Wow. That's great.

I am humbled that you would include my thread among the many great threads that have been here....Thank you!! - Bill W

I'm not sure about skills, just a lot of work hah!! :beers:

I have a pretty good collection of print ads, but don't believe I've seen this one. And as Bill said, like they ordered this car only red interior. (very happy they did!!)
Like I said previous, unusual for top trim level wagon with no roof rack and poverty caps.

Here is the RF fender with the vinyl laid down, but before trimming and wrapping the edges.

With the vinyl applied, ready for the "Bling"! 60 some feet of body side moldings, polished door handles and lock cylinders, so now the door panels etc. can be put back.

NOS wagon door edge guards are cheap on eBay, so the beat up originals were replaced. Rear w/o moldings are impossible to find, so the originals were cleaned and installed, they have a few minor dings.

Another feature unique to this car, these metal trim strips to finish off the vinyl inside the rear door jamb.

The quarter scrips were retained by a barrel clip style wire integral to the pin, I had not seen this before. One side survived but the other I used self threading nuts.

The rural desert road grime really layered on the rear, the tailgate script I thought was dull chrome. After scrubbing with Aluminum Brightener and a tooth brush, then chrome polish and a tooth brush I was surprised to see how they cleaned up!
Same treatment on all the rear trim and tail light housings. Virtually no pot metal pits to be found!
It's my experience that Steele Rubber Products has the best fitting seals for tail lights used here and on '67 El Camino's. NOS lenses were used to brighten things up.

About three hours of hard rubbing with chrome polish brought the bumper around to a shine much better than I expected. New, un-polished, stainless capped bumper bolts had just the right finish to match. The original license screw nuts and rubber bumpers are in great shape. This is the original bumper, still riveted to the center bracket. I understand that 1st Gen Camaro's the rivet head is on the face side, on Chevelles the head is on the back side.

The original CA tag and frame were cleaned and installed. The backup lamps were given an Evapo-Rust bath, cleaned, and the white paint replicated, finished up with NOS lenses.

This about wraps up the car from the cowl rearward. This is where I was at about two weeks ago, so real time is not far away. I started this project last summer but have had several diversions along the way, not the least of which has been helping push along a stunning restoration of a buddy's rust free CA '67 SS that I sold him more than 30 years ago.

Bill, stunning! Nothing against our muscle cars, but it is so refreshing to see something that I've never seen done to this level before. You saved this car. Period.

@Bob Ashton - I would love to see a display of Long Roof Wagons of all sorts and variations at MCACN including a center slot for Bill's Wagon.

And Bill - not to step on your creative vision for the wagon but I think it would look killer with a set of American Racing Mags or even a set of simulated mag wheels covers?

Dan

Looks great. I have a Starksen frame if you need a match for the front plate.

Fantastic work Bill !! Love the car !!

----What a rust free, pit free Wagon you have saved, congrats! I had a decent 67 big block El Camino for a short period a couple of years ago and I can say that tail light housings in the condition of yours are just about impossible to find. This was on a sothern California car. Must have been close to the water as both housings were heavily pitted.....Bill S

Amazing work and patience. Thought I was looking at one of Grant's threads...

I can't wait for more, love watching the saving of a wagon.

This one is for the wife.

67 Chevelle....
 

I agree completely Dan.

I've got a pair of 15x7 Torque Thrust D's I'll donate to the project if you're interested Bill? Least I can do for all the hospitality you've showed me since we met.

I have both options available in house....

I'll pm you tomorrow Tony.

I have that one framed on the wall. Thank you!

Reference to the L79 327 rated at 325 HP, and available with C60 A/C. HD 3 speed, or 4 speed.
This would be ultra rare, I've seen a restoration article on one, Granada Gold and in CA I believe.

I loath clones, buut, if the original L30 were AWOL from the wagon, it would be cloned as L79 already.

Thank you for the offer Chad!!

It's not patience Charlie, it OCD....

I figured the L79 was the engine they referenced...one of the great sleepers of all time. Your attention to detail on this wagon is great...everyone is really enjoying the thread. Keep up the good work :biggthumpup:

Since the Concours model shares the "138" VIN with the SS396 models, seems it would have been feasible to offer the L35 396. With a TH400 and a 2.73 rear would have been a sweet cruiser. Especially since the 396's were offered in the El Camino's.

----I kinda thought the same thing!....Bill S

Or... Imagine an L78 Concours!! :eek2::eek2:3gears.gif

Let's put a face on this thing!

There were three different grilles used on '67 Chevelle. The top one is Super Sport, note the blackout and open slots continuing to the ends.
The center one is unique to only Concours, Exact same as SS but with two pierced holes for the grille emblem.
The bottom one is for all the Chevelles, Malibu, 300 and El Camino.

It was necessary to knock down the grille assembly to properly clean the pieces.

There is a corner bracket on originals to bolt the valance to the fender. The NOS valance panels do not come with this bracket. So if replacing you need to remove and weld to the new panel. An often overlooked detail.

These pieces are held together with 3/16x1/4 aluminum semi-tubular truss head rivets. I have this rivet squeezer that makes this job a snap, it's been used on my cars on those of others, does a nice job.
Carriage head bolts can be used, but the bottom row of rivets are installed head down, so bolts would be a dead give away.

And... the assembly ready to bolt on. Shame on me, I neglected to get pix with this installed. Moving on to fenders.

This car had fairly nice fit and gaps to start with, other than the right side fender which had been replaced. The left fender fell into place. The right side proved to be a challenge and I pulled out several tricks to bring it in line, including a couple I learned from Terry Davis. After juggling shims here and there it turned out acceptably well.

A floor jack under the sway bar bracket will tighten the fender to A pillar panel gap to start with.

With the top tight the jack under the frame behind the wheel will tighten the fender to rocker gap.

Chevelles tend to pucker out at the fender bottom, a ratchet strap between the fender bottoms (the holes are already there) will pull the bottoms in line. At this point sock the bolts down tight, and install the rocker moldings. The moldings will give a backup support to keep things lined up.

Damn, that car is sooo cool Bill, I love it!!!

----Bill,,,That car is awesome! Looking so good.....Bill S

What to do when your antenna base looks like this?

Plastic tubing from the box store plumbing Dept. This is too easy!

The original FM fixed length mast cleaned up nicely.

After a Evapo Rust bath followed by gun oil the hood hinges and latch showed off nice original phosphate .

There was a struggle with my OCD here. as the car came apart three of the latch bolts and the two tie bar to rad support bolts were washer style. Through out I've strived to use all original fasteners, but these are not correct, by the AIM, or accepted practice. I would have corrected, but then washer circles would have been visible, so, back the way Fremont did it.

Bill,

Speaking of antennas.

Since this ‘67 wagon came with the factory AM-FM radio, is there a noise suppression capacitor out by the blower motor?

All 65-67 Pontiac Tempest Series cars that were order with the AM-FM received this in-line unit.

Thanks, Chris

Installed a pair of less than perfect NOS front wheel opening moldings and cleaned and installed the remaining front trim.
I installed a matched set of Sylvania Halogen bulbs, because I had them, it's a driver, and my stash of original T3's is not bottomless.

Like the floor pans, Fremont was generous with overspray body color on the bottom of the hood!!

OK guys and gals, this brings me up to real time.

I've stated that this car had nice fit of the front sheetmetal, and that made the hood fit easy. The hood fell into place with no real challenge, and has gaps rivaling anything in my garage.

Please note that the grille, grille extensions, and headlight doors received the same blackout treatment as the SS396, unique to Concours. One of my peeves is this blackout not done correctly!

Front bumper.....

Yes Chris, just took this pic. It's not in the same location as your info, after cleaning I put it back where I found it. I would swear I 've also seen this location in the AIM, but couldn't find it just now. Note also the FM only ground cable further down. - Bill W

Looks great, Bill. I need to get some Evapo Rust. Everyone loves that stuff.

The car is turning out great. Nice job! Here's a picture of Starksen Chevrolet with an SS427 Impala closest to the camera.

Great vintage photo!

1967 427 Impala
Camaro’s in second row
Wagons further down the lot

Thanks for sharing .

Wow what a cool photo, thanks for sharing!! :beers: