1968 Chevy Bel Air Wagon Project

[flatbed67]

I got tipped by a forum member that I don't need to leave this forum to make
a new project thread even if it isn't a truck. Thumbs up!

This is about my newly acquired '68 Chevy Wagon, originaly manufactured in
Tonawanda (New York), April 16th 1968. Well, that might be the date of the
manufacture of the engine, but it's pretty close, I assume.

Power is provided by a 327 v-8 Turbo Fire, coupled to a Turbo Hydramatic
TH-400 transmission. This wagon came from California to Finland (in the north
of Europe) in 2014, and has been used as a daily driver by its previous owner,
and I bought it the very last days of October 2018.

My daily driver is a 1980 Caprice (previously a hearse), and for summer wheels
a 1957 Pontiac (not a wagon), and I had been looking to get a sixties wagon
for some time and when I happened to get hold on some cash, the result was
this gray beauty.



It drives and runs pretty nicely, and will be a good driver with a bit of service
to the carb and ignition. And some other small stuff. This is not a restoration,
it's about making an old shabby wagon look (and sound) nice.

[flatbed67]

The wagon was bought in the middle of a trip to the southern parts of our
country, and I bought it without checking it much. I was in a hurry, and the
previous owner seemed nice enough. I drove the wagon about 500 miles the
first couple days, and it ran ok, save for a few stalls at stop lights. It runs
good, but stalls when it idles for a bit. Might be the fuel level is too high.

After driving the ugly wagon for a while, I decided it was time to get it tidied
up a bit for next summer, and drove it into my garage. It's always nice to
have a new project.



The idea was to tidy it up a bit, get rid of all the warped side trim, do some
kind of patina job, new double exhausts, and a bit of service. When I started
checking the body out, it turned up to be rusted and patched badly, in all
senses of both words. Also, close to where I live, a young guy has bought a
'67 patina wagon, and I prefer not to be mistaken for him *grins*. Actually
mostly because I didn't get a wagon to be like everybody else.
So, a real paint job is in the plan now. The paint is not the origianl paint, nor
color,and it's flaking, so there will be some elbow grease involved in making
this problem go away.
Oh, and sheesh, those 14" wheels with tiny radials look ridiculously small!

A kind of plan or goal for the project was whipped up in photoshop. New
wheels, lowering the front for a bit of rake, and a cream colored paint job
would make it look a lot nicer. New, suitably loud pipes too.

[Advanced Design]

Cool project and I will be tagging along.

[Clyde65]

Nice! My parents owned a 67 Belair wagon way back.

[flatbed67]

I started out with the fun stuff, and ordered some new rubber and a couple
new wheels.
Lookwise, the wheels and stance are important factors and can totally make it or break it.
I got 225/70-15" tires with white letters for the fronts, and 255s for the rears.
New 8" wide aluminum rims, very closely resembliing the widened 10" GM wheels I happened to have in my garage.
I tried the tires on the wheels, to be sure they would fit. The rears were a tight fit.



After checking that they would fit both front and rear, the rear rims were
sandblasted, epoxied, and filled. Then epoxied again, painted black,
masked off, painted silver, and cleared. A weeks worth of labour. At least
they came out costing less than the aluminum ones



Finally, with the tires mounted, we can have a good look. The
silver idoesn't exactly look like the polished aluminum, but it's a mile
of dirt road before I hit the tarmac, so it'll probably be okay by then.



Just the little wheel caps to do. The fronts have new ones, but the originals
for the rears are missing. Maybe we can invent something that fits...

[flatbed67]

Thank you Advanced Design for showing interest. I hope to be able to keep you
following this thread.

Same goes for you Clyde65. I'm envious of such memories from the past.
Not many American cars around when I was a kid, save for a 1967ish Valiant
that our neighbour owned in the early seventies. I guess I'm working on providing my
surroundings with new memories of old American cars.

[Getter-Done]

Always like those type wheels.
They look good on that wagon.

[flatbed67]

Thank you Getter-Done, I think the wagon will look great with those
wheels. To me this is also one of the best wagon body styles by Chevrolet, love
the side view.

So, the wagon's in the garage, and the grinder is out for some old repair hunting.
When I noticed the badly done repairs on the various body panels, I knew I had more work ahead than nagotiated.
Sure enough, this is what the repairs look like:



Yup. A big enough piece of Sheet metal, in this case also just bent under the
front fender, the result being that no panels seem to align whatsoever.
All these repairs are being cut off, new patch panels made, and those, in turn,
are welded in flush.

As you might be able to see in this pic, the bottom of the fender is now in line
with the rocker panel, and all of the patch sitting flush, it will need much less
filler to look that much better. At least in theory



Behind the rear wheel, at the bottom of the rear fender, a long piece was done in the same manner.
There also was a dent right above the exhaust pipe, so that got tidied up smartly.



After taking care of a few more old repairs, all welds ground, the car was
turned around, and work can comence on the right hand side of the vehicle.

[flatbed67]

On the right hand side of the car the problems were a bit worse than expected.
I had noticed something about the shape of the rear pillar, and these patches
were a bit worse to get out than the previous ones. The new patches were
made a bit smaller than the old ones, and cutting those off left some score
marks in the sheetmetal. Some filler will remedy that. Someday I might try
lead...



A few of these patches have been made, and it still makes me wonder how a
California car can be this rotted. It was made in Tonawanda, New York, so it
might have spent part of its life there. Funny thing is that the bottoms of the
doors are in better shape than the rear pillars. That's new to me. Wonder if it
has been sitting under some kind of tarp? The hood was very badly rusted
too, and some bright previous owner has sand blasted it from the inside,
which has warped the outside skin severely. Good thinking... Duh.

[Getter-Done]

I like your work.
If only cars could talk.
Where was it parked?
Who? What?
I Got some lead smearing Wooden spoons at a
garage sale last year. I have thought about filling
seams like that also.
Keep up the good work.

[flashed]

Nice wagon , you dont waste any time do you ,you dove right in .

[Warrens69GMC]

I love the wagon. I may be partial as I have owned more wagons than regular cars.

[flatbed67]

Thanks Getter-Done, and yes, if only...

I didn't want to waste much time, flashed, since the fall was coming fast,
and it had this effect on other people:



When we came back to the wagon after shopping, cars on both sides had vanished, and nobody had dared park there again.
I like to feel a bit of pride when driving my car, and this wasn't cutting it

I hear you Warrens69GMC, I've always loved wagons, and had my fair share:

1965 Ford Taunus Turnier 17m 1700 V4
1970 Ford Taunus 17m Turnier V6 2000S Van
1971 Ford Taunus 17m Turnier V6 2000S Van
1972 Ford Taunus estate
1966 Ford Cortina Estate
1982 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser
1980 Volkswagen Passat Kombi
1970 Toyota Crown Wagon
1984 Ford Crown Victoria Wagon
1980 Chevrolet Caprice Classic
1971 Pontiac Grand Safari 455
1983 Chevrolet Caprice Classic
1980 Chevrolet Caprice Classic
1990 Chevrolet Caprice Classic
and
1968 Chevrolet Bel Air Wagon

[Russell Ashley]

I've loved wagons ever since I was a kid when we had a 41 Ford woodie. I've had three Dodges along the way but have a Suburban now. I guess you could say it's the follow up to an actual station wagon. I like the way you are going so I'll be following along.

[BossHogg69]

Count me in for a Bel Air Wagon build!!! I daily drive 'Wanda' my '65 Bel Air Wagon (thread is also here in Alternate Tinkerings).

Repairs are looking great so far - carry on!

[flatbed67]

Welcome aboard, Russell Ashley and BossHogg69! The love for
wagons is something you either have, or you don't. I always drive my wagons with the rear
seat down, which to me always has been a cool thing, and it's not often I need
to haul more than two passengers anyway.
"Wanda" is a nice name for a wagon. Mine was called "Bella" by its previous
owner. It didn't stick with me, since A good friend of mine has had a Bella of his
own for many years, a '56 BelAir coupe.

[flatbed67]

So, it's been a bit of a break here, with Christmas, New Years and everything.
Happy New Year all!

Back to business:
This wagon has been in Finland for some four years, and from the relatively fresh
look of the paint, the hood was sand blasted from the inside by the previous
owner. If you ever thought of sand blasting a car: Don't!
The '68 Chevy hood has a substantial inner structure, with two big triangle
shaped holes. When blasting, the sand has thumped the sheet metal in these
areas so hard, that it stretched considerably.
I trailered the hood to a good friend's body shop, and he showed me how to
shrink the stretched metal. Here's how I did it with an electric spot welder of
sorts, equipped with a graphite rod.



The metal is heated in a slow circular motion, and when the center of the
area is reached, the middle has a dull glow to it, and the area is rapidly cooled
with a long blast of compressed air. It's slow work, and gives you an urge,
and an itch to go faster and... Well it's time consuming.
One of those circular thingys takes quite some time to do, so this is the result
of a few hours of work, counting in some hammer and dolly work and lots of
planning, and hesitating. This shrinking is all new to me



After all this work, the hood seemed about as crooked as it was to begin with,
only it looked a lot worse. Luckily my pal came to the rescue, and did his
magic with hammers and dollies, and the result is so good, that it seems like
an awesome amount of body filler might make the hood like a hood again.

The hood is back in my own shop (just a heated garage, really), and put aside
for now. This kind of work really makes it feel the project is at a standstill.

[flatbed67]

As this car is so badly rusted, you'd think the wheel arches would be really bad,
but surprisingly enough, they're not. Only one spot was rusted, and it was here,
in to the front of the right hand side rear wheelwell.



The holes are for rosette welds, to make it sit and look like the original spot
welds. It's functional too. I like to drill the holes pretty big, to get a good weld
to the inner fender. This is all welded by now, but I don't have any pics of it at
this time.

Notice the smart ground lead from the welder in the previous post of mine. A
powerful magnet does the grounding, I really like the idea, and might use it some
day.

[mongocanfly]

Never seen a shrinking method like you used...I thought I researched it all...a shrinking disc turned out to be the best method for me...its works amazing...

[flatbed67]

Hi, mongocanfly, I've read about those shrinking discs, but never seen
one in use.
When I built a rod in the early two thousands, I didn't know that I could attach
a graphite rod to my mig welder, and shrunk sheet metal by welding on the
inside, and cooling it off with water from the outside. It works, but it's pretty
unpredictable.

[Advanced Design]

Nice work Flatbed. That shrinking process is one I haven’t used and it looks like it did the job. Mostly I’ve been exposed to a shrinking disc use. Here is an overview.

https://youtu.be/X8cruauERmI

[flatbed67]

Thank you Advanced Design, for the link. The shrinking disc seems to
work very nicely, and I'll get one some day. Seems like it's a fast way to do it
too.
In this very case, though, it would have been a bit harder to do with the disc,
since the sheet metal had stretched in a way that had made it buckle down. No
high spots to "grind" with the disc. You could also heat the sheet metal with a
welding torch, but I think that might require some expertise to get it right.
Another problem in this case was, that you couldn't work the sheet metal in any
place you wanted or needed, because of the hood's inner structure.

[flatbed67]

Hey BossHogg69, did you see what I wrote in your '65 wagon thread
about the tail lights?
I always liked the way the tail light are close to eachother to Chevrolets from
1965 and older. When Chevrolet came back to separate lights in 1968, they put
them farther away from eachother. On the Kingswood this was further
exaggerated. This is illustrated in this pic:



My wagon has been hit in the rear left corner, and the tail light lenses are all
in dire need of getting changed for new ones. It's not really easy to find
tail light lenses for the 1968 wagon, so I came up with the idea of costomizing
my ride by mounting three pairs of 1950 Pontiac tail lights with sequential turn
signals. Ever since I was a kid, I have dreamed of having that kind of turn
signals on my car.
This would also let me tuck the tail lights a little bit closer to eachother, than
they're originally on an impala or caprice wagon.
I tried to photoshop Pontiac lights onto the tail of a '68 wagon, and I think
this would look so okay, that people who don't know classic cars probably
wouldn't notice that it's not an original look.



Yup, I pasted in my own register plate too .

[flatbed67]

In my last post I mentioned that my wagon has been hit in the rear left hand
corner. Somebody apparently backed into something, Should be a pretty
straightforward repair.
First the bumper came off. Not an easy task, as some nutcase had welded the
bumper brackets to the frame!
Anyway, this is what it looks like to start with:



The outer part of the rear should follow the same line as the tail gate, so it's almost in inch too far in.
I have borrowed a slide hammer with a claw that grips thin sheet metal. Just
spot weld in a piece of scrap cheet metal, and start hammering (pulling) away.
Well, first the paint has to come off.



Oh shoot!
Not something I had expected. The fender bender was actually repaired to
this state!
My flabber was trulyly gasted.
I heated the parts with lots of lead on, and let it run to the floor. I did a few
releif cuts where the sheet metal was badly wrinkled and started pulling from
different pieces that i had spot welded to the car.
Looks much better already, but the outer corner is still a bit too far to the
right, and nothing happens when I pull to the side. I called it a day, and will
continue on tuesday night.

[BossHogg69]

Those round Pontiac taillights you photoshopped in would look bada$$!!!! And then if you made them with sequential turn signals??? YES! I say go for it.