'73 Chevelle SS Wagon (local find)

[Keith Seymore]

While changing the choke pull-off, I noticed something laying on the intake near the base of the distributor.

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Hey, I know right where that little guy belongs!

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BOOM! baby....

K

 

[bucket]

I got back home last night for an undetermined amount of time, likely brief. I went outside this morning, in the rain, and decided that then was as good a time as any to hose off all the maple helicopters that had accumulated on the car while I was gone.

Well one thing lead to another and I wound up giving the engine compartment a degreasing treatment. It doesn't look much different from before. But, there was more orange engine paint uncovered than I was expecting. I had thought there was nothing left but rust and dirt.

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Then the old leaking master cylinder got my attention, so I went to swapping that out. I pulled the replacement out of the box and found it did not have the built in bleeders like it was supposed to.

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But, it's installed and it works. It took some tedious work, but the tube nuts broke free on the original GM lines too.

Right by the master cylinder, the horn relay is mounted to the firewall and it also serves as a main power junction. One of those wires was all chewed up and broken, so I repaired that.

Things that started working were:
Wiper motor (after helping it along for a few strokes)
Left turn signals
Right turn dash indicator
GEN indicator

I don't know which of those was affected by the broken power wire, if any. They may have just decided to start working again.

 

[bucket]

I installed the rear air shocks today. I forgot how much of a royal pain in the ass it is to remove the upper bolts in the older GM cars.

I started off by cutting the upper shock cross shafts with a sawzall, after first popping out the rear springs and cutting off the rusty tailpipe.

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The offending PITA bolts:

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They were removed with a combination of a 4.5" cut-off wheel on the angle grinder, and a 3" cut-off wheel on the die grinder.

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New stuff installed:

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By the time I got done, it was just about dark. But here's a picture anyways, lol. 40 psi in the rear shocks brought the rear end up well over an inch.

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Once I do something about the exhaust, it'll be ready for a long drive. Driving it out to the shop in Springfield should be a good test for it.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Nice looking car. Glad you finally got it. I bet the PO likes seeing back on the road

 

[bucket]

It was a perfect night for a cruise, so I took the car out and put some miles on it. All I can say is, oh my God it drives so doggone nice! Which makes sense since I recently found out that these cars actually share the suspension components and geometry (other than some differences in hardware and bushing sizes) with the '77-'96 B-body. But anyway, yeah it drives wonderfully. I should have got one of these cars years ago!

I'm still so excited about the car, I took more pictures at sunset while I was out. I'm still thrilled with how decent the car looks (from a distance of course, lol) and I really don't have that much invested in it yet.

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Notice I took pictures of the "good side"

 

[78C10BigTen]

It was a perfect night for a cruise, so I took the car out and put some miles on it. All I can say is, oh my God it drives so doggone nice! Which makes sense since I recently found out that these cars actually share the suspension components and geometry (other than some differences in hardware and bushing sizes) with the '77-'96 B-body. But anyway, yeah it drives wonderfully. I should have got one of these cars years ago!

I'm still so excited about the car, I took more pictures at sunset while I was out. I'm still thrilled with how decent the car looks (from a distance of course, lol) and I really don't have that much invested in it yet.

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Notice I took pictures of the "good side"

Cars ugly as hell but the pics sure help boost sex appeal!

 

[Old77]

Awesome man! She's looking like she's enjoying her time on the roads.

 

[idahovette]

@bucket My Bride was looking over my shoulder and says "Not a bad looking old wagon".......I told her yeah kinda grows on ya...............like a wart!........LOL.......kinda cool anyway, nice job on the clean up

 

[bucket]

@bucket My Bride was looking over my shoulder and says "Not a bad looking old wagon".......I told her yeah kinda grows on ya...............like a wart!........LOL.......kinda cool anyway, nice job on the clean up

It looks best in the evening light. Here's the same view, but in broad daylight after a trip to town. The car got it's first full tank of gas in decades.

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[Dave M]

@bucket My Bride was looking over my shoulder and says "Not a bad looking old wagon".......I told her yeah kinda grows on ya...............like a wart!........LOL.......kinda cool anyway, nice job on the clean up

I'm not a wagon fan, but l have to agree I too like it, I would be happy to own it.

 

[Nasty-LSX]

i WOULD BUY IT!!!! Add 454 with a 6 speed.

 

[Allan Abley]

Great looking wagon. Not a lot of them left.

 

[bucket]

The wagon went on it's longest journey so far today, I drove it to a weekly cruise-in that they do in Plain City. This was the first time that I ever drove a car and put it in the show too, rather than parking in the spectator lot. Other than an old Divco milk truck, I had the biggest hoopty there. My 'patina' is real though, lol. I have to do something about the exhaust... it sounds like an old grain truck at harvest time. It's embarrassing.

I neglected to take pictures at the show. Maybe I'll remember next week. But here's some pictures from a couple nights ago when I cleaned up the car some.

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[SK 99]

The wagon went on it's longest journey so far today, I drove it to a weekly cruise-in that they do in Plain City. This was the first time that I ever drove a car and put it in the show too, rather than parking in the spectator lot. Other than an old Divco milk truck, I had the biggest hoopty there. My 'patina' is real though, lol. I have to do something about the exhaust... it sounds like an old grain truck at harvest time. It's embarrassing.

I neglected to take pictures at the show. Maybe I'll remember next week. But here's some pictures from a couple nights ago when I cleaned up the car some.

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I keep hearing about how awesome the turnout is at the Der Dutchman shows on Thursdays, but I still haven't made it to one yet. I really need to take the black truck there.

 

[bucket]

I keep hearing about how awesome the turnout is at the Der Dutchman shows on Thursdays, but I still haven't made it to one yet. I really need to take the black truck there.

Dad had his truck there too. You should come out next week, I plan on being there again. If it's not raining, I'm planning on participating in the Delaware car show tomorrow. It's the big one where they close down the main drag. Chances are good it will be raining though.