57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'

[Ol Blue K20]

I'm in to watch another cool build Vic...

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by bevis1

Dang carb looked a lot better than I expected!

Looks even better now that I got the scum out of the float bowl. Ordered a kit off eBay (low cost + no having to explain to the counterperson what it fits). It should be in later this week and I can put the carb back together. Will do brake work to keep busy while I wait.

Originally Posted by cornerstone

Interesting??? I'm glad to be in on the beginning of this build. I tuned in about 3/4 through Crusty and found myself re-reading various stages it at least three times.

I bought my wife Susan a beautiful teal and white 55' 4 door Bel Air sedan when we started having kids, back in 1997. After installing vintage air, power steering and power disc brakes she liked driving it but got tired of the attention and questions asked all the time. Guys would want to stop her and strike up a conversation while she had a baby on her hip loading groceries in the trunk. She wasn't much for the attention that it got so I moved it down the road.

Care to elaborate on your vision?...any color combos that you are thinking about? wheels? Great thread title too.. In my head I sing "...and the sky is gray" when I read it, lol.

Really looking forward to being a fly on your garage wall so please remember to document even the boring stuff, I know that I learn a bunch from you.

Funny story about your wife, I can sympathize! I'll do my best to keep up with the thread. As for the plans, I'm still in the early stages, so things could change, but other than what I mentioned earlier, I'm thinking stuff like flush mount door handles, hidden wiper motor, smooth firewall, one piece front windows (vent delete), nice stereo w/NAV and etc. As for the colors, I lean toward the silver/grey palette for the exterior. Will probably discard the front bench seat and replace with buckets and hand built console wrapped with something in a buckskin color. That may change over time. I rarely end up with exactly what I envision early on.

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

I'm in to watch another cool build Vic...

Thanks, Dale. It may be a little slow due to funding and parts availability but that's okay. At my age, my old body needs more time to recover from rolling around on the floor.


It's always fun to take over someone else's project. Find all kinds of creative engineering. I knew when I pulled the air cleaner and saw the PCV hose plugged into the float bowl vent, I was in for a treat. Then I pulled the "PCV" out of the valve cover and immediately saw why they didn't plug it into the vacuum port on the base of the carb. There was no PCV... just a wad of electrical tape wrapped around the hose to take up the slack.

The throttle linkage had worked loose so when I checked to see what was going on, I found that a PO had welded a small machine screw to the end of the shaft going thru the firewall. The nut that was holding the whole mess together had backed off and the arm was flopping around. That type arm is meant to have a bolt thru the bottom to tighten it around the circumference of the shaft. The nut that had loosened is really only a fail safe. I cut the welded screw off and revised the hardware setup to work as designed. It should last for as long as I need.

I hate to take the car apart at this point and twiddle my thumbs waiting for parts and etc. So for the time being, I'm going to fix it up just enough to go have a little fun before getting down to brass tacks.

[57larry]

like your wagon, looks really solid. I have a 57 4 dr wagon also. owned it 39 yrs

keep us posted with pics. thanks, Larry

[1967GTO]

My wife wants one of these. I'm in to see the build