Ironmightys Americana 1952, 58,59, 73 & 85

Cool wagon. I'm along for the ride too. Keep the patina, even down to the oddly coloured wheels.

Plan had been to crack on with making the Apache more civilised to use, but I've been putting off doing a task on one of the "moderns".....exhaust manifold gasket on the P3 V70 2.5T....knew it would be a pig of a job but....

3 studs broken in service, gasket fell out in 5 pieces...but no big deal remove manifold and turbo change studs bolt it all back together....err no😳.
1st broken stud snapped flush so its full engine pull to drill it out properly, and I loathe pulling modern FWD engines...

Sadly not,not enough room between bulkhead and cylinder head combined with no clear line of sight annoyingly. Gives me something to do while waiting for some parts from the USA

That's the fella!
Had pretty much decided to keep the original Dawn Blue but contrast with ivory/cream/vanilla shade, final choice yet to be made but will be a variant on that theme.

With various other distractions in life, including a massive back to brick renovation and back ordered parts for the Chevrolet it's not really received the love it needed but have been doing little bits as and when...
First, coolant temp sender, ordered the 'correct' one for the V8 that would work with gauges... fail, wrong size for my vehicle😟... plan b called for a new thermostat housing with a suitable port.. which subsequently revealed no thermostat🤔. Thankfully these were available in the UK, fitted this and sender, all good holding the right temp now. Happy days

Eventually the some of the back order parts arrive, including a OE repro steering wheel to replace the small 80s spongy orange hideous entity,

Next up, replacement locks to, firstly enable me to lock the doors(drivers door only has a push button and no lock) and then standardise the keys. No clutch bits stopped me dismantling the doors, so started with the simple ignition and glove box locks... err no, another fail, shoddy pattern lock was not working correctly and turning in the barrel.. spot the failure in the picture...

A little work with the file soon sorted the issue, but a reminder that the quality of some parts is a little variable at best.

Another little fail, using it for a short run the gear selector jammed, it's an SM465 manual trans and there's a roll pin and o-rings joining 2 parts of the shifter, both wear and it tried to select 2nd and 4th at the same time and the lever wedged, cue a tow of shame back through the village. Thankfully the rudimentary mechanics involved meant a relatively quick fix, involved new o rings, although I might invoke the seemingly recognised corrective procedure to weld it solid.

Wasn't happy with the fuel piping, there isn't a fuel filter and the pipework could best be described as sketchy awash with kinks

Currently going with a combined filter regulator and upgrading to braided lines and proper unions throughout(pics will follow once completed). Probably a little OTT but equally keeping fuel in the pipes is never a bad idea.

Finally using it a, little more highlighted a slight challenge, the SM465 is a L-1-2-3 box and not a true 4spd...its a great crawler gear, ideal for a loaded commercial, not especially great for a touring hot rod as it soon runs out of revs by the time its at 55/60mph. So in time a decision is necessary whether to change to a more practical g/box.

But next up, is a brake upgrade to include adding a servo and going discs upfront. Hopefully arriving in July, but with global shipping who knows

Yes, sourced the wheel centre at the same🙂

Yep, it's plentiful, and to many its just junk, hence why you still see what we think of as quality metal just laid up in yards.

As for the road trips I've been fortunate to spend time in upstate NYS and off the beaten track in NC....Great food and lenty of brewery tap rooms, although drew the line at the gumbo here😳

That looks like a nice old motor, you certainly shouldn't be strapped for space in it anyway,
Little "late to the party" but, with regards to the van colour, that claret / cream combination looks stunning in my opinion,
Looking forward to seeing future updates on this thread,
Nigel

Huh. Don't ask me how I missed this one because I've no idea.

Re the van keys, they're fairly easy to recode, you might have enough matching tumblers in the back door set to match them to the fronts.
They're coded in 0.025" steps, at that year in 4 steps.
The blanks with the octagon head on are available on the key rack here for $0.80 each so if you have trouble finding them let me know.

I say baby blue and cream. But then again, I'm biased.

Phil