caprice total redo

Good to hear.

Great news, can't wait to see it John.

A quick preview (oh and I asked permission to post these).

Looking mighty nice John!

Sweet....!!!!

Can't wait to see it John, lookin good!

Wow looks great man!

Saw John's car at WF NY..... Wow! Nice work John.

Mike

i started today to fix a couple problems and things that were not done for wagon fest. one thing that did not get done was the rubber flaps that stop the air from the grille from going around the rad and into the bumper area. on the trip to wf the a/c compressor was leaking around the seal on part of the housing body. the leak dripped on the trans lines and lifted the paint off. so today i took the lines off sanded them and repainted them. i have a a/c compressor from j/y that was almost brand new when they hit something dead in the front end, found the receipt in the glove box for it . hope to finish tomorrow and will post some pics then

got it all done today. the bracket on the back of the compressor was a pain to get on the stud that is on the mtr block. it is so long it gets in the way next time the mtr is out i am going to cut it shorter. took it to my friends shop and ran a vacuum on it and charged it up. here are some pics and differences i found in the 2 compressors.

old one

the plug is different style, still plugs right in

orig comp, one of the 2 ports is full bore but on new one they are both smaller

oh i almost forgot when i went to wf the new rear was making howling noise at higher speeds and i changed the fluid at mikes house, but still had noise. about a week or so ltr the noise has gone away. i am going to change fluid again but it must have broken in.

Either broken in,. or broken off??


change the name of this thread for goodness sake,. the rear end is in!

u think it got a little out of hand?

that could be a new part of project. find a name for this madness

Snowball + hill + OCD = chaos.......... But amazing end result!!

Squirrel!!

. i took the car to my friends shop last night to get it ready for the long winters nap. changed the oil and gear fluid and was checking for back tire clearance. the ss wheels are a big no go the rims look as if they would hit the frame if it was not for the tires beating them there. also the body looks like it moved a little to one side i have to sit down with my mesurements to see how much i think it will be about 1/4 inch to one side then bolt it down again. here are some pics of the tires. pic was before i cleaned the frame up with some final inspection. also i had gotten the rear calipers that came with shoe already installed they are horrible with the brake dust every where, they must be cheapies
ton of space to the out side




the tire hitting the frame

Oh my goodness, its getting DIRTY!!!!! Time for another frame off clean up.

i have not worked on the wagon all winter. i have been working on my house and my dads house. i finished up my dads, so tooday i pulled the wagon out from its winter nap. i dropped it down from the jack stands and it fired right up. took it for a ride around the block acouple times. i have not checked anything since i redid the wagon. i got under it and retorqued alot of stuff. i want to recheck the body and how it sits on the frame to see if is still square. i will put it back on the insurance in about 2 weeks and bring her home for the summer. has everyone gotten there wagons out for the season?

The orange wagon has been doing dd duty since i took the put the winter rims on,..
Now its summer tires are back on,. along with some mods,. yada yada,.

i pulled out those tailpipes that i hate. i have a set of stainless tails that were part of a group purchase. cut out the old and the new will need to be tweeked to fit . i hope they will fit here is what i have so far.

the tail pipes will not fit. i went to exhaust shop the guy said they are definitely not the wright pipes he thinks they are for a gran national or some other g body. they go under the gas tank at the corner and are way to low when they exit. he is going to use the over the axle part of them and then make the rest all new. since i am doing that i am going to have them go out the back like factory with a little difference on the exit. they will be getting done wed. i will post pics then

Sorry to hear they don't fit because those old pipes look out of place underneath your wagon with that beautiful rear axle.

thx jim the new ones should look good, they will be stainless. cant wait to get them done. the car is super load with no tails on it. i dont even wont to drive it now

here is a up date . pics of the group purchase tails that did not fit
hitting corner of gas tank and that made them hang real low




here is pics of the new ones. they are a combination of the group purchase over the axle part and newly made. i decided to go out the back. they are ok but not thrilled with them for some reason he really hugged the gas tank. than put some heat reflective tape on the gas tank, that i took off. not thrilled with the last bends on the tails.  my wagon is a little tighter area on the tails because of the 9c1 rear being narrower than the wagons oh also put on drive shaft safety loop





also wanted to be able to remove the tails so had a flange after the muffler



safty loop

started working on my rear sway bar. its off of a 71 impala and1 problem is they used 1/2 hardware. the other is the holes from the factory are oval. the sway bar hits the pumkin so i used spacers to lower it and i welded on square plates so i can use 3/8 hardware and to get the spacers. i ran out of welding wire so here is what i have so far
sway bar mounts

plate and spacers

welded up

plates welded to sway bar


i will have to finish the welding and then cut the part of the spacer that is over hanging the bar

looking good, love the driveshaft hoop

well the sway bar is done and tested it on the car. the barrel spacers i used are tight on the 3/8 bolts. i had to open them up a little. will drop itoff at powder coater tomorrow








when i get it back i will post more pics. i have also been working on a slit back seat i will post some pics of that soon

Looking good Mr. John

thx

Nice work.

its raining here today so i got some honeydo things done. here is where i am at got sway bar back from powder coater and will see if i can mount it tomorrow and will take pic. i have been working on the rear seat. here is what i have found. i thought all 94 to 96 rear seats were the same they are not. there seams to be a early 94 top half that does not have a steel pipe running along the top. i only have one of those and acoupleof the later ones they have a steel pipe running across the top. and the padding is also different. the plastic part which is the main part is also different. the one with out the pipe has bigger hollow tubes running side to side. i made one side up then went to make the other and noticed the differences. you cant just install the pipe in the earlier seat, so i got the second one almost done and will be remaking the 1st so it matches the other. i will post pics next post

here is pic of top of the seat with the pipe it just gets riveted in


here is pic of the seat cut open and like i said the one without the pipe has bigger hollow tubes


pic of the padding depends on the year how the velcrow runs



here is pic of the seat narrowed

here is pic of how i got the seat held together i used 3/4 conduit on the 1st then i used 1/2 on the second this is what i said about the different size of the hollow tube in the early and the ltr version. i am going to make the seat off the ltr . so i will use 1/2 conduit and then some thin sheet aluminum on the back so the seam does not show threw the carpet.



i am going to try and get this done by wf but we shall see i still will need to get a upholstery shop i made the seat in to along a seam that was on the car so hopeing that wont be so bad, and i need to go to the jy for the center pivot point for the seat

got the sway bar on today.i used 3/8 grade 8 bolts and had 3/8 grade bolts. the bolts are normal 9/16 socket fits them i also have 3/8 bolts that are bigger and a 11/16 socket fit but i dont know what grade they are. i put the 11/16 ones on. what do you guys think will they be ok on there? i like the fact they are psychically bigger.here are pics

You will likely never need the tensile strength of a grade 8 bolt on your sway bar for this car.

They'll be fine. They look good. That's the important part.

i dont know if this counts as work. went up my dads and pulled wagon out. he put it on charge night before but still needed a jump. so battery needs replacing. i got a set of flr mats that some guys got of inpala ss forum group buy. i got the front and 1 pc 2nd row and cargo mat and 3rd row mat. they fit nice the second row might need to settle in a bit. i do have a little extra cushion under the factory carpet so the console would fit better so that my be a little problem. they dont have alot of blue color chioces so i went with navy. i wish they were a little lighter in color but over all i like them.
drivers side



3rd row

pass

2nd row

cargo

I like them ! That color would go great in my wagon . So if you ever get sick of them send them my way .

John,what is your floor console out of?

its out of a 95 riv. i have taken a couple inches out of the top to get it to fit and the shifter is a modified chevy blazer

Nice touch John!

Tom

Looking good John! Nice to see some fresh Wagon posts.

Looking forward to getting a closer look at that console this summer.

thx. i hope to start up again on the back seat and the tailgate. i have to work sat. so we will see how this weekend goes

Looks sharp!! Plush plush!

well just got my wagon running. its funny how u forget stuff while the car goes away for winter. the battery was on its last leg when i put it away. so i got a new battery its called dyna batt its real small so i hid it in the front bumper and made battery cables for it. i last drove it from Harrisburg wf and it rained the whole ride home and i just put it away. so it is filthy under it and needs to be cleaned. i also have to find why the mtr is leaking oil out of the breathers and the rear window will only open by the key for some reason. i took some pics of the battery but my camera is acting up will see if i can post pics tomorrrow

cleaned the wagon all weekend trying to get ready for wf. kids helped and i had to pay them in water ice. my alarm's siren had died so i replaced that today. will try to fix some other things before i leave on Thursday after work to go to wf

just replaced my moog problem solver idler arm was put on when i did the frame a couple years ago. started to creek it would not take greese i had to back out the zerk fitting for it to take greese but did not help . so replaced it tonight. has anyone had problems with theirs from moog ? i also finally got around to aiming my headlights.

today i finally went up my dads after work. 1st time since wf that i saw the wagon. i degreased the under side and washed the oil off of it . when the engine let go it dumped oil all over. did not try to find the hole in the pan. at least now i can cover it up. go on vaca next week so after that i can start working on getting the mtr out