caprice total redo

i will not get all i want done this year. you know the old saying when u have time u have no money. well i have alot of time so i figure i can get the frame done. when my friend said i can use his shop i could not say no. i will replace all the hard to do stuff, but the control arms will just get cleaned and painted they are easy to remove at a later time and do them up nice then. my wagon will not be as great as Gerry's

Very nice John. Wish I was coming your way next week, but I will be in Baltimore next week. When you decide to start a project, no grass grows under your feet. Can you fit the frame in your oven?

mtrhead79 wrote:

here are some pics of the frame

Great job, other than the background, that could be my car:)
Good choice to pull the frame and stop-slow the hidden evils before they get out of control.


While you're there,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


Gerry

He is every bit as OCD as you Gerry. I am sure he will hit all of the "While you're There's".

Every MAB wagon deserves a frame off! Well, maybe not mine...

gerry did you sandblast your wagons floors? i am going to just try wire wheeling them and then por15 and undercoating it. i am thinking of sandblasting the frame and powder coating it. i am getting prices now. i got the frame all torn down today no pics sorry. i will get some tomorrow

Yes, I paid a commercial blaster to come and do it .
Big 1" hose, the car was rocking on the hoist.
Best couple hundred bucks I ever spent .

I then painted it in MAB

Geesh... Maybe it's a good thing that I haven't been able to get my hands on an MAB wagon. I don't think I could afford the upkeep!

I'm jealous. Of both of them!

It's going to be nice!!

mtrhead79 wrote:

jayoldschool wrote:

The restriction for tire width is not the rear end, it is the frame and the fender.

i know but the shorter rear will give me the deep dish wheel i want. the wheel can have less back spacing i want and give me the old school deep dish wheel. i think now they call it staggered look

I run the 9c1 rear on my wagon i love the extra clearance! your wagon is beautiful and you do great work!

thanks for complements. just hope it turns out like i want it to

here are some shots of frame stripped down. i have not done much since i stripped it down.







i cut this bracket off i think it is for roadmaster's power steering stabilizer

that's correct. Is were the stabilizer hooks to frame.

i bought the dick miller rear control arm braces and it looks like they are to short for the wagons i have not contacted them yet i want to make sure they fit the sedan 1st. just thought i would let you all know incase someone was thinking of getting them

I'Ll give you 50 bucks for them

thats ok i will keep them and modify them them to fit

Looking good....so nice you have the space and ability to do a frame off!!

Do some bracing before you paint, if you can. There's some discussion on the ISSF of key areas to brace that provide a big benefit.

Awesome work John she is going to look sweet. I am going down that way ain a few weeks I just might stop by and give you a hand if you like.

jarrod give me a call when your down maybe by then i will have something done. as far as room goes you do need alot of room. the parts are every where i have some at home and at my friends shop and in my dads crawl space. i have had some bad luck storing parts in the crawl space the front bumper was on top of some boxes and when i went in there the other day it had fallen onto the gravel floor and got scratched up. i did get something done today the disk brake backing plates are powder coated.
from this

to this

home cooking

joel i will check the impala forum about the bracing

John, i can bring my buffing stuff to try and get rid of that scuff mark. Is there anything you'd like me to bring? I have no deadline as to when I need to get back. I may be up your way for 5 days.

jarrod i dont think they will come out but it will be great to see you. joel the only frame bracing i seen was the support over the sway bar. the rest seemed to talk about boxing the frame. which we dont need to do. i do like the way the sway bar brace mounts on the camaros [wonder bar brace] i think they call it. got the backing plates on rear today and was working on cleaning up the floors.oh has anyone done this rust removal useing a battery charger?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4yYF8gSHdA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54ADeB6V1rQ
i wirewheeled my backing plates then did the rust removal then sand blasted them. it does seem to work i want to try it on a really rusty part

Yes, that's electrolysis. I and others have done it before. Welding rebar and brake rotors work great for sacrificial steel. The thing you need to do is prep and paint as soon as you dry it off, otherwise it'll re-rust very quickly.

That process is perfect for your powder coating!!

Looking good, dude! Although, I gotta say, my rear end swap was a bit less involved than that.

You are a courageous man!

thanks bill. the 1st burnout i will be holding my breath. to see how my welds hold up. bill did you change the perches or just leave them stock. what size and back spacing are your wheels?

I didn't modify anything. It all just bolted right in. Needed a little bit of persuasion on the last control arm hookup, but no more than you would need on a regular install...

My wheels are 18x9.5" with 5.5" BS, IIRC. I am using 20mm billet spacers in the rear and notched the "L" shapped seam in each wheelwell for a little more outside edge clearance.

Well then would yu like me to bring my paint gun so we can fix that scratch? Maybe even paint up your roll pan?

1993 Roady-man wrote:

Well then would yu like me to bring my paint gun so we can fix that scratch? Maybe even paint up your roll pan?

Make it your airbrush and flame his hood!!!

Found the bracing article I was thinking of.

right here.

i did a little work today on it. i drilled the spot welds out that held the front heat shields to the floor. my front pipes are jet-hot coated so heat is not a problem and i dont have cats. did a little more clean up on floors and had to add some strenght to the cart the body sitts on. almost had a mishap where the quarter panels almost hit the flr. oh by the way the homedepot here sells stainless steel washers and nuts but not bolts that makes no sense to me had to go to lowes that only sells bolts in 1/2 increments so i had to cut bolts down. the flat washers lowes sells are real thin so back to depot for washers. the stuff that keeps slowing me down

Every higher-mileage B-car I've seen tends to rust above the cat heat shields. If it was me, I'd rather remove them and just paint the floor silver to reflect heat and call it done.

got the calipers powder coated and started to put the stainless lines on the rear. i have a new eaton posi that i just realized did not come with c clips and i also realized the new brake lines do not come with the metal clips that hold them in the braket so the flexible line can bolt up. well any way here are a couple pics

Looks great, John!

Yeah, I got set back a bit with the brake line clips, too. Ended up getting a pair off a rear end a friend had as a spare.

thanks bill. i will check in my house garage to see if i have them. i saw auto zone stocks new banjo bolts will go buy there to see if they match.its funny right now my wagon is scattered around 4 shops. trying to remember where some of this stuff is murder

Looks great John!!

Looking good, can't wait to see what yor doing personally in a few weeks. Were going to spiffy up that wagon of yours for sure.

cant wait to get it done. jarrod looking forward to your visit. yesterday i modified the brackets that hold the haed brake line to the flexable line. tomorrow i will powder coat them.

i worked on it this weekend i felt like i moved into my friends shop sun i was there till 2:30 monday morning. i got the floors all cleaned upand painted. i founs some rust spots. one spot was down low where the lower fender bolts to the body. both sides of the car had rust there. it was on both sides but was only surface rust came right off with grinder. the other 2 spots where in the rear wheel well that has some metal missing once i started grinding the under coating off. i just put por 15 on it and will deal with it at a ltr date.

rust spot i remove

firewall



dr side wheel well

pass side wheel well

here are some pics of painted floors











if anyone wants to do this to your floors my advise would be to prep the floors 1st. i would grind down the rust clean the flrs then use por15 ready prep then wash thenm down dry and next day paint. the painting part uses alot of time. alot more than i thought and make sure to have gloves and a long sleave shirt. my one arm has paint all over it and it will not come off. i usually think gloss black makes thing look worse unless it is perfect so i used semi gloss but when it was wet it looked better than when it dried. also i was planning on either udercoating or using a bedliner coating so it does not matter alot on the color. i put 1st coat on took about 2.5 hrs the can says wait 2 to 6 hrs for 2nd coat and have a slight drag to the touch on the coating. when i did the 2nd coat it was raining out and now the paint looks alittle blotchy. the color looks a little uneven. i dont know if it was the humidity . it will not matter once i top coat it with a under coating. i got home around 2:45 and then had to be back at shop at 8:00 to get car off the lift so my buddy could work luckily it was dry. hope this helps anyone planning doing there floors

thought i would give update i have used por15 undercoating. it lays nice but the cans do not work worth a darn. i had to buy 6 cans because the cans either did not spray or where leaking 2 of the 6 would not spray at all. here is the floor undercoated.



repainted the mtr and frans



bolted back together

i have gotten rid of abs so i cut the spindle where the abs sensor mounts.


steering box painted
also picked up frame. control arms and rad support at powder coaters today

You do awesome work John although this reminds me of someone!

thanks i will have to take pics of frame. the only thing about it i did not like is the pits left from the rust. the parts that are smooth look alot better.

HO. LEE. CRAP.

Nice work, John. Seriously. Wow.

That frame and motor is Jawn!

You are a NUT!!! Great work my friend!

Ha ha ha ha ha That is sooo darn cool!!!!

I,m wondering if rhino liner for the whole underneath might be good,.
certainly would be durable,..