Wagon build

Here is the wagon fresh back from the paint shop and home in the $175 Harbor Freight garage.

It's pretty small but when the sun is out it is easy to roll up the side tarp and go to it.

oh.. the 2 x 12s are using the weight of the car to hold down the tent. You are supposed to stake or bolt it down to the ground so it doesn't end up in your neighbors yard. I thought it was a good temporary solution and helps my wife believe it will be taken down someday... a hard sell if I'm out there with the rotohammer and concrete bolts.

Looks great Jeff. i hope mine gets to that stage some day..... Send me pics of those parts you need, or just stop by for a visit... By the way if you go back to when I first posted on Sedan delivery pics, it has a good shot of the roof rack on my car. I will get som closer measurements tonight if I don't forget....
Keep up the great work it is keeping me inspired right now.... Body work sucks...:doh:

Very nice Jeff. And the wagon looks pretty good too.

It looks even shinier up close!

Kenny says, "Do one thing a day".

Lao Tzo said "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step".

Here are my "steps" last week:

1) Rebuilt both vent windows: Fifty years of California Sun can really do a number on those rubber seals. It's hard to believe that all those black chunks of ceramic looking material next to the bare window frame used to be pliable. It was quite a chore getting it removed from the frame.

2) Install the new hood to cowl seal and align the hood.

3) Strip the dash naked in preparation for paint. Whomever installed the Instrument Cluster at the factory must have been amazingly flexible. To remove one of the screws that hold a wire harness bracket I had my arm stuck through the speaker hole in the top of the dash. There was a moment of panic when I couldn't easily remove my arm from the hole... I had a flash of the recent movie where the lone hiker wedged his arm between two rocks and used his leatherman to amputate. I am not looking forward to the reinstallation.

4) Mount primary hood latch. I am pleased the painter did a nice job cleaning and spraying the underside of the hood. It was pretty rough when I brought it in.

Tomorrow's project: machine the division bars. These mount behind the vent windows and provide a fuzzy channel for the door glass to ride in. I chose the less expensive generic bars so I need to make the two on the left look like the two on the right.

Easy to do with a Bridgeport Mill. Not so easy with a hand held Dremmel. Guess which method I'm stuck with.:doh:

Jeff - are you going with Palomino again on the dash - and paint the doors that color too? Or do two colors? Looks like the doors are the green now.

Yes, I will be going with the original color on the dash, doors, tailgate and all around the window trim. The body shop sanded all the ugly green off the inside of the doors and shot them when they jambed it. I thing I can just do a scuff and squirt on the doors.

It was a bit of a learning experience with the Palomino. After buying five cans of the expensive Falcon Palomino from Dearborn, I rudely discovered it does not match my original color. The Dearborn paint would be a match for your 64-65 Falcon Palomino. My 63 color is the same as 64-65 Mustang "Medium Palomino Metallic".

I just ordered eight cans of paint and three cans of vinyl dye in the correct color. It's a bit darker and... Umm, metallic. Thanks for the tip on National Parts Depot. Their paint is about half the cost of anywhere else I found.

Automotive Supply can match paint colors to be sprayed from a can....... They supply paint to alot of local body shops.

Jeff, I couldn't find paint in a rattle can that exactly matched my color from Dearborn. I did get some of the NPD stuff and it was great - but I had more painting to do that I wanted to do with rattle cans, so that's why I mixed up my own. But that was a pain....

Couple more items checked off the list.

1) Cleaned up and painted the Instrument Cluster. It's not chrome but silver paint is good enough for me.

2) Mounted the Jaguar Gas Filler for the last time.

3) I noticed the gas tank was slanted when I bought the car and never took the time to dig deeper. Yesterday I climbed under and found the PO used the wrong mounting holes so the tank would not nestle into the frame relief... simple fix. Before and after picts below.

Sorry it took me so long to try to get you a picture of the rear bumper/body seal on my Ranchero. It turns out it is very difficult to get a decent picture with the bumper in place, but here it is for what it's worth. it is taken from the floor looking up. the roundish circle is the license plate light that hasn't been cut out yet. the seal is tucked into the "ledge" created byt the license plate area in the bumper (probably self explanatory) and it is kinda wrinkled, but will do the job untile the correct piece can be found.

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.

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.

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.

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???:o

Roger's request to post more fabrication pictures.

After several months of disappointing Pull-A-part searching, I bought the Jaguar Gas Cap on Ebay for about $22 with shipping.

The "Cup" assembly was also bought off of an Ebay vendor but not from an auction. I searched around for a vendor selling a cap where the photos were taken with the cap still mounted on a car (junk yard obviously). Just emailed the seller asking if they would be willing to cut the well from the fender and how much. It was $40 including shipping. I asked for about a 1" lip of the old fender.

Kenny and I did two things to this "cup assembly" before cutting the fender to weld.
1) The cup assembly is basically a "turned up" well that is spot welded to the "turned down" lip of the fender. Some careful grinding separated the spot welds that held the two together. We just used the inner cup portion.

2) Moved the drain nipple. As you can imagine, this thing would fill up with rain water. The old mounting position on the Jaguar was level, now that it is slightly slanted, the old drain nipple had to be moved to the lowest point of the well. Cut off and fill the old hole, weld nipple in new position, drill hole through the middle. I'll just stick a length of rubber hose to exit the the water.

Here are the only other pictures I took other than the items in the other post.

I have not connected the new filler to the tank yet. The Jaguar cap is 2-1/2" hose - I'll get a length then bring it to a muffler shop and have them bend the gentle "S" to make the connection. Let you know how it goes.

Thanks Jeff-

I bought one of these too, but can try to see if one of the dealers on ebay will hack out that piece. My guess is I'll end up fab'ing my own. And with my driveways being so steep, the original spot for the drain may be best all the way in the back for 90% of it's life.

Did you get a key with yours?

Yes, my cap came with a working key. You don't need to have the key to open and close, just to lock when it is already in the closed position.

If I was going to fab my own, I would make it slightly deeper that the original. You are welcome to come over after work and check it out in person. I wish Pull-A-Part had an online list of cars on the lot - you could just keep checking until one appears in the inventory. I can't imagine there is a big demand for this well.

Is this for your Ranchero or are you cutting into the wagon?

It would be for the Ranchero. This will be driven more than my wagon - and I hate filling up the wagon... but rarely do. I'm going to be hacking and welding - so may as well improve this area... while I'm at it. :WHATTHE: Ahh! There's those words again!

Remember; Ford owned Jaguar from 1989 - 2008 so you are installing an OEM part there.:rocker:

OH, there was a little nipple on the neck of the Jaguar Cap... probably for some kind of Emissions Canister. I used a torch to heat and pull it right out. Used epoxy and a perfectly sized solid rivet to drive in the hole.

Good point! I feel so much better now. :BEER:

I saw that nipple in one of the many pictures of this I looked at.

Also, the one I got was $24 on a BIN auction, so not much different than what you paid.

Modifications already?? You are nuts.
Jeff I will have your parts at the house so they will make it back this time. Can't wait to see your wagon in person. Looks great..

It's already all done... in my head. You gotta see it done there first and everything else in between are the things that drive a person nuts. :rolleyes:

Jeff, we'll be sure to keep your parts separate from all the other parts. [thumb]

You can send them home with Kenny, I see him occasionally.

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.

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.

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.

My door locks were missing the flip up doors, were very temperamental about working with my worn out keys and the PO had ruined the finish when using the DA to poorly remove the old paint.

$100 bought two door locks, the ignition lock and two new keys.

I went ahead and bought a replacement tumbler for the tailgate crank as well.

Move the actuator arms to the new locks.

Wagons have a tin plate that lives behind the rear seat. This is basically an extension of the cargo bed and is removable so you can access the rear shock tower.

The top portion of my original plate was rusty, but the bottom was serviceable.

Steve gave me one with the top portion serviceable, but the bottom was rusty.

Time to put some chocolate in my peanut butter. ;) A graft is in order.

Home-made wind lace and ceiling insulation.

I cleaned up the headliner bows in preparation for the intimidating job of installation. Boy that is a long roof.

If I knew that badge was turning out so well I would have charged more for it?? Glad to see the parts are going to good use.
I think Kenny has your bag of parts from this weekend I hope I got all the stuff you wanted.
The car is looking awesome. I am sure I wll be calling on you when I put mine back together. [thumb]

Nice progress Jeff. Lots of great tips too! But that reminds me...

Hey Steve, one thing I was going to look at on that wagon was to drill out the screw heads to pull the door handles off that car and to see if the door locks had the flappers on them. Would be worth pulling those off -- they looked pretty good. Also was going to get the right-rear arm rest off and space that out too. And... and... :)

I will add them to the list. I found a couple other things I need still as well. I think it might be another weekend or two before I haul away the carcasses.
Anybody else let me know and I will check the car's ?? before they become BMW's. Thanks Steve..

P.S. I have mentioned about body work right???:doh:
P.S.S. Sawzalls are fun !!!!

Cleaned up the bows and inserted them into the new headliner. The living room floor was the only area large enough to lay it all out.

Glad I marked the bows when removing them. They all have different contours.

Now I'm letting the headliner "relax" in the basement next to my two wheeled flock. the plan is a Sunday morning installation. I'm not sure Kenny and I know what we are in for... wish us luck.

I will be very interested in your results. I am going to attempt all this myself as well. Headliners scare me. I want to try and do my own door panels and so forth. Keep me (us) posted. Good luck[thumb]

Jeff - you have a few toys yourself there. Didn't know you were into motorcycles. And cool ones too.

And yes, please take lots of pictures when you put that in. I someday hope to do this in my wagon. And will do the Ranchero too, now. It's got a nifty headliner in it right now. Pictures to come, I'm sure, of that.

Roger I thought the custom western Naugahyde headliner was the key selling point for you?? After all the visors match??[thumb]

I'm going to have a go at my own door panels as well. For $30 I bought the three yards material. Used some for my wind lace and have plenty to make some door panels. Here is a sample I was goofing around with. I found that a piece flat bar stock in a 400 F oven (I was making Pizza at the time) made a factory perfect impression in the vinyl.

The secret is covering the material with one layer of tin foil to keep the vinyl from sticking to the metal.

I'll work on some kind of falcon brand to give the panels a unique, but period look.

Thanks to Kenny, the headliner is in!.

It wasn't any harder than anything else I have done on the car.

Just patience and common sense. It's not perfect but looks pretty good for a couple of amateurs working in an extremely small garage when it is 55 degrees outside. I will try the steam through the dome light hole to see if that tightens it up a bit. (Update 2013... the steam did not tighten it up after installation ... i think the professionals steam while stretching during install)

Tips: Windshield out (Kenny is actually sitting on my dash while stretching the front- a full size version of the dashboard Jesus). A little glue goes a long way. Binder clips. Electric heaters. Tiny scissors. Two people really helped with some of the longer stretches... that is one long roof.

It took us about five hours including prep, looking for missing parts, lunch and breaks for fresh air and to check up on Brian's engine install (two houses away).

No reservations, just go for it. A large heated garage would have cut the time down to three hours. A Ranchero would take about 15 minutes. I don't know who started the "hire a professional" rumor... probably the professionals.