 1964 or '65 318. Also, will be running a '65 carburetor and PCV system. The 330 Hemi being built for me by Hank Dozier will be going into my two door wagon.
