I took the wagon out today to run some errands and look into some existing issues.
Did the initial walk around, fluid check, and thus far, it doesn't appear to be using or leaking anything. Oil level has stayed consistent, coolant appears fine and is at the right level. I'll give it to Nick, having redone most of the gaskets on the engine has made it an essentially leak-free 302.
I washed it down at a DIY car wash for the first time in who knows how long so I could figure out where water leaks were coming from. I knew the front vent window wasn't 100% water tight against a strong blast of water from the wand, but otherwise stayed dry. Very small drip was noted from the upper corner of the front passenger door near the B-Pillar. I avoided spraying the tailgate seal too hard, since it too won't tolerate high pressure water spray. I checked around in the tailgate area for water intrusion, but couldn't find any. There is a distinct drip from the left passenger door near the C-Pillar, though. It looks like there's a tear in the weatherstripping allowing for the water to pass right into the cabin. I'll try and put some sealer behind it to stop that from continuing. It's not often this'll be out in the rain, but I'd rather have it stay generally dry inside.
Following that, I drove down to the junkyard and grabbed a wiper switch from a '89 Town Car that had a pretty decent tan leather interior. Someone took the driver's seat, but the passenger seat still looked great! Very surprised to see that. Next time I'm working on the wagon, I'll swap in the switch and see if that brings the wipers back to life. If not, I'll keep troubleshooting.
Cruising around, I did notice the fuel gauge is a little erratic right now. It had been hovering around the 1/2 mark for a while, then dropped to almost E with the light on, then the light went off and the needle stayed near E. I tossed some gas in and it only took 10 gallons. I'm guessing the sender hasn't seen much action, so it might need to just be driven so that the float can make a few sweeps. Surprisingly over the 180 miles it had covered at that point, it had an average of 17 MPG in a lot of city traffic. Better than I expected. The 3.27s definitely help out since it doesn't take much to get it going.
When I parked it under its carport this evening, I did install the NOS tailgate handle and replacement screw to figure out if the tailgate would fold down. Unfortunately, it feels like something is sticking because it won't fold down after the window is lowered. Still swings open okay, though. I also tried some TR-3 on the hood to see if I can get a shine out of the rather dull paint. I did get a bit of a shine, but it'll need a few rounds of that stuff to really determine if it can shine the finish. The single stage garbage has not dealt well with the sun, but when it was done in the first place, it was done poorly. Some day it'll get a proper repaint, but for now, the focus is getting all the interior and suspension bits worked out, then focusing on sprucing up the exterior.
All in all, I've been impressed with how well it has been working thus far.
Did the initial walk around, fluid check, and thus far, it doesn't appear to be using or leaking anything. Oil level has stayed consistent, coolant appears fine and is at the right level. I'll give it to Nick, having redone most of the gaskets on the engine has made it an essentially leak-free 302.
I washed it down at a DIY car wash for the first time in who knows how long so I could figure out where water leaks were coming from. I knew the front vent window wasn't 100% water tight against a strong blast of water from the wand, but otherwise stayed dry. Very small drip was noted from the upper corner of the front passenger door near the B-Pillar. I avoided spraying the tailgate seal too hard, since it too won't tolerate high pressure water spray. I checked around in the tailgate area for water intrusion, but couldn't find any. There is a distinct drip from the left passenger door near the C-Pillar, though. It looks like there's a tear in the weatherstripping allowing for the water to pass right into the cabin. I'll try and put some sealer behind it to stop that from continuing. It's not often this'll be out in the rain, but I'd rather have it stay generally dry inside.
Following that, I drove down to the junkyard and grabbed a wiper switch from a '89 Town Car that had a pretty decent tan leather interior. Someone took the driver's seat, but the passenger seat still looked great! Very surprised to see that. Next time I'm working on the wagon, I'll swap in the switch and see if that brings the wipers back to life. If not, I'll keep troubleshooting.
Cruising around, I did notice the fuel gauge is a little erratic right now. It had been hovering around the 1/2 mark for a while, then dropped to almost E with the light on, then the light went off and the needle stayed near E. I tossed some gas in and it only took 10 gallons. I'm guessing the sender hasn't seen much action, so it might need to just be driven so that the float can make a few sweeps. Surprisingly over the 180 miles it had covered at that point, it had an average of 17 MPG in a lot of city traffic. Better than I expected. The 3.27s definitely help out since it doesn't take much to get it going.
When I parked it under its carport this evening, I did install the NOS tailgate handle and replacement screw to figure out if the tailgate would fold down. Unfortunately, it feels like something is sticking because it won't fold down after the window is lowered. Still swings open okay, though. I also tried some TR-3 on the hood to see if I can get a shine out of the rather dull paint. I did get a bit of a shine, but it'll need a few rounds of that stuff to really determine if it can shine the finish. The single stage garbage has not dealt well with the sun, but when it was done in the first place, it was done poorly. Some day it'll get a proper repaint, but for now, the focus is getting all the interior and suspension bits worked out, then focusing on sprucing up the exterior.
All in all, I've been impressed with how well it has been working thus far.
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