Thread: Shortening my 79 wagon

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I am going all out with customizing my 79 wagon My plans as of the last week or so is to Shorten the entire car/chassis by about 2 1/2 feet, i will be removing the two rear doors, adding either T-tops or a sun roof, probly T tops, this is going to be a major overhaul, as it will require removing the body, cutting it in half, cutting the chassis, i figure while i have it down to just the chassis, i will go ahead and upgrade the motor to a 454 Olds, have to shorten drive shaft, remove rear seats so it becoms 2 seater wagon, with added power of 454, need to put big meat out back, im figuring probly about 325/50 would be nice size meat, probly add wheelie bars, re-plumbing of fuel and brake lines, man, what am i getting myself into, i have set myself to this task, im going to begin sometime within the next two or three months, ANY IDEAS and suggestions will be welcome, i already have some drawing pulled up and know that once this is done, this will be awesome, it will be the baddest 79 Malibu wagn, ever, with the 454. So let me know what you guys think, also, i will be looking for sponsers as this will be a show car once its done,

thanks for the link, but im serious about doing this, im just not positive as for how to go about doing it, im in the process of taken a welding class right now at my local vocational school, so im going to wait til the class is done and then start on the wagon, but im still looking for any ideas anyone may have as to anything cool, or any ideas on how to go about his project thank you

ok, you said any ideas, so here goes. Rather than just shorten it, why not get a pair of doors and door posts off a same year two door hardtop, install them. Then remove the back glass, tin it in. Make the two peice tailgate a one peice and hinge it on the top. When you get this done, you can have a 79 Malibu 2 door hardtop sedan delivey.

I had thought about doing something similar to that, but i want to get rid of the weight that the whole middle section has, and i want the shorter wheel base too, i have a 454 that will be going in it, and i want it to be able to do wheelies much easier than it would normally, i will also be filling in the rear windows with sheet metal so that will be a lot more weight gone with taking out the rear windows, but im just looking to make something unique that i can drive around and show off for a while,

thank you for the info though, i always like to hear what everyone has to say before i do my deed, i do like the idea though of making the rear tailgate and window one piece that lifts up, thanks

Well If u want wheelies u want the weight in the rear and a lumber jack rear suspension.

thanks, i was thinking about upgrading the rear end to disc brakes, if you dont mind, could you better explain to me what a lumberjack rearend is

Lumberjack rear suspension is very hard rear suspension that has almost no give. It was originaly thought of as lumberjack a long time ago when people had broken rear suspension and they put lumber in to block it up. Normally you hammar a car and the rear suspension compresses, with a hard rear suspension the rear end diverts all it's energy to the rear but being it has no give, the energy is diverted into making the front end lift up ( wheelie ) . lumberjack these days is just really hard suspension, it is in no means sticking lumber in your springs, that is how it got it's name.

ok, so if you build a two door hardtop sedan delivery you could cut out all the extraneous station wagon seats, hinges, etc. and tin the floor. The old rule on lightening a car is that if you can't find a place to cut 100 pounds, find 100 places to cut a pound. To do wheelies, install a four link and adjust it all bass ackwards and you can hang the fronts in the air. We allready did a forum that lasted forever on wheels up vs. low et, might want to look at that.

Why not save yourself some time- Buy an Elcamino of the same vintage, cut the roof off of your wagon, graft it onto the elcamino body and then just work out the side window situation to your liking.
That way you already have a 2 door body that will be solid and you won't be grafting in metal to fill in the rear doors. The elcamino doors are longer than the 4 door front ones and will look much more at home on the longer wagon body.

Also- All of the ElCaminos had boxed frames which are much stronger than the the normal C channel frames found in the wagons and non-convertible chevelles & malibus.

2 door wagons are cool.

the whole point of this is not to make it just a two door wagon, i also want to shorten the wheel base and make the wagon 2 1/2 feet shorter that it already is