latest venture into B body wagon debauchery

i have paid for and am going to virginia in a couple weeks to pick this up:

car includes:

dynamic EFI flash ecm conversion for tune on the fly engine management via laptop

3.23 posi rear

bonneville seats and floor console, new black carpet

projector headlights

rear roll pan to replace bumper(i'll probably keep the bumper though and sell roll pan)

22's - you know you like them.

dual alternator kit

should all go well i'll be in it $600 including gas to get it home. the projectors, roll pan, alternator kit, and a couple interior bits i don't care for should cover that and have me zeroed out and give me a home for the tbi 454 sitting in my rusty 1 ton truck. i've always wanted a big block wagon, and refuse to buy any more cars from northern ohio. PO is in the military, got shipped out partway done with the car, and got fed up with tire kickers on the impala forum.

goal is put stock springs back in, 15x8 truck rally wheels and fat tires all around, class 3 hitch, rear air helpers, and tow stuff all over the place to keep some miles off the avalanche. if i get my butt in gear i could roll it out for the spring. goal is to have a net of $0 invested using mostly only parts i've got laying around. i'm sure i have to sell the 22's to accomplish that, which does not hurt my feelings.

will post pics of the trip back when it happens.

Smokin' deal

you cant lose with 22's bitch thats whats up.

truthfully i like your plans better. although I favor a 15x8/10 stagger.

What's going on with the rear quarter fender lip?

I had a '91 Custom Cruiser in the same dark blue color. I bought dropped spindles and springs from Moon and put that thing in the weeds. I loved that car but the weezy 305 didn't get it done. A big block should be just right.

The rear wheel openings on yours look pretty cool. Sounds like you got a screamin deal.

Nice!

bravenrace wrote: What's going on with the rear quarter fender lip?

Looks like maybe he solved a rust issue and added some tuck in one easy step.

Duke wrote: Looks like maybe he solved a rust issue and added some tuck in one easy step.

Looks like the opposite. The wagons had a low straight fender skirtesque design.

It's been done a few times on the wagon forums to remove the wheel skirt and add the arch back into the design, effectively uncovering the wheel.

You should at least put a set of Impala SS wheels on it once. I am curious what it would look like.

In reply to Hoop:

I think it would look a lot like an Impala SS wagon.

Dem Rimmmmmmzzzzzzzz...

...Are probably worth about $20 each at the scrapyard. Please recycle them before someone else attaches them to their Donk, Box, or in this case, Bubble. You can make a difference.

xflowgolf wrote:

Duke wrote: Looks like maybe he solved a rust issue and added some tuck in one easy step.

Looks like the opposite. The wagons had a low straight fender skirtesque design. It's been done a few times on the wagon forums to remove the wheel skirt and add the arch back into the design, effectively uncovering the wheel.

I thought the rear fenders were semi-skirt up until a certain year, then standard arches after that. Or was that only on the sedans? If I recall, it was done to correct some fishy aero at higher speeds, particularly for the cop/pursuit models.

I could also be making this up.

SilverFleet wrote: Dem Rimmmmmmzzzzzzzz... ...Are probably worth about $20 each at the scrapyard. Please recycle them before someone else attaches them to their Donk, Box, or in this case, Bubble. You can make a difference.

+1 to this! Although selling them to some dummy on Craigslist and gaining a couple hundred back for your project sounds good too. Whoever buys them will hit a pothole and crack them and they will end up in the scrapyard anyway...

if you are legitimately going to sell rims at scrap prices please sell them to me. Too many lols in my head with ideas.

I like B bodies, I like wagons, and I like where you are going with this. Big block B body wagon should be EPIC.

Hoop wrote: You should at least put a set of Impala SS wheels on it once. I am curious what it would look like.

it would look like the thousands of other Caprice wagons with Impala SS wheels on them- pretty damn sweet... that's probably the most common "mod" that you see on those cars.

one thing to keep in mind when swapping that 454 into this car: you will probably not be able to get the distributor out of the engine while it's in the car... it's a tight enough squeeze on the TBI 305 and 350 cars that they made the distributor hole in the intake manifold bigger than in the manifold used in anything else to allow the distributor to tilt more on the way out and in, and they made a special B body specific distributor to match... even with the cap and rotor off, the distributor only just barely squeezes out of there in a stock small block, the big block will likely be in there forever unless you do some major firewall/cowl surgery when you put it in..

crank triggered distributorless ignition will fix that clearance issue right up

Gearheadotaku wrote: crank triggered distributorless ignition will fix that clearance issue right up

i think all the ignition parts (coil per plug, just like an LS engine) from an 8100 swap over to a regular old school big block, but not 100% sure on that. pretty sure they just put all the sensors on the front of the engine. wire it up with an MSD 6LS ignition box, and there ya go..

but better do it fast- MSD is filing for chapter 11...

Unexpected b-body result, can not compute.

moparman76_69 wrote: Unexpected b-body result, can not compute.

+1!!!!!!!!!

At first glance, that rear wheel well/rim looks vaguely early Toronado-ish.

the rear has a "kit" that was sold on evilbay to open up the rears on skirted sedans and wagons. i don't care for the bump look and own a welder, and happen to have a set of stock 93-96 sedan open rear wheelwell trims, which i shall attempt to pattern the cut after and use.

distributor - that was a thought. i figure if i ever need to pull that the intake comes off too. the engine has a brand new one in it so hopefully there will be nothing needing replaced in it that can't be done without complete removal. cutting the cowl and making a removable panel is not out of the question either.

i forget which one but it has some sort of new msd box included too.

i have had several 305 wagons and one lt1 wagon, the SS wheels looked awesome on my silver 91. i don't have any other than the ones on my impala, and i have a full set of the 15x8 truck wheels. one thing is for certain. you know i'm bolting the 22's on my impala just to have a laugh and drive around town for a few days.

I second the "Sell for profit on CL" suggestion for the 22's. They're the cheapo donk wheels I see all the time around here.

If your are looking for a set of SS wheels, give me a shout. I have a set, but no longer have the wagon.