Story time!
Well, as anyone who was at Scottfest knows, I bought another wagon. Here's the full story for those who don't.
Long story kinda short, while browsing CL one afternoon I saw this listed as a great demo car. Now we can't have that can we? I call the guy up, and he tells me he has multiple people coming to see it in the morning (which I believe, I can't even remember the last time I saw a box wagon for sale around here). So I went down and looked at it that night. The guy had just bought it to derby, but thought it may be a little too clean to destroy, so he bought a 96 Marq to kill instead and was hoping to get his money back for the wagon. After sitting in the drivers seat I knew I had to buy it so a grand later it was mine. That may sound kinda high, but again, something resembling a solid wagon in this area is nearly unheard of.
Last time seeing this place. Interestingly when I went to pick it up a 92-94 marq had also spawned and was being stripped down.
The next day, Saturday night, my buddy and I set off to bring it home, it was only about 30 miles away, right across from the Bills stadium. Now I hadn't test drove the car, I drove it up and down the driveway, but that's it. I knew it had first, reverse and stopped. Now I had noticed on inspection the TV cable grommet was long gone, and half assed held in place with some wire. Now right there I knew we had a good chance of a fucked AOD, but I hoped for the best. So hypothetically I may have plate slapped this bitch and headed for the highway. Well, it didn't take long to notice we had no OD, well that's not to bad, but we didn't have 3rd either. Nope, we had a powerglide.
Have you ever heard a lopo try to do 65 with only second? Well it's interesting to say the least, and it also was not happening. Luckily my friends 3sp, 2.8, 85 Celebrity really can't go faster then that anyways so it was a good match. I settled for mid 50's and gave it shit. Stopped once midway at a gas station to let it cool down and drove it the rest of the way. Now that powerglide was sounding like a jet turbine by the time we got home, and the replace engine light was flickering at idle, no doubt the oil hot enough to deep fry whatever you wish. But it made it. I really need to finish the ramp truck.
Home sweet home,
Alright, now that it was home I could do a proper assessment of my new shitbox. First, it came with a free car cover, neat, I guess. But I struck gold when I checked the rear cargo compartment. All the original owners manuals, window sticker, and receipts going back to 94. Now I'm not sure what the actual mileage is. One thing I know for sure is it had a receipt for new firestones from 96, and the rear firestones had a DOT code from 96. Supposedly an old guy who passed away owned it before the derby guy, and judging by the handicap tag I found in it I'd agree.
Now this was August 1st I brought it home, the 2nd was my birthday so I considered it a gift to myself. Well gift is one way to think about it, massive pain in the ass is another. I didn't have a chance to work on it until Monday the 3rd, which gave me 4 days to get it ready for Scottfest. I knew the trans was junk, but I had a perfect one in the Tudor. I was already planning to 5sp swap that car, so I'm sure it wouldn't mind if I used it's lovely WR-AOD. But first I wanted to a quicky lopo build. Well, that was until I pulled the valve covers. Ya, I had a sludge monster special on my hands. "Hmmmmmm" though I. "I love shitty sludgy lopo's so much!". "But wait, I have a nice, clean HO converted lopo right in front of that trans I'm gonna use."
Well I did want to add a little more power to the Tudor anyways, so it made sense in theory. This engine is tried, true and tested, fully regasketed and painted, ready to go. Now who in their right mind would rip apart one their few, running driving, plated cars to throw it's drivetrain in a random wagon they just bought? No one smart that's for damn sure. But I on the other hand thought this plan made perfect sense. Let's do a full drivetrain swap in 4 nights, then go on a huge roadtrip. What could go wrong? Monday night I pulled the Tudor in the barn and started the tear down. Tuesday night I pulled the drivetrain.
RIP Tudor. You shall come back stronger than before. Or become another eternal unfinished project that just sits around. One or the other.
Ah, freshly harvested guts.
Alright, with the poor Tudor kill, it was time to roll the wagon in and start stripping it down. So after burning up the rest of Tuesday night, on Wednesday night we ended up with this.
It was about this point I realized I had less then two nights to finish this up. Now If I had full days this wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but this whole time I still was busy working at my job all day, and slaving away well into the night to try and pull this off. But I was gonna pull it off. Come hell or rusty boxes I was showing up to scottfest in this POS. Wednesday night I ran a new RF brake line as it looked really sketchy, fluid filmed the whole enigne bay, and set the "new" engine and trans in place. Thursday night was spent hooking up as much as I could.
Well come Friday morning, when I was supposed to be leaving I was still far away from done. Around noon I went to the insurance place and DMV, and transferred the Tudors plates to this. Also swapped on the Tudor's HPP's. I'm not riding around on 20 year old tires. Now I hadn't even turned the key at this point. Around Two I fired it up. Around 4 I set off for a test drive. Didn't even make it out of the barn went I realized the alt wasn't charging. Traced that back to a the connector on the inner fender green as hell. Spliced in some clean wire and off we went. Holy shit the TV pressure was fucked! Pretty sure I was in 3rd at 5mph. No wonders the stock trans died. Now I had swapped in a bronze bushing, but man this was awful. Got home and set the TV cable using the min/max method. Alright, next test drive. RF caliper lock up. FFS. It looked rusty as hell but I was hoping for the best. The LF had a newer looking caliper on it, so I figured it would be fine (in the back of my head I knew it wouldn't be). Alright, rob the Tudor of it's RF caliper (which was robbed from the 87), slap it on a bleed the brakes.
Final test drive, it made it 5 miles without blowing up, it should have no problem making a 250+ mile trip right? Well actually it did. By the time I gave it a half assed wash, got ready, loaded my crap and Sly's wheels, it was about seven. I made it to Scott's a touch after midnight with no problems. And man Scottfest was fun. I regret not making it last year. I had a blast in 2013, and had a blast this year. The wagon performed fine, except for that LF caliper.... Sure enough, it got hot enough on the cruise to stick something fierce. I know everyone behind me loved that smell of burning brakes. Once it cooled off it was fine, and man to wagon's make great beds. I headed out Sunday morning and made it home without a hitch.
Well, as anyone who was at Scottfest knows, I bought another wagon. Here's the full story for those who don't.
Long story kinda short, while browsing CL one afternoon I saw this listed as a great demo car. Now we can't have that can we? I call the guy up, and he tells me he has multiple people coming to see it in the morning (which I believe, I can't even remember the last time I saw a box wagon for sale around here). So I went down and looked at it that night. The guy had just bought it to derby, but thought it may be a little too clean to destroy, so he bought a 96 Marq to kill instead and was hoping to get his money back for the wagon. After sitting in the drivers seat I knew I had to buy it so a grand later it was mine. That may sound kinda high, but again, something resembling a solid wagon in this area is nearly unheard of.
Last time seeing this place. Interestingly when I went to pick it up a 92-94 marq had also spawned and was being stripped down.
The next day, Saturday night, my buddy and I set off to bring it home, it was only about 30 miles away, right across from the Bills stadium. Now I hadn't test drove the car, I drove it up and down the driveway, but that's it. I knew it had first, reverse and stopped. Now I had noticed on inspection the TV cable grommet was long gone, and half assed held in place with some wire. Now right there I knew we had a good chance of a fucked AOD, but I hoped for the best. So hypothetically I may have plate slapped this bitch and headed for the highway. Well, it didn't take long to notice we had no OD, well that's not to bad, but we didn't have 3rd either. Nope, we had a powerglide.
Have you ever heard a lopo try to do 65 with only second? Well it's interesting to say the least, and it also was not happening. Luckily my friends 3sp, 2.8, 85 Celebrity really can't go faster then that anyways so it was a good match. I settled for mid 50's and gave it shit. Stopped once midway at a gas station to let it cool down and drove it the rest of the way. Now that powerglide was sounding like a jet turbine by the time we got home, and the replace engine light was flickering at idle, no doubt the oil hot enough to deep fry whatever you wish. But it made it. I really need to finish the ramp truck.
Home sweet home,
Alright, now that it was home I could do a proper assessment of my new shitbox. First, it came with a free car cover, neat, I guess. But I struck gold when I checked the rear cargo compartment. All the original owners manuals, window sticker, and receipts going back to 94. Now I'm not sure what the actual mileage is. One thing I know for sure is it had a receipt for new firestones from 96, and the rear firestones had a DOT code from 96. Supposedly an old guy who passed away owned it before the derby guy, and judging by the handicap tag I found in it I'd agree.
Now this was August 1st I brought it home, the 2nd was my birthday so I considered it a gift to myself. Well gift is one way to think about it, massive pain in the ass is another. I didn't have a chance to work on it until Monday the 3rd, which gave me 4 days to get it ready for Scottfest. I knew the trans was junk, but I had a perfect one in the Tudor. I was already planning to 5sp swap that car, so I'm sure it wouldn't mind if I used it's lovely WR-AOD. But first I wanted to a quicky lopo build. Well, that was until I pulled the valve covers. Ya, I had a sludge monster special on my hands. "Hmmmmmm" though I. "I love shitty sludgy lopo's so much!". "But wait, I have a nice, clean HO converted lopo right in front of that trans I'm gonna use."
Well I did want to add a little more power to the Tudor anyways, so it made sense in theory. This engine is tried, true and tested, fully regasketed and painted, ready to go. Now who in their right mind would rip apart one their few, running driving, plated cars to throw it's drivetrain in a random wagon they just bought? No one smart that's for damn sure. But I on the other hand thought this plan made perfect sense. Let's do a full drivetrain swap in 4 nights, then go on a huge roadtrip. What could go wrong? Monday night I pulled the Tudor in the barn and started the tear down. Tuesday night I pulled the drivetrain.
RIP Tudor. You shall come back stronger than before. Or become another eternal unfinished project that just sits around. One or the other.
Ah, freshly harvested guts.
Alright, with the poor Tudor kill, it was time to roll the wagon in and start stripping it down. So after burning up the rest of Tuesday night, on Wednesday night we ended up with this.
It was about this point I realized I had less then two nights to finish this up. Now If I had full days this wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but this whole time I still was busy working at my job all day, and slaving away well into the night to try and pull this off. But I was gonna pull it off. Come hell or rusty boxes I was showing up to scottfest in this POS. Wednesday night I ran a new RF brake line as it looked really sketchy, fluid filmed the whole enigne bay, and set the "new" engine and trans in place. Thursday night was spent hooking up as much as I could.
Well come Friday morning, when I was supposed to be leaving I was still far away from done. Around noon I went to the insurance place and DMV, and transferred the Tudors plates to this. Also swapped on the Tudor's HPP's. I'm not riding around on 20 year old tires. Now I hadn't even turned the key at this point. Around Two I fired it up. Around 4 I set off for a test drive. Didn't even make it out of the barn went I realized the alt wasn't charging. Traced that back to a the connector on the inner fender green as hell. Spliced in some clean wire and off we went. Holy shit the TV pressure was fucked! Pretty sure I was in 3rd at 5mph. No wonders the stock trans died. Now I had swapped in a bronze bushing, but man this was awful. Got home and set the TV cable using the min/max method. Alright, next test drive. RF caliper lock up. FFS. It looked rusty as hell but I was hoping for the best. The LF had a newer looking caliper on it, so I figured it would be fine (in the back of my head I knew it wouldn't be). Alright, rob the Tudor of it's RF caliper (which was robbed from the 87), slap it on a bleed the brakes.
Final test drive, it made it 5 miles without blowing up, it should have no problem making a 250+ mile trip right? Well actually it did. By the time I gave it a half assed wash, got ready, loaded my crap and Sly's wheels, it was about seven. I made it to Scott's a touch after midnight with no problems. And man Scottfest was fun. I regret not making it last year. I had a blast in 2013, and had a blast this year. The wagon performed fine, except for that LF caliper.... Sure enough, it got hot enough on the cruise to stick something fierce. I know everyone behind me loved that smell of burning brakes. Once it cooled off it was fine, and man to wagon's make great beds. I headed out Sunday morning and made it home without a hitch.
Comment