Now that all the glass is in, we can get back to her jewelry. The tailgate handle is correct, for the first time since we have owned the car.
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One working tailgate and lift gate almost done. We are missing a couple of bumpers for the lift gate.
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Say "Awwwwwww".
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Original pieces cleaned up and reinstalled for now. All spare cash is being saved for the interior, since these are easy to replace later. Madmooks is working on the cargo stainless strips for the wagon and the plan is to order these pieces with the cargo stainless.
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The Madmooks stainless installed and looking sharp.
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The rear seat back latch was installed.
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The door locks were installed on the doors . . .
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and the body.
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Remember the firewall issue with the wiper motor? The solution was to add the Raingear wiper system that mounts under the dash. This is the top of the box, mounted off the wiper estucheon on the driver side, behind the speedometer housing.
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The passenger estucheon.
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Our only complaint is that you can see the body of the motor below the dash, but then the new fuse panel is there as well, so it could be worse.
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The taillights were prepped for installation.
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The passenger taillight was installed first. The blue tape helped to hold the rubber gasket in place during installation. This is the taillight that we used to fit during the body work. It's a Gene Smith so it should be good, right?
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The driver side fit terribly. It is actually too small for the original body lines! Due to the gas cap mechanism, we had not used it during the body work to prevent the dust from getting into the mechanism. Both Gene Smith's had fit Betsy so well that we didn't suspect any issues with the new pair of taillights. You could actually get a finger between the taillight bottom and the bottom edge of the mounting area! We did some quick searching and will probably be replacing these with the Danchuck versions. Live and learn.
Evidently there are 2 different bodies for the Chevys. Depending on which plant your Chevy was made in, either the Gene Smith or the Danchuck taillight will fit better. It's expensive to try both, but that may be the only solution..
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The door locks were reinstalled, after we found the gaskets again. Parts kept getting lost, slowing us down.
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The steering column was repainted white.
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Wiring the steering column is always tricky due to the limited space.
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One rebuilt and reconditioned steering column ready for installation,
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So I put down the camera long enough to help with the steering column and someone had to get a picture of the photographer.
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The steering column went in fairly easily, with minimal fussing with the gasket at the firewall.
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As we put in the speedometer cluster, the bottom stabilizer bar broke. It is just pot metal. And yes, the chrome is pitted. Short on funds and out of time, a new speedo cluster just went onto the Christmas list. For now, JB Weld will work.
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We started putting in the turn signal cancellation nibs and could not find the spring. So we made one out of two ball point pen springs. Rednecks!.
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Two sets of '56 Chevy taillight assemblies. On the left is Danchuck. On the right is Gene Smith. You judge.
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The new Danchuck taillights fit the fenders - both of them - perfectly. We could even use the thin side of the taillight gasket as there was no large gap to cover.
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The passenger taillight fits very well.
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And a massive improvement in the driver side. No more finger sized gap.
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Now that the Wagon is almost complete, time to start her up and clean the garage. We couldn't work without getting very dirty and did not want to get anything on the soon to arrive new interior.
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Her first trip out of the garage in months - years as a complete car. Well almost complete. The hood is sanded and ready for spraying but the weather has been uncooperative.
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Her smile is missing. The bumpers are sitting in the garage waiting on installation - and a clean floor for us to work on.
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The stainless side trim is sitting sanded, ready for buffing and reinstallation. She looks almost naked without it..
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The Cragers still look good.
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The Wagon received it's first bath, both to test for water leaks on the windows and to get rid of the dust.
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While Kurt washed the Wagon, the photographer was in back scrubbing the garage floor. The camera was handed off temporarily to a friend.
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It's a shame that all that pretty stainless is hidden with the liftgate and tailgate closed.
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