Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Well, at least this morning's work went well! It's installed and everything's welded up. Thanks again for saving my hide!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Looking good Vic! Keep plugging away at it.....

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Glad I could help, Chip.
Thanks, Dale!

Sean from Hot Rod Express made it to the house yesterday morning and put in six hours helping me hang front end sheetmetal. Took longer than it should have thanks to yours truly. One of my backup pieces for the cover panel was holding the driver side fender up and not letting it slip down over the inner fenderwell. By the time we realized what was happening, we'd spent a bunch of time trying to adjust the fender without a lot of success. Finally removed the fender and fixed the problem which made all the difference in how it fit. All the gaps (doors, cowl and hood) look good. Now the real test is getting the chrome grille surround to line up. It was adjusted pretty well before the car came apart for paint, but now it's giving me a bit of grief. I need to back off all the filler panel screws adjacent to the chrome pieces and see if that changes how the fender and the chrome piece fit. Not a lot of wiggle room, so plan B will be to use shims or trim pieces as needed.

The Eddie Motorsports hood brace just barely dinged the core support in two places. It comes to a point at those spots, so I had to remove the entire brace and mill .040" off the high spots. It now has enough clearance to keep from chipping the paint. Too late for me, though, as I now have some touching up to do. Sean offered to stay and help with the front bumper, but I declined. It was 5pm and I told him I was too tired. When I run out of steam is when I make unforced errors. He said he was happy to return when I'm ready. Need to get the rest of the grille pieces and the headlights in and wired before then.

But it's looking a lot more like a real car. Longer than I remembered.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

OMG! It looks fantastic! :metal:

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Looks Awesome! Congratulations!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, guys!

Been a long time coming but every day a little bit closer. ;)

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

I like the subdued look of the painted grille bar.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

I love the smile on that cars face! :metal::metal:

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

That is beautiful! You are going to get sued for multiple cases of whiplash when guys like me snap their heads around when we see that out on the road.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Me too, Chip. Unfortunately, the spray chrome just wasn't doing it for me. Glad I went this direction.
Oh yeah, Dale, and it's going to get even better. Chip is coming over in the morning to help me hang the front bumper.
Thanks! If that's the case I hope my umbrella policy covers it. ;)

Lot to report...

I had an issue with the hood not closing firmly. After it latched, you could still lift it up about 3/8". I shimmed the latch and adjusted the striker plate as much as I could, but it still had some slack. One of the guys on the Chevy forum suggested that I add some material to the bottom of the striker plate to tighten up the latching tongue. Did that and voila, it's now snug as a bug.

But the really big news is...

After weeks of hand wringing, I finally turned the key on and fired the engine. It took four or five tries for it to catch, but then started and after a few seconds of running rough, smoothed out and stayed alive. The Dakota Digital gauges are working, but are nagging me to calibrate speed and RPM. Engine seems to be running rich, but the fuel pressure is at 60 psi instead of the 55 psi specified by FITech. Hoping an adjustment makes it happier. However, all in all, a satisfactory first step.

Topped off the trans fluid and coolant then checked for leaks. Noticed a small puddle of trans fluid on the driver side so I grabbed a towel and a flashlight for a closer look. There's a pipe plug going into a boss on the side of the trans and I could see that was where the leak was originating. Assuming the plug wasn't fully tightened, I grabbed a wrench but it seemed pretty snug. So I pulled it out and put a couple of wraps of teflon tape on it and put it back in. Wasn't until I removed the wrench and looked closer that I saw the real reason it was leaking in the first place. There's a crack in the boss. :mad:

Tomorrow, I'll check with Ohio Speed and see what they suggest. For their engine/trans/EFI combos, they have Performance Automatics drop ship the trans so I'll probably end up going thru them. I might be able to clean it up enough to epoxy it or there may be enough room to wire brush it and hit it with the TiG - don't know. Both options are better than having to pull the trans and return it. I doubt this is the first time this has ever happened, so maybe there's a fix for it.

Two observations after the test firing...

1. The Spectre cone shaped air filter and associated tubing make a god awful whistling sound. You'd think I have a blower on it, there's so much racket. Don't know if it will quiet down on the road or if I'll need to extend it out thru the inner fender and box it like a cold air setup.

2. Likewise, the Flowmaster FlowFX mufflers are plenty loud. If you blip the throttle, it sounds like it has glass packs on it. Again, it may be less noticeable going down the road but that may be wishful thinking. I guess if it's too loud, I'm too old.

That's all for today, I need to figure out my next steps and revise my punch list.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

That’s awesome Vic! Congratulations on getting it fired up!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Man..that's sucks about the trans...but congrats on firing it up..!!!....
I have a spectre cone on my truck...I've never know it to whistle...have you checked for a air leak on the intake tube ?..

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, Scott.
Thanks for the tip, Greg. Checked the worm clamps this morning and added a couple of extra turns to the screws. All three are now good and snug. Will have to wait till I fire the engine again to know if it helped but will let you know.

Chip came by this morning and helped me with the front bumper. We had to perform a bit of mill magic on a couple of the main brackets. When we got the bumper where it needed to be, we had a half hole showing for one bolt and almost none for another. We marked the directions we needed to go and slotted four holes in each bracket just to make sure we had enough slop (ahem: adjustment). We reinstalled the brackets and were able to get the three main fasteners in both sides. At that point, I sent Chip on his way as he has a lot of irons in the fire and didn't need to hang out while I made the necessary mods to get the rest of the brackets to fit.

One of those mods involved radically reshaping the outboard brackets that bolt to the fenders and the bumper. The smoothie bumper has some welded tabs on the backside that stood out too far for those brackets. Photo below of the before and after. Still a lot of shimming and repositioning to get the angles and gaps I want, but I can tell it's going to work out.

Chuck from Ohio Speed is working with Performance Automatics to find a solution to the cracked boss that's leaking. Hope they have an easy fix.

More later.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks for the fun morning! Talk about modified brackets! Y'all, pics do not do this car justice at all. It's fiiiiinnnne.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

The smile is getting better! I hope the trans works out.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Well, the news I received this morning wasn't good. Performance Automatics said there was no way to reliably repair the leak. They want me to pull the trans and send it back to them to be re-cased. They're unable to send a replacement trans in advance due to a shortage of parts on backorder. So they want to just transfer my internal components to the different case. Probably looking at 2-3 weeks plus the expense of the trans R&R.

I can't safely lift the car high enough in my shop to get the trans out. Hot Rod Express will have to do it for me. When I spoke to Rick at HRE about it this afternoon, he suggested that it would be a lot quicker if P/A would send us the case we need and we can have a local shop do the parts swap. I forwarded his suggestion to my guy at Ohio Speed who's acting as the go-between with P/A. We'll see what they say. Regardless, this is going to be a costly fix.

:waah:

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Don't know who Rick would Recommend, but Apollo Transmission on 40 Highway does all our work, and has so far proven trustworthy. 'Course, there's always the suggestion your hoodlum friend came up with.... I'll spray the brake kleen!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, Chip. The shop Rick recommends is Nicholls Performance Transmissions in Grain Valley. Apparently a well known builder capable of putting together automatics for high HP cars. He'll swap the internals into a new case (provided by me) for around $400.

I heard back today from my guy at Ohio Speed and it turns out the person that said the trans couldn't be repaired and needed to go back wasn't the shop owner. He was out and when he returned, he suggested trying the JB Weld fix. So now I'm in the middle of that. I machined a cap to go over the boss and will use a 1/8 pipe fitting to snug it up and hold it while the JB Weld sets.

The problem I ran into was that after cleaning the area with brake cleaner, within about 30 seconds the port started to seep trans fluid. So I drained the pan and will let it set overnight and see if that stops the seepage. If it doesn't I'm doubtful the repair will be effective - especially at the line pressure the port sees. Online, I've seen recorded test pressures from 90-270 psi. I'd be surprised if the epoxy fix is durable enough to handle those pressures long term if there's residual trans fluid trapped in the fracture. They said if it doesn't hold, "they would take if from there". So we'll see what happens.

As a last ditch effort, I might try machining an o-ring groove into the very end of the plug. It might extend just far enough into the smooth bore to stop the fluid before it gets to the crack. In this case, desperation is the mother of invention.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

I was able to clean the area around the boss pretty well this morning after draining the trans fluid. Test fit the parts, took a deep breath and mixed up the JB Weld then applied a layer to the inside of the machined cap. Stuck the cap on the boss then inserted the pipe plug with washers and snugged it up to force the epoxy around the perimeter of the boss and hopefully into the crack. I used quick setting epoxy so after about 15 minutes, I removed the pipe plug and inspected the repair. It looks like a half turn with a 1/8" pipe tap loaded up with heavy grease to trap any shavings will clean out the small amount of goop left in the threads. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Meanwhile, I machined an o-ring groove in the end of the plug that came out of the port. I'm hoping a 009 o-ring will seal down in the bore below the threads. Taken together, perhaps the two fixes will stop the leak. Should know more tomorrow.

With the repair job under my belt, I returned to the front bumper adjustments. A few shims and gradual tightening of the mounting bolts has it fitting pretty nicely. Once that was done, I installed the headlights to top it all off. Still have a few things on my punch list, but I'm getting closer all the time. If the tranny deal works out, I'll only have lost a day or two. If not, I'll likely be down for a week or two. But since I'm on retirement hours it doesn't really matter. ;)

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Looks great Vic.!!!.....sucks about the leak...maybe you got it though...

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Got our fingers crossed for ya!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

X2, it's looking very nice! :metal::metal:

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks guys! All your positive thoughts must have done the trick. The JB Weld repair to the pressure port boss was successful. Fired the engine and let it run until it reached operating temperature with no leaks. Ran it thru the gears so it would see full line pressure and it's dry as a bone around the repaired area. Now if it just holds up over the long run. Murphy's Law dictates that if it does fail, it will be at the most inopportune time. Hot Rod Express is working with their EFI tuner to see what his schedule looks like. As soon as he has an appointment they will pick up the wagon, take it to their shop, align the front end, program the transmission and tune the EFI. Should be ready for action at that point. The appraiser is coming by on Tuesday to update the value which will allow me to add collision and liability insurance.

Still have a few panels to make, plus I need to figure out why the dome light and the backup camera aren't working. Other than that, most of the electronics seem to be working. I went thru setup on the VHX gauges and other than the speedometer (which will require a special procedure) they're all calibrated. I'll admit though, it's hard for old dogs to learn new tricks. I keep reading the manuals and going WTF! This stuff is second nature to the kids that grew up with computers and I envy them.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

That’s awesome news Vic! The car looks beautiful!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

That's good news on the transmission. Even more exciting that it's closer to it's maiden cruise.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, guys!

It appears that the transmission is going for best two out of three. Now that it's full of fluid, it's leaking around the rear seal. I'll need to drain some fluid, pull the driveshaft, carefully pry out the seal, clean it and the mating surface in the tail housing then apply some RTV sealant before reassembling it all. Hope this is the last of the leaks.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

I hope it's that simple to fix. Good luck, my fingers are crossed!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

You're up early, Dale! It's after 8 here and I'm barely into my second cup of coffee.

A buddy sent me this photo of a steering wheel he thinks would look good in the wagon but I'm not sure.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

I'm usually up about 5ish..That wheel is creative but scary!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Upon removing the rear seal from the tail housing, I could see why it was leaking. Makes you wonder what kind of job they did on the rest of it.

.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Oh wow....

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Hey Greg - getting closer all the time. ;)

I went down to auto parts and got a real deal National seal for the trans tail housing and installed it with a bit of RTV for insurance. This better be the last of the tranny woes.

After a bit of hand wringing, I installed the side mirrors. Per the Chevy forum, there were three locations the dealers might have installed them, but I opted for the doors. Since I did the vent window delete, there was nothing to interfere with the mirrors. I have a good view out of both sides. They're the progressive convex on both sides so it gives a wider field. I liked the style as they matched my door handles.

I'm still working on the inner fender panels. Finally on my third pattern I was able to clear everything. When I originally decided to do this, I had a different plan. But it went out the window as soon as it met reality. Apparently my ability to think in 3D isn't what I believed it to be. Still, the panel covers most of the ugly going on under the fender which is what I was shooting for.

Last thing I did today was to let it back down on the ground. With the front bumper on, I'm going to need one of those ultra low scissor jacks to get it in the air. Took a combination of floor jacks, a bottle jack and stands to work it all the way down. Kathy said she hopes it goes down the road without any problems. Having had a couple of lowered trucks, I've learned the hard way how to angle my way into driveways and etc. Just have to remember to slow down and think instead of hollering, Oh Crap!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

MAN..!!!!....it looks sooooo good sitting on the ground...!!!!!!!!!!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

X2!! It looks great on the ground!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Shoooo-weeee! Purdy!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Had my share of 57 when the fad was jack the ass up changing rear tires wasn’t a problem but lowered becomes one the scissor jacks work well picking it up by the axle but getting the wheel out of the rear wheel well is another story same problem with my C10 the scissor jack won’t lift it by the frame high enough to get the tire off the ground

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, Greg.
X2 Dale, thanks.
Getting closer, Chip, thanks!
I have the same problem. Front is too low to get a floor jack under the cross member so you have to carefully pick up the corner of the square tubing the core support bolts to. Then use jack stands under the frame horns until you have enough room to get under the A-arm and lift the wheel off the ground. Rear is even worse. Requires a floor jack, 12" long 4x6, two sets of jack stands and 3/4" wrenches to remove the bottom shock bolt on the side that needs to come off. It was so involved that I wrote myself a go-by and printed it out in case it became necessary to pull a tire/wheel on the road. Of course, I won't be carrying all that with me when we travel so i'll have to rely on a tow service and a shop to fix a flat if it's on the rear. Probably cost a fortune - but hey, it looks cool.

I had one last thing to calibrate on the DD gauges and that was the speedo. They support several methods, but the one that made the most sense to me was the marked mile. Rather than find a stretch of road with mile markers, I used a different approach. I pulled the car out into the driveway, jacked up the rear and set the rear axle on a couple of stands. I then taped a magnet to the rim and set a cheap Chinese proximity sensor with a counter facing it. So every revolution of the wheel increased the count by one. I got the gauges in the setup mode and then put it in drive while my helper, Kathy, watched the counter until it reached 746. That's the number of revolutions the tire makes in a mile for the size tire I have. I then pressed the switch to store the number of pulses the ECU sent to the gauge and I was done. Worked great.

What doesn't work so great is the transmission. I think I have one of two possible problems. It seems like the line pressure is low. You have to give it quite a bit of throttle to get it to move. Rick (at HRE) said aftermarket dipsticks are notoriously incorrect. When they work one like mine, they connect a gauge to the line pressure port (the one I just recently fixed) and add fluid until they get the reading they want then mark the dipstick for future reference. Said it often appears that the trans is way overfilled, but if that's what it takes, it's not a problem. I'm leaning that way since everything I've read on the interweb indicates a 4L60E trans with a stock pan should take around 12 quarts dry. I have a deeper pan than stock and so far have only put 9 quarts in it. The dipstick shows full, so I was hesitant to add more fluid until we can get a pressure gauge on it.

Another potential issue is the large plug that goes into the trans. When I plugged the harness into the trans, it clicked solid on one side but not so much on the other. It's in a really tough spot to reach and I can't get a lot of leverage on it. I think I have it plugged all the way in, but we'll need to verify it once it's on the lift at HRE. Rick said the trans would work (sorta) without being plugged in, so I'm unsure whether the symptoms I'm experiencing are electrical or hydraulic. Only drove it gently a couple of blocks so I wouldn't think it caused any lasting damage. But it's not going any further under it's own power until we run diagnostics.

The dome light has a short to ground and blew a fuse. Weird thing is that American Autowire gangs the brake lights and the dome light to the same fuse. The wires have different terminals on the fuse panel but from there they share a 15A fuse. So when the dome light took out the fuse there went my brake lights too. Replaced the fuse so the brake lights work and left the dome light wire out of the fuse block. Will deal with it later.

The other thing that cropped up was the rear camera doesn't record. Before I ran the wire from the back to the front unit, I tested it to make sure it was recording. However, now that the upholstery is in, it no longer works. My guess is that they put a staple thru the wire when the windlace went in. I had pointed out the wire to them and asked that they be super careful around it. Not sure at all if that's the issue but I've ordered a new cable (special for this model dash cam) and will test it when it arrives. If it works, I'll need to go back to the trim shop for a re-do.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

You should be proud Vic...it looks great..!!...you'll get thru those minor issues I'm sure, and be cruising in no time..

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

I sure hope so, Greg. The tranny deal is about to drive me to drink. Put the wagon back up on jack stands today and had a look at the big gray EFI plug that goes in the trans. Checked to see if it was fully seated and heard a little click but not sure if I moved the plug any. So I squeezed the release tabs and removed it entirely. Using a light and an inspection mirror, I could see what appeared to be a small piece of trash next to one of the pins. So I used a Q-tip with some alcohol on it to gently scrub the area then gave it a good blast with compressed air. Whatever it was was gone. So I reinserted the plug until it clicked and seemed to be in as far as it would go.

I'd also noticed the tail shaft was still leaking. Upon closer inspection I realized it was cracked. Cleaned the area well and used a sanding disc to remove the casting line bordering the crack. Sprayed it down with cleaner again and blew it off good with compressed air and then applied a quick setting JB Weld patch to it. Hopefully that's the last crack I have to deal with.

After getting the car back down on the ground, I backed it out of the garage and pulled back in as a quick test to see if the plug deal made any difference but it didn't. Still feels sluggish. Not sure if it's programming, fluid level, converter or what the heck is going on.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

It looks great in the sun. I'll have couple of beers for you on the trans problems. I hope you have them solved. Fingers crossed for you.