FB219 Standard StationSedan

[BS]

Racking up some miles in the old wagon now the clutch is sorted. Not that I usually give a shit but it even managed to collect some tinware along the way.

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[Errol62]

FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[Trev]

Nice.


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[BS]

I must have been on Santa's nice list because he had DG wheels knock me up a set of reversed HT/G chrome steelies for Xmas. These guys did the wire wheels on my Hambster build and as usual the quality and price was . Can't wait to bolt these on.

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[FbSTDwagon]

Nice wagon mate, just picked this one up myself and she needs a bit of loving to get her on the road.

[BS]

After being stuck in WA since march I finally got home and had some time to tend to the wagon which has been a bit neglected/low priority. As we all know these old things hate sitting around and one of the wheel cylinders had developed a bit of a leak sitting stagnant. That taken care of and a brake adjustment all round I was finally able to get the rims on I had made up last year. Pretty stoked with it. Will need to massage the drivers rear wheel arch slightly but nothing major or permanent. Of course all my shed "helpers" made the process take 4 times longer than it should have but wouldnt change it for anything. Can't wait to go for a cruise with the family this weekend.

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[Harv]

Very tidy wagon

I see you have the Nasco sub-woofer option , in beige Better security system than the column locks.

Cheers,
Harv

[Errol62]

Looking stunning BS


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[FJWALLY]

Noice - I would love a Wagon to go with the ute.

[BS]

Well, it’s been a while and there has been a lot
going on with old “Fergus” as the wife and kids call him.

Long story short I’ve always wanted to put a V8 in one of these and with the old grey getting a bit tired, a few things starting to bug me and a catch up with a very talented mate of mine I decided to pull the pin and take the car off the road.

I love wagons, this wagon in particular and while it is a good honest old car it’s had plenty of patch ups over the years so I didn’t feel like me doing this was destroying a pristine example.

Brief was V8, auto, power steering, fuel injection, aircon but keep the car looking exactly the same as it did prior to the conversion. Something that the wife can drive, can sit in traffic, can be driven comfortably in the horrid QLD summers, tow the HAMBster, tow the caravan and do the odd drag and drive event.

I didn’t want to tub the rear or muck around with anything too much so the limiting factor will be rear tyre size but it should be a good all rounder capable of the odd thrashing as well as usual cruising duties.

I had an LM7 (cast iron 5.3L ls engine), 4L60e, harness, ecu and 9inch out of another v8 converted wagon that I had collected over the years so figured apart from a bit of fab work it should all be fairly straightforward considering I had all the big bits (minus front end) ready to go. Oh how I underestimated a V8 conversion in one of these things and how quickly things can snowball lol.


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[BS]

With the decision to convert the old wagon made a front end was ordered (more on that debacle shortly) driveline removed and new donk and diff loaded in the Ute and the lot taken down to my mate Tim’s shed for a bit of a sleep over.








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[BS]

The longest lead time part was going to be the front end. At the time of me starting this project the pickings were a bit slim.

Rod tech was my first choice but was not taking any orders….

V6 conversions I didn’t really like the design

Castlemain Rodshop Tim had used in another customers build previously and didn’t recommend it. Plus it had a 30 week lead time

United speed had a really nice looking front end but it started at 12k which was overkill for my old shitter

This left Curleys/SCW which was a “6 week” lead time and what I like about Curleys was the brake combination still allows 14” wheels to fit so I pulled the trigger on it despite a few average reviews I came across while researching.

The front end was one of the biggest pains of the build to deal with so far. 6 weeks ended up being closer to 6 months and when it did turn up it was not as promised.

Coilovers missing, brake pads missing, mismatched calipers, wrong engine mounts, poorly packaged, no paperwork, wheel studs drilled and tapped on the piss to the point wheels wouldn’t actually go on the studs, shit about god scribbled over the packaging and packing slip made out to “BDogga” which my kids though was pretty funny and so did I but not really professional customer service for something you’ve just charge 7k for…








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[BS]

With my patience dealing with Curley tested and running short I have to give him credit with the fact that he rectified all the issues in the timeframe I gave him. The end product is a good bit of gear but far out the whole experience did not need to be as bigger shit show as it was. Would I buy another one? If it was guaranteed I was going to get what I paid for first time around yes I would but I guess that’s the roll of the dice. With rod tech now taking orders again I’d probably go with that option maybe?

While going back and fourth with Curley the old 28 spline single pegger 9 inch went to Altra 9 here in Brisbane. I ended up throwing the axles in the bin and selling the center off. These were replaced with a strange tru track center and billet axles to suit. Housing was checked for straightness while it was there and that’s basically the only part of the existing diff that I used…. Not a cheap exercise but should be up for the abuse and be future upgrade friendly.

With diff sorted and all front end issues rectified we put the front and rear ends into the car and started planning out how everything was going to fit.

Ride height was not final at this stage we were just bolting things in to see what we had.






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[BS]

This is where the snowballing started. It became apparent that if I stuck with the original plan of an LS6 intake and throttle body realestate for a decent radiator, trans cooler, condensor would be limited. Not impossible but looking at all the options and wanting to keep all the cooling system a non issue it was decided go with a Holley intake and 4 barrel style throttle body. The curleys from end allows you to keep everything pretty low so bonnet clearance is no a problem but engine bay length would be the issue.

We also had the auto sparky/tuner I am using come out and look at what I had. Turns out the fly by wire throttle body and pedal I had were very early US GM items and if I had any issues down the track would be obsolete and painful so I bit the bullet (see the snowball below fact starting to occur here) and buy a Holley ecu and plug and play wiring harness to suit the throttle body setup I was now talked into going with.

While all this was going on we pulled the heads off and had a look at the lm7 “junkyard motor”. Bottom end looked fine and the compression and leakdown tests were all with in spec. One of the heads had been replaced at some stage and overall it looked to be an ok engine but again the snowball was gathering moment and while it was apart I decided to do a few of the usual ls upgrades such as, trunion upgrade, oil pump and pickup upgrade, suitable baffled holley sump, billet barbell, ls7 lifters, cam upgrade with all the usual add ons and Tim being good friends with the Tremains of pro stock / nxt gen heads we got them to run their cnc program on the 862 heads to wake it all up a little.

On top of the upgrades we did the usual, gaskets, water pump etc and replaced all the usual wear and tear/serviceable items. The water pump ended up getting replaced again at a later date to a heavy metal garage billet LS pump to get the ac and all the other bolt ons to fit and work properly. Again this is the snowball in full effect haha.

The new combo should provide a few extra ponnies compared to the tired old grey.








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[BS]

With the engine and diff taken care of attention turned to the car/chassis to plan out the required strengthening.

This car has had a few patches here and there as well as some serious rustproofing done to it over the years. So while we were poking around we found a few of the usual issues but overall it was found to be a pretty solid car.

Not keen on spending days under the car with paint stripper and a wire wheel I made the decision to mount it on my rotisserie and get the firewall and floors blasted. Such a shit messy job and I probably ended up spending just as long getting sand out of everything. It’s just one of those shit jobs which you think why am I doing this at the time but once it’s done you know it’s been done properly and should give a good base to build on knowing everything will be sound structurally and the thing won’t fold itself in half.

Before Blasting:














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