96 wagon project under way, needs a name

Here she is right before going to the body shop.

This is what I have in mind.



With a set of one of these wrapped in 245/55r18's

Starting with a zero rust car and a very straight body(one small dent on the drivers rear fender), going to bare metal, 3 coats of primer, block sanded after each coat, then gloss black finish.  Total chrome delete.

Step 2-Suspension. Very simple. Bilsteins, Airlift 60755 bags, body mounts all around and maybe a Crown Vic rear sway bar. I was originally thinking lower, stiffer springs, big sway bars etc but I've fallen in love with the ride so that has been adjusted accordingly.

Step 3-Exhaust.  Remove factory over axle pipes, add turndowns at factory mufflers in front of axle.  Down the road, CIA tri-Y's and cats, Summit X-over pipe and fully welded muflers(brand??) in stock location, most likely with turndowns in front of axle.

Step 4-Audio. NVX sound deadening on EVERYTHING. Touch screen head unit w/back-up camera in factory location & replace factory speakers.  Leaning toward all Alpine because I like the head unit and speakers appear to be a very good value.

I've already done home base/first base delete but will eventually replace with aftermarket cold air intake.  The one from Summit racing looks like a really good value.  Of course the windows will get tinted and the minor stuff fixed(windshield wipers, cruise control, rear passenger window control, full tune up and likely replace all the vacuum lines as I suspect that as the cause of the CEL). Likely a retune of the computer in there somewhere.

I will post pics along the way.  It will be in the body shop for a month, but I may get some in progress shots.  It's a small family owned shop and i'm sure they'd like the exposure.

Near future, 2200-2500rpm converter and shift kit.

Long term, who knows. Maybe aluminum heads and maybe a 383. It's very low milage and runs like a dream so I'm very hesitant to touch the motor. I also know as time goes on I am going to need more power.....

Forgot the most imortant part, rear side glass and hatch glass will get my company logo and lettering on black perforated vinyl.

On my 94 I replaced the factory mufflers with Cherry bomb vortex mufflers and that alone gave the car a nice sound, but only under power, while idling it's still nearly stock sounding, so most people don't suspect whats lurking under the hood.

It also got a couple of kids trying to show off their v6 grandprixs at a show to quickly shut their cars off.

That what I'm after, very subtle until I hit the loud pedal. Don't like loud all the time, don't like quiet all the time. Maybe I should look at cutouts.....

looking at cutouts for another vehicle I'm working on, you have the conventional electric style where it's a single valve on one side so when it opens your dumping exhaust out both sides and you have two of those, butterfly valve like a throttle plate, or a gate valve but they need more ground clearance. then you have ones I've been looking at more which have twin valves one for each side set 90 apart so when one is open the other is closed, only found those on amazon so far.

unless you make your own and then you just buy the parts and then you can actually go vacuum.

Fully welded mufflers. Thrush makes a good one. Cheap and easy to find.

I grew tired of mine though and recently switched over to Borla Pro XS mufflers. They sound much better. Quiet at idle but make noise under load. I'm also dumped at the axle but will be changing that soon. Recently bought a parts cars and one of the many previous owners left a pair of 2.5" mandrel bent OTA pipes in the back of it.

Touch screen and all new speakers is a modification I recently made as well and it made a huge difference.

What is the downside to pre axle dump? Maybe I will reconsider.

I don't mind the dumped exhaust. Just looking for a change after 6 years. Bagging it soon and my second amp just arrived this evening.

As long you install some turndowns it will help mellow the exhaust a lot. The Thrush mufflers without them sounded great but really took a toll on the ears of anyone inside the car.

Looks like I fat fingered the last post, sorry.

RBANNING wrote:

What is the downside to pre axle dump? Maybe I will reconsider.

I had them dump in front on the axle and when the tailgate glass was open the exhaust would suck back in. in the factory location on the rear corners it gets swept away from the car and can run with the rear glass up no problem.

Had the same issue with my 1970 K5 Blazer BITD

RBANNING wrote:

This is what I have in mind.

That'll look great.

It looks like they were prepping it to paint over the yellow without removing it, but the yellow also is showing signs of poor adhesion.

Are they confident the yellow is going to stay on over time?

I would pull the sail panels off of the two rear doors and reseal with windshield adhesive while you are doing the body work.   They will fly off when you don't want them too unless you re-glue them

only the door part, the part on the front of the rear glass never flies off it has screws.

make sure they paint the door sills and frames as otherwise it'll look kind of crappy when you open a door and see white with the rest of the car black.

As to adhesion of new paint, block sanding done prior to primer to ensure adhesion. I had originally thought they were going to bare metal. This was a misunderstanding due to launguage barrier.

Door panels, kick plates etc removed and sills being painted, I agree, it would not look good with white showing in those areas.

Windshield is being replaced while at the shop, I will advise using same adhesive for the sail panels. They were removed already but have yet to be replaced.

RBANNING wrote:

As to adhesion of new paint, block sanding done prior to primer to ensure adhesion.  I had originally thought they were going to bare metal.  This was a misunderstanding due to launguage barrier.

Door panels, kick plates etc removed and sills being painted, I agree, it would not look good with white showing in those areas.

Windshield is being replaced while at the shop, I will advise using same adhesive for the sail panels. They were removed already but have yet to be replaced.

My comment on adhesion was because there are areas where the yellow has come loose from the white and that makes me suspect of if the yellow in general is not well adhered. Surface sanding the yellow is not going to do anything to improve the yellow adhesion the the factory paint. It will also be a bit hard to feather in the peeled areas to get rid of the odd shaped paint step without causing a slight dip that might show in the right light. The darker the new point is and how shiny it is can make a huge difference in what the car looks like when sighting long surfaces.

When painting a car black, the surface has to be as perfect as possible. Black shows EVERYTHING and any missed imperfections in the base will stick out like a sore thumb. Part of the reason I put off having mine done is pickiness when it comes to the end result. I despise tape lines more than anything else in the world. I bought a parts car just so I could grab extra glass because mine is coming out when it finally gets painted.

You should find some Impala outer door handles because they have no chrome and the entire thing gets painted. Took some time but I found my last two a few weeks ago.

Picking up from paint tomorrow, will post pics shortly thereafter.
Will be installing 2.5" stainless H pipe and 2 Flowmonster welded stainless mufflers with turndowns. These appear to be Chinese knock offs of Magnaflow that Summit had on sale for $30 each. Seem well built and if I don't like them, I'm only out $60.

@rbanning -- do you have a name yet? The 1996 RMW that I bought ten days ago will be "Betsy"

No name yet, however, Jude is high on the list.

Yikes. Good luck getting that exhaust on there. It's going to sit LOW.

It can be done. I have a 454, and a 3.25" drop in thef/2" in the rear, and my exhaust tucks.

Fred - I bet you exhaust doesn't look like the picture that RBANNING posted above with no bends in it.

My 4" exhaust tucks in above the frame too, but is also not straight

Mine are very similar to the ones in the picture, I even dump them in front of the axle. I do have to run the left one under the driver's side front footwell. They are still above the frame.

It's not going in as pictured. Being installed by a local fabrication shop, pipe tucked in stock location, mufflers also tucked in stock location, dumps flush with the bottom of the mufflers. Mock up is parts as delivered, not intended to depict installation. Sorry for any confusion.

Jake Fisher, owner of Fish Fab in Westfield, IN does REALLY nice work!!

He sent me these picks at 9:45 last night. I dropped the car off at 5pm. Final welding and minor fab work today. Check out the triangulated hanger brackets!

Before anyone expreses concerns about driveshaft clearance, this is with the suspension unloaded at absolute maximum droop and still has clearance. Won't even be close during normal articulation.

Picked up my car today. I'm very pleased with the exhaust. Very deep tone, no rasp, no pops, just a nice low frequency growl. I was afraid it would be too loud, but if anything, I'd prefer a bit more at higher rpm's. My wife, who absolutely hates loud exhaust systems, said it sounded good. That's a minor miracle in and of itself!

I'm now shopping for headliner material. I found what appears to be a good match (based on member posts, thank you) at yourautotrim.com. I watched a number of YouTube videos and decided I will tackle this myself. After realizing how much interior trim comes out to replace the headliner, I also decided I would clean and paint all the interior trim. I found a Dupli*Color vinyl and fabric paint at the local O'Reilly's that is an almost perfect match. I will post this interior rejuvenation journey in the appropriate section.

exhaust looks great, nice job.

Haven't updated in awhile. Just recieved new headliner material but backer came out in pieces. I'll be fiberglassing it back together over the weekend. Since half of the interior trim had to come out to remove the headliner, I decided to repaint it all while it was out and go ahead and install 80 square feet of sound deadening material. About 3/4 of panels are painted and 1/2 the sound deadening is in. New Alpine speakers to be installed as well. Hope to finish this all up this weeke d, but that is probably optimistic! Also tried on some new shoes.

For anyone interested, it takes 40 square feet of sound deadening material to do the floor and roof of our wagons. I've got 40 square feet left to do all 5 doors and the rear wheel wells. This should be enough, I will find out soon.

8 square feet just in the spare tire well. Hope I have enough, started with 80 square feet.

Don't forget to drill a hole in the bottom to let the water out...

Whatever you think you need, it won't be enough! I did this last summer to my 96.

New headliner ready to install.

And in the wagon.

New wheels installed and the proof of perforated vinyl graphics for windows.