wagon progress

[MP&C]

Well in our typical back up and punt fashion, the original battery hold downs that we had already powder coated did not fit the battery, too short. So we ordered some round stock in stainless to fabricate some new ones.









A threaded standoff was modified to provide an angled surface for using as a hammer form to get the bottom "hooks" consistent...














All polished up...









Installed, and no polish job is complete without addressing the ends of the rods..














Assembling our vent windows, the excess rubber is trimmed using a No. 11 scalpel blade for a nice and tidy fit














All the bits assembled









installed...














And more stainless we missed, the parting bands for the front arm rests, complete with a form-fitted sanding/polishing fixture

[MP&C]

Trying to assemble the tailgate so we can put it on, but our latch actuator is absolutely worn out in the square hole, the handle just about rotates inside of it. They don't make repop's (that I'm aware of) and someone just offered a rebuilding service at over $300. So I reached out to my go to used parts outlet and a good used one is on the way, mailed the same day.. Reference photo:









So while we're waiting on parts to load up the rest of the bits on the tailgate, lets chase the threaded holes....














The console just got dropped off, we had some material in the corners that was pulling due to all the stretching that had taken place. In order to keep things more permanent, I came up with some 19 gauge stainless "trim lock". A hemmed edge helps keep from cutting into the upholstery. It gets clipped in place, shoved into the corner snugly, and through drilled for installing solid rivets.





























In order to match our dash insert, the console insert will also be oriented horizontally (lines left to right)














We also got some of the stainless added to the front end. What an alignment pita. Still have some tweaks to do..

[chevynut]

Looking great Robert! That's one helluva nice paint job on the tailgate!

[BamaNomad]

I agree with CN... the paint job looks terrific... and I love the color too.... emerald green??

[busterwivell]

Looks great!

[MP&C]

I agree with CN... the paint job looks terrific... and I love the color too.... emerald green??

House of Kolor Organic Green Kandy basecoat

[Belair-o]

Looking great!
Also, the last pic before these latest progress pics showed the fixture you built for polishing the thin trim. I missed it when you first posted - great idea you had to keep the trim from becoming a mangled mess during polishing - thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Doug

[markm]

I love the color and I normally don't like green, anxious to see finished car.

[567chevys]

Hey Robert , I love that Green .

thanks for taking the time to post your work on this site .

Thanks Sid

[MP&C]

Thanks for the comments guys!


More console work, time to fabricate the hemmed surround for the insert. In order for the surround to be seamless, we need to do some welding.







For our corners we relieve the flange and trim the back side to about half the hem width. This gives us less material in the tucks for shrinking in the corners.














We cut a fake insert out of 18 gauge CRS with rounded corners to use as a hammer form, gives us something to hammer against when we heat up the corners.














Everything's a tool, and when the PVC pipe is the only thing in the shop that matches our needed radius, it's what we use for a radius bender.









To prevent our hem from closing during the radius forming, some 18 gauge strips were placed in the hem.









Press studs used to attach to the console and will be hidden underneath the center panel.









Insert cut out to match our poster board sample, then it gets 800 grit, then 1000 through 5000 foam pads, then buffed..

https://youtube.com/shorts/Wlbrs908hSM?si=FEH0gssNlu9xhBkm

Then we cover it with frisk film to protect our buffed surface.














Test fit...









Installing the surround to the filler panel









Still have to touch up some areas with the buffer (heat from tacking the press studs) but here's the test fit.

https://youtube.com/shorts/0FhzILNBYVs?si=sCPzr-q_-0oYgu6S

[MP&C]

Next step for the console, we need to cut some holes for the shifter. Using the Chevelle style horseshoe shifter, we don't have the factory style brush seals or trim bezel for the center plexi indicator. So lets see what we can come up with first to seal the shifters side arms. I didn't have any brush stock left over from the splice trailer, and window felt wasn't thick enough. But I did have some bulb seal that looked promising. To make a surround to hold the bulb seal, we used a folded piece of 16 gauge stainless, and put an offset to hide as much of the edge trim that holds the seal as possible.



















To close off the ends, we used the linear stretch dies in the Lennox...

https://youtube.com/shorts/cD1TrEwah2o?si=_1kBU5isw7LFb_dK

https://youtube.com/shorts/--rTDf9M2Bk?si=Xt5Dk3opzAYzdQtD

After welding the one end in place, the console was mocked up to get the overall length needed on the shifter seal.

https://youtube.com/shorts/N9mJWH6Rjfg?si=7_w6PBdNXo32kGPq

The top flanges will be trimmed to the same width as our polished stainless edge trim surround on the console insert. This one will be used for the passenger side arm, the drivers side will have a wider flange toward the driver to accommodate the shift selector position marking.

[markm]

Cant wait to see this one finished looking good like the old truck did.

[Belair-o]

Wow! Nicely formed - that is looking great!
Regards, Doug

[MP&C]

Thanks guys! The stretching on the ends took the 16 gauge (.059) down to .031 thick.

[MP&C]

We had ordered a 4 position switch for the power windows in the wagon, with plans to install in the console. Not knowing the origin of the part when it showed up, I thought some due diligence was in order and broke out the multimeter to test all the switch positions for connectivity. Wouldn't you know, one of the end switches had no contact in one position. Further investigation showed that the spring contact board was held in place with four tabs from the factory, except we only had three, which allowed the board/switch to lose contact. I sent the next picture of the damaged part (pointing to the damage with a white wire) in a message to the eBay seller who immediately questioned my abilities with a multimeter and assured me it functioned exactly as it should.





So for a more direct approach, I assured them I knew how to operate a multimeter, and perhaps they should look at the attached picture this time. To help eliminate any interpretation errors, I had doctored the original rear view picture to make things more obvious since they missed the visual cues the first time....





Oh, that. We'll send out a new switch. Thank you..


So with the console on hold to make sure we didn't have to use a different style switch (in case their whole batch was bad) we turned our attention to the tailgate, and started the fit up of the Mad Mooks polished stainless border trim. https://madmooks.com/ To preface, I will say the Mad Mooks parts are some of the nicest fit and finish parts you'll find ANYWHERE to trim out your Tri-five Chevy, as well as parts for other GM vehicles. Only the corner pieces didn't fit our tailgate. It appears that when yours truly did the rust repairs of the tailgate (before repop's were available) the replacement patches weren't exactly spot on. So yes, this is my F-up..










We had also ordered some stainless strips for the voids in the tailgate from McMillan Rod and Custom and wanted to retain the stainless border to use with these parts.








We had some 19 gauge stainless in stock, so let's give this a go. First order is to make sure we can duplicate the dimpled hole for the countersunk screws...








Next, the folded (side) flange on the trim piece is a consistent width and will need to be real accurate. So we opted for a hammer form to match the shape, used a tipping die to thin the bend location (to tell the metal where to bend) and a backstop on the Lennox to set the flange height. A paper pattern was used to capture the tailgate outline.














After the flange had been folded, the top part of the hammer form is set aside and the bottom section used to hold the part for polishing. We'll get it polished, trim the width and punch dimple holes, and then do a final polish.













Test fit looks much better to match our one-off tailgate.