1989 Chevy Caprice Classic Wagon

In reply to Daylan C :

No, you probably sent it to the wrong number because I accidentally spelled the first two with a zero because sausage fingers on mobile 

So glad to see it getting a second life, and glad it went to a great fellow GRMer! I just hope your build thread doesn't make me want to go out and buy another one...

In line next for the DSM! Great build going on here. Good luck. 

ebonyandivory said:

In reply to Daylan C :

At 23, you’re not supposed to even like cars. You’re especially not supposed to like old wagons.

No wonder you’re a member here.

Thought about this post again. If you think is weird that I'm 23 with an old wagon project....

This is what my buddy Colton showed up in to help me unload the wagon. He's also 23. The Camaro just got a fresh 383 in it like previously mentioned and then he hit a deer 2 weeks later. Decided it was nice enough out that no hood or headlights wasn't a problem and his new clutch still isn't broken in yet. So berk it, let's take the Camaro. 

Jealous of the Back seat.  That is one piece my Box wagon is missing and is seemingly hard to come across.     

what trans is in the car?   Don't see many with 3 pedals swapped in.

In reply to Underpowered :

Nv3500 from an '89 c1500.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

I bought a 600cfm electric choke edelbrock for 40 bucks from the forum as point of fmv

Wait, is that were that ended up? I forgot! Its so awesome seeing our parts and peices floating around the country like this. 

In reply to bobzilla :

Yup. It is powering brother dustins 72 429 thunderbird. Best its run since his grandfather last drove it in the early 90s.

Poking around the wagon for a bit before getting ready for work. I noticed this.

A missing mirror and a mirror bracket attached to the trim. A few minutes of searching then a couple moments with some shop towels and glass cleaner later...

More justification for parts hoarding.

So some bad memory and the warped and cracked nature of the front bumper filler panels convinced my broken brain that the top panel was supposed to go under the front bumper. I realized while attempting to correct this that I'm a damned idiot and now I've just made some cracks bigger. Thankfully no large chunks are missing so my new plan is to remove the filler panels completely and try to fix them with fiberglass, attempt to match the faded Garnet red on the fenders. And put then back on the car. Unfortunately the rear panels are gone before I got here. ( like every single other box GM B-body), so I'll have to track reproduction pieces down for those and I'm fairly certain they won't fit in a challenge budget. And at some point somebody is going to remind of the holes in some of my doors...

Running, safe, reliable, and cool.

In that order. 

The path of success to any medium scope project. Be careful of the snowball effect that winds you up in protectpurgatory.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

This was me fooling around with minor stuff until I get what I need to finish the engine. Things just got added to the bottom of the list in the process. 

I should have learned the less you speak already because of my GTA. Which has been 2.5 year internal debate on perfect vs good enough.  Which also allows way too much time for me to keep changing my damn mind on what I want the car to be.

Sometimes you have to do SOMETHING.  right, wong, perfect or crap, but do something to get forward momentum going. 

And focus on one at a time.....

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Sometimes you have to do SOMETHING.  right, wong, perfect or crap, but do something to get forward momentum going. 

And focus on one at a time.....

The wagon is definitely the focus right now. The GTA has waited this long, it can keep waiting. I'm going to make an honest effort to have the wagon back as a driver before the end of the month. Only delay is honestly waiting until next payday to to buy the rest of the parts I need to finish the engine. 

The front filler panel was under the bumper up until 1985; 1986 and newer are on top of the bumper. That front filler panel is actually a reproduction part I bought and painted - it was quite uncracked until the first time I autocrossed the car - the body moves a bit relative to the frame (and bumper) and that was enough to make the cracks you saw. Whatever molds were used to make it were also not quite right; it never did fit great.

Autozone carries the paint that matches this thing. It might be in that excel spreadsheet, but if not I can probably check my notes - it is either medium garnet red metallic, or something very close to it. Or check the RPO code tag on the third row seat.

You may find that the mirror mount on that header panel vibrates a lot.... I eventually bought a RAM suction cup mount and used some JB Weld to make myself a mirror connector. But while the car was sitting in my driveway, the suction cup let go and the mirror fell face-down, directly on top of the shifter....which of course broke the glass. Thus, no mirror.

Do you realize that in 1965 anyone could have walked into a dealer and ordered a manual shift wagon with a big engine?

What have we become?

In reply to gearheadE30 :

Yeah the other issue I saw with the mount is it seems like a good way to break that trim if you aren't careful adjusting the mirror. So it'll probably come back off. I found a couple other sources for reproduction filler panels so I'll see what I end up doing with those later. Sounds like trying to repair the ones on the car now won't be a very permanent solution.

Scored a mostly rust free and straight right front fender today. Also got valve covers. The search for a gauge cluster came up empty. I think I found one on Ebay though.

Just ordered gaskets, rocker arms and head bolts. Need to dig through the shop of horrors and figure out where I put the pushrods from this motor before I buy more and then definitely find them.

So I just bought the only real theme piece I'm putting into Humphrey. Gearheade30 already knows what it is. The rest of you will have to wait to see if it actually works before I show it to you.

So I was in the shop messing with the broken bolts in the heads I bought from my buddy and realized I can't think of a real reason to use them.

The heads that came with my L98 have already been gasket matched.

They have smaller chambers.

They have drilled and tapped holes I need to mount my serpentine belt drive brackets.

And I can remove $250 from my budget if I use them because they came with the engine.

The downside is they need screw in rocker studs and valve seals, but I have basically everything I need to do that in stock and the seals are already in the budget because they came with my gasket set I bought. I would also need to oval out the center 4 holes on my intake manifold to use it with these heads because they are the '87 iron TPI style heads with the 4 center bolts being vertical and not perpendicular to the gasket surface like the early heads.

Also thanks to whoever fixed my typo in the title.

Or. Ignore all that. Let's try something weird.

Baby 4.3. Came with all the accessories, trans, and wiring for $300. Got a separate receipt for the trans and engine with accessories. If anybody needs an  80k mile 4l60e, let me know.

In reply to Daylan C :

My buddy in Toledo has an L99 G-body that goes quicker than it should

So one of the concerns with this swap Patrick brought to my attention. Was that some fool moved one of the motor mounts on these blocks. So I snapped this picture before I left the seller's house.

And then this shot of my car.

Looks like he was right. Also looks like I've already got holes to move the mount to. Possibly a result of so many different weird engines going in this chassis in the 80s.

Daylan C said:

Also thanks to whoever fixed my typo in the title.

You're welcome.

So, 4.3, yeah?