Duncan Posted July 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2019 That is a crazy nice wagon. I'd like to buy his fuel injected L18 motor! Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted November 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2019 (edited) Been quite a while since I updated this thread. I've just been driving and enjoying the wagon over the summer. I have a chromed valve cover on the L20B in my wagon, and it's looks okay in photos, but in person the chrome doesn't look so great, so I decided to do a little something to it to make it look better. Frankly, I've been a bit embarrassed when people ask me to see under the hood.. I popped the valve cover off and hit a few chrome shops to find out the cost of having the chrome removed, and most places quoted me $70-$80 dollars just to remove the chrome. I can buy a used valve cover for $50-$75 that has never been chromed so a quick call to a friend turned up a suitable one for free... I haven't really decided yet what to do with it, so I stripped off the paint and was very careful not to put any deep scratches in it. My friend has a bead blast cabinet at his shop, so I'm going to take it over there this coming week and give a glass bead shower. If I like it, I might just use some urethane clear on it. I can also paint it, polish it, or powder coat it. We'll see what happens. Edited November 30, 2019 by Duncan 2 Quote Link to comment
LTJ Posted December 1, 2019 Report Share Posted December 1, 2019 Good to see this thread still going! 1 Quote Link to comment
mrbigtanker Posted December 3, 2019 Report Share Posted December 3, 2019 On 11/30/2019 at 12:33 PM, Duncan said: Been quite a while since I updated this thread. I've just been driving and enjoying the wagon over the summer. I have a chromed valve cover on the L20B in my wagon, and it's looks okay in photos, but in person the chrome doesn't look so great, so I decided to do a little something to it to make it look better. Frankly, I've been a bit embarrassed when people ask me to see under the hood.. I popped the valve cover off and hit a few chrome shops to find out the cost of having the chrome removed, and most places quoted me $70-$80 dollars just to remove the chrome. I can buy a used valve cover for $50-$75 that has never been chromed so a quick call to a friend turned up a suitable one for free... I haven't really decided yet what to do with it, so I stripped off the paint and was very careful not to put any deep scratches in it. My friend has a bead blast cabinet at his shop, so I'm going to take it over there this coming week and give a glass bead shower. If I like it, I might just use some urethane clear on it. I can also paint it, polish it, or powder coat it. We'll see what happens. Color match your car. 1 Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2019 (edited) 6 hours ago, mrbigtanker said: Color match your car. Will probably do that. I already have the paint. I'll probably throw a few coats of clear on top of it to make it more resistant to fumes and oil stains. I even have some pearl flakes I can throw in the clear to make it look all sexy like a stripper at the gentleman's club... Edited December 4, 2019 by Duncan 2 2 Quote Link to comment
mrbigtanker Posted December 4, 2019 Report Share Posted December 4, 2019 3 hours ago, Duncan said: Will probably do that. I already have the paint. I'll probably throw a few coats of clear on top of it to make it more resistant to fumes and oil stains. I even have some pearl flakes I can throw in the clear to make it look all sexy like a stripper at the gentleman's club... Dirty old man. 1 Quote Link to comment
the510keeper Posted December 4, 2019 Report Share Posted December 4, 2019 I did a copper coat and clear on my cover recently, curious to see how well it holds up. Whatever you do im sure it will be bad ass 2 Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 5, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2019 (edited) On 12/4/2019 at 8:28 AM, the510keeper said: Whatever you do im sure it will be bad ass Thanks James. I need to pick up some clear, but I'm going to paint it to match the car. I may actually put a small bit of pearl in the clear, but we'll see. That may be a bit out there for this old fart. If I knew someone decent and close by, I was thinking it could be fun pulling a few pinstripes on it. I did bead blast it, and it didn't clean up as well as I had hoped, so straight clear is out the window... Edited December 5, 2019 by Duncan 1 Quote Link to comment
mrbigtanker Posted December 6, 2019 Report Share Posted December 6, 2019 Mold in the the vent. And round out the spark plug wire holder. 1 Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 6, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2019 (edited) 3 hours ago, mrbigtanker said: Mold in the the vent. And round out the spark plug wire holder. Highly doubt it's mold. I'll be sure to soak it in Lysol and CLR prior to spraying the primer, just in case. 🙂 Edited December 6, 2019 by Duncan Quote Link to comment
hobospyder Posted December 6, 2019 Report Share Posted December 6, 2019 I think he meant shave it off and patch the hole to clean up the top of the cover Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 6, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2019 7 hours ago, hobospyder said: I think he meant shave it off and patch the hole to clean up the top of the cover Well that makes sense. Never heard that term called mold before 🙂 I actually like the wire holder, and I think blocking the vent is a bad idea. But, that's just me... 1 Quote Link to comment
tr8er Posted December 6, 2019 Report Share Posted December 6, 2019 55 minutes ago, Duncan said: I actually like the wire holder, and I think blocking the vent is a bad idea. But, that's just me... He shaves off bed hooks too... 1 Quote Link to comment
mrbigtanker Posted December 6, 2019 Report Share Posted December 6, 2019 3 minutes ago, tr8er said: He shaves off bed hooks too... they are gone, bed hooks that is. Stay tuned Quote Link to comment
mrbigtanker Posted December 6, 2019 Report Share Posted December 6, 2019 1 hour ago, Duncan said: Well that makes sense. Never heard that term called mold before 🙂 I actually like the wire holder, and I think blocking the vent is a bad idea. But, that's just me... You don't need it. It was an emissions thing, you have a block vent already. Or go see John he has a old twist cap cover if you want. Quote Link to comment
tr8er Posted December 7, 2019 Report Share Posted December 7, 2019 A bit of vacuum to the valve cover adds HP and prevents seals from early failure as I understand it. But trailers do do the same thing. 🙂 Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted December 7, 2019 Report Share Posted December 7, 2019 You really do need the valve cover vent. It's how filtered make up air gets into the engine to replace the vapors drawn out through the block vent by the PCV valve. Fresh air in and dirty combustion gasses and water vapor out. Oil and engine block stays cleaner. In the 50s it was common to change the oil at 1,000 mile intervals and engines rarely got to 100K miles. By the 60s most all cars had oil filters and the PCV valve ('62?) helped extend this to 2,000 miles. Better oils have extend this again to at least 3K miles. The Positive Crankcase Ventilation is one of the greatest inventions ever put on an internal combustion engine. It's importance should never be under estimated just because it doesn't seem to do much, but in reality it more than doubles the life of an engine. 1 Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 7, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2019 Who knew that painting a valve cover would cause so much controversy... 👀 1 Quote Link to comment
mrbigtanker Posted December 7, 2019 Report Share Posted December 7, 2019 13 hours ago, tr8er said: A bit of vacuum to the valve cover adds HP and prevents seals from early failure as I understand it. But trailers do do the same thing. 🙂 Oh I see what you did there. lol 1 Quote Link to comment
tr8er Posted December 7, 2019 Report Share Posted December 7, 2019 I’m just jealous of both of your Wagons. 2 Quote Link to comment
mrbigtanker Posted December 8, 2019 Report Share Posted December 8, 2019 9 hours ago, tr8er said: I’m just jealous of both of your Wagons. Hawaiian I love you. 1 Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 13, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2019 (edited) It ain't too fancy, but it'll do for now. No pearl in the clear 🙂 Plan on putting it back on tomorrow and get the wagon running again. Edited December 13, 2019 by Duncan 2 Quote Link to comment
mrbigtanker Posted December 13, 2019 Report Share Posted December 13, 2019 47 minutes ago, Duncan said: It ain't too fancy, but it'll do for now. No pearl in the clear 🙂 Plan on putting it back on tomorrow and get the wagon running again. I fuckin love it. Just needs a John Williams oil cap. 1 Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 13, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2019 (edited) 14 hours ago, mrbigtanker said: I fuckin love it. Just needs a John Williams oil cap. Yeah, John makes nice stuff, for sure.. Problem is now I'm putting lipstick on a pig. I wanna go through the L20 and make it look like yours, but I'm still a bit burned out working on it for now. I still have to pull the gas tank and get the fuel sender modified and getting it reading correctly. Always something.. Thanks for the kind words, Ray! Edited December 13, 2019 by Duncan 1 Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted December 13, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2019 (edited) Wow, looks better than I expected. (Way better than the old one.) We'll see how it holds up.. Edited December 13, 2019 by Duncan 4 Quote Link to comment
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