1968 SportWagon Revival

Hi, i noticed that the wagon section needs some love so ill post here. The SportWagon belonged to my grandpa who was the original owner. When he passed away it was given to me and my dad. The car has been apart for about 30 years and started to get resurrected over the summer. First i recruited my friend to help me with some of the heavy lifting. After that i began to work on the front suspension. It is getting converted to front discs. Sandblasted all of the pieces including the bolts, primed, and painted them. Got new ball joints and put them in. Repainted the upper and lower a-arms. Ordered new springs, got new shocks, idler arm, new inner and outer tie rods. Got alot of work done this summer and plan to do what i can indoors over the winter.

 

Very cool. Keep up the progress and you'll be driving it in no time

 

very cool .. the world will be a better place with another 68 Sporty on the road :TU:

 

Well haven't had any progress in a long time... hope to change that soon. My dad just ordered new brake hardware, front wheel bearings and brake lines so hopefully ill have something to do soon. Hopefully start making progress in May when I'm out for the summer. I did however get myself a grand cherokee box and shaft from the yard on Friday. My puller tool was useless at the yard so i got the box home however i could this time... brought the trans home to clean up, do a shift kit, and change the solenoid. Cant wait to get going again!

 

Other than heat I dont think there is an easy way to get that pitman / drag link connection apart. Usually gotta beat the crap out of it and use a pickle fork

 

If you can get the nut off, you can also try striking the drag link with two hammers (two pounds each,minimum) at the same time. Not easy to synchronize, but I've done it that way as well. As Briz has said, the pickle fork works. My suggestion is for if you don't have one. If you use either method, be sure to use eye protection.

 

Now it’s really been a long time... Decided a couple weeks ago I want to work on the wagon again. Got my brother to help me drag the frame to dads garage from location it’s been at for 40 years . Nothing groundbreaking done yet, just slowly working. Put some new kyb shocks upfront, put centerlink and tie rods on, put the front rotors on, threw some nice period bias ply rollers on. Original front aluminum drums to throw on the rear end. I won’t lie it’s much easier to get motivated with tools and a garage that are close to home. Just have to keep pluggin away this time.

 

Nice! A body off on a wagon is ambitious but keep at it! I've had a couple of 68-9 SW 400's

If you're going to sell your old front drums & have some meat left on the lining (i.e. depending on how much they've been turned), I may be interested. Shoot me a PM.

 

Sorry keeping the drums. Been working on the brakes and retrieving parts. Brought home the wheels. My grandpa had them on his 81 lesabre before they went into storage. Desert sourced, rust free core support that has been patiently waiting to become part of the wagon. Also came across the protecto plate with manual in my grandpas name.

 

Manuals

 

Nice! Good score on the corr support. Lots of guys looking for them. Figured no harm in asking on the drums. I converted my 1st Sportwagon ('69 400) to disk and the drums had never been cut. They wound up on my on '70 GS 350 4-sp & I'm looking for another nice pair for the current 350 4-sp project.

 

Very nice, I hope I can find a decent 3 or 4 speed Buick eventually. Messaged the guy about this one a couple hours from my house but it sold quick! Probably gonna get parted out... here’s the drums on the Sporty.

 

After putting the drums on the rear with the wheels, it was noticeable that the studs could be longer. For whatever reason if you order new studs, got mine from rock auto, they are about 3/8” or so longer than stock. Which is exactly what I needed for the studs to just poke out the end of the stock lug nuts. (Which are only temporary). I had no idea where the brake block holder was for this car, so I bought a new one online. Only to realize there are probably 3 or so rear ends out back... cleaned up the original rear lines and painted years ago. Took some convincing to get the fittings spinning again. Had been eyeing this hood online for a looooonng time. So finally pulled the trigger for about a 700 mile round trip. Meanwhile my dad went and picked up the grill assembly and bumper. Bumper is bubbly but might be the shiniest one I have for now. Need to keep going with brake and fuel lines.

 

Quick update, since last we put a b&m shift kit in the trans, finally got the arm off the steering box and opened it up to replace a few seals. Dad made fuel lines, and installed. Steering box installed. Brought the engine home to get freshened up. Still spins! Slacking on pictures this time, idk how some people do it, hard to take pictures with dirty greasy hands.

 

The time has come to tackle the engine. My grandpa used to carry a log book in the car of every gas fill up and every bit of maintenance performed on the car. With that in mind my dad was shocked to see the inside of this engine. All the bolts came out nice and smooth. The first shock was seeing sludge under the valve covers. Then came under the valley pan with all the buildup between the rear cylinders. It appears that the head gaskets failed around the mirroring holes in the block. Leading to a large amount of buildup in the oil pan as well… cam and lifters were worn out. Timing gear lost all nylon and chain was barely hanging on. Rod bearings are all decent still and that’s where she sits. Have to check crank bearings and start cleaning and building. O, motor had 108k and can’t wait to add to the maintenance book.

 

More

 

Pistonless

 

Rusty head gaskets

 

Haven’t updated in awhile. We’ve been slowly working on rebuilding the engine. After tear down we started on oil mods. Drilled out to 5/8 for the main pickup to pump. Did all the mains, front passages. Took the heads apart. Lots of washing. Quick hone. Decided to replace the cam bearings and turns out they were ready to disintegrate. Fresh freeze plugs.

 

Made sure to improve my rear main bearing groove. Pistons and crank are back in. When it came time to think about installing the cam, we were greeted with broken gear teeth that went unknown since acquisition. So we cleaned heads and valves while trying to make a cam decision. Ended up getting a TA 212. Happy to say it is installed.