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Thought I'd take a moment and show you what my beautiful original sheet metal 67 VC looked like before and after the accident in November.
How it looked.
After an a-hole hit my wife after falling asleep at 1:30 in the afternoon.
I've got a new door and Desert Valley sent me a pretty decent quarter clip that will need a little work but it is usable. Of coarse, his insurance company screwed me, but if I do the work myself I should make out ahead in the end.
Here's and image of the parts I got from DV. They were not quick but very good to deal with. Left rear quarter section from Desert Valley
Here is an image of the rear bumper before and after I used a tree and press to straighten it a bit. After accident After some straightening.
So far, the bumper has been the hard thing to deal with. I just can't seem to find one and I'm not sure if this can be repaired without draining my bank account. So I'm open to any suggestions about what to do about the bumper.
My wife still comes to tears every time she sees the damage. She's thankful that the car protected her well and I keep telling her that we will get the car back better than before. The car is definitely worth saving since it has zero rust through. It's kind of an interesting car too since it is a base model yet it has the factory tach and tilt wheel.
Try looking for a 67 Buick Sportwagon rear bumper.I bought one off Ebay that was listed as a buick bumper,it was the same as my 67 vista. Hope this helps get your wagon back together and looking good.
Are wagon and 4 door rear doors the same? I have 2, still in original GM pkg, rear door edge guards that i will sell if your interested. $40 plus the ride
That's sad to see, but I'm glad your getting it fixed. Have you had the car long? The reason I ask is there was one just like that advertised on Craigslist in a neighboring town last year. Gotta love those old wagons!
Thanks everyone. I am not a body guy (more mechanical) but I'm willing to give it a try and my neighbor who has done this stuff is helping me.
We got the car last summer. Yes, I did find it on Craigslist from Oregon so it is most likely the car you are thinking about since their aren't many like it. We've had a 69 and a 72 in the past and the wife said she wanted to get rid of the new Subaru since she was getting tired of not being able to recognize it in a parking lot. So I started searching and once she saw this one, she fell in love with it.
Well it's been a long time since I gave an update on the 67 Vista Cruiser. I posted a thread on the garage fire I had last Feb. What a year it has been. I can't say enough about Liberty Mutual Insurance. I had three separate claims (Contents, Mustang and Structure) and they really came through. I didn't have to argue once about money and in the case of the Mustang, they really knocked it out of the park. So much, that I was able to get the car below and have some extra to put towards the cruiser project.
New 70 Mach 1
After the fire I threw up the white flag and decided to use a restoration shop to do the work being that I would be pretty tied up building a new garage. I used a local shop and I couldn't be happier with their work. I knew that they would be decent when I "interviewed" them and they showed me a dark green 67 Shelby that they are working on. They told me that the guy wanted to paint it red and they told him no, they were painting it green.
Here are some shots of the process: Old panel removed and wheel well straightened. They told me they have never seen a car with more spot welds.
New door blasted and fit checked.
Second quarter panel from Dessert Valley. The shop is also grafting on some of the original panel to fix minor rust areas.
New Panel on and primed.
Painted and glass installed. Just needs the final polish/buffing to be done.
The good news is that the rear bumper was able to get fixed. Check out how nice it came out (go to the top of this thread to see how the bumper looked after the accident).
Man did they do a great job on this.
Hope to get the car back in a week or two. I bought a buffer and did the trim. It came out great but man there is a lot of trim on a cruiser but what a difference it makes.
I know I must be crazy to put this much money into this car but I'm really looking forward to seeing my wife's face smile ear to ear.
One last thing. I know tire threads are all over the place but I bought a set of new 15 x 7 SSI's and could use some advice on tires selection. My friend said that 225/70/15 is how I should go. I like to have tires that fill the wheel well but with the nice new paint I sure do not want to rub either.
my first car i drove legally when i turned 16 was a 67 vc just like this,same color with woodgrain on the bottom.had the smoothest 330 i have ever seen.man i miss that car!
"Wow! Nice car. Us Michigan guys drool over rust free cars like that. Too bad about the accident and then the fire. That's a really nice Mustang too"
Thanks everyone. I live in upstate NY so I know all about rust. I got the Cruiser from Oregon so it really only saw rain. I have all of the original protecto plate and manual. The Mustang, I got from a collector who passed away and the family was selling his 40 some cars. He had a really cool collection. All old and all American but all over the place, Ford, Chevy, Olds, Pontiac, Mercury etc..
I got the roof rack all polished, man that took some time but well worth it. The nice part is that it all comes apart. Had some issues getting new Wellnuts to work for mounting it. I still might try another method. Also got the rims and tires on! I went with 5 x 7 rims and 225/70's all around.
Now if this dam winter would end, I could get to the interior!
Yes, and it would have been faster if not for the rear bumper issues. They waited a long time to weld the quarter on. They wanted to have a straight bumper to make sure it was lined up correctly. I finally told them to move forward. Then the bumper place said that they were fixing. Man they did a great job on both bumpers.
Congratulations on the revival... As we enthusiasts say, we are never down and out... Another great looking Oldsmobile destined to live for the future...
Jim your vista looks great .I also have a 67 and I"m thinking about adding a roof rack. You said you had problems with the wellnuts. What were they and what size wellnuts did you use? TONY
When I took my rack off, I pried out the old wellnuts and some got damaged and one screw was missing. So I figured that I would replace them. The original ones used are for 1/4-20.
The issue is, that you can't put the wellnut all the way in since there is another body panel about 3/8 inch from the hole in the roof. I tried trimming the wellnuts and it work decently. I was also able to reuse some of the original ones. I may try to come up with another method.
