1972 Vega Wagon

[vegawagon72]

A couple of pic's of the wagon from 2007 when I was doing some body prep to it. I got this car from a friend who built it with a 305 when he lived in CA back in the mid 80's( notice the tuqouise paint scheme on the left front fender). He'd had it sitting in storage here in AZ for at least ten years, since he was divorcing I paid him $500 and trailered it home.

It was a crispy critter from sitting in the sun on a concrete slab but the only rust on it was below the battery. I rebuilt the 2-bl rochester carb,cleaned the tank and replaced the fuel pump and it started right up. Indications were he had run the car with no air cleaner I played with the 305 a bit and then put a 350 in.

[HotfootGT]

Looks like a good start.

[72 SS PNL]

not bad , pretty good start on things too

[vegawagon72]

I found a few pics of the car as it looked when I bought it, before I started body work. The 80's style turqouise paint scheme just tickled me, it seemed so retro and a prime example of what a young motor head would do back then.

[vegawagon72]

Since I sold my hail damaged daily driver I've been using the Vega as my main vehicle. So the last week or so I try to do a little something every day. In the last week I have painted and installed vented kick panels, put the " Chevrolet 2300" badge back on the front, and pulled, cleaned and painted the front V6 coils springs from the 79 Monza parts car. I gotta get the bushings installed in the deep pocket LCA and get them and the new springs installed. I hit a bump last week going about 45 mph and it kinda threw the car sideways a bit. So upgrading the front end is imperative.

[robsta11111]

I love the front ends on those year vegas

[vegawagon72]

Wednesday I decided to keep the roller rockers off the Astre's 350 and put them on the Vega. I tore into it that night and put new valve seals on at the same time. Money was tight when I put these camel hump heads on and foolishly I did not change the valve seals then. What’s the saying? “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have the time to do it over?"

In the middle of all this my air compressor blew a reed valve so I had to throw a hose over the wall and get compressed air from the neighbor to pressurize the cylinders and hold the valves up while the springs where off. Thank goodness I have a crazy neighbor who has no problem with my motorheadedness.

Never having had an engine with these roller rockers I was really impressed. They run so much quieter and now the engine rev’s quicker. But I only had time for a short drive before I had to leave town on a business trip. Other than a leaking valve cover gasket I’ll fix this morning, I was very pleased with the results and power increase.

[vegawagon72]

Monday I took my deep pocket LCA to my buddies welding shop and pressed out the old bushings and installed the new ones. I'm looking forward to putting the Monza V6 front springs on. The stock 4cyl springs in there now bottom out badly.

On the way to the welding shop my breather cap started blowing oil out onto the ex manifold and makin it smoke like a steam train. Seems the Edelbrock valve cover has no baffle in it and the roller rockers are really tossing the oil. I cut a hole thru a piece of cardboard for a makeshift baffle inside the breather cap. That got me home with minumal smoke.

[vegawagon72]

My but time does get away. After adjusting to the "new economy" ( which means working twice as much for 1/2 the pay....) I'm finally getting back to the LCA job. I have attached some pics of the old bushings.

vega lca bush0001_2.JPG

vega lca bush0001_1.JPG

vega lca bush0001.JPG

[vegawagon72]

I decided to polish my Centerlines after doing all the other front end work. I dont beleive they have been polished in 10 years. I've had them four years and the donor car they came off of had been sitting for longer than that. They were pretty dull. I used Maguiers cutting compound with my foam body buffer wheel and I finished it up with a Maguiers foam polishing ball. The foam disc and polish ball were both trashed by the time I was finished buts thats OK. If the wheels werent so dull it wouldnt have taken so much work. I probably spent 3 hours on all four rims.

vega rims0001.JPG

vega rims0001_1.JPG

[Kenova]

WOW! What a difference.

Ken

[waybad]

[ironwillsv8vega]

Sweet ride.... Rims look sweet. Gives me hope for the centerlines on my '73.....