While we finished Betsy, we drove the Wagon
everywhere, enjoying the thrill of the classic hot rod.
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The Wagon went to several shows, including the 2006 Fair Oaks Baptist
Church show.
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Even beside Betsy, the wagon looked fine, from 20 feet away.
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Kurt installed a new custom wiring harness.
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The new harness waiting to be connected. The old dash clock was removed
and a 327 logo inserted into its place.
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For his birthday, Kurt received the rear sway bar and attachment parts.
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Kurt even challenged a friend to a race at Old Dominion Speedway in
2007. The black '56 has a 454 big block. Betsy came alone as well.
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Kurt and his friend Ernie waiting to race.
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They lined up at the tree and waited. The 327 in the wagon beat the
454 2 out of 3 runs that evening. The black '56 needed better rubber
to hook up instead of just spinning at the line.
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Not content with the horsepower, Kurt replaced
the somewhat stock cam (left), with a new Voodoo cam (right).
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He also replaced the rockers with roller rockers, trying to squeeze
every last horse and foot pound of torque out of this small block.
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One very messy, odd looking engine bay. Kurt removed the radiator, fan,
water pump, and timing cover to replace the cam, rather than pull the
engine.
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Kurt took the wagon to multiple Test and Tune
nights at Old Dominion Speedway, and a few actual Friday race nights.
There is a problem with horsepower - it breaks parts. Over the course
of 2 summers, he ripped out the U-joints, ripped the rear spring perches
off the rear axle by breaking the welds, twisted off a rear axle, and
shredded the rear transmission mount causing the distributor cap to
hit the firewall and shatter. So his answer was to fix the U-joints
and add driveshaft loops, reweld the spring perches and add heavier
duty shackle bolts, install Moosier axles, and chain the engine after
replacing the trans mount and the distributor cap.
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The broken welds on the rear spring perch.
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A better picture of the broken spring perch. How's
that for torque?
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Racing at Old Dominion - again.
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This old grocery getter holds it own against many that day, including
this late model Mustang.
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For Christmas 2008, Kurt received the rocker panel replacement pieces
and the brace ends for the main body brace. Unlike Betsy, the Wagon's
main brace was solid, except for the ends that generally rusted out.
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The best time ever for this old grocery getter: 9.2 seconds in the 1/8
mile. The best speed was 79mph.
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Back to the track at Old Dominion in 2009. Kurt tries to warm up the
rubber in the burnout box, but the horsepower overpowered the linelock.
It didn't matter, he still beat our friend's 1986 Trans Am. Wagon 9.6
in the 1/8 mile; TA 10.5.
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And just for fun, Michelle raced the 2005 Dodge Ram tow vehicle against
the Wagon. Not surprisingly, the hot rod beat the truck, but not by
much. Afterall, everyone wants to race the truck. Wagon 9.5 in the 1/8
mile; Dodge 10.2.
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