Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

very nice.....doing some good fab work

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, Mongo. It's been a pleasant surprise to see how things have gone. I keep waiting for the crap to hit the rotating air mover. ;)

Good buddy Vern came by today and we went down to the welding supply and loaded up on argon. So I had no excuse for not working this afternoon. I grafted the latch mount to some 18 gauge sheetmetal. I still had a gap too big to bridge on one side so I had to scab a thin piece of material onto it, but it's good to go now. Once I get it welded into place, I'll continue covering the bottom hinge recess which will give me a nice smooth jamb when the door opens.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

I hate to be Mr. Redundant again, but o-well, here goes.... your work is inspiring Vic! It’s quarter to 2 in the morning and I want to slip out to the garage and weld something! Don’t worry, I’m sure it will pass once I get out of bed. :lol:

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, Brian. At my age, the only thing I do at 2am is stagger to the bathroom. ;)

As expected, things were going entirely too well. I was nearly ready to tack some panels in when it occurred to me that I hadn't checked how the window channels fit after all the changes. With the everything positioned, I used a straightedge to approximate the location of the front channel and it looked like there would be problems. So I dug the vertical rigid channels out of the spare parts box and installed them in the stock locations, Sure enough, the latch was up against the front channel.

The latch needs to move out about 1/8" further than where it's currently mocked up. Of course, that small amount is just enough to keep it from closing into the upper hinge pocket as I'd planned. None of this is a deal breaker, just have to add some material and move some stuff around. The problem is more cosmetic than anything. Now, instead of a nice flat, smooth surface, the jamb will have a small hump to it. I can transition the step to camouflage it somewhat, but it will look a little less like an OEM fit.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Back seat people don't need to open no stinkin' windows!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Ya know, it never occurred to me to just duct tape some cardboard into the opening. I see that around here every once in awhile. Or for a repair with sound effects... a tattered garbage bag flapping in the wind. ;)

I went ahead and added 1/8" material around the perimeter of the latch mounting plate and now have the clearance I need to install the rigid channel without hosing up the window glass travel. It's tacked in place for now while I turn my attention to the striker plate. More on that later.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Had to put off working on the wagon this morning. Five inches of snow forced me to break out the snowblower for the first time this season. Here in KC they have an ordinance requiring you to at least clear the sidewalks. Up to now, my sweet wife, Kathy, has shoveled most of the snow. But she gladly gave that up today. Of course, despite having test fired the blower a couple of months ago, it balked at starting this time. Could tell it was flooded, so I pulled the plug and dried it out good with compressed air. It finally gave in and cranked. With the snow removal out of the way, I was free to get back on my project.

The pocket where the top hinge mounted is where the striker will now reside. To get an idea of the location, I attached the striker to the latch and closed the door as much as I could. Made some marks and used the cutoff wheel to remove the pocket. I got a little bit into the reinforcing rib on one side and the door divider on the other, but it's nothing I can't fix up. At least I'll know better when I do the other side. (Famous last words.) Next up will be grafting the striker mounting plate into the hinge pocket.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Omg, I’d be ready to give up already and unfortunately for you your in box would be full. lOL!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Great fab skills, Vic!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

nice work ....

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

I'm too far gone to give up, Mike. Gotta see it thru now.
Thanks, Doug!
Thanks very much!

Not exactly sure how I ended up back working on the suicide door... maybe the argon gas diverted me, but I've been making some progress with the latch and striker. After a couple of tries, I got the striker mounting plate tacked up pretty much where it needed to be. The striker plate is angled slightly in several directions. I used the front door striker as a reference and between the tape measure and the angle finder I managed to get it close enough to latch.

Nearly had heart failure the first time it actually latched, though. Couldn't get the door back open. Finally had to loosen the hinge bolts to get enough slack to get past where it was hanging up. I figured out it was "over latching" for lack of a better explanation. After the safety latch and the full latch, it would continue in about another half tooth and wedge itself tight. I hope adding rubber cushions in the correct locations will keep it from closing too far. Right now I'm just being careful.

Welded out the pocket where the striker fits as well as the panel on the door where the latch bolts. I'm not completely finished, but it's good enough to stop off and get back on the liftgate/tailgate.

Got word yesterday that the chassis is in production and will be finished next week. It was going to cost $1800 to crate and ship it to a terminal about 35 miles from the house so I told them I'd come and pick it up when it's done. Even with expenses and sales tax I'll save a bundle.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Sweet! I went Deja Vu moment when you said the door got stuck, I had that happen on my truck trying to align the door, just the same way, it went in too far, I ended up having to use a tire iron on the inside to lift the door a little and give the door a shoulder nudge, and I scratched some paint in the process, so just in case I went and bought a couple of the air wedge's that pump up with a little hand held bulb, they are thin enough to fit under the door, just in case because it was hell getting that door back open.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

that looks really good Vic.....

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

I remember that incident now that you mentioned it. And your relief when you finally got it open!
Thanks, Greg!

I promised a video of the door operation when I got the latch hardware grafted in place and adjusted, so here it is...

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

That looks great Vic!!!...very impressive....nice video.....how far does the door open?

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

According to the protractor, about 60 degrees. The manufacturer advertises them as 90 degree hinges, but I couldn't move them any further forward without creating big headaches. 60 degrees gives you plenty of room to get in and sit down, though.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Nice work Vic. Good video too. Guessing the second door will go more quickly?

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Like it lots!!!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Looks great Vic, very nice job.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

I hope so! If nothing else, I have a better idea of where to make the cuts so it reduces the patchwork.
Thanks, Doug.
Thanks, Dale.

It took me longer than I thought it would to revise the location for the door lock. I'd cut out the inner door panel where the bell crank originally sat. So I ended up tacking it back in along with some additional sheetmetal. This allowed me to move the bell crank down about 1.25" which lined it up better with the lock actuator on the latch. I sectioned and spliced the latch rod to get the length and orientation I needed. Works nicely there. I think rather than splice the threaded lock rod that the knob screws onto, I'll machine some extra long billet aluminum knobs. That will allow me to drill and tap the 6-40 thread it needs to mate to the rod. The ones you see for sale seem to have 10-24 threads... why I don't know since that's nowhere close.

I also trimmed and tacked the inner door handle mounting area back in. I overdid it when I cut it out, but it was simple to reattach the part I need. The assembly is backward for the latch operation. The handle arm moves forward, but the latch arm needs to move the other direction. I could swap the mechanism from the other side, but then to open the door, the passenger would have to push down on the handle to make it work which is opposite what you expect. So I'll machine a small pulley, attach it toward the rear of the arm and loop a wire cable around it going to the latch actuator. Should work.

The work on the liftgate is pretty much complete. I used a combination of welding, all metal filler and panel adhesive to repair it, so it's a bit of a Frankenstein. I reinstalled it and formed the 1/8 x 1/4 flat bar I'll use to weld the it to the tailgate. I'll confess I wasn't aware that the sedan deliveries came with a one piece tailgate. I did some research on them and it appears they're somewhat rare. There's a one piece tailgate, complete with hinges, that's very restorable on eBay but the seller has a starting bid of $1200 and only local pickup. So I'll be making my own version. When I get done, I'll have about $250 in it which is a lot easier on my wallet.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Its coming along nicely. It's gonna be pretty cool.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, Dale. Been a couple of weeks since I last posted, but they were pretty eventful. Kathy and I had to make an unplanned trip to Houston to attend a funeral which set me back almost a week. And just prior to our leaving, the Roadster Shop called to say the chassis for the wagon was ready to pickup. So a good buddy and I went up a little north of Chicago and trailer'd it home Thursday and Friday of this week.

In between all the seat time on the road, I started welding the liftgate to the tailgate. I currently have the 1/8 x 1/4 1018 strip done as well as tacking in some 1 x 1 temporary braces. Still need to plate the sides, but I've tested it and it works. I'll have to admit, it's heavier than I thought it would be. And that's without the glass or latch hardware in it. I'm not so sure anymore that the gas struts will hold it up. For the test, I reinstalled the stock sliding supports and they will work in the event the gas ones don't. Obviously, the factory had a good reason for using heavier hinges and torsion rods on the sedan deliveries. When I get all the welding finished on the tailgate and the latch hardware in it, I'll post a video of how it works.

At the bottom is a photo of the chassis. Right before we got to the Roadster Shop, we drove thru about 6 miles of hail. It was really banging the truck and I was sure we'd have dents everywhere, but we escaped unscathed. The clouds parted and it was about 65 degrees while we loaded the chassis. Then the front caught back up with us and we were in rain and freezing weather for a couple of hundred miles on the way home. Tail end of the "bomb cyclone" I guess. The guys at RS gave me a can of Gibbs oil to wipe the chassis down when I got home which worked great. They'd already oiled most of it prior to delivery, so there was only a little surface rust in a few places. Mainly where they used a disc sander. Overall, it looks killer. It will be in the way somewhat until I can separate the body from the existing chassis, but it's a small price to pay.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

chassis looks great Vic....

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

X2 on the chassis. The tail gate is coming together nicely too. I believe you can buy the gas struts in different strengths too (weight they'll hold). It may be worth a call to the manufacturer.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thing about those gas struts is the stouter you get them ,the more pressure it takes to close it...could easily bend something if you went overkill...

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Digging the chassis! The way my legs are going I’m tempted to do the same with my rat, still kicking myself for installing a 4” lift 😊

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, Greg.
Thanks, Dale.
I'm inclined to agree with you, Greg. The hinges and liftgate are pretty flimsy and could possibly bend if they see too much torque. The stock support mounting points are only about 4" down from the flat area where the hinges attach. From there to the bottom of the tailgate is another 32" which gives approximately an 8:1 ratio. That's a lot of leverage when you pull down on the gate to close it. Too much resistance and something has to give. The big unknown for me is how much the glass will stiffen up the liftgate frame. For now I'll stick with the old supports and when I get everything assembled, I'll test the Madmooks gas struts and see how they do. If they're not up to the task or the one piece tailgate doesn't close properly, I'll buy some new supports and go that route.
Hey Mike, I hear you. Anymore, I need a stepladder just to get up into the bed of most trucks. This chassis is supposed to lower the wagon statically a couple of inches. Looking at the adjustable coilovers, there may be another inch available there as well. I'll see what works best when the chassis is fully loaded. No matter what, it should be easy to get in and out of.

I removed the tailgate and have been patching up the open spaces on the sides. I ended up cutting the corner off the liftgate where I'd previously repaired it but it made for a nicer transition. The sedan deliveries have a continuous rib that runs thru that area. The side of the tailgate is also flatter than mine where the tailgate and liftgate meet. It would have been a heavy lift to construct my sides to look like a SD, but it should pass the quick look test.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

So the more I looked at the sides of the tailgate, the less I liked what I'd done. I realized there was no point in keeping the raised area where the liftgate stop attached. There's another stop a little further down on the tailgate that's in better shape anyway. At any rate, out came the cutoff wheel and I removed the hump and some of the adjacent area. I formed a piece that connects the liftgate and tailgate on the sedan deliveries and welded it in while I was at it. It may not be exactly like the SD's but looks better to me. I then duplicated the look on the other side, removed the braces and mounted the tailgate back where it belongs. I had to tweak it about 1/8" in the upper left corner, but other than that, it fit just fine. I reattached the sliding supports and tested it and it works nice and smooth.

When I was in St. James, MO last week, we dropped by the big salvage yard there. They advertise a lot of seats on eBay and I wanted to see if they had what I had in mind for the wagon. They had four sets in stock and as luck would have it, there was a 20% off sale on all their seats. I picked out a pair from a 2008 Silverado that are full power, etc. The upholstery shop will cover them with new material in the color I want, so I was mainly interested in the size and style. If they look familiar, it's because they're exactly the same as what went into CRLS. I knew from experience they were comfortable, so there was no need to reinvent the wheel. ;)
.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Nice job Vic, I never doubted you could get it done. Awesome :metal:

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Looks great Vic....how heavy is the tailgate when lifting it?....I've been thinking about it and wondered if you could hook a scale to the bottom of it and see how much force it takes to open..and how heavy it is when in the open position....may help determine what gas shocks you may need..but I'm guessing you dont have hinges yet...

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Really nice work on the tailgate Vic! And the chassis....drool!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Awesome build!!
Just saw this and read it through.
Very, very creative work here!
I will for sure follow along.

I am on the hunt for a ‘57 Wagon too. Have seen three wagons now, the fourth (the best until now) is “in the mail” Let’s see what comes out of it.
Did I see this Wagon over on the Trifive board?

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, Dale.
Hey Greg. I installed the window and hardware temporarily the other day and the whole thing weighs approximately 52 lbs. according to the bathroom scales. The center of mass is almost exactly halfway from the top to the bottom. The gas struts I have range from about 50# full open to 60# closed. I think the only way to know for sure if the struts will work is to wait until the tailgate is fully assembled and try them. Until then, the stock sliders work just fine.
Thanks!
Yes. I have a parallel build thread going there as well. I have a lot of friends on the truck forum, so when I found this wagon, I wanted to take advantage of their suggestions. The tri-five forum is more suited to this build, but I have a feeling that only a few members are following it since I have no history on there. Good luck with your search. I passed up several before a buddy tipped me to this one on FB marketplace.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Even though we may not have quite the experience with the tri-fives like the other forum, metal work is similar, no matter if you're working on a C/10 or a tri-five. Same goes for wiring, body work, paint, etc... The specifics may not be something we can relate to, but you know as well as any of us, car guys are full of ideas. Sometimes it takes a group outside the specialized stuff to come up with a plan that will work with custom work. We will keep following and offer whatever pointers or thoughts we can along the way.

Keep it up. You're doing great!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Great Lookin' work!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

I hereby proclaim Vic the Michelangelo of Metal.....wait.....the Sultan of Steel. :metal:

As opposed to me with my old low budget high school rides, I was the Picasso of Putty. :lol:

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, Duane. You guys have been a big help both from "you might want to consider this" to "don't even think about doing that!" ;)
Thanks, Chip. Good talking to you the other day. Let me know when you're ready to zap some aluminum.
Hey, Brian, I hung out at Bondo Bob's Body Boutique in high school too. Aluminum screen wire and plastic filler were my tools of choice back in the day.

I've been prepping stainless trim in advance of having it restored. Kathy and I will probably head up to WI the middle of the month to drop it off at Vintage Vehicles. They did the trim restoration for my 57 Ford and it looked better than new when they finished. My experience with reproduction stainless is that it rarely fits like OEM. I have a few pieces that may be borderline, but we'll see what Paul and Bruce think.

The easiest way to get the front stainless spear off the fender was to just go ahead and remove the fender completely. Needed to do it anyway, so now was as good a time as any. In the process of taking it apart, I ran into a couple of funny things under the heading of "automotive archaeology". Long ago, someone had used bailing wire to fasten a spare key under the air scoop. I checked and sure enough, it works in the ignition.

There were also two wrenches that fell out as I was lifting off the fender. They're obviously homemade, but I'm not sure of the purpose for the 1/2". At least the 14mm could work as a distributor wrench. Regardless, someone lost both of them down in the depths of the fender well. I can relate to dropping something like that and having it completely vanish into thin air. Then finding it days or weeks later 20 or 30 feet away from where it dropped - under and/or behind a piece of equipment.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Finished removing the remaining pieces of the front clip. The bolt on the lower right front fender behind the wheel well refused to come out, so I had to drill in from the outside with a hole saw to access the nut. It was packed with about an inch of bondo which explained a lot. I'm planning to use the fender, so a patch will be needed as well as the rear support brace.

I rented a small storage space around the corner from the house and started loading it up with the clip parts and interior/door pieces I've removed. With the new chassis sitting in the spare shop bay, I'm rapidly running out of room to work.

I found a pair of BelAir wagon / Nomad top fin crown mouldings on eBay. They're the correct 41.5" versions. My quarter panels only have holes for the three clips that are stock on the 150's and 210's. So I removed the retainer pieces from the stainless trim and used them to locate where the new holes need to be cut into the tops of the quarters. The holes are rectangular, so it will be a PITA to put them in there, but it will be worth it in the end.

On a personal note, I may not be able to post regularly for awhile. My best gal, Kathy, has been diagnosed with breast cancer, so we're gearing up for her treatment. She goes under the knife next Tuesday to remove the tumor, followed by 4-6 weeks of recovery and then another 4-6 weeks of radiation. We won't know until after her surgery whether chemo will be needed as well, but we're hoping that won't be the case. Even though the tumor is the most aggressive grade, she was extremely lucky they caught it very early on. So the doctors are highly optimistic she will recover fully. So for the next few months we'll be schlepping back and forth to doctor appointments and/or daily visits to the big zapper.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

That cancer crap sucks Vic...hope all goes well...

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, Greg, I feel sure it will. We have a good team of doctors.