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64 Two-Door Wagon L79/4 speed build

This is the last pre-covid update, when the world was still relatively normal, only Asian tourists wore masks & I had just installed the motor & trans into the bare chassis, so let's start from there.

I rebuilt the original Zbar & cleaned up the original orange plug. Also if anyone is curious, you can see the difference between the '64-66 Z bars & the '67 version on the right. After deciding to install disc brakes, I pulled out the original distribution block from one of my previous '67 builds & cleaned it up. Began installing the brake lines & the Z bar.

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Then it was time to install the hot air choke tube into the passenger side exhaust manifold. Sounds easier than it really is. You need a long drill bit & a little luck. I found a really clean set of pit free manifolds, so thankfully I was able to drill the holes without ruining it.

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Next it was time to bead blast the original canister oil filter & repaint it.

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Installed...

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Then it was time to install the intake manifold & the valve covers. I found a beautiful 461 intake outside of Seattle while visiting a friend who lived in British Columbia. He was more than willing to take a long road trip to spend some time away from his wife & screaming kids. He was hoping we could stay over night. Who could blame him? Found an original 5 blade fan with the correct fan clutch on CL in Phoenix & it happened the guy was visiting Vegas the following weekend & it delivered it to my door for $40. Yahtzee. As you can see the exhaust manifolds pulleys & fuel pump etc have all been bolted on.

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I found an original 2818 Holley carb from another Canuck & sent it off to be rebuilt by a gentleman in Arizona by the name of Harold Demes . I normally rebuild carbs myself, but I wanted it done professionally where the gasket faces were resurfaced & the body replated. He did an outstanding job cosmetically, but fingers crossed as I've yet to run it.

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Moving right along on our detailing/chassis build, I rebuilt an original cast iron distributor from a '65 327/300 & installed a new vacuum advance with a stop at 10˚ as instructed in Dave Ray's brochure. Here it is installed along with the carb, correct L79 water neck, L79 fuel filter, L79 breather tube & the L79 chrome* fuel lines sold exclusively by Hinshaws.

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Now you may have noticed there's an asterisk next to the chrome in fuel lines. Well those fuel lines are stainless lines that have been chromed plated. They come with the GF-90 fuel filter & the bracket. It's a nice kit even if it's a bit pricey at $150. The problem is the bends on the lines don't come close to fitting the 2818 carb. From what I understand the 2818 & the 3043 carbs are basically identical except for the extra fuel bowl vent on the front of the 3043. Well I tried to tweak the upper line & then tweak it again & then a little more. Well in an instant that chrome plated stainless line became just a stainless line when the chrome plating basically cracked off in my hands & landed on the garage floor.

Here's the aftermath...

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In order to get those lines to fit at all, I basically had to reshape the entire upper line & peel the remaining chrome off it. It was way too long, so I had to cut the line & reflare it. I have two decent flaring tools at my disposal, a Ridgid & my buddy's Snap On. Neither was up to the task of flaring stainless. Luckily my other buddy has one of those $300 hydraulic flaring tools & thankfully it flared the line with no issue. Then I had to polish the line to make it resemble chrome. Had I known this, I would've bent & flared my own lines & bought the GF-90 from a Corvette supplier & spent a lot less than $150. I digress...

The best part is, while I had the buffer out to polish the line, I figured I would polish the lens of my instrument cluster. I found a full gauge cluster in Arizona dirt cheap from a '64 El Camino. I was done polishing the lens & I saw one little spot I didn't like & wouldn't you know it...disaster strikes! The edge of the lens barely got caught on the wheel...

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Sigh...One less original '64 gauge cluster lens in the world....
 
awhile back I promised some pics of my restored 12 bolt. Here it is along with the exhaust system from Waldron's & my restored driveshaft in bare steel. Notice the Hurst shifter is visible installed on the M-20. I refuse to bolt a junk Muncie shifter on to any of my cars. You'll also notice the new fuel & brake line clips painted the correct drab green.


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Forgot to include pics of the restored original sway bar brackets, 12 bolt bump stop brackets, & new tie rod ends...Tie Rods are AC Delco Professionals & they are still Made in the USA. Inners have the zerks in the proper side location. The boots are factory originals from the original tie rods. Some of the few rubber parts that survived.

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With that the chassis, other than a few lingering items such as the wire retainers & & the upper choke tube, is basically done. I have the original wire retainers that need to be zinc plated along with some tailgate hardware ready to be sent out.

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When I originally posted on the OCS, I forgot to add photos of the restored backing plates & original GM drums. Plus my wire separators weren't back from the plater. Tried using the sprayable Plasti-dip, but even after 30 coats, it had no build. Had to buy the original liquid dip formula...waste of time & money but oh well, live & learn.

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In the previous post, the pic of the wire separators was how they looked with the spray on plasti dip...here's them redone with the standard dip. Plus the restored distributor after I swapped out the VA can for the correct B28 version.

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If the timing were different Pete, I'd have bought that car right now. It's just absolutely beautiful. Not many cars get my attention like yours, but I'm in love. The body lines are just so sweet to me.

Right now trying to buy a motorhome for Lisa and I to travel the country, and they ain't cheap (at least good diesel pushers aren't).
With diesel over $5 a gallon, I bet there will be some good deals soon (y)
 
After the chassis was basically complete it was time to do the one project I had been dreading, replacing the rotted out floor pans. Now I'm not much of a welder, & metal working isn't my forte, but I figured it was time to learn a new skill.
I started removing the old floor. I drilled out a few spot welds, but there was so little metal left I started drilling holes in the floor brace which was actually in great shape. So I basically grabbed a hammer & a flat body panel chisel & went to town.
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After getting it all cut out & the braces cleaned up, I sprayed them with some weld thru primer. Everything is easier on a rotisserie.
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In the middle of this, my dad called me one day & said he found a complete floor someone cut out of a '65 Elky. He picked it up for $100 & brought it up to me from So Cal. Problem was the car it came from had been hit hard on the passenger side & it crinkled the rocker & part of the front floor. I wasted about a week cutting this thing up & drilling a bunch of spot welds before deciding only the full driver side was usable.
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After fitting the driver side to the car including the toe board to fit the firewall, I waited 3 weeks for a repop passenger side to show up from Summit. It was stuck in Covid quarantine in the Henderson Fed Ex depot for some god only knows why reason. Even offering for them to leave it by the entrance of the building so I could pick it up was a resounding no. What's hilarious is nobody could give me any info on it for the first 2 1/2 weeks, but then it shows up on the same truck that my regular Fed Ex driver came in everyday. Go figure. :rolleyes: Turned out it was 3 weeks wasted, because the profile of the repop AMD passenger pan didn't line up with the drivers side pan from the '65. :mad:

Now I was livid after drilling a zillion spot welds for no reason, so I said FUCK THIS & went on Rockauto & ordered the full floor pan. And instead of wasting more time trying to line up the toe boards with the existing firewall, I went on ebay & ordered the complete firewall. Hell it's only another 50 spot welds to remove that...In for a penny in for a pound.

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You'll notice in this pic, the full floor pan has been trimmed & barely snuck into the car from the bottom. I was worried I might need to drill out the spot welds on one of the slider window pillars in order to fit this in one piece. You'll also notice the driver side floor pan from the '65 elky freshly sandblasted sitting against the wall without a home. Live & learn.
 
After fitting the firewall & the main floor, I decided it was finally time I learned how to MIG weld. Some hiccups notwithstanding & a bunch of extra grinding, along with redoing some of the welds, everything worked out pretty well.


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My intention was to make the repair invisible so I seamed the rear of the one piece floor right above the rear floor brace where it met the floor that sits below the rear seat. I butt welded that in like a pro. I was shocked & for reason unbeknownst to myself, I found butt welding easier than plug welding. Beginners luck I assume.

From the bottom, you can't see the seam above that rear brace.


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With some new found confidence in my metal working, it was time to tackle the mangled spare tire well. About a year before this I was perusing CL in So Cal for parts & came across a guy advertising '64-'65 Chevelle, El Camino & Wagon parts. I needed the interior sheetmetal cover for the tailgate & he happened to have one. So I took a ride down to pick it up & it turns out I hit the motherlode of Chevelle wagon parts. This gem of a Chevelle lover owns about 20 wagons, el caminos & a few hardtops, along with a few shipping containers of just about any part you might need. He was also kind enough to let me come back & cut out the patch I needed for my spare tire well from one of his parts cars.

For those who don't recall or don't feel like scrolling back here is the original damage. It's not rusted out, it looks like it was actually torn from possibly running something over. If only cars could talk.


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Here is the hole opened up & the patch underneath as I tack it in place before final trimming.

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Rotisserie flipped over & patch butt welded in place. My welding skills are still primitive, but the grinder helps me make it less ugly.

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With the welding complete, I turned my attention to the poor mistreated cargo floor. Another one of those "if only cars could talk" issues. Again if you recall, the floor looked like it was beaten with an ugly stick or a sledge hammer. Or both.

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After spending a few hours beating on it with the body completely vertical on the rotisserie, I managed to get it half way decent. Luckily it will be covered up as it will never be perfect, but it's miles better than it was.

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One spot required a tiny bit of filler, but I won't tell if you don't.

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With those tasks complete, there were no more excuses. Time to start body-working the quarter panels. As mentioned previously, the car was hit in the tailgate which caused some buckling of both quarters, but mainly the passenger side. My dad is the metal expert, so I recruited him once again to perform his magic along with some stretching & shrinking. Plus he welded up the taillight panel where it needed some love.


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After the thinnest bit of filler it was time for epoxy primer for the shell.

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Followed by high build urethane primer & the first round of blocking.

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After spraying the next round of urethane primer, I wanted it sit for a few months to shrink out completely. I then wrapped all the body panels in plastic to prepare to paint the undercarriage. The $750 I paid for the rotisserie was some of the best money I ever spent.

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The body was spun vertically and the entire bottom was sprayed with 2 coats of epoxy followed by semi gloss black.


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Might be tough to see, but I plug welded the hooks for the speedo cable & the parking brake cable. Also welded the Z bar spring return bracket before paint.

Next it was time to seam seal the rear wheel wells & spray some undercoat.


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Since I had a bunch of seam sealing to do, I bought an air powered caulking gun. Well if you never used one, be careful when hooking one up & hitting the trigger. I installed the tube, connected the air hose & barely hit the trigger for less than a second. The gun was facing up towards the garage ceiling luckily, & not my face or the car...in an instant there was a 15 inch squiggly bead of seam sealer on my ceiling. :ROFLMAO:

Next up, the undercoating. Luckily there were no such messy incidents with this task. 2 quarts of 3M Body Schutz were enough to cover the 2 rear wheel wells completely & 5/8 of each of the front inner fenders like the assembly manual calls for.

I bought a disposable schutz gun on Amazon for $15. Worked out great & I was able to soak it in acetone to reuse it.


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I laid it on heavy in the rears to cover my spare tire patch job & to try to get it to look as factory as possible. Nothing can really duplicate the factory tar undercoating, but this is a decent compromise.
 
Now we've come to the part of the build where my photo documenting becomes a bit spotty. With the ridiculous state of affairs in the world, I lost my bartending gig on the Vegas strip when the restaurants were all forced to shut down & reopen with limited capacities. Now there's a silver lining as it gave me more time to work on this project, but my girlfriend who works for the airlines was also affected. Plus we have a personal situation with her elderly grandmother who is dealing with some dementia & bipolar issues, so we're deciding on out best course of action to help her. With that said, I've had less time to admire my work & take pics as I was in the process of relocating out of that god awful city.

After the under carriage was all painted & squared away, I was trying to decide on a paint color. I had a few GM 60s silver colors as options, but none of them really stood out. I thought I was set on Corvette Sebring Silver from a '63 split window, and I even bought a quart to start jambing the car. Once I saw it on the cowl sides, I wasn't sold.

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It was kind of blah & really did nothing for me. The search resumes. After looking at 1000s of photos, I happened to be on the Yenko site & came across a pic of this random '66 Mustang GT Fastback. For some reason the color just struck a nerve instantly. Unfortunately there was no info on the car, so I dragged the pic into a google image search. Bingo, found it on a Bring a Trailer auction. I read the article, but there's no mention of the color code. I google '66 Ford colors, but the silver I see doesn't match this car. I reread the article & then I scroll the comments, and by some stroke of luck, the owner replied to a question of what the paint code was. Toyota Atomic Silver.

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Seeing a color in pics is one thing, but I head to a Toyota dealer & try to view it in person. When I do, I'm sold. It's not to light & not too dark. It will look great with the stock 300 red interior.

This time I bought less paint & sprayed the inside of the fuel door. Enough to validate my decision...

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With that, we've reached the part of the build where the next pic tells the story...

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After 19 months together, it was time to bid adieu to our old friend, the rotisserie. Moving out of town & uncertain of where I'm ending up next in the world, she was put on CL & sent on her way to serve another restoration. Fare thee well! The best part of the deal was actually selling it for more money than I paid for it. What's not to like?

The empty rotisserie can only mean one thing, we have a body reunited with a chassis. Cue the "Reunited & it feels so good" background melody...

Sorry for the lack of pics from the day, but the frame was pulled on my trailer & the body was flat bedded on the rotisserie back to my buddies shop to use his lift.

Once home in my garage, it was time to start jambing ...

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If you notice through the rear window, you can see I've sprayed the red in the interior, but all of that took place while we were dealing with everything. I'll have pics of everything at some point.

Now there's many ways to skin a cat, & when it comes to installing the side window moldings of this car, I've chosen to jamb the back of them & install the rear stationary windows before the entire body gets sprayed. I'm going to mask the glass & snap the moldings on. I'm not risking trying to get those moldings in place AFTER the car is painted.

Well I installed the first side window with no problem, but then I unwrapped the passenger side & there is a giant 7" deep scratch right in the center of the glass. Great. :rolleyes: I ordered the 10 piece set from Auto City Classics, 4 months before I went to unwrap them. Call them the next day & its been too long they say. I should've inspected all 10 pieces the day I got them. Yeah because nobody ever orders parts before they need to install them. I figured leaving them wrapped tight in their bubble wrap was the safest choice. They do agree to sell me a replacement at a 50% discount, so for that I'm grateful...except when they ship it to me, they send me the wrong side. They send out the correct side replacement a week later & guess what...same giant 7" scratch in almost the exact spot as the first one. AAARGH. :mad::mad: 6 weeks later & I finally receive one that is the correct side & scratch free. The joys of working on old cars.....

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Asked my dad to take a ride up to help reinstall all the body panels after jambing them. After a weekend we had a basically intact car again, minus the hood. We spotted some issues on the hood that required another primer & blocking session.


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Hey there's that lonely floor pan still stuck in the back corner of the garage. Happy to report since that photo was snapped, she's found a new home. Don't we all love happy endings.

Moving on...since the floors were all repop & I didn't want to cut a giant hole out for the shift hump before the body was in place, I cut a smaller hole & enlarged it slightly when the body was lowered onto the chassis. Now it was time to cut out the proper hole for the shift hump. I decided since the dash has been painted & all the jambs sprayed, I will use panel bond to secure the hump in place. I don't need any welding sparks flying around to ruin things.


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Note the tiny notch cut out for the Hurst shifter.

That brings to the point where the car spent a week at the body shop where the car was final sanded, masked for paint & rolled into the booth...



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Forgot to mention while I was deciding what color to paint the wagon, I was going back & forth between black & red or silver & red. After searching endless amounts of photos, I came across this amazing period photo taken at the Los Angeles farmers market. Then & there my mind was made up. I mean what an awesome pic. That car is 2 or 3 years old at the most & looks absolutley pristine. Would be fantastic if it still exists.

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The week the car was in the paint booth, I needed to get some painting of my own completed in my garage. I had all the interior panels & rear seat components media blasted awhile back. They sat in epoxy primer for about a year until I finally sprayed them in Ditzler 71276 medium red that was matched by my local paint shop.

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I got the call that the car was painted over that weekend. Not the greatest pics in the world, but you'll get the idea. Color looks a little darker than I was expecting, but it lit up in the sun when the flatbed came & picked it up for the ride home.

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I only paid to have the car sprayed, so now that meant it was time for me to cut & buff the clear coat once it was back in my garage.

Armed with the necessary materials, I got to work by taping off the edges & body lines one panel at a time

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After sanding 800/1000/1200 by hand, I moved to the DA with 1500/3000/8000 Trizact discs. Here's the font fender after done with 1500


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First time using my new Flex forced rotation polisher, I was thrilled with my results. Here's the reflection of my dark disorganized garage as seen through the drivers quarter panel.

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