Just Another Wagon Thread

[mklotz70]

Nice! Those rims look completely different now!! What's wrong with the wipers? Motor bad?

[fisch]

Nice! Those rims look completely different now!! What's wrong with the wipers? Motor bad?

 

 

Love the finned drums! Rockin man! I am guessing by your Avatar, you are a lover of the ol skool!

[DRIVEN]

Nice! Those rims look completely different now!! What's wrong with the wipers? Motor bad?

Honestly, I haven't gone past checking the fuse. I assumed it was the motor but had planned on the Mazda upgrade anyway.

 

Love the finned drums! Rockin man! I am guessing by your Avatar, you are a lover of the ol skool!

That's a '36 Chevy pickup I built about 6 years ago. Here's some shots of it after it's first drive next to my buddy Jerod's '38. He gave me the cab, grille, hood and fenders. I built the bed and put it on a modified Toyota pickup frame and rebuilt a 283/powerglide out of my dad's '64 El Camino. I drove it daily through that summer and sold it. It was tractor-simple and with the exception of a sunk carb float was completely trouble-free.

Sorry for the tangent. I got nostalgic. :bye:

[mklotz70]

Sweet! :)

[DRIVEN]

Got bored enough to work on the wipers. Traced out the wires and found that they were doing as they should. Since that left the motor, I figured I couldn't make it any worse if I took it apart so I did just that. Cleaned everything up, reassembled, and put it back together. When I plugged it back in - it worked! So I bolted it back up but when I grabbed the linkage I noticed that the transmissions were frozen solid. Pulled off the rubber boots, brushed off the rust and sprayed with penetrant. Once they freed up, I lubed every pivot. Man they work great now! I may still do the Mazda upgrade depending on how they actually work in the rain.

[DRIVEN]

I had picked up some ZX struts a while back and was planning on installing them. Upon further investigation, I decided that there was more cost involved that didn't justify the minimal increase in braking. So, after spending a ton of time reading Mike's strut thread, I decided to just shorten the stock 510 struts. I settled on some KYB MR2 inserts and took about 2" out of the housings. I used a piece of angle iron as a welding jig.

I had to drill out the top hat to 9/16" for the shaft and used a 3/4" section of old exhaust tubing as a centering spacer at the top of the insert body under the nut. Other than that it was pretty straight forward. No more bottoming and the ride is muuuch better!

I'm thinking about parking the 1200 for the summer and just driving this. It still needs a carb kit before I would call it road-worthy. Then I'll find out how soon I need to do the engine swap.

[DRIVEN]

Bought a 5-speed today.

[DatDoug]

Love how your project is going. I really really really really really really like those rims. What r they off of? If it were me I'd throw aan LZ22 with dual carbs with that 5 speed. Also go with aluminum radiator. Keep it up. :cool:

[DRIVEN]

I believe those wheels are early '80s Celica. I got em from Klotz - he got em from Icehouse. Maybe Ice knows for sure what they came off of. The 5-speed is something I didn't really plan on doing but the price was so good I couldn't not do it. I'm getting antsy to start driving it. I still plan on doing an engine swap and have 97% decided on which one I'm going with and, on paper, I have all the details worked out. It's still top secret but I'll just say this -- you've never seen one in a 510 before.

[DRIVEN]

Did a carb rebuild today. Runs way better and smoother. It actually idles now. Still pretty rich though. I guess if I was gonna keep the L20b I'd be better off just buying a Weber. I can always go the motorcycle carb route again. We'll see.

[DRIVEN]

A couple upgrades:

-VW duckbill

-Stereo and speakers. Still need to get some 6X9s for the back. Normally I'm not a proponent of cutting up door panels but since a previous owner had hacked a set in I actually made it better by going a little bigger and doing it right.

I've been driving it for a few days now. Aside from the shitty carb, I can't really complain. I wouldn't mind a little more caster, more sway bar, and a 5th gear. I'll add 'em to the list.

[jonesy510]

hey do u have any pics of the front end with the shortened struts ??

[DRIVEN]

hey do u have any pics of the front end with the shortened struts ??

If you're asking about ride height it's the same as the last pic in post #6 and in post #25. In my case, ride height is dictated by clipped springs not shortened struts. I used the shortened struts because it bottomed out with the short springs. You can use stock length springs and just move the lower perch down the amount that you want to lower the car.

[DRIVEN]

5-speed is in. Replaced swaybar bushings and swapped in some custom shortened TC rods with new bushings.

[DRIVEN]

Here's a shot of the modified TC rods.

After driving it around for about a week I noticed that, along with horrible bump-steer, My front tires were wearing pretty fast in a scalloped pattern. I ordered some RCAs yesterday and decided to swap my stock rods back until they show up. At that point I'll talk to my alignment guy and decide whether or not the shorter rods will go back in. They were cut back about an inch with the idea that they could be shimmed to the desired caster. Of course I went maximum and never reset my toe-in. Wonder why my tires were wearing? :rolleyes:

 

I also picked up another Hitachi and gave it a proper rebuild. Boy, what an improvement! Now there's no more eye-burn at idle and it actually runs at speeds other than WOT. Now maybe my oil won't get so fuel saturated and I can slow down the rapid consumption. Right now it's about 100 miles per quart but with almost no visible smoke and not a drop of leakage. Wierd.

 

Also, I put some Bostons in the back.

[DRIVEN]

Just got back from the PicknPull 1/3 off sale. After 3 hours in the rain (with no fucking help, BTW), I have my replacement engine. Complete engine with all accessories, wiring harness and ECM came to $165 - once I return my core. Being a used engine I fully expect that it needs freshening up but for the price I paid it's not a problem. I'll do a compression and leak-down tests and go from there. It's still a secret and I'm not even sure if I can make it fit. My L20b will be for sale as soon as I'm sure I don't need it anymore. If I can pull this off I will have totally earned heretic status. See you guys at Canby. :thumbup:

[DRIVEN]

Compression and leak-down were pretty much what I expected. I'm sure it would run but I think rings and a head refresh are in order. It's going in the corner for a few weeks while I finish up a few other projects but the next step will probably be a transmission adapter since I'm not aware of any RWD application.

[Just Joel]

What’s the info on the duck bill? Make/model for application and where you bought it?

 

Thanks

Joel

[DRIVEN]

eBay. I think this was the seller.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Gen-VW-Rabbit-MK1-Golf-Chin-Spoiler-Duckbill-NEW-/360309986929?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item53e4261671

[The Dat-side]

I think the deep duck bill looks better.

[DRIVEN]

Yeah, the shallow one's pretty subtle. Most people don't even notice it. Haven't decided if I'm going to keep it after the car gets painted.

[Just Joel]

Yeah, the shallow one's pretty subtle. Most people don't even notice it. Haven't decided if I'm going to keep it after the car gets painted.

 

Do you have any pics of the car after install?

 

Thanks

Joel

[DRIVEN]

Page 2, post #36, photo #2.

[DRIVEN]

Just ordered gaskets, water pump, radiator and flywheel this morning. I'll probably spend the day making a transmission adapter. I better get my hustle on if I'm gonna make Canby.

[burrito213]

i like wagons.

 

 

great build! :cool: