Just wanted to post a quick update on the wagon build. I apologize for the delay in posting.

The new motor is in as of today.

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Last week I changed out the worn leaf springs and swapped the 7.25" rear for an 8" 2.79 to go with the Automatic swap. Should be a nice freeway cruiser.

That's when we discovered the dreaded 'leaf spring too short" syndrome. Lot's of chatter about that on the Internet and we confirmed this settles out after the car is weighted. But on a wagon, and a Ranchero, I concluded there is a potential for the leaf shackle to do a reverse flip, which would not be good.

On a car this isn't a problem, but on a wagon or Ranchero the leaf spring shackle is on a step-down platform which can let the leaf go either direction. We discovered a bent rear shackle hanger I believe was caused by this factory phenomenon.

We could not even jack up the car without them wanting to go that direction

So I made bump-stops. Hopefully they never come into play, as is the case with most bump-stops.

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One great discovery was when we tried the driveline he got out of the Maverick that donated the 8" rear end - and it fit perfect! No drive shaft build needed. That deserved a toast!

This is the custom small 6 cylinder air cleaner to 5" air-horn plate I needed to make to adapt the Weber carburetor. We had another Weber adapter to use the small original hole, but it made the air cleaner sit way to high (image on right). It came out perfect.

I think the K&N plate we used was a leftover from a previous club swap meet, so thanks whoever left it with me. HA! I found a old rusty chromy base at a garage sale for a buck and used my new plasma cutter to cut the original base out and then welded it to the chrome base. It even fit the air filter. Mind officially bottled.

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Now that the motor is in place I can look into the various other issues like custom wire harness (not a kit), Duraspark II upgrade, upgrading the wiper assembly to intermittent from an F100 (easy swap) and getting brakes and steering upgraded. Oh and I had a new back window glass for it, and Jeff ordered a new windshield to do While We're At It ( AKA "WIAI?" ).

It'll be done in no time.