[Engine-Ear]

Thanks for sharing the details of this find and your journey home together!

~~~
As an aside, why the HELL did the city of PONTIAC put a CH3VY on its welcome mural??

Welcome to Bel Air, Illinoise... :-/

...the license plate braket is too high as well.

[justintiime]

fiddling with the car, I ran into a problem with the 4 barrel intake. Its different than my 4150 style throttle body






Found an adapter on ebay for $30, solved that issue.

Pulled the engine and transmission


Brought the car back to the body shop to get the engine bay painted. $450 to make it look factory. Little steep, but they do good work




This is how it turned out.








Asbsolutely HORRIBLE. They've done so good on all my other cars, I don't understand how this happened. They painted over old stickers, painted over leafs, and worst of all they didn't clean a damn thing and painted over all the grease and dirt! WTF! You can also see they didn't remove the radiator mount (2 bolts) to paint under it. WTF! I'm going to talk with them this morning and let them know this is 100% unacceptable.

[justintiime]

Time for an update!

Engine and trans are out of the car


brought the wagon back to the body shop where they said they would clean, prep and paint everything to look factory for $450.




This is what I got back









They didn't prep anything! They painted over leafs, stickers, and ALL the dirt and grease. Totally unbelievable. They didn't charge me though, and it doe look better than before. I will finish the job myself. Still pissed about it though.

Resealed the Saginaw, and spray bombed it


Ordered new shifter linkage bushings. They were literally all missing from the car. no wonder if always felt like it was in neutral!


Replaced the timing set, water pump, oil pump, all the gaskets, and scrubbed down the 389










My best buddy David has been helping me a TON with this car. Well, there has been a setback in the cars progress



My valve covers were in here




This is the SECOND time he's fell asleep at the wheel and totalled a car. Had the driver door not popped open and given him someplace to fall out, he'd be dead. His seatbelt would have kept him pinned. He's super lucky to only have got a couple fractured ribs.

My buddy is ok, and I'm real glad. When he sent me those pictures, it never set right with me. I told him he needs to go get a second and third medical opinion. His first Dr. said he was ok. I don't believe it.

SO, I need new valve covers. I bought these on ebay for $75


I will paint them blue as well.

I asked my buddy last night if he wants me to bring the wagon to a shop. I don't want him to feel pressured, and I don't want to bug him while he heals. He needs to focus on himself. Haven't heard back yet...I hope I didn't make him upset

Anyway, if he decides to keep working on it, we're at a good point. The engine and trans are pretty much ready to go back in, and get the car set up for the 4 speed. Once its running, the plan is to drive it (open manifolds hehehe) to an exhaust shop. Then we proceed with the efi, and 4 wheel brakes.

[2002Z4CSS]

Nice car!

[GT182]

Looks great. As for the valve covers, and this is only a suggestion. I'd leave the M/Ts black, or put on stock chrome valve covers. Just to give the repainted engine a little pizazz.

And your buddy is one lucky fella.

[goatwgn]

Originally Posted by GT182

Looks great. As for the valve covers, and this is only a suggestion. I'd leave the M/Ts black, or put on stock chrome valve covers. Just to give the repainted engine a little pizazz.

And your buddy is one lucky fella.

X2 on your buddy. Leaving the valve covers black or spraying them with a black crinkle finish is a good idea I think as well. Or you could paint them blue and polish the fins and the MT section. Nice find on the car.

[Scarebird]

It is nice to see this wagon being saved.

[justintiime]

My buddy is pretty much healed up now, and progress on the car has resumed.

My valve covers were wrecked in the crash so I upgraded to a cooler set


stripped and painted silver for some contrast


Ready to go in


test fitting the ram air manifolds




CLOSE FIT looking for an alternative


Its back in, but not finished just yet


Hole has been cut for the shifter


This "shifter porch" gives a flat spot for the shift boot to set


test fit


have to open it up a bit more. this is the trim ring


Mocked up....looks great


Cool little bit found under the front carpet


Should be running and driving soon!

[justintiime]

so I tried to update this thread earlier in the week but my post looks like it was never approved? When do my posts not need approval anymore?

[justintiime]

nevermind...looks like it magically appeared two posts down

[Ben M.]

This is awesome. Just wanted to say.

[AZ64GP]

Great job so far on the Safari wagon! I'm restoring my '64 GP and finishing up my engine rebuild. Things are looking really good! By the way, did you get the engine compartment paint figured out with the shop after they did such a rush job on it? I assume it got repainted?

[ChiliPepperGarage]

I love big wagons and a 4 speed one is super cool! I'd love to find a '64 wagon to go with my 2+2.

Not usually a fan of big wheels but this one looks pretty good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_-eAP_CTHM

[justintiime]

Originally Posted by ChiliPepperGarage

I love big wagons and a 4 speed one is super cool! I'd love to find a '64 wagon to go with my 2+2.

Not usually a fan of big wheels but this one looks pretty good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_-eAP_CTHM

that car is a big inspiration for my build. Love the wheels and paint on that car.

As far as the engine bay, I cleaned the grease off and spray painted what was left. Sucks, but I don't have time to redo it right now. It still looks worlds better than it did.

[justintiime]

Couple weeks ago we tried to get the car running. The carb that was on the car magically stopped working. I took the new one off the parts car and put it on the motor. We got it to fire a little, but you can tell by the sound of the engine, that the timing is off. My buddy SWORE he never moved the distributor, but it was out of time.

http://vid60.photobucket.com/albums/...pspujug3g4.mp4

The transmission swap is almost done. The shift linkages were hitting the floor, so we had to massage it a little in these spots



Believe it or not, this shift indicator was interfering with the new pedals from my parts car


Luckily, the parts car had the proper delete plate!


Here it is installed. This is a $300 piece, IF you can find one. Another win!


Installed


Automatic pedal on bottom, manual pedal on top. The manual pedal was hitting the auto shift indicator. Didn't expect that problem.


The pedals are in! Just have to mount the gas pedal


So, this past July I was at the Pontiac-Oakland Club nationals. While in the swap meet I found something I wanted so bad. After 2 days of thinking on it, I decided to pass. Its specific to a station wagon. I told myself "I'm not going to buy a part, for a car I don't even own." Two weeks later, I found and purchased my wagon! I've regretted my decision ever since....until last week!


Its an NOS roof rack luggage bag! It will look right at home I doubt I'll find another any time soon, so I snatched this up right away.

[Stuart]

There's something you don't see every day.

[justintiime]

the transmission going in this car is not made for this car. Everything has been bolt in, aside from massaging the floor a little. We have had to alter the stock crossmember to accomodate a new mount for the saginaw 4 speed being installed. Here are some pics



the hoop is where the mount will eventually go. Will add some gussets for strength


Throttle linkage back on


Dropped off some replacement panels at the body shop. The car will be here in 1 week.



NOS door!

[justintiime]

more crossmember shots





All done!



Radiator is in, engine bay is pretty much done for now



Should be on the ground and running today

[Engine-Ear]

thanks for the update!

[justintiime]

Car is on the ground, driveable, and at the paint shop!

Here is a quick shot of the crossmember


Disassembly has started....finding sand everywhere!


Blower motor and heater box to be removed. Putting in a block off plate, since I am installing vintage air.


Cowl tag





Needs some repair