1968 Chevy Bel Air Wagon Project

[Warrens69GMC]

Almost there. Looking good!!

[flatbed67]

Thank you for your support, Ol Blue K20 and Warrens69GMC.
It's been a few days of really uninspiring work, sanding the door openings, and
hours of masking.
Today I got the paint sprayed on. It's 2 component single stage paint, so only
two coats had to be sprayed. I'm going to use the same paint on the whole
car, but with clear added. Not like blended in, but sprayed on top of the paint,
of course.
This is a color sample of sorts, it's a bit more gray than an old VW bus would
have been.



Now it's time for more sanding fun.
The whole body will be blocked down, looking
for leftover dents, and all little pinholes will be filled, and finally the whole
shebang will be sanded with fine grit for final paint.

[Ol Blue K20]

I like that color!

[Getter-Done]

Looking good.
At the rate your going you will make it to your May Day show.

[flatbed67]

Thank you Ol Blue K20, I like it too, I was afraid it would be almost
totally gray, but it's very obviously blue.
I call the hue "Armor Blue". It looks kind of industrial, and it sounds like an
original color
Getter-Done, I'm certainly doing my best, If I fail to get it ready in
time for the Mayday cruising, I can always go with the old Pontiac, but of
course it would be very cool to be able to go with the wagon after all this work.

Today I drove the ten minute drive to the paintshop, and in this pic yours
truly can be seen blowing dust off the primered and sanded body of the
wagon.
I installed two tail lights to make the car look street legal, but they're only for
show, they're not connected or anyting. Only one headlight mounted,
because I was in a hurry, but it works anyway. Tag taped to the rear
window, since there's no bumper to bolt it to.



The wagon is in the paint booth right now, all masked and ready for paint.
Tomorrow paint, friday clear. Simple plan.

[flatbed67]

The wagon painted today (thursday April 11 2019) according to plan. The
industrial quality paint went on nicely, but it's obvious, when comparing with a
newly painted black bumper, that the gloss is not like a good quality
automotive paint. The clear will take care of that.



The reason for using the industrial paint, is that the cost is a fraction of
what a base coat would be. The clear, obviously, is the same cost in either
case.
And I like to experiment.
And darn it, I like to save a few bucks where I can .

[Advanced Design]

Wow, you sure have pushed hard to get to paint so quickly! Looks nice from the picture and it will be interesting to get your observations on the clear impact to the look of the paint.

[flatbed67]

Yes, Advanced Design, it will be interesting to see if there's a noticeable
difference to the gloss.
I sprayed on the blue paint myself, but the shop owner, who's a friend of mine
promised to do the clear coating tomorrow.
Exciting times.

And boy, do I look forward to getting the bumpers, lights and new wheels
mounted, to see if it changed any from last summer.

[mongocanfly]

Looks good flatbed...I'm liking that blue color.....

[Getter-Done]

Nice job

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks great in the pic. I can't wait to see it cleared..

[flatbed67]

Thanks guys, your supportive comments mean a lot!
I got the wagon cleared yesterday, and the gloss is much better now, it really
looks nice in the sunshine.



I drove it home in the early evening, and driving, looking out over the shiny
straight hood was a real inspirational boost. I still have a hard time realizing
how I could buy this POS.
This morning I backed it out of the garage, and most day went by while I tried
to get the garage into a somewhat usable condition, sweeping and washing the
floor, and putting gazillions of things onto their right places. While I do a project, I
tend to leave things lying around in the shop, so in the summers I do about a
week of getting all into order again.
Late last night I just had to try one of the new wheels in the front, but I
couldn't find the new nuts for the rear wheels.
After hours of tidying up the garage, I found the new stainless acorn nuts,
and changed the left rear wheel too. I think the new wheels make the wagon
look a few hundred percent better. I like 15" wheels with plenty of rubber.
And I do like the go fast white letters too
I've been thinking of doing black SS stripes on the hood and tail gate...



I worked on some details today, that still aren't painted, such as the fuel filler
door, rear side window trim (painted on the cheaper wagons), and a couple
parts in the front. They are in primer now, and will hopefully be painted in a
few days.

[mongocanfly]

thumbs up!!!!

[Getter-Done]

flatbed67
That is going to be a Head Turner for sure.
Top Notch Work.
I'm at a rod run in East Tennessee now.
I have took 200 something pictures of Truck & /stuff.
I took a few of the Station Wagons here at the Rod Run.
Of course None of them LOOK as good as yours does right now.
I will post pics of them in a thread soon and let you know.
Once Again Great job!!!

[Bean Counter]

Just found this thread. All I can say is you've done an AWESOME job, Flatbed! Can't wait to see the finished product!
David

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks fantastic! The wheels do set it off very nicely.

[flatbed67]

Thank youmongocanfly, Getter-Done, Bean Counter and Ol Blue K20 .
Looking forward to get the link, Getter-Done, always good for the inspiration
to see other wagons!
Not much progress on the project now, as it seems like every part needs to
be either polished or painted before going on the car. The sheemetal part
that screws to the grille and goes inside the top of the front bumper was
pretty badly wrinkled up, so I had to hammer and dolly, and even weld it a bit
before grinding, sanding and filling. It's so cold in the garage now, that the
filler wouldn't harden, so the six foot long thingy is standing in the shower
stall for the moment being The wife wondered what the smell was. Grins

I mounted two of those "body by Fisher" treshold moldings today, after
spending a lot of time polishing them. They're all pretty badly oxidized, and
should really be scrapped, but as the carpet isn't new either, they still look
pretty decent when polished. Everything is relative.
I also polished the thingy that almost look like a park/turn signal (in the pic
below), and mounted it. The left hand one had been glued in place because
the nuts were missing. Something was wrong with the two "stalks" that the
nuts swrew onto, so the usual sheet metal nuts wouldn't take. Using a die I
made1/4" threads on them,so now they take standard nuts.
Then had to call it a day and go vote. We had parliamentary election here
today.



As can be seen in this pic, the chrome is pitted, as it is on most parts. Still it
polishes up, so I think it'll look decent seen from a few feet away. In this very
case the worst pitting goes inside the bumper.

Edit: The wife looked the car over as it sat outside, and in a thoughtful way said:
"It looks a bit high in the front"
She's learning! And yes, a few coils might eventually just disappear.

[Ol Blue K20]

I can't wait to see it completely assembled.

[Getter-Done]

Looking better and better each time.

Here is the link to my Station wagon Pics.

Link: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...43#post8507243













.

[BossHogg69]

WOW!!!!!!!! I've missed out on a LOT of progress! I love the color! All that hard work definitely paid off!

[Clyde65]

That car sure brings back memories of my dad’s 66 blue BelAire wagon. You have done an amazing job on her!

[flatbed67]

Thank you Getter-Done for the link. My favorite is definitely the '60
buick wagon, I really love '60 Buicks.
Fun, BossHogg69, that I had made some progress since last you looked
at my thread. I work on a pretty tight scedule, MOT last of April, and there's
loads of stuff to do.
Clyde65, I wish I had memories of American cars from my childhood,
but, as I wrote at some point earlier, I do my best to make memories of
American cars for new generations.

Slow progress, as always. Feels like swimming in glue at times. The last few
days I have been working on the last things to paint, and today I cleared the
rear side window moldings, the horisontal center piece that goes under the
head lights and inside the bumper, fuel filler door and front valance plate (the
sheet metal under the grille), which usually is gray on the '68s. Mine's blue
now.
When I came home I mounted the tail lights and rear side markers. The four
on the tail gate don't work yet, but the outermost ones do. That has to
suffice until after the May cruising.



The Chevrolet emblem on the tail gate is the only emblem who's holes I
didn't weld up. All others were in such bad shape, that they were of no use anyway.

[flatbed67]

I had a bit of luck recently. When I was going to paint the wagon, I opened
the tail gate to mask off the jambs. As I was buzzing down the electric
window, it suddenly quit, and would not do anything. I checked the fuses, and
all of them looked ok. Luckily the widow was just enough lowered, that I
could open the tailgate. I left it, and just masked over the rear window
opening with paper.

I read on a forum about a guy, who asked if he should break the glass, as it
was stuck closed. Apparently a few screws are under the floor height, so
you're in real trouble if the window doesn't open.

Yesterday I found what caused the window to not work. There's a switch in
the jamb, that earths the motor when the tail gate is closed. One of the
leads had loosened, and fallen off the switch. I could reach in (inside panel of
the tailgate was removed), and just earth the lead, and get the window up,
while the tailgate was open, to get full access to the mechanism and the
elecicals.
Of course I cut the lead, that had fallen off, to length, crimped a ring terminal
to it, and put it under the head of a mounting bolt for the motor. Now it's
possible to raise the window when the tail gate is open, but why would you
do that by mistake?
At least now I can do it to change bulbs in the tail lights.

[BossHogg69]

Man oh man, those taillights are KILLER!!! I'm so jealous!

[flatbed67]

Nice words, BossHogg69

I'm excited to get to see them with sequential turn lights, to me that will be a
long time wish come true. Still waiting for the controller, so that might be an a
month or two. I'll post a clip on youtube when I get it all done.
The 327 has a bit of cam in it, so with new exhaust, the sound might be pretty
nice too. Definitely a clip coming up.