Da' engine speaks!! (Re: Trusty "billy-goat" Wagon!) Dear follower's of "da' trusty wagon" soap-opera, Big news! Not only is the engine in the car - but it works!! I just posted this video on You-Tube: <iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0uVngRp1pwA" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe> Unfortunately, the oxygen sensor on the EZ-EFI system is spooked because the exhaust system isn't hooked up. As a result the engine cannot idle. Worse some of the parts needed for the exhaust system aren't the correct size, so I'll need to do a little scrambling to get that all straightened out. However, we are getting closer and closer to actually getting my wagon back on the road. Hurray!! Cheers, Edouard :beer
Made it to muffer shop. (Re: Trusty "billy-goat" Wagon!) Dear followers of da' trusty wagon soap opera. True to form it was another epic struggle in this melodrama, but I finally got Biquette over to the muffler shop this afternoon. I had to upgrade my AAA membership on short notice because I wasn't expect this transport to happen so soon. As a result, the transport couldn't happen until this morning. At 8am I called the AAA number and requested a flatbed transporter. At 10am still nothing. Bad luck - the lunatic Bay Area drivers were having accidents on the freeways that had priority on the flatbeds because of blocked lanes. The darn truck didn't show up until after 11!! Worse, I was a sucker. There was another car right in front of Orinda Motors that also needed a tow. Since the transporter could tow a second vehicle with a lift-bar, and this car was to be dropped off on the way to West Coast Mufflers, I gave in. Still with all the delays it wasn't until close to 1pm that Biquette finally arrived at West Coast: She will be getting a Pypes exhaust, Dynamax mufflers, and a pair of Gibson exhaust tips installed. She will also get a class-3 receiver hitch custom built for her at West Coast. If we are lucky she will make it back to Orinda Motors before the weekend. The Orinda Classic Car show is a week from Saturday (Sept 21st.) Time is getting mighty short! Cheers, Edouard :beer
Dreaming vintage Airstream and means to tow it! (Re: Trusty "billy-goat" Wagon!) Hi Frank and V-8 Buick road trip dreamers, My dream is some sort of vintage Airstream or similar trailer. I started out dreaming about something small like the smallest Bambi trailers, but since my dream has erred toward something bigger!! Alas, family contraints will keep this from happening for a while. Well, I cannot find air shocks any where, so that isnt a choice anymore. I have been looking at rear air bags and that looks reasonably practical. I'm a little worried though because load equalizer hitches will shift some of the trailer load to the front and you cannot even find spring-assert load compensating front shocks. I may need to get some variable load springs for the front so that the car remains level when towing. All this is going to be sometime in the future though. There is a lot of work to do just to make the car usable and safe. I doubt I'll be able to drive the car much until spring. Cheers, Edouard :beer
Da' exhaust is installed! (Re: Trusty "billy-goat" Wagon!) Dear fans of a certain "assertive" station wagon, Here is the update on the exhaust and hitch caper. I had bought all the exhaust parts and West Coast Muffler had put it together Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately, they could not get their hands on the receiver for the custom hitch until this afternoon. They were hoping to have the hitch fabricated before the end of the day today so that I could have Biquette transported back to Orinda Motors tomorrow morning. I drove over there this afternoon to take some photos of the new exhaust. Lucky me, Steve did up the exhaust tips exactly as I wanted them: I'm very happy with the Gibson exhaust tips I selected. Here is the close-up of the passenger side: Here are the Dynomax mufflers that everyone agreed would be the quietest mufflers that would still be free-flowing: According to Steve of West Coast, the sound is very nice without being overwhelming. Here is the "X" crossover that came with the Pypes kit: There is one more little snippet worth nothing. Today is of course Friday the 13th. However it is also a curious anniversary. It was Friday, September 13th, 1986 at around 10pm that we got a call from the police saying that Biquette had been recovered after she was stolen. The car had been missing for over 3 months and we had basically given up hope. So my trusty wagon has come home after worse trauma than this. Sure hope I'm seeing the end of this tunnel at last!! Cheers, Edouard :beer
I put Ridetech air bag suspension on my Sportwagon. Their systems will fit both front and rear and are completely adjustable. Can even be setup to self level. There are three preset ride heights.
Is Ridetech suitable for towing? (Re: Trusty "billy-goat" Wagon!) Dear spw1967 and V-8 Buick longroof fans, I was interested in Ridetech and spoke to one of their representatives at a GoodGuys show this past spring. He told me that they don't sell any package for towing but that you could adapt their kits to use as a spring assist. What is your understanding of the Ridetech system? Is it only designed to provide enough support for a standard car weight or can it cope with a 500 pound trailer tongue weight? Curious minds want to know! :idea2: Cheers, Edouard :beer
Re: Is Ridetech suitable for towing? (Re: Trusty "billy-goat" Wagon!) Why not just call and ask Ridetech the maker of the system? I would think they would be the experts on what their system can and can't (shouldn't) handle.
Their kits might not be packaged for towing, but any of their gear will be more than strong and adequate enough for towing. An coil over shocks, air over shocks or one of the air bag setups that go in the spring like for drag racing. They make stuff for the 4-link rear suspension and it's all heavy duty weight wise. I think the lowest weight rating their air stuff has is 2,000lbs and you won't have that kind of tongue weight pulling a trailer.
Hitch installed - back at Orinda Motors. (Re: Trusty "billy-goat" Wagon!) Dear followers of da' trusty wagon soap opera, I'm starting to get to the point that I cannot handle this heavy drama!! :shock: The receiver hitch didn't get installed until this past Saturday morning. Here are some photos of it - underside: Here is a back view: As you can see, it is protruding quite a bit from the bottom of the rear bumper. Worse, Greg at Orinda Motors changed the rear springs and they weren't the correct ones, so the car is now sitting way too low in the back. Add the hitch and getting the car on a flatbed was going to be a challenge. However, the new Gibson exhaust tips do look very nice: However, the car faced a crisis that could have left it in a very sorry state. West Coast Muffler is only open 1/2 a day on Saturday. The earliest available transport truck couldn't come until 3pm and Orinda Motors was only going to remain open until 4pm. I got over there before the shop closed and then waited with Biquette for the truck. The fladbed guy arrives, tries a few times to load Biquette but simply smashes the receiver hitch. He fusses with a few boards to make a ramp, but clearly he didn't have a very clear idea of how to cope with this situation. At this very moment, a savior arrives unexpectedly in the form of Steve, the owner of West Coast muffler. Steve immediately offers to help and proposes wedging some wood block between the axle and the frame to raise the rear end. The flatbed driver declines the offer and - leaves!! :shock: Fortunately, because Steve was there, he was able to find a spot in the muffler shop to store the car the rest of the weekend. I was so stunned I wasn't sure what to do and because Biquette was so low in the rear, it wouldn't have been possible to unload Biquette at home. Leaving the car parked in the open at West Coast Muffler was a recipe for disaster as it is in a tough neighborhood. I was really between a rock and a hard place. Nothing like this has ever happened in my life!! On Sunday I regrouped and instead hired the company that got Biquette over to West Coast Muffler to take on the job of bringing her home. This morning I had the same truck driver come by as moved her on Wednesday and he had quite a fight because of the hitch. Jim's success in making a torque monster engine made this move really hard. The engine is still not idling smoothly and while getting up the ramp, the car twice threw out wood ramps. There was enough force to toss the wood 20 feet! Nonetheless a skillful driver, Steve's help, and patience finally coaxed Biquette on the truck. It was easy from there and she was unloaded at Orinda Motors without nearly the same problems: Now comes the race to make the car presentable for the Orinda Classic car show that this Saturday!! Going to a - fun - week! Cheers, Edouard :beer P.S. Just to add to the misery . . . . . . yesterday the dishwasher gave up the ghost and a new one cannot be installed until a week from today!!
Looking good If the car is registered in CA (as it appears to be) you should put a set of CA Year Of Manufacture black plates (aka "YOM Plates") on it .. just for originality sake http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/reg_hdbk/ch21/ch21_36.htm http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/reg/reg352.htm
That hitch looks like it was installed as tight to the bumper as it could have been. Once you get that air ride installed, you will never look back. Lots of people have serious problems getting a car on a roll-back... like me. Well, almost. My cadillac rear end valance panel comes within a gnat's whisker of scraping... I think if I have a full tank of gas it would never go. It'll be over soon enough! Great progress! It's only Monday... you'll make that show. :TU:
Dear Mapearso, Frank, and fans of assertive billy-goat wagons, Well, that would normally seem the obvious thing to do, but the plates on the car are those that were issued after we got the car from when it was stolen in 1986. I have a certain personal attachment to the plates that the car has now because they seem symbolic to the car's rebirth at that moment. So I'll stick with the current plates for the moment. I'll just have to see how this all works out. The car definitely wasn't designed for the miserable road conditions of today. Well, I hope the car will be presentable for the show, but all that can be hoped for is that the car would be able run and engine and cover modest distances under her own power. I hope the bulk of the reassembly is over, but there is a lot of things that still need to be completed. For example, the tires need to be upgraded and I'm more or less resigned that she'll need 15" rally wheels instead of the 14" that is on the car right now. At least the bigger wheels and tires will help with ground clearance. I have to admit I'm a little discouraged. Sure got a shock Saturday afternoon. I'm feeling like I have saved my classic. But as I struggled so hard to do that, people have reneged on the values what must be maintained to make human life worthwhile. The world that existed when this car was built is just a pale shadow of itself now and the adventures I so hoped to make seem so much more risky now. Oh well, Edouard
Don't worry about the tow truck driver. Surely he's not the first a*shole you've encountered on your journey to get the wagon back on the road. It could be worse-- at least you have enough money to do what you need to do with the car.
Too pretty for a tough world? (Re: Trusty "billy-goat" Wagon!) Hi Frank and classic V-8 Buick lovers, Unfortunately you are so right about it being potentially much worse and that's exactly what got me worried. Cars from about 1965 to 1975 seem indestructible and arguably easier to repair than modern cars. It is easy to get cocky about them because you can still walk into most auto parts stores and buy a tune-up kit. Still, these cars are 50 years ago. You can get plenty of parts, but there are very many you can't and we all know how desperate things can get when you need a part that isn't commonly produced. All this is bad enough with the car stuck in her garage stall. Suppose something breaks 2000 miles from home? No matter how many spares you can try to take with you, Murphy will make absolutely sure that didn't bring a spare for what will break. There is a related issue that is gnawing at me. I first started driving this car in the 1980s. If somebody told me then that they going to tour the country with a 50 year old car, I would have been shocked. In 1980, that would have been something like a 1930s Buick. Trying to tour the country with a car like that would seem crazy today in about the same way as it would have appeared in 1980. The question to me is: is my trusty wagon closer to a 1930 Buick now than it is to a modern transportation vehicle? My goal was very doggedly the later, but unintentionally my loving devotion to have the car special has turned it into a jewel that is more like a 1930 Buick. At the same time, the world has changed very much for the worse for this sort of a goal. The conditions of our roads would have put a Eastern-block country to shame during the cold war. National Parks and campgrounds are more crowded and not as well maintained. There aren't as many gas stations. Worse of all, people clearly becoming more nervous, reckless, and even mean-spirited. There are definitely great people out there, but they are increasingly an endangered species. I definitely feel that there ought to be room for my dream in this once great country of ours. I'm just not sure there is enough of that old-fashioned greatness anymore for that to be true. Oh well, Edouard
Dashboard before and after photos. (Re: Trusty "billy-goat" Wagon!) Dear V-8 Buick followers of da' trusty wagon soap opera, The latest news is that Greg had gotten the dual electric radiator fans in and wired them up. He was about to program the EZ-EFI system to control the fans when . . . . the workload increased and Greg had to work on a Mercedes (oh the shame! ) I'll post pictures of the fans eventually, but I wanted to post first before and after pictures of all the interior modifications to the dash. The best way to view all this is by a slide show: http://canebas.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=32115467&AlbumKey=VZ3Zb4 There is also a photo gallery that gives you additional viewing options: http://canebas.smugmug.com/Biquette/Drive-Train-makeover/Dashboard-before-and-after However for those impatient types, here the pictures one after the other. Here is the before view from the passenger side door: Here is what that same view looks like now: This change is especially dramatic since it shows the old seat cover before I had the upholstery redone. Here is the instrument cluster from the passenger side as it used to be: Here is what it looks like now: Here is what the old Custom Autosound stereo looked like: Here is the new Custom Autosound 630 stereo looks like with my modifications to improve the appearance in a Buick: Here is what the radio looks like when it is on. Definitely not going to fool anybody, but it is easier to read than this photo suggests: Here is the before view of the instrument cluster on the driver's side: Here is driver's area looks like now: Finally, let me show you the glove compartment. Here is the before view: Here is the new glove compartment with the glove box liner I fabricated out of sheet steel. It is much narrower than the old one, but it I think you all will agree that it looks like something Buick could have put into their cars: The cable in the glove compartment is the microphone and switch that connects to the Custom Autosound Bluetooth interface for their classic stereos. I haven't tested the phone features yet, but I have used my iPhone 4 to play music and was so impressed that I gave up on my old iPod interface. I am very hopeful that I'll be able to an iPhone to provide music, deal with phone calls, and provide satellite navigation without any modifications to the dash. I sure hope you guys like what you see. I'm absolutely ecstatic!! As those of you who have followed this effort know, there was very little I could do on the mechanical side of things. However, I have done all sorts of things to make the dash look nice. Most of these were mini-projects that I couldn't imagine how they would fit together. For the interior to come together as nicely as it has is really a dream come true!! Yes, I have zillions of pictures for every modification I have made. But it will take me months to document every one. If one of these modifications really is a hot button item for you, please add a reply to this thread and I'll see if I can document those mods sooner. Stay tuned to this same billy-goat wagon channel for additional news updates! Cheers, Edouard :beer
Great job Edouard! Its way more extensive a project than a mere 430 installation I thought you were doing ..2 years ago? I check this post daily for the finished product. Cheers, Ted
