Wagon build

[Jeff W]

Thanks for the photo Gene. I cut the corners off my piece so it would lay flat... I think it will work okay.

Here are pictures from the last weekend. Kenny brought over a little propane heater and it brought my tarp tent up to 70 degrees. I painted the dash and the rear area. I didn't do it all, that can wait until warmer weather, i just wanted to get enough done to allow window installation.

[Jeff W]

I was only able to squeeze in a few hours this weekend.

Finished up the headlights. Blasted and painted the buckets, installed new three prong plugs (the old guys were cracked), and one adjuster with plastic nut. It's almost street legal (if sitting on a milk crate while driving is considered legal).

NEW bulbs and dielectric grease all the way around.

Installed the Instrument Cluster and a couple of the repop knobs. This involves breaking off the molded on knobs with a Vice Grip and tapping some threads on the shaft.

Installed the new defrost cones and tubes.

It is extremely rewarding to be clearing some of these boxes off the bench.

[Luva65wagon]

Nice work Jeff. Such dedication in the cold out-of-doors!

Question about the gas cap. Where did you get it and was the bracket you welded in something that came with - or did you have to cut it out from a donor car? Do you have any pictures of the underside connected to the tank? Rick's site (you link'd to elsewhere) seems to indicate he cut it out using tin-snips or something and they have two height versions. Maybe you have a few more pictures of it you can post?

Gracias.

[doghows]

Very nice Jeff; I am jealous. Can't wait to see if mine looks as good. It reminds me of how much work I still have ahead of me???

[Jeff W]

I don't care for the look of the factory cloth covered wind-lace. This glue is stinky but we don't have the correct foot for our sewing machine to "stitch the ditch".

Tape it down; the drying contact adhesive causes the material to curl and stick to itself.

I made 18 feet of it.

[Jeff W]

The 1960-63 door handles are $130 for a replacement set. The 1964-65 Falcon (and I've heard Mustang which explains the lower cost) are $30 brand new.

It took about one hour to modify the newer handles to work on my '63.

1) Calculate where the new mounting hole is needed and drill. I was conservative with the initial hole and used a small file to sneak up on the correct position as I wanted to leave as much "meat" between the new and the old holes. My pencil point is touching fairly close to the correct hole placement, notice the difference in hole orientation between the two handles in that same picture.

2) The old button and guts were relocated to the new handle. I think I could make some sort of extension to the new button actuator "peg" and use the new chrome button. The chrome on my old buttons were okay so I didn't take the time.

[Jeff W]

Took the plastic window out of my best tailgate badge and repainted the colors. Thanks Steve for providing my best badge... the junk car that keeps on giving.

It was easy as all of the old paint was missing... not just faded. Where does it go?

First paint the entire back in gold and wipe off with lacquer thinner so gold only lives in the embossed area. A steady hand and a small brush gets the other colors (Black, Blue and Red) where they need to be. Wait a day and cover the entire back with silver spray paint. The silver not only gives the silver color to the last open window, but really makes the other colors POP.