'70 Vista Cruiser Project

[ent72olds]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I will hopefully be pulling in my brother's '70 VC after the holidays for a body resto! We've done much under the hood already and once the nose comes off we'll continue. I'll be posting pics throughout and be looking for advice. I'll also give the story of the car coming soon. Stay tuned!

[kartmaster]

Cool car. I've got a soft spot for the woody wagons. =)

Looking forward to reading about the progress!

[citcapp]

Great looking project. Post lots of pictures. We love pictures

[Bluevista]

The car looks really good, I'll be looking forward to the story and resto pics. I expected to see a heap of junk like mine was.

[ent72olds]

Finally got car inside this past weekend for disassembly. Started removing trim. Will start posting pics this week! Car was found locally on e-bay. Original owner's daughter was selling it. Since he passed about 10yrs ago, they continued to insure and inspect it every year. They would take it to his grave on the anny of his death every year. That's the only time it was moved other than to and from the service station yearly. She finally decided it was too much $ to keep the car. 119,000 mi. protectoplate, most of original paperwork etc. All there, even the optional hood lock!

[ent72olds]

OK...My bro and I started on his '70 VC project and I must say, so far we are pleasantly surprised! Removed all the fixed window glass and found virtually no rust. All trim came off without incident...well ...almost. There were 2 clips left on the top of the windshield moulding and I asked my brother if he wanted to give it a shot. The first was no problem. The second was accompanied by a high pitched sound. He didn't realize but I said instntly, "you just cracked it!" Sure enough...hence my other post about the windshields being interchangeable. He wasn't too upset. He kind of wanted a new glass anyway! I'll have a pro remove the glass this weekend. May not remove the skylights. Channels look super clean, and I rather not risk it if I don't have to. The rear qtr glasses will have to come out for sure due to some rust. Took some pics of the action so far on the right side of the car. Car has add-on air-condition in the rear wheel area. Dogleg is gone. I found patch panels from opgi. Don't look great, but we'll make do. Floor board on pass side is spotless. Amazing for a northeast, island car! Also posted some pics of motor after de-grease(car did not run when purchased) then after I "spruced it up". Runs like swiss time! Stay tuned!!!

[ent72olds]

Here are more photos!

[projectheaven]

Wow!! The engine looks great.How did you get it looking so nice?

[ent72olds]

Lot of elbow grease, patience and took most everything off. Once the nose comes off the car, we'll do the lower half of the motor, frame rails, suspension, rad suppt, etc...thanks for the compliment! By the way, I thought the video of your Cut was pretty cool. I checked it out a couple of weeks ago Heaven.

[Bluevista]

Looking good! The engine is beauteous, couldn't even tell it had a new carb and four barrel manifold before.

It is amazing the roof channels aren't rusted out. Mine had good roof channels, it was garaged and from out west but you have to be a little lucky because they can be bad from anywhere. The quarters always seem to go after the side window sill channels rust through and the water gets down in there.
I noticed the car has dual exhaust, just installed duals on my '71 and it makes a big difference.
Air conditioner mounted in the back? I've never seen one of those, or is the hole the air conditioning?

[ent72olds]

Yeah, we put duals on it with an H-pipe and it made a world of difference. I have a '65 Vista that I put duals on and no H, I wish I had. And yes, it has "Northeast Air Conditioning" rot holes! By the way, I went on the Woodgrain For Wagons website and seems the closest color to this car is birtch! Anyone ever see different?

[rcwjr]

Engine looks good. What intake manifold did you put on the engine? Did you change the cam?
Ron

[Eric Anderson]

It's looking great! Gotta love the Vistas. I was wondering when you fix the rust are you going to redo the woodgrain? I was just wondering how you would even go about that. Keep up the great work.

[ent72olds]

We went with a edelbrock performer 350...no cam all stock we didn't open up the motor. We only did enough to get it running. Thought about doing more ,but once we got it running, it ran so nice, we decide it wasn't necessary at this time. Yes, we would like to put the wood back, if we can get it. amh555 turned me on to woodgrain4wagons and we're going to get a sample from them. As far as putting it on well...

[NAS Backyard]

Cool project, we had a 65 Buick Sport Wagon when I was a kid, I loved that 3rd seat and the roof windows. I need an H pipe on my 69 RR now that you mentioned it.

[Eric Anderson]

Originally Posted by ent72olds

Yes, we would like to put the wood back, if we can get it. amh555 turned me on to woodgrain4wagons and we're going to get a sample from them. As far as putting it on well...

Nice, be sure to take lots of pics , it would be cool to see how it's done.

[ent72olds]

Pulled the rear side glass and windshield out but after removing all the trim, elected to leave the tinted vista glass in! It looked very good around the roof glass and we felt it wasn't worth risking. The side glass revealed some damage though! Not very surprising. After stripping and blasting the rough areas, the holes revealed themselves. I figured I wasn't going to get away without a little welding in these areas! I posted some photos of the swiss cheese. We were very happy to find the cowl area (base of windshield) and windshield pinchweld almost pristine Got lucky I guess! Next will be the welding of the holes, and stripping of the roof...I will post more soon! To be continued...

[ent72olds]

Pics of the cowl and windshield pinch!

[marcar1993]

That's a nice looking wagon there. Are you going to repaint it yourself? Can't wait to see more updates.
Btw, what is the url for the woodgrainforwagons site? I need some for my (non-olds)wagon. I need it to match perfectly too, cause I need to fix just one 1/4 panel(and I can't find the woodgrain my dad bought straight from chrysler years ago to fix it, D'OH)

[ent72olds]

Very sweet Satellite yourself! I do like the '70's mopar wagons...my parents had a '71 T&C wagon when I was a kid! Yes, I will be painting it myself. Hope to have more pics of progress in the next day or so. This is the site for the woodgrain...good luck... www.woodgrain4wagons.com

[marcar1993]

Thanks, my grandparents had one in the 70's too, this one.
Thanks for the url, but they don't seem to have anything for mopars. I'll email them.
I'd love to see your wagon. Not to many wagons still living.

[ent72olds]

Well, we've been working when we get the time and I'm happy to say that the roof and window channels (except vista glass) are stripped, holes patched and welded and bodywork done. We decided the factory leaded seams (and there are a lot on this roof) were pretty nasty. They were wavy and it looked like they were finished in 36 grit before being painted. So we went ahead and smoothed them all out. The back of the roof above the tailgate was also very wavy so we took care of that! Also fixed a couple of dents in roof. We'll get it in primer this weekend then we will work on straightening the rear bumper before we remove it and send out for re-chrome. Tailgate will also come off next and be stripped. I bought a couple of dogleg and wheelwell sections from DVAP that I'm waiting on to replace the rotted ones on the car now...until next time!!!

[ent72olds]

A couple more pics!

[Bluevista]

I had to do the same with the lead on mine, maybe the same guys did it, the left side was much nicer than the right. The transitions weren't very good and I think they sand it with 36 grit too. There are several panels that make up that roof and there's lead all over the place. Mine was the same way above the tailgate on that arch, they just get it sort of close, the line across the roof in the back waved all over the place. The spoiler covers it all and nobody would ever see it, but that isn't the point.

[ent72olds]

You sound like me Allan! I figure I'll fix it even though the average guy doesn't notice it...how many of these things were sold new like that?, but if it looks good enough for me, I know it'll look good enough to anyone else.

[Techmaven]

Nice Vista. What did you do with the original manifold and carb?

[ent72olds]

sitting on the garage floor...

[ent72olds]

Well, we finally got the roof masked and into primer and surfacer today. Next on the hit list will be the tailgate! Here are today's progress pics!

[66f85deluxewagon]

Very cool wagon! I'm looking forward to restoring my 1966 F-85 wagon!

I'm curious. What type of primer did you spray onto the bare metal? I usually use epoxy primer and then surfacer over that. I heard somewhere the self etching primer is best over bare metal but I think that stuff is very expensive.

[ent72olds]

Thanks for the kind words! The red primer is an etch. Spies Hecker 3255. I suppose it could be expensive depending on what your're comparing it to. When you plan on doing your '66 , the car is too nice to skimp on the paint job.(within reason of course!) I'll be sticking with one complete system when I paint this. The surfacer is Spies Hecker 5310.

[Bluevista]

Originally Posted by 66f85deluxewagon

Very cool wagon! I'm looking forward to restoring my 1966 F-85 wagon!

I'm curious. What type of primer did you spray onto the bare metal? I usually use epoxy primer and then surfacer over that. I heard somewhere the self etching primer is best over bare metal but I think that stuff is very expensive.

Epoxy primer direct to metal is fine as long as the steel has tooth for it to grab on to. Self etching was developed for newly stamped or smooth untouched sheet metal and uses a chemical acid bond.

[66f85deluxewagon]

Thanks for the info.

[ent72olds]

We disassembled the tailgate and pulled it off the car this weekend. Word of advice, take plenty of pics and notes. The dual action is a pretty intense set up, especially the swing-out hinge spring on the left side. Overall, very good shape w/only minor welding needed! Sand blasted the inside shell on the bottom to be sure. Stripped the woodgrain off with heatgun and razor blade. Here are some pics.

[ent72olds]

We stripped the outside of the taigate and did find a few dents under the woodgrain and the bottom edge was very wavy from the factory so I filed the bottom edge where it will only need a tight wipe of filler and picked and filed the dents with the help of my uni-spotter to get them very close. Only thing left is a tight wipe and some primer and surfacer. We also "unearthed" a pretty big rot hole in the bottom of the rt rear qtr behind the bumper and under the taillight. Will tend to that next.

[ent72olds]

My father discovered that it is a much neater job to remove the woodgrain w/ the heat gun and just pull with your fingers. I did the tailgate with gun and razor blade and it left the sticky glue behind. His way w/out tools took the woodgrain off totally clean, no glue left behind!

[joe_padavano]

Originally Posted by ent72olds

My father discovered that it is a much neater job to remove the woodgrain w/ the heat gun and just pull with your fingers. I did the tailgate with gun and razor blade and it left the sticky glue behind. His way w/out tools took the woodgrain off totally clean, no glue left behind!

Use precleaner solution (such as Prep-Sol) to dissolve the residual adhesive with no collateral damage.

[citcapp]

good lookin work. Body work is something I am just starting to pick up. The pictures posted and the detail help guys like me understand the challenges ahead of us

[ent72olds]

Thanks for the kind words! I'll keep it coming!

[Bluevista]

Looking good, I think all those tailgates are wavy from the factory.

[a64olz]

Nice work Erik, I just finished the same type of work on my gate, glad to get that done.