Thread: 55 Wagon Progress

Tweet

Looks like a very nice rig. Under 33k original? Had to laugh at your comments about sleeping in the cab at rest stops, been there, done that, banzai runs........................but that's more for you youngsters now.

Bob, it's actually 133xxx. Still not bad for a 58 year old truck.. The paint is about 90% original, it has a couple of small boo boo spots that's been repaired.

Thanks for sharing, love cross country trips, and have done my share on motorcycles, and trucks!. Nothing like trying to sleep in a rest stop in Oregon, and being told by a police officer, it's not legal and to have to leave at 2:30 am after driving over 14 hours. That was in the early 80's where rest stop meant bathroom, and leave!
I think he saw the Californian plates and he was expressing his dislike of us. Hasn't changed much, living here with so many radical individual idiots makes it hard to ever want to stay here. 4 more years, then retirement and endless new possibilities. Was eyeing Idaho and told by a friend there , rent a car before crossing over on a house hunt, as they don't want you here, assuming we are all the same ....not!

Great ride Robert, Nice pickemup too! Speedy Bills museum, I went there a number of years ago, Could'a stayed a week! What a place! Kinda just like the Garlits museum... Bucket list stops for sure.

What an adventure!! Speedy Bill's is a day trip away for me and I've not yet been there!! No reasonable excuses, either!

Been playing catchup for a while since my cross-country venture, time for some long overdue updates. Finishing up on our tailgate, the last stainless pieces of the puzzle came from McMillan Rod and Custom in WI. Pretty good source for polished stainless trim pieces...











We had emailed them dimensions for existing holes in the tailgate, and the welded studs were spot on.

















All our stainless parts added for a test fit/pre-drill/pre-screw of all the hardware to insure they'd go in straight during final assembly. Here's my contribution to the upholstery effort on the car....

















And our tailgate installed....











And our update would not be complete without the requisite back up and punt moment. As we were closing the tailgate there was a slight binding as the tailgate was all but closed. Hey, you know my luck by now. Seems our trial fit in bare metal showed no issues but now we had multiple layers of paint that didn't want to play nice. The hinge notches in the bottom of the tailgate skin were digging into the inside of the hinges..











At this point a hinge is an easier repair than a completed tailgate, so the hinges were milled down .080 on that face and the countersunk holes deepened that much as well..











Then about three rounds of epoxy, block, repeat to eliminate the casting flaws, and on to the organic green kandy basecoat once more...











And then groundhog day, install it once more, with much better results this time.

Such great attention to details!! Amazing work, Robert.

I had mentioned earlier that you must be planning on a Riddler entry, but I read the other day that entries have to be introduced at the Detroit Auto Show, with absolutely no previous publicity, including pictures on social media!! I had no idea! Dave Kindig said that the TwelveAire '53 clone was built in a top-secret room that had strict limited access for a five-year build, with filming of the Bitchin' Rides show in the rest of the shop through it all!

Guess you'll have to settle for "Best In Show" at everyplace else the owner chooses to enter the Nomad!

Roger, besides all the "leaked" pictures of the build, I'm quite certain this car would not be a contender for Riddler, we don't check off enough boxes for unnecessary widgets. I mean, it has a stock frame and 383 stroker. That is so last century.


Some updates on the shop truck... When I picked up the vintage farm tags in Delaware the gentleman was having a men's yard sale with plenty of car parts, etc. I picked up some stainless hub caps and trim rings, I just needed to hammer out some dings and paint the letters.








I had installed a used SUN tach to keep track of the rpm's. Not the one I wanted, but you just don't find used Rotunda tachs sitting on a shelf. Or do you... a couple weeks after installing the SUN I found a gentleman in Idaho that rebuilds the Rotunda's. He did have one rebuilt, ready to go. I will say the Rotunda is like a fine Swiss watch when compared to the Sun, a high-quality movement.





The Rotundra did come with a stainless flat mount for installing on a dashboard, and I needed a column mount so let's fabricate...














Another thing I was looking at doing was to fill out those rear wheel wells with a bit more tire. I had searched far and wide for a 15 x 8 stock steel wheel but they always seemed to have the wrong back spacing. I finally had more luck when a friend said he had some Jeep wheels in that size, with the correct bolt pattern. A test fit showed the back spacing to put this one about as dead center in the wheel well as you can get.













Now we have the wheels media blasted and dropped off for powder coating.











The tires installed should have about 3/4" clearance on either side..

Well, it's about high time we got back on the console...








We had designed the "hoop" to go around each leg of the horseshoe shifter, and to hold bulb seal rather than a strip brush, for a cleaner look. When we ordered the shifter it came with the new clear bezel for gear indication, but since we didn't have the factory console and it's matching parts, it was a bit much for us to incorporate into our fabricated console. In an attempt at simpler is better, one of the hoops was made with a wider flange for adding gear indicator nomenclature.





Well, we have been waiting awhile for our turn in line at the machine shop, and that day finally arrived








Next was the layout of the locations...





The ends of the slots were cut using a 5/8 diameter RotaCut, joined together between with a Milwaukee M18 14 ga shear, and trimmed afterwards using Wurth snips.


https://youtube.com/shorts/vA83vJVWn...KUzlgmDHCVFgM7


Then the 4-way power window switch was added to the rear, using the same process.








And lastly, our AC vents added. I didn't have any RotoCuts in the 2-1/2 diameter, so we opted for using a hole saw. They can be sketchy when cutting through sheet metal, with the pilot drill wanting to pull the hole sideways. So we sacrificed an extra holesaw arbor to make a bolt-in guide, and changed the pilot bit out for a piece of 1/4 round stock.














Holes deburred and vents installed..





Final version


https://youtube.com/shorts/P94H8M4Ut...YffFOc_l96Whkg


https://youtube.com/shorts/6lWksNqKv...sE_F7LUX7CDUhV

Wow, that is beautiful work!

Thanks!!


I got the 15x8 wheels and 285/70-15 tires installed on the rear of the shop truck. Sure changes the attitude...

[QUOTE=MP&C;599089]Thanks!!


I got the 15x8 wheels and 285/70-15 tires installed on the rear of the shop truck. Sure changes the attitude...

Yeah it does! looking great!

Almost looks like a "Before" picture of Randy Ross' F100 that's now sporting IRS, IFS and Coyote Power!! But your cab & bed colors match!

Great truck!!

wow just fantastic craftsmanship !!

More progress on the wagon...











We've been working on the wiring, starting with the gauge cluster. A loop was added between the gauge's mounting screws to provide a bit of strain relief for its harness.





























Some of the bundles coming off the fusebox were excessively long, so we made use of fresh connector contacts to shorten the length so we won't have a rat's nest to hide under the dash. We did find the wires to the dimmer switch were too short by a couple inches, so the wires were re-routed too the side of the fuse box for a more direct approach.

















The addition of the FI Tech and HyFire 6A ignition components gave us some challenges for power feed wires, so some circuits were changed to "keyed" in order to provide the additional battery circuits required. The original text is easily removed with a few scrapes of a utility blade. My lettering skills are nothing to write home about, and given the size, I used a double stack of lens for these old eyes in the form of reading glasses and a cheater lens inside the welding helmet. First time I've used a welding helmet to paint something.























We needed a mounting location for the Ignition module, and I still can't bring myself to drill holes in this firewall and hang such a wart on it.

















Since we had shaved the radio location to clean up the dash, this provided a bit of real estate directly behind the dash.











Our stainless trim insert we made for the dash provided us some hardware for a mounting plate, but the thread length was a bit short.











Some 8-32 rivnuts were selected to match the dash hardware, and 10-32 hex nuts were drilled to accept these (press fit). The rivnuts were trimmed to length, pressed in the hex nuts, and fusion welded using the TIG around the joint.











The plate is .09 thick 6061, and press nuts were used on the back side for bolting the Hyfire to the plate.











Installed....