Aron Nance

Been looking at your "book" of photos/comments today, and it is FABULOUS! What a drastic change from the get-go. I've not done near the changes on the Silver Bullet that you've done. We did box the rear control arms and add larger front/rear sway bars, plus new shocks/front end/etc. Driving from the Bowling Green Ky Nationals into North Carolina in 2007, there is about a 25 mile stretch of road through the mountains that is really curvy/up/and/down. The SB absolutely stayed level throughout all those turns, and a pretty substantial rate of speed. Just love the looks of your wagon, keep up the great work, and keep us informed.

The Stickman

Isn't it cool to be carving up corners in a big wagon? I hope to one day do a driver school/time trial road course event with my wagon and show up cars that should handle considerably better than a 80's wagon

The Stickman

Very short update. I got the trans cooler on. I will actually be running two The cylinder heatsink one plus this Perma Cool one with the fan on it. I think this one wll not only help keep the trans temp down. Not sure it was high to begin with but now that the trans is built up I don't want to take any chances. But it should also help with keeping the engine temps down due to the extra fan. I also got some work done to the fan shroud for on top of the radiator. But it's not quite finished.
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Olds64

Looking nice!

The Stickman

Ok here is the top shroud I made for the new radiator. It needs to be polished but it looks pretty good I think. I may need to move the fans a bit closer to the rad but I'm not sure at this point.
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Aron Nance

Stickman: You are having wayyyy too much fun with that wagon/sedan delivery! More Kudos for the continual engineering, and pictures that go with. I used a 2 core aluminum radiator for a heat problem w/the Silver Bullet - the tubes are (I think)1" in diameter - PRESTO/CHANGO -cooling problems gone.

The Stickman

The new rad is nice but still having some cooling issues. I need to get the fans closer. That and one fan is slower than the other so I will look through my stash to find a better one. One the highway it will run 180-190. But if I run it had it will go 210 or above. The rebuilt trans with the shift kit is taking a getting used to. It I leave it in OD it's a dog. But if I beat on it and row it through the gears it wakes up. But then she get's hotter than I like. If I put it in drive it's better than OD. I also think some of it is the new high rise Edelbrock 7111 taking away my bottom end.

The Stickman

FINALLY!!!!! I have all 4 seats in and mounted. Finally. And I have to say it makes the interior look great. I still need to put new carpet in and fix the headliner as well as other things but the seats and the way they are in the car really look cool. It has a theater style arrangement.
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Red Delta

Wow. I so want to be a proud owner of a set of these. Where can I pick up some of these bad boys. It's starting to become a need...




What a great build and pictures always rule. Very unique project. I really like it. I had my doubts about the wheels, as I liked the red/chrome, but they ended up looking great. Nice stance too.

The Stickman

Ok time for a tiny update as I haven't done much. But I did a very simple cheap mod that I thought I should pass on. I thought the rear sat a touch higher than I liked and someone from another forum let me in on a secret. Seems G-Body rear springs work in a B-Body and lower it quite nicely. It gave me anoth inch drop over my Eibachs. Not only that but it slightly softened up the ride on the front suspension. I thought they would be too weak to hold the rear up and not bounce. But it worked quite nicely. Still have to see how it corners but the ride seems great.

The Stickman

Well I finally put my Rocket Racing valve covers on. They are way heavy though which I hate but they do look good. They will probably go on the wife's car when we get an Olds engine for her car. Do mind the fact that they are all spotted, and the plug wires are all over the place. I took the pics after my carb fire.
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442garage

Richard,

This is what I am referring to. Hope I've linked this correctly.

Les

442garage

Richard,
Poster's name is LarriCroLL " Give Boyfriend Erection, " 08:37am

Les

442garage

Richard,
#53 permalink, if that helps.

Les

gearheads78

done...thanks for catching it guys

442garage

Richard,

Thank you for taking care of this! I am proud of this site and want people to enjoy it, and not be offended by unwarranted sexual pornography.

Les

agtw31

stickman,what is operatiing the tranny,a computer,or nothing.is the cable hooked up to the carb?

The Stickman

I have the lockup disconnected. Seems to run fine that way. I do have the TV cable hooked up to the carb. But that being said now that I have the shift kit I tend to do it maually alot. I get alot more out of the engine this way.

The Stickman

Well I am bored and my carb won't be done till monday so I figured why not get something done. SO I worked on getting some of the paint off of my aluminum hood. Take a look and judge for yourselves.
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To bad I am light sensitive so I couldn't drive with it stripped. It would probably blind anyone. Now this hood is 5 foot by 5 1/2 foot but is seriously lightweight. As are the hinges. These I will leave polished
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When My car is running again I think I'll throw the hood on and see what she weighs.

The Stickman

Well Christmas came early this year for me. My new swaybars arrived today. They are made by Hellwig and the front bar is from the catalog but the rear bar is a custom bend based of the old Herb Adams design but is special for the B-Body wagons. The front bar is 1 5/16th and the rear bar is 1 1/2 inches. Here are some comparison pics of the bars that were on it and the new ones. These are the rears.
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And the fronts
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And I had to install them right away. Here are some shots of the rear while it was still up in the air.
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And the front.
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The rear on the ground.
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OLD SKL 69

Sway bars look great. Bet she's going to handle much better when you get her back on the road.

The Stickman

Yea I can't wait. The front wheel bearings are bad and I was going to do Vette brakes on it so no sense in fixing the bearings if they would be changed with the new hubs. But these swaybars came up and diverted some funds so now I am short. So i am trying to sell my Fiero and the race engine for it to fund the brakes. Baby is also sitting on the 15's for the winter. Stay tuned I just ordered something equally as interesting for the wagon. Should be here next week.

The Stickman

Looky what I just got in the mail. It's a new MegaSquirt II v3.57 with wiring pigtail. I am so excited. I have been looking at their site and some of the info and videos and it seems like this will be a fairly easy conversion. Now I just need to clean up my intake to get it sent off to have the bungs welded on and drilled out for injectors and the fuel rails put on.
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omg_its_nickels

Stickman! Nice job on the car! I have a cruiser myself.. would you mind passing some advice my way about keeping these boats looking nice?

The Stickman

Well are we talking looking nice as in keeping them the way they were or improving things on them? I think the best thing I did was to take out the spare tire well. It not only looks good but I had problems scrapping it and the second one I have has a hole in it too. Now a full size spare may not fit but the space saver does quite well. I also don't like the mirrors and how far back they are so I too Fiero Mirrors and mounted them farther forward. They look right for the vehicle, give a clean look, and are cheap. Give me some specific areas you want to talk about or improve and I could talk for days. Maybe we should even start a new thread. Ways to take care of and improve your wagon. I think that all of the wagon owners here might benefit.

omg_its_nickels

Well if you don't mind me saying so, if anyone's got good advice on the topic, it's probably you judging by your pictures. I guess I should get the car to look how it is supposed to before I make any vast improvements. These things have a spot for a spare tire? I didn't know i had one, is it under the car or somethin?

The Stickman

Open your tailgate and pull on the plastic cover over the wheel well. In this pic you can see the spare tire well beneath the quarter panel.
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See the thing on the right of the rear seat?
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omg_its_nickels

o wow! I guess I learn something new every day!! What other oddities are on this thing? I noticed an infrared sensor pointing down on the dashboard above the ashtray.. what's that for? and what key do you use to open the rear left cubby? Its locked and my ignition, valet, and door lock key wont get it

The Stickman

Not sure what you are talking about on the dash but your door key should open the back cubby. Now if your key has a plastic cover on it the key won't go in far enough to open it. You need a bare metal key like your car would have had new. If it has the plastic covering just slice it off.

HARDLUCK88

i like

The Stickman

Well I bought the wife a new shifter like mine and one of the new features that are availible for these shifters is a lighted top plate. Well I decided I needed on to so I had him make me one up too. I have yet to install it but here it is.
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Pretty cool huh?

Eric Anderson

Tis pretty cool I have been meaning to ask you, have you been to the Auto Mania deal at the Allentown fairgrounds? If so is it worth the trip? I found out about it too late this year but if it's a good one I think I'll try to make down there next year.

The Stickman

Well I guess that depends on how you look at it. It's not great or huge. Not alot of Olds parts. But in't in the middle of January when there is noting car related to do. For me I am local so it's easy for me to get to. We bought so tool we needed and a pair of electric fans for me. So I guess it depends how far you have to drive and wether you are happy looking around when you may or may not find something you want.

Eric Anderson

Well it's about a 1.5-2 hr drive so it's not too bad. Like you say finding an automotive fix in the middle of january isn't easy.

The Stickman

Well time for an update. I had a water pump go and used this as an excuse to do some upgrades. I added some aftermarket fans, an stainless resivior and a better fan controller. Now I hoped to save some weight with these upgrades but with the water pump going it forced my hand. See I was running an Aluminum water pump that came with the engine I bought off Ebay. But when it came time to change it I had a hard time spending a $100 more just to go aluminum. Now the cast iron pump is 5 lbs heavier than the aluminum one. But the fans I was using were stock GM ones without the shrounds with my own custom mounts. Well the new fatermarket fans would have saved me 5lbs but since that got added back on with the cast pump It's a wash so to speak. But it does look cleaner and I think it will cool better.
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OLD SKL 69

Looks very nice. Are you going to try to bring it again to GM Carlisle? What kind of difference in handling did the sway bars make?

The Stickman

I am on the fence about Carlisle. There is also an all wagon show I would like to do but I am leaning towards the all GM show. Now about the swaybars I am not sure yet. I haven't been able to put alot of miles on them let alone spirited driving. See last year I lowered the wagon by cutting the stock F41 springs in he front and using G-body springs in the rear. The stance looked great. Then over the winter the car settled a ton. Not sure if the swaybars are inducing that or not. But it was so low I had trouble getting a jack under the frame rail with the pad removed. It looked spectacular. But it didn't handle that great. When I checked the suspension out I found the front end was firmly on the bumpstops enought to crush them. So I took those springs out and threw the EIbachs back in. I didn't like teh Eibachs before because to me they felt to soft. But I am hoping that with the stiff swaybars they will be the way to go. Also before I couldn't get in the throttle fully because the Q-jet was giving me problems. But I switched to an Edelbrock I had laying around and now I can go full throttle at will which will help off the corners. BTW to tell you how effective the swaybars are. One day I was working on the right front. That is the only corner I had jacked up and supported with a jack stand. I happned to walk around the rear of the car when I noticed something Odd. At first I didn't notice what was going on till I looked at it for a bit. Here the whole rear end raised up a couple of inches because the swaybar was trying to keep the car level. Most times you jack up the right front and the left rear gets pushed down. Now my entire rear raises up, all because the right front went up.

The Stickman

Well I think I got my cooling issue fixed. And while I was at it I finally got the new magnesium valvecovers on. I was super worried drilling into these things. I have heard horror stories when working with magnesium. Then to top it off I thing some got in my eye and I am still freaked from getting metal in my eye the last time. That and the tops of the valvecover are kinda thick so getting grommets to fit is a pain. I hope the PCV one stays in. But I finally found my oil leak. There is a puddle under the distributor behind the intake. The rear of the intake must be leaking. Anyway here are the pics.
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car_designer

I have been following this project for a while now.

This looks like a great project. The car looks good, and sounds like it drives good too.

The Stickman