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"As the years progressed, it became evident that certain Chevrolet station wagons from the late '60s and early '70s had developed a reputation for being perhaps the toughest station wagons around." Well, I can attest that those puppies don't die that easily. It is a miracle that my friend's best friend from childhood still owns his parents' '72 Kingswood Estate, which they bought new because he was one out of six kids.
What is this book you were reading, jrosasmc? Sounds interesting.
As far as I know all FE powered galaxies with 390 2v or less got the FMX trans and 390 4v and up got the c6 atleast after 66. I have no idea what the big boys got before 66.
My '67 Catalina convertible only has an AM radio with one speaker, although there's a dummy grille in back. Whenever I'm going on an extended trip, I'll just bring a boom box and put it in the back seat, or even sit it up on the folded-back roof. Usually though the longest trip this car makes is the commute to work on nice days, so I just do without the tunes and listen to the natural music of the engine, the wind rushing through my hair, etc.!
Back in the '50s the original Ford-o was a two speed unless you knew how to find that third gear. As I recall...well I can't remember the exact details now but it involved shifting back and forth between and L and D at various speeds. Third gear was there if you worked for it.
IIRC that was also true of the Borg-Warner two speed AT Studebaker used. I remember finding another gear shortly before the transmission went south.
Tell me about it. I had to pay shipping on two of those mothers, and then haul them around for the weekend in the trunk of my T-bird!
I just checked my old manuals and the '61 Chevy manual doesn't even mention radios. However the '62 Pontiac manual does and it has a few interesting things to say about the superiority of the transistor radio, new that year:
1. Instant performance (of course).
2. Requires less than half the current.
3. With the same or better power output.
4. Longer life and less maintenance.
No wonder I don't see tube testers anymore :-).
And, there were hybrids too that used both. I seem to remember mopars with these in the late fifties.
And GM had transportables that could be pulled from the dash and used on battery power. I wonder how many of these got ruined in the sand at beach parties?
I also remember replacing the little black metal tube that failed often. The number on it was OZ4.
Then there were the vibrators that would go bad.
On the other hand, a nicely redone GT would be a very handy commuter car. What did those have? 2 liter engines? You're right, there must have been a blue million of them made, so parts should be no problem and their rock-simple (if I remember rightly). Maybe some add-on performance enhancers and you'd have your own SCCA sedan replica! Cool!
Enjoy!
Hal
These are the rules of thumb I've used, which may or may not be accurate:
Water leaking into the cylinders from a head gasket, warped or cracked head or cracked block shows as consistent white smoke.
Brown smoke is carbon burning off. Normal for an old car.
Blue smoke is oil burning. IIRC blue smoke on acceleration means worn valve guides, not real expensive to fix. Consistent blue smoke is worn rings and an engine rebuild.
Black smoke is the engine running too rich. Clean, adjust, rebuild or replace the carb.
Also check for the plastic water barrier inside your door panels. Sometimes people rip these out when working on window winders, etc., and this will allow water to leak past the outside window seals and drip through your door panels.
It is unlikely the problem is your door seals.
After you actually enter their site there is a long list of sponsors and atleast one of them should have what your looking for.
http://www.galaxieparts.com
or
http://www.autokrafters.com
I can vouch that www.galaxieparts.com is a company of high integrity. I've never dealt with autokrafters personally.
The real problem comes though, when you have to take it out and merge onto the highway!
The other sugestions given are very valid. New weatherstripping can make an older car much nicer to drive.
For this reason I don't think 90s wagons will be of interest to anyone unless maybe they are AWD. They are not stylistically interesting, they have no big engine options, and they are all the same, one is just like another. There is nothing really interesting about them with very rare exception (Audi Turbo Quattro Wagons, for instance, have good value right now, as they make great ski cars).
Another factor to consider is that old station wagons are usually beat to hell and aren't worth enough to restore.
Another fairly recent wagon that's starting to get popular among the customizing crowd is the '78-83 GM intermediate wagons. They're lightweight and nimble, and their engine bays will accept just about any V-8 GM ever made. In contrast, the Mopar wagons in that class (Aspen/Volare/Diplomat/LeBaron) were a lot heavier, and had engine bays that were very cramped. The Ford Fox-bodied wagons (Fairmont/Zephyr/Granada/Cougar/LTD/Marquis) were very lightweight, but again had a cramped engine bay. I'm sure you could fit a big engine in there if you really, really wanted to, but I've never seen anybody do it. Heck, it was a rarity to even see a 302 in any of these wagons!