Chops

Chops
Originally uploaded by Lovewine
I've neglected this site since it's inception. There are so many things that have happened to the wagon since July 2005. I guess I should start at the beginning.

Once Paul dropped the 330 off and it became mine...it was time to get to work. The motor was a, Canadian only, 313 connected to a pushbutton auto 727 torqueflite transmission. The motor wasn't running and had been sitting for almost 20 years. The 1st order of biz was to get the thing to roll over. With a large socket and breaker bar on the crank I managed to get the parts moving without too much difficulty. We pulled the starter off the parts car and added a battery to see if we could get a spark. After various messing around there was no spark to found. Too bad....a numbers matching 313 would have been cool but..... So it was decided that Pat's 318 out of the '67 Polara would be the donor. All I wanted to do was get this thing on the road and drive it. The engine swap was to take place at Chris' shop not too far from here the car was sitting. After a harrowing mission of getting the car on the trailer it made it to Chris'. The car had a tiny bit of e-brake and the only way to get it onto the trailer was to roll it down the road and hope for the best. I managed to line up the ramps and get the thing to a stop before it went over the end and into the back of Chris' truck.














Pat and Gabe were on hand for the swap since it was my 1st time. I was my job to degrease the motor and get it ready to paint. Once that was done we pulled the 313 and then I spent some more time cleaning out the engine compartment. There was a lot of shit in there but all the metal was in good shape. The gasket kit didn't have the oil pan gasket so gab had to create one from spare bits and hope that it held. The motor went in without any real problems other than running out of beer. Oooops! Pat and Gabe are credited with getting it fired up but there was still much to do.














Now I had to trailer it to Mode's shop to install the new 3/8 fuel line, new fuel tank(thanks to Gaffo at WOS and Gabe for bringing it back)
The dual exhaust, brakes all around, tires and a lot of love. After I had the gas tank redone it was time install it and run the fuel line. Gabe helped big time. It always takes longer that you think and that's why there should always be more beer than you think you need. All this work was done on weekends.














Mode hooked me up proper with dual 2 1/4 pipes and bottles for a sweet sounding system.

The brakes (drums all around) were a pain in the ass because of the rear spline axle system. Seriously...what a pain in the ass. The right rear refused to come off no matter how large of a hammer we used. I knew I would change the rear end eventually so we just pinched off the brake line and made good with the other three. The only worry was the leaky axle seal...it did the trick. I also upgraded to a dual master cylinder to help out with the stopping...one day there will be disc brakes.














During all this time it took to make these changes I was performing a title search for the vehicle because it came with no registration. There a bunch of hoops to jump through but if you're persistent it can happen quickly. I became the registered owner and bought insurance.

There was only one headlight bezel so I managed to score a mint pair from a guy back east...things were looking good. I spent hours going over the car lubing up the doors and mechanical bits and it paid off...things work great.

I was able to get the car on the road by the end of October and I drove it as much as possible until winter took over and the car had to go away. It slept through the winter months and I would start it every couple of weeks. I'll continue with what happened in the Spring next time.

Quarter Mile Track

Its no big secret that drag racing has dominated my summer. I've been going to races with the WOSN race team for the last 2 summers but this year I'm racing my own wagon. It may not be the fastest car on the track...in fact, it may actually be the slowest, but it sure is fun to drive. A friend of mine took this footage at the Mission Old Time Drags on July 31/2006. I didn't win this race...this is obvious by the sound my friends make at the end of the clip.

A Blog dedicated to my Sweet Wagon

I should have started this thing last year when I first purchased this car. Many things have happened to it since I came to own it. I'm going to catalogue the work that's been done and the work that will hopefully get done at some point. This photo was taken at Thunder Mountain Raceway, near Kelowna, where I've been racing it. The car has no name yet but it does have a win. I won King of the Hill part 2. This is a gamblers race and winner takes all. That was $90 to go back into the race program. Below, is a photo of the car where it sat for several years before I went to see it.