Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone!

I started spreading Everglass over the welded areas today. Got sidetracked by the phone and lunch with Kathy and my niece or I'd have more done ...at least that's my excuse. The doors are all gapped and adjusted so that a small amount of filler along the edges should make them look nice and even. I drilled a couple of locating holes in each hinge so I can insert pins and not have to spend a bunch of time with adjustments when reassembling everything.

Hope to get the major areas worked smooth over the next few weeks. It's a tough time of year to be priming parts with 2K or other catalyzed products, but sometimes you get an unexpected warm day or two. Will have to make the most of what Mother Nature gives me, I reckon. ;)

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Vic, progress is looking good, great news on your wife, have a merry Christmas

Dwight

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Looks great! Would like to know a bit more on how you're doweling the hinges. Small roll pin at assembly?

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, Dwight, Merry Christmas to you too!
Hey John,

Nothing too exotic. After getting the doors adjusted up/down, forward/back, and in/out, I used a 1/8" aircraft drill to make two holes in the hinge and the mating surface on the door. Removed the door and then reinstalled it loosely with the bolts. I used a couple of long, 1/8" punches to line up the holes. Took me a few minutes of working the door around to get the punches in but after I had the first one, the second was no problem. I snugged up the bolts just enough to keep the hinge and door from moving around and then removed the punches and finished tightening it up. I found if I cranked down on the bolts before removing the punches they didn't want to come out. But if you go easy at first, then tighten, it works better.

Using this approach on both the upper and lower hinges, I ended up with a nearly perfect alignment when the door closed. I had to loosen the bolts on the lower hinge and pick it up very slightly to be exactly on the money. For me, the important part was to make sure when the final assembly takes place I don't scrape the door edges or the jamb. If I can get really close on the first try, I can fine tune it from there.

I'll have to do the other end of the hinge where it goes into the jamb to make sure the in/out alignment is maintained before I remove the hinges for blasting and paint. On the truck, there wasn't quite as much room in the hinge area, unless the fenders are off. IIRC, I only drilled the half of the hinge that bolted to the cowl, then winged it with the half that bolted to the door. I've never used roll pins, but I reckon they would work.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Makes sense, great tips, and thank you very much for taking the time, Vic! I'm plugging hard on the dirty old house but should be able to get my shop set up after the new year.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

The end of the year is upon us and I'm up to my ears in bodywork. Just incremental progress to report at this point. However, my goal is to be ready for paint by the first of February. This morning, I spoke with the guy I was hoping to use for final prep and paint. Unfortunately, he's behind with work he's promised and the changes he was planning for his shop haven't transpired either. I got the impression he may not be able to accommodate me so I'm starting a search for another painter. We'll see what the new year brings. Hope everyone is ready for the roaring 20's. ;)

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Looks great Vic. Happy New Year!!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Happy New Year to you and yours!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Good luck on the search, and Happy New Year to you Vic!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks guys for all the Happy New Year wishes. So far - so good!

I spoke with the owner of a shop in Iowa about my "Paint Your Wagon" situation. Unlike the local shops that specialize in custom work, they'll take in a project at any stage of completion. I clicked on their FB page and their work looks nice. Only problem is, they're booked up until late spring. My first thought was, the time frame is a deal breaker, but upon further reflection, I decided there was no reason I couldn't modify my work flow to fit their schedule. So I called them back and have a place in line.

What I'll do is complete all the body work and then paint areas like the firewall, door jambs, inner fenders and dash. I can go ahead and build the exhaust system, hang the EFI gas tank and rear mounted battery box, run brake and fuel lines, build the console and a host of other tasks. I'll set the body on the chassis and take it to them when they're ready. That way, all they really need to finish out are the exterior panels. They said it would be no problem to mask the chassis and etc. If I do my part correctly, it should turn out okay.

I've been making progress on the body panels as you can see from the photos. The firewall is pretty well done as well as the outer door skins, the tailgate and the jamb areas on the driver side. Still a long way to go. I've already used up almost 3 gallons of filler. Most of it ends up as dust in the trash can. My arms and shoulders are getting a workout.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Sounds like a great plan! Love the work - that wagon is going to look great with paint!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Solid progress, Vic! Did they estimate a turn-time for you?

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, John. No way for them to know exactly how long it will take since they don't have an accurate estimate of how much work it will be for them. I described what my plans were and the owner, Mike, sounded like it wouldn't be a big deal. That said, what I think is needed versus what he sees when he gets it in the shop may be two different things.

He has four guys working for him and is the type that won't schedule a vehicle in for work until he has the resources to work on it. So I'm hopeful that it won't land in paint jail. Right now they're working on a couple of fairly involved builds, which is why I think he was reluctant to give me a specific start date. Maybe in a couple of months he'll have a better idea of where he stands.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

I'm still banging away on the body work. Other than the roof, most of what's left are the nooks and crannies. I did spend a couple of days on other stuff like test fitting the A/C evaporator and reinstalling trim on the rear seats now that they're back from the upholstery shop.

The A/C kicked my butt a little. In my zeal to smooth out the firewall, I made a tactical error by closing up the area where the heater core originally sat. The A/C bracket that mounts the unit to the firewall has a tab on it that's meant to swing out thru the original large opening. With the opening blocked off, I was unable to fit the evaporator under the dash. So to fix the situation, I cut the tab off, welded in a couple of studs and then reinstalled the tab once the evaporator was in place. It's easiest to use the speaker opening in the dash to thread the nuts on, so I need to remember to get the evaporator in place early in the assembly process.

I plan to use the Vintage Air control panel instead of modifying the stock levers so I closed up the opening in the dash. I also modified the area where the radio sits to accept the center vents.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Adapt and overcome. Seats look nice!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

seats look awesome!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, John!
Thanks, Chip, new color on the firewall and interior of the black truck looked great when I was over with Boppa the other day. Like you, I'd appreciate some good painting weather instead of this single digit crapola.

The brown truck showed up today with new fenders for the wagon. I dug the originals out of storage a couple of weeks ago and decided the effort to repair them wouldn't be worth it. The areas around the headlight bezels needed a LOT of attention as well as places I'd previously patched. Summit had a great deal on the Danchuk fenders, so I popped for them and will swap meet the OEM stuff. Unfortunately, the new RH fender had a really ugly fold in it so it went back. Spent about a half hour on the phone with a nice lady at Summit CS. She handled the claim number the UPS driver gave me as well as placed the order for the replacement fender. Always something.

I got the rear inner wheelwells smoothed out and ready for upholstery - not that that will happen anytime soon. I also rigged up a hinged cover to allow access to the EFI pump in the fuel tank. Not gonna get hung out to dry like I did with my last project.

I contacted a company about doing spray chrome on the grille bar. I'm also waiting to hear from a local sign shop that does wraps to see if they think they can do chrome vinyl on it. I'm concerned that the fine detail around the emblem in the center may be beyond the limits of the material. That said, the guys that work with that stuff do some amazing things. We'll see what they have to say.

Monday is predicted to be a bit warmer so I'm hoping I can get Feather Fill on some of the pieces. I have about an hour of work left on the rear hatch and the body work should be complete... except for stuff I've probably overlooked.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

I tell ya man, you are on whole nuther' lever Vic. Every time I come and check in I'm amazed at the cleanliness of your work. Thanks for posting what it should look like!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Wow, it's been a while since I've been on here, but you've done quite a bit! Looks like nice work Vic. Keep it up!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Love seeing updates here. I'll have to Google spray chrome. I can't think a wrap would fly, but like you, I'm always amazed by that stuff!

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Looking great Vic.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, Brian. When you're old and retired you can dink around until you get it the way you want. ;)
Hey Duane, I need to make some progress if we're going to make the TriFive Nationals in August.
Thx, John. After talking with the guy that does the wraps, I decided to go with the spray chrome. He'd never actually done chrome vinyl and I was concerned some areas of the bar might present a steep learning curve. So the grille bar has been at the spray chrome place since last week. No word yet on when it will be done, but he sounded like he preferred to collect several pieces before firing up the equipment. Said it takes an hour to get the equipment to the right temperature to spray and then two hours to clean up, so it's more cost effective to do multiple jobs. Speaking of which, he said it costs him 48 cents per second when he pulls the trigger.
Thanks, Dale.

I was able to lay down some Feather Fill and 2K primer recently. Still a lot left to do, but now I can block a bunch of stuff when it's cold outside. I'm deep in the middle of that right now. I anticipate more nice days in March so it won't be long until it's all one color... gray!

Kathy and I went to the World of Wheels show last weekend and talked with one of the owners of Hot Rod Express in Blue Springs. Their shop is only 25 miles from the house. He seemed enthusiastic about doing the paint and was willing to take it over when I felt it was ready. We went to their shop on Tuesday and got the nickel tour. They provide a full range of services - fabrication, mechanical, paint and body, upholstery, transport and etc. We're tentatively setup to deliver the car to him by the end of March and they'll do the final blocking, paint and cut / buff. I think this will work out better than hauling it all the way up to Iowa, especially since the earliest they could get me in was late spring.

Fingers crossed this works out.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Good luck with it Vic...its looking good

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

Thanks, Greg. Hope to have it looking even better in the coming weeks.

Re: 57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'
 

It's looking great Vic. I'm looking forward to seeing how the grill bar comes out. The spray chrome is interesting me.