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Project '64 Tudor Wagon, L79 4-speed

42K views 165 replies 33 participants last post by  Pete 67 
#1 ·
I'm terrible at sitting down at the computer & organizing photos of my latest project, but since it's 115˚ here in the desert, I'm not very motivated to get any work done in the garage. So yes Davewho1 & Augy, I am actually starting a build thread! ;) :D

Some of you might recall when I lucked out & stumbled upon my '64 2 door wagon in Flagstaff a couple of years back. If not here's the story again...

Was in Flagstaff, AZ back in February 2017 for a little 3 day getaway & I drove past a house with a few old car projects sitting outside for sale. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a '64 Chevelle Wagon that I pointed out to my g/f, assuming it was a 4 door. Then I got a closer look & it hit me...That wagon is a TWO DOOR!!! I immediately looked in my rear view mirror to see if anyone was behind me before I cut across three lanes of traffic to pull into the driveway.

Lo & behold, just sitting there waiting for a new owner is a '64 two-door wagon. I knocked on the door, but no there was no answer. I was actually on my way back to Vegas when I spotted this thing, so I knocked one more time, this time a little louder. Still no answer, but a nice friendly old lady next door came out & told me the owner wasn't home, but luckily she had his phone number. I asked how long the car was sitting for sale & she said a few months. I was a bit surprised...couldn't believe this car wasn't scooped up instantly.

When I got back to Vegas, I called the next day & got in touch with the owner. When I hear his voice, I can tell he's an older gentleman, and he's extremely soft spoken. The conversation was very cordial, but brief. We quickly agreed on a price & scheduled a date a week or so later when we could make the deal. I wanted to drive back there that day!

Wound up having to reschedule a couple of times due to one reason or another. The entire time I'm having severe anxiety about someone else spotting this car & dragging it home the same day.


Finally it works out & my dad & I arrive to pick up the car. As we pull up to his house, I ask my dad to give me his opinion of the car before I pay for it to make sure my excitement hasn't blinded my judgement. Even though I've been around these cars for 27 years, it's nice to have a second set of eyes. I know the car is nice, but he's been a body/restoration guy for 45+ years.

As I greet the owner, my dad makes a walk around the car & with his body shop hands, he feels around for damage. He walks back over to me & says, "you'll never find a straighter one, this car's never been in an accident". Jackpot. (edit 2 years later..turns out this wasn't completely true)

Here's the car as she sat waiting to be loaded up on the trailer. Still has an original six cylinder with a 3 speed on the column. Unfortunately he had the car primed a few years back by some hack body guy, covering up the original paint. I neglected to take pics of the trim tag, but the remnants of the original color looks like Desert Beige.





The only rust on this car is in the floors. Those damn factory rubber mats hold in moisture & the floors pay the price. Other than that, there is zero rust on this car. The bottoms of the fenders are perfect & the frame doesn't have any pitting. Typical of an Arizona car that was stored mostly inside for 40+ years.

While we were loading the car on to the trailer, I start asking the owner about the history of the car, how long he's had it, where he found it, etc. Turns out he's 82 & bought the car from a young couple that just graduated from Northern Arizona University. His house was directly across the street from the campus. The couple was moving east to Michigan or Ohio & didn't want to drive the wagon back there. So I asked when that was, he replies 1969!!!
Needless to say I was stunned, but then I ask when the last time it was on the road. His answer, 1973. All I could say was HOLY SH T!

Then he opens his garage & he has these gems sitting inside.






I believe he said the '27 Chevy was in his family since new. The '49 Olds was his race car at some point in the early 60s. :thumbsup:


As we drove away, I felt like I took away one of the seller's kids. However, he assured me he was happy the car was going to a good home after I showed him pics of my '67s. He came to the realization that he wasn't going to ever get around to working on it.


 
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#2 ·
At the time I found it, I had nowhere to keep the wagon, but I was able to stash it at my Dad's place in Southern California. Unfortunately 2 years went by as I dealt with some health issues & figuring out a place where I can actually work on it. Fast forward to the end of February of this year & my health is doing much better & I'm living in a place where I have enough space to start tearing into the car.

In the meantime I’ve been collecting as many NOS parts as I can find & trying to come up with a build plan. The day we picked up the car, we were sitting having lunch in Flagstaff when the seller calls me. He says he forget to mention he has a 327 "Corvette" engine along with the matching Muncie 4 speed. Immediately I'm interested, but he says he needs time to make them accessible & to research what they are worth. We agree to get in touch with other to follow up.

Now I neglected to mention this gentleman doesn't own a computer or a cell phone & has never been on the internet. Which is the ONLY reason it took him so long to sell the wagon. He didn't advertise it anywhere other than his front yard. So when he tells me he's going to research the value of the engine & trans, I find it a bit humorous.

Anyway, right as I purchase the wagon is when I began having those health issues that persisted for the next 18 months or so. During that time, I subsequently injured my back & the project is seriously on the back burner while I'm dealing with these problems. Fast forward to October of 2017 & I get a call out of the blue from the seller of the wagon. He reminds about the 327 & 4 speed & says he's coming up to Vegas to meet his buddies for a few days. He's offering to deliver the engine & trans & we quickly agree on a price.

When he shows up in Vegas he has the 327 in his truck, but not together & it's not complete. He has most of the parts to build a complete engine. I see a set of heads, a GM aluminum intake, bellhousing, 14" flywheel still bolted to the crank, quadrajet, some pulleys, a starter, etc.

The trans however, is not a Muncie. It's a cast iron Saginaw 4 speed & I'm not remotely interested, but I tell him I'd like to make a deal on the engine & the related parts. I give him the cash & he's back on the road to Flagstaff.

When he leaves I get my phone out & google the engine suffix. Turns out the engine actually is a real deal '65 327/300 Corvette block with an HF stamp. Sweet! I check the manifold, but it's from the wrong year Vette. It's a 62 Vette GM intake # 3795397,but in very nice shape. Probably hasn't been run in 45-50 years. Bellhousing is a GM 621.

Unfortunately, the heads turn out to be early 60s 283 heads with tiny valves. I literally threw them right into the scrap pile at my buddies shop where we made the deal. I had the decency to wait until the seller had left the parking lot before doing so. Didn't have the heart to tell him they were worthless. ;)

So in the next year or so, as I'm deciding the direction I'd like to go with this build, two things really stand out. Number 1, my previous '67 project was 100% custom build & it took forever. Waiting for parts & the trial & error of making things fit exactly right left a lasting impression.

Number 2 is every single 2 door wagon I see are customs. Some of them are done tastefully, Rich's '65 stands out, as does Gary's (Saltygog). However most of them, look like hack jobs, IMO. It hit me, other than Allen Petroskey's '64, I have not seen a bone stock 2 door wagon, anywhere.

Now when I say bone stock, I'm excluding 2 main components, the engine & trans. I will never build a muscle car with a 6 cylinder, nor will I leave it column shifted. So now that I have that 327, I decided to build a 327 L79 car. The '64 wagon that GM should've built. Other than that, this car will look like it rolled off a GM assembly line, complete with 300 seat covers & door panels. :thumbsup:

The fortunate aspect of this wagon, is how mostly complete it is. It was missing the rear bumper when I got it, & all 4 tail lights were cracked, but all the vital, irreplaceable 2 door wagon parts are all present, including the side moldings. With such a strong foundation, I felt like I could only take this car in one direction. There are enough LS converted 2 door wagons in the world.
 
#4 ·
Now that I have a place to work on it & I've chosen a build theme, the next step was driving down to SoCal & towing it up here to Sin City. After bribing a friend to hook up his trailer & drive down with me, we made the trek back in late February.

As soon as we got back to town, we immediately took the car to his shop & tore into it. I wanted to remove the drivetrain before bringing the car home to my garage. Access to his lift & the ability to leave the 6 cyl & 3 speed in the scrap metal pile made it a no brainer.

This is what it looked like when the work began. 45+ years of desert dust and grime had settled in under the hood...





Looking from underneath, you can see the daylight coming through the holes in the floor. They look much worse from inside the car.





The floorpans under the rear seat & the cargo floor are completely rust free.




Here I am holding the tail of the tranny above the radiator support & the 6 cylinder is no more. Notice I'm wearing my safety glasses! :D




Here's what's left of the greasy, dusty engine compartment...




More updates to come tomorrow. :thumbsup:
 
#5 · (Edited)
After yanking the drivetrain, I took the car to my house & for the first time since I've owned it. Finally I was able to spend some time with it & really assess what needs to be done.

First thing that stood out was the interior looked like it had a rough life in the 10 years it was on the road. The front seat covers & foam are trashed & the seat frame itself was broken. 3 of the 4 door panels are completely destroyed and the headliner is dry rotted at the seams. The back seat is in pretty good shape, except the two pins that allows the seat to collapse have both sheared off. The factory rubber mat was removed awhile ago I assume, which really shows how bad the floors are. I did find some remnants of the rubber mat when I removed the seats.















The good news is all the specific 2 door wagon parts are there & in very nice shape. All the side window trim & the steel interior side panels are in excellent condition. The plastic & rubber trim is badly dry rotted & basically falls apart in your hands, but luckily most of those parts are reproduced. The only part I haven't seen anywhere is the rear headliner strip that installs above the tailgate, but a generic piece of curved windlace will probably work.

As I began disassembly & started doing some research, I noticed a couple of irregularities with some pieces of the car. First of all the interior cloth patterns do not match any Chevelle 300 models I've come across. The sales brochure & every photo I've seen shows the correct pattern in the upper right.




Close up...



It first came to my attention when I contacted SMS in Oregon to send me some samples of Chevelle 300 material. After receiving 3 swatches that didn't match the pattern on my seats, I sent Doug from SMS photos of my interior. He confirmed the pattern is original GM, but the fabric was correct for Corvairs. Both Doug & I assume the Fisher trim shop ran out of the Chevelle 300 material & just substituted the Corvair fabric pattern with the correct Chevelle vinyl embossings. Interesting to see how they just got these cars rolling down the line, whatever it took.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Next irregularity is the rear tailgate emblem. There are two versions of the '64 tailgate emblem. One is just a larger version of the other. From every other Chevelle 300 wagon & 300 sedan I've seen, the emblem on my tailgate should be the smaller of the two versions.

Here's the 300 page from the '64 Chevelle sales brochure. All the models get the smaller version emblem.



Here's a close up of the wagon from that page.



Mine has the larger version used on Malibu wagons.



From everything I can see, my tailgate is original to the car. I thought the car was accident free, but the car was actually hit in the rear. The tailgate had a bunch of holes drilled to pull out the dents. My dad & I were both fooled by some pretty decent mud work by a bodyman back in the 60s or 70s. They holes were filled & smoothed with bondo, but I can't imagine they replaced the panel.

The interior paint is a perfect match to the rest of the interior pieces of the car. I cannot imagine lazy 70s body work would yield such a perfect match on the interior paint portion of the job. Plus the pot metal portion of the emblem is bent & split, while the plastic portion is cracked, both presumably from the collision.

Here's the inner structure where you can see the paint certainly appears factory.



Like the interior fabric, I'll chalk this up to the factory using whatever parts they had on hand at the time. Or a hungover union worker. :D
 
#7 ·
Me likey!:grin2:

I knew a few guys running around SoCal with 2 door wagons in the early 90's, they were unusual, but I didn't know how rare they were. Looks like you have a great starting point. I like your thoughts of an original car, with a little added motivation. I'll watch.

I doubt you'll need it, but having had a 64 for nearly 30 years, I have a lot of little bit of this and that kicking around. My son has hit my stash hard over the last 6 years or so, but if you need something specific I may have it.

Devin
 
#8 ·
Me likey!:grin2:

I knew a few guys running around SoCal with 2 door wagons in the early 90's, they were unusual, but I didn't know how rare they were. Looks like you have a great starting point. I like your thoughts of an original car, with a little added motivation. I'll watch.

I doubt you'll need it, but having had a 64 for nearly 30 years, I have a lot of little bit of this and that kicking around. My son has hit my stash hard over the last 6 years or so, but if you need something specific I may have it.

Devin

Devin,

Thanks for checking out my thread. I've followed your builds from the beginning. :thumbsup:

I happen to be looking for a set of straight front inner bumper brackets & a set of parking lamps. :D PM me if you have anything!
 
#10 ·
If you haven't already, you should join the Rarewagons group on Facebook. The group is ONLY about Chevelle 2-door wagons. At the very least, the group can be helpful in chasing down parts.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/rarewagons/?ref=bookmarks
Rich,

I don't do social media, but I made my GF join that group a couple of years back when I found the wagon. She posted a pic of it on there awhile ago. I usually take her laptop & scroll through that group once a week or so.

:thumbsup:
 
#13 ·
Thanks for sharing your awesome find & ideas. I hear you on delays due to health, I broke my wrist badly at the end of '17 & have had a few surgeries. Was useless until this year.

The stillborn L76 for '64 looks just like an L79 without the chrome, and basically is except for the solid lifter cam. Concept wagon perhaps? :cool:
 
#14 ·
My buddy has a 64 2 door wagon. Someone put a 65 front clip on it and then someone turned it into a drag car/wagon. Replaced the back half of the frame w/ a 4 link setup. Replaced the rear glass w/ lexan. When he goes to the track, the wagon is always the center of attention.
If I 'ever' get my hands on it, I'll put it back to stock. But I don't think he'll ever sell it.
 
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#16 · (Edited)
As disassembly continued, I started tearing the interior apart. Since I've never worked on one of these cars before, I figure why not take on the difficult tasks first, which meant removing the slider windows & the outer trim. After looking it over & looking it over some more, I posted a thread here which was helpful for the outer trim. Then I figured out on my own the thin steel strips that hold the plastic headliner retaining trim in place need to come out in order to remove the glass.

Once those strips were removed & the clips for the slider felts were popped out, the slider glass basically falls out in your hands. Not terribly difficult, but challenging to not break anything if you're unsure of the procedure. Very helpful experience for the next 2 door wagon I tear into! ;)

You can see the trim strip at the top has been removed & the glass is out.



The first of the outer trim is removed.



Channel is in very nice shape with no rust.



Clips were photographed for orientation & measurements were taken.






Once the sliders & all the outer trim was removed, the front & rear seats were next to come out.






Notice the floors are trashed up until the spot under the rear seat. Everything behind there is rust free.




Edit...Forgot to mention that while I was cleaning out the interior, I had to empty about 20 lbs of dirt & debris that collected inside. I'm not exaggerating. I forgot to snap a pic of the amount of crud that filled the garbage bin in my garage. Here are the few items that were found intact.





The Hi C can is solid tin. It was wedged in between the rear seat & the door panel.


 
#17 ·
Disassembly continued with removal of all the engine compartment items. Photos were snapped to document where everything should go back.





Once that was done, the fenders could come off. Here you can see the remains of the Chapman lock that was installed sometime back in the late 60s, I assume. Holes were punched in the drivers fender, core support, & both door jambs.






As the rest of the interior was gutted, I found some remnants of the factory rubber mat, & extensive damage to the spare tire well. Doesn't look like rust to me, almost more like the metal was torn. Someone screwed in a primitive patch.





 
#18 ·
When I got the car up to Vegas, it was obvious the entire floor needed to be replaced. Was equally clear that block sanding the roof & detailing the under carriage would be much easier if I could spin the car upside down. With that in mind I began scouring Craigslist in search of a rotisserie. Local Vegas CL is pretty much a wasteland when it comes to old car parts & much of anything else, so I always expand my search to most of the Southwest.

I found a few promising ads, but either my work schedule isn't cooperative or the sellers are asking $1500 for decent rotisseries. A few weeks after getting the car up here, I spot one in Phoenix being advertised for $750. Things line up & I take a road trip to pick it up. After a a lot of friendly BSing with the seller & little haggling, I talk him down to $650. He helps me load it up & I'm on my way back to Vegas. Took me 7 hours & about $100 in gas, but it was totally worth it. :thumbsup:

About a month after that, the body is ready to come off the frame so we bring it back down to my buddy's shop to make use of the lift again. After removing the doors, I almost lost a finger trying to remove the tension spring of the tailgate.:angry: Note to self, read the manual or ask in advance before removing a tailgate. :wacko:

Pretty soon it was time to lift the body off, mount it to the rotisserie, & send it on its way to the media blaster.





When it got to the blaster, I realized I forgot to remove & document this Fisher Body tag that was in place under the headliner.


A few days later the owner of the blast shop sent me some updates. A few surprises in the qtrs, but not much damage to speak of. Everything else was rust free & in great shape. After these pics, he blasted away all the filler.






Here she is ready for the ride home.
 
#19 ·
The day the flatbed picked up the body for the ride home, I dropped off the rest of the body parts, fenders, hood, etc. About a week later I had them all back in my garage with the body shell. The blaster did an awesome job. Did the inside & outside of every panel with the exception of the inside of the hood skin & the inside of the roof. I was thrilled with the work, worth every penny of the $1500 (that prices includes the frame) he charged. Another guy in town quoted me $1400 just to blast the outside of the shell without any panels or the frame. :rolleyes:

Here's what I have to work with.

Mud in the qtrs was thin, other than the area near the bumper. They got crunched a little when the car was hit in the tailgate.




Door jambs & rear floors are nice & clean. Although the rear cargo floor looks like it had a tough life. It's going to be fun trying to get that straightened up.







Both fenders & the passenger door, & the hood could be NOS.





Drivers door had a little parking lot damage, but nothing major.


You can see how careful the blaster was on the inside of the hood.

Here's a better look at the damage to the spare tire well.
 
#20 ·
Very cool wagon Pete !

I like the pure stock look, but will you still put an OD trans in it like a TKO 600 ?

Can't believe even the vent window chrome looks good. The engine compartment is beautifully unmodified !

What about painting it black ? It's straight as an arrow.
 
#21 ·
Black & silver are the two exterior color options I have in my head. Reason being, I've already decided this car is 100% going back to a stock Chevelle 300 interior. However, the only 3 interior choices available for 300's in '64 are cloth/vinyl combos in blue, tan, or red. The red is the flashiest of the 3 & the sharpest looking, IMO. So with that in mind, black/red or silver/red work best together.

A 5 speed would be nice, but aesthetically doesn't fit the period correct theme I'm aiming for. Believe me I've already had several internal debates with myself on this issue & several others including disc brakes. That topic hasn't been settled yet either.
 
#28 ·
The tailgate was pretty rough from the collision, too beat up for my meager body skills. Luckily, my dad happened to be passing through Vegas right after I got it back from blasting, so he was kind enough to take it home to work his magic. I have to say he's a much better body man than he is a photographer.

This is what he started with. You can see there's a bunch of holes someone drilled to pull with a slide hammer.


He welded them up & used his pry tools & stud gun to pull the panel straighter.




Here in Vegas, I started on the other panels.

After spraying epoxy on everything but the shell, I began metal working on the drivers door. It had some minor parking lot dings & other small issues that looked like it was from the factory. It barely needed a skim coat of finishing glaze in a few spots when I was done.



Here's the passenger fender & door in epoxy




Since there are about 8-10 holes all over the car that were punched out from the installs of a Chapman lock & a dealer added A/C unit, I bought two packs of round sheetmetal plugs from Speedway that come in different sizes & thicknesses.

Here's the drivers fender welded up & ground down from the backside. I either neglected to take a pic of the outside or I can't seem to find it.


Too late now, the fender has been primed & blocked. First with epoxy, then poly primer.


Same thing with the hood.

In the meantime, my dad dropped off the tailgate & I primed & blocked it as well.



The primed & blocked passenger fender & door pics are nowhere to be found, but rest assured, they are in the same stage as the others. They required minimal effort to get them straight. With that said, all the unboltable panels are ready for final urethane priming. Can't believe I'm saying this, but the body work been a breeze thus far. It feels like cheating to have panels this nice. ;)
 
#29 ·
Spectacular condition speciman to start with Pete! Sure wish that the two door wagons I have owned were that complete & solid. That spare tire well damage almost appears to have been from running over something that kicked up and through, possibly?

Great to hear that your plans include maintainig a stock appearance beyond the drivetrain. Although my son disagrees, I absolutely love the simple look of the 300 trim interior & exterior, and agree that you don't many of them! I may decide someday to revert my own wagon back to something closer to factory, but we're really enjoying autocrossing in its current configuration.

Best of luck on continued build progress. Great work thus far and keep the updates coming!
 
#30 ·
Thanks for checking in Augie! :thumbsup: I've always admired how low your wagon sits. Believe me, sometimes I change my mind daily on what direction I want this project to go. ;)
 
#32 ·
Glad to see the build thread!.....:thumbsup:

Now that I've actually met you and seen the wagon, this thread becomes much more interesting. Keep up the good work and the thread.

I really like the direction you've gone with this build. L79 version that the factory SHOULD have built, with stock exterior and more importantly (to me anyway), stock 300 interior!

Looking forward to the finished product. Might just have to come back out to Vegas to see it in person.....:cool:
 
#35 ·
Ok, it's time for some updates. Just because the thread has been quiet, doesn't mean I haven't been busy.

After dropping the body off to the blaster back in April, I had to get the frame ready for blasting soon after. First step was pressure washing it to remove most of 50 years worth of desert crud. The rolling chassis was still at my buddy's shop & one of his guys was bored at lunchtime.



Even with him getting most of the grime off, the amount of petrified grease left on the suspension parts was amazing. Here's a couple of shot of the controls arms, after I began chipping it away with a screwdriver.






My plan was to remove the front suspension & leave the rear axle in place so it was still moveable with the front crossmember on a dolly. We figured out a way to rig it to a tow dolly for the short ride over to the blaster. He had a small lift to get underneath & cleaned it up where it looked freshly welded at the plant. The frame came home & sat one on side of my garage while I concentrated on the body panels.

Body work starts to get old & the Vegas summer heat was starting kick in, so my plan was to move the body off the rotisserie on to a makeshift body cart. I took the idea from Rich L79s wagon page & it worked out great. $40 for 4 giant cooking oil barrels, $100 for barrel dollies, & $20 for 2 4 x 4's & voila. I had to cut the barrels down so the car would clear my 8 foot garage ceilling, but I can move the shell around with minimal effort by myself.

Once that was done, I began the process of setting the frame up on the rotisserie so I could begin prepping it for paint. I unbolted the rear arms & rear spring clamps & set the 10 bolt on dollies & easily rolled it out of the way.









Here's remnants of the factory inspection marks on the spring perches.





 
#36 ·
When the frame went to the blaster, I also left him the front control arms, sway bar, front springs, and other various parts.

Once they came home it was time to remove all the bushings & the ball joints. I got to work on the arms before swapping the body on to the cart & the frame on the rotisserie.

Here's one of the uppers before I drilled out the rivets.



Here's all the original GM parts before I sent them on their way to the trash bin. It's too bad there's no way to restore the ball joints.



After the bushings were pressed out, the front arms were prepped & ready for paint. It's so nice working on southwest pit free metal.




Fast forward again & with the frame in place on the rotisserie it was time to remove the 3 speed linkage bracket that was welded in place.



Here's it is after I ground down the remaining weld & spread a little body putty. It's all sanded flat & ready for paint.



Here's some details of the frame & you can see how clean the steel is.

Original GM part number. Dated 8/29/63.



Some random stamped number



A couple of days later it was time for paint. The frame on the rotisserie didn't want to spin completely on it's side, so I devised a plan to spin it 1/4 of a turn in each direction in order to spray the top & bottom.




Meanwhile the UPS guy showed up with all of the pieces to rebuild the suspension components.



Most parts are still Made in the USA. All the bushings, ball joints, idler arm, tie rods, etc. Unfortunately AC Delco shocks are not. :rolleyes: I'm considering reusing the original center link.

Forgot to take pics of the front arms when I sprayed them, but here's how the frame looks with the rebuilt uppers loosely mounted in place.




Here's a shot of the original GM control arm bump stop reinstalled.

 
#37 ·
Good to see a clean majorly rust free car getting redone. Big thumbs up for the effort, and the ride along for the restoration.

:thumbsup:
 
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