Original picture from Ebay auction document the
original condition. Ain't she pretty?
|
Body built in St. Louis, assembled in California,
and finally sold on Ebay from Vermont to a Virginia home, this old wagon
has traveled a lot. Kurt wanted a car and located this one on Ebay.
Rough, but definitely restorable, even if part of the rust is hidden.
|
The only EBay documented rust spot. Just due to the nature of the '56
body, we expected rust elsewhere. For a
door, this is unusual and made us suspect an earlier restro. There is
some bubbling on a rocker.
|
Overall the car doesn't look too bad, missing
stainless, fake Cragers and all. But Crager's on a wagon? What's under
the hood?
|
We expected the usual rocker panel rust, probably
putty filled by this time, but there is no paint bubbling that we can
detect from the pictures.
|
The headliner was surprisingly good shape with
the dark spots in this photo being merely shadows. Kurt suspected that
it had been replaced several years ago.
|
The door panels showed wear, but the seats looked
in great shape. Again, he suspected they had been recovered, because
while it looks stock, the white vinyl should be the Star Frost and the
turquiose should be cloth - most likely. We will have to research the
wagon specifics.
|
Front of the car, as seen on Ebay. The bumper
is obviously tweaked and has minor rust. The parking lights have the
usual rust, but the headlights look solid.
|
The original treadlevac power brakes are still
on the car.
|
Ok, that air cleaner has got to go. This is a
'56 Chevy, not a ricer. This was the original 265 ci motor, Edelbrock
intake, with a oversized 4brl carb.
|
The original powersteering box still hanges off
the back of the heavy duty generator.
|
The dash area looks ok, except for the stainless
piece on the passenger side that doesn't match the rest. And of course
the cracked steering wheel and black column.
|
The tailgate area looked good.
|
Another shot of the original car. She's a good
25' car - looks great from 25 feet away.
|
The wagon arrived in VA in the worst snowstorm
of the season.
|
Storms seemed to plague our first few years
with this car. First the snowstorm arrival of the car, later the transmission
arrived during a hurricane, and the engine was picked up in a flood
zone, just after a flood would trouble the early stages of road worth
rebuilding.
|
Now we start "The Work". The car looked
great from 25 feet away, but you wouldn't believe how rough it was underneath
that pretty image.
|
The missing stainless piece is inside the car.
Once we got the car into the garage and dried off, it still didn't look
too bad. Oxidized paint, tarnished stainless, the usual rust pits on
the old chrome, but easily a driveable car. And with Betsy off the road,
this would become our "fun" car.
|
A slightly more detailed picture of the rust
on the passenger door. Even Betsy, with all her bottom side rust didn't
have rust through in the small triangle. If/when we do an off-body on
the Wagon, we expect to find major problems here.
|
Front driver floorboard is ready for Fred Flinstone
stopping. Considering that the original Treedle Vac brakes didn't work,
we just might have to.
|
Passenger floorboard is worse. This will need
to be fixed before driving.
|
Even the back passenger side had to be fixed.
|
The tailgate has problems, but Kurt fixed that
too.
|
The "original" 265 engine, later model
heads, and Edelbrok intake, carb and air cleaner.
|
The original leaking Treedle Vac power brake system.
It has lots of gunk inside and probably hasn't been rebuilt or replaced.
No wonder it is leaking.
|
As suspected the inner rocke panels are rotted out. The outer rocker
panels are probably more putty than metal at this point.
|
The passenger side front fender well.
|
Another picture of the originl interior.
|
When we later tried to remove the front fenders
for easier access to the engine bay, we found the front fender welded
to the rocker panel with a layer of body filler to smooth the joint.
Kurt had to use a cutting disc to cut through the putty and weld so
the fender could be removed.
This confirmed our suspicions of earlier work
done that is probably hiding rust and other damage
.
|
Cleaned up and looking good just 4 months after
purchase. And most of all, driveable!
|
Kurt and his new pride and joy. Ain't she pretty?
|
A little wax and polish did an excellent job.
|
Ok, so the wheels are not correct. They were borrowed from his wife's
stock '56 as the tires on the Cragers were too worn to be safe. Of course
Kurt fixed that as soon as possible.
|
New carpet in the back.
|
We even took it to a cruise-in, despite its rough
shape.
|
Later, when we pulled the headlight buckets, we found copper paint.
The codes for the car listed turquois. This pretty much confirmed our
suspicions of a previous paint job.
|
