picking up the Hot Rod Wagon tomarrow

[jnsteelwagon]

new member here, and I love the site.

let me give a little background before I get into the goods here. I've always owned, raced, and driven mopar a-bodies and b-bodies. I still own a really nice 71 dart race car and 67 Belvedere street/strip car.

however, about 4 years ago I noticed a 77 Volare wagon sitting behind a car lot in town. it looked really good even with steel wheels and dog dish hub caps. I had never seen a volare wagon in person so I had to turn around and take a look. it was totally rust free and had a 318 with an edelbrock intake and carb, and also a set of headers and dual exhaust!

I asked was it for sale and within an hour I had test driven it and bought it! I loved that thing, and had plans to turn it into a bracket race car. well, after a couple of months I found the dart that I have now, and ended up trading the wagon to get the rust free dart and I built the dart instead.

it took me a little over 3 years to finish the dart, and I have wanted another wagon ever since. to make things worse, my buddy ended up with my old wagon in a trade and I have had to look at it and go crazy.

well, fast forward to just a few weeks ago. I'm at the local drag strip just before the race starts and this old guy pulls up in a volare wagon. its a premier and is green with the woodgrain. it has a killer set of weld wheels on it with skinny mickey thompsons up front and wide M/T street tire in the rear. I go over and take a look at the car and the old guy comes up and we have a chat that goes like this:

ME- thats a nice car, is it a 360?

HIM- nope, its a 416 with stage 2 Edelbrock aluminum heads.

ME- THE.....HELL....YOU....SAY!

before we can really talk or me look at the car good, they call my class to the lanes for time trials. I looked for him after the race and couldn't find him. I asked one of my mopar buddys if he knew the guy and he said yeah. turns out the guy had been talking about selling the wagon! I get his number from my buddy and proceed to find out some more about the car. well, here is a list of what has been done to the wagon:

1. new 416 with ported edelbrock heads, harland sharp roller rockers, air gap, .605 solid lift cam, and an 830 cfm carb

2. new 998 tranny with low first gear set, and a turbo action reverse manual valve body

3. 8 3/4 rear with cal tracs and a 3.73 gear with a new auburn posi.

4. frame connectors

5. adjustable shocks on all 4 corners

6. hurst quarter stick shifter

7. all auto meter gauges and tach

8. aluminum radiator and fan shroud

9. 12 gallon fuel cell and battery have been professionally installed under the cargo flap in the rear.

10. car also comes with a roll cage kit that has not been installed yet, and has the pro street type door bars.

11. has new manual disk brake system, and manual steering

12. has had the front end totally rebuilt.

my mopar buddy said that he has seen the car go 7.40's at the race track in the eigth mile all while spinning the crap out of the Mickey Thompson street tires!

old guy is home from Carlise now, and I am supposed to go look at the car tomarrow. as long as I don't see any major rust anywhere that turns me off, then I will be taking possession of it tomarrow.

I will post pics and my future plans for the car tomarrow if it all pans out.

 

[Jack Meoff]

Welcome aboard.
I'll be impatiently awaiting pics.
Sounds deadly.....

 

[NoCar340]

It sounds like a hell of a ride! :eusa_dance:

While looking for rust, don't think of the normal A/B/E-body places. The deadly areas on the F-bodies' (and variants') frames seem to be directly above the rear axle, and the inside of the front frame rails under the toe board (pedal) area, facing the transmission. Out back it should be obvious visually, but on the front rails, push hard--they rust from the inside out.

I have a tough time believing someone would pour that kind of effort & money into something that wasn't a really solid car, though.

 

[jnsteelwagon]

It sounds like a hell of a ride! :eusa_dance:

While looking for rust, don't think of the normal A/B/E-body places. The deadly areas on the F-bodies' (and variants') frames seem to be directly above the rear axle, and the inside of the front frame rails under the toe board (pedal) area, facing the transmission. Out back it should be obvious visually, but on the front rails, push hard--they rust from the inside out.

I have a tough time believing someone would pour that kind of effort & money into something that wasn't a really solid car, though.

thanks for the heads up on the front frame rust. I have been to look at one wagon a few weeks ago that had the rust that you speak of above the rear axle area, but I would have never known about the inside out rust area in the front.

I feel the exact same way you do in regards to the guy not putting all that time and money into the car if it was a rust pile, and even told my buddy the same thing a few days ago.

we shall see in a few hours!