I've mended something!!!

"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher) 11/15/2015 at 23:16 • Filed to: None

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Here’s a picture of not my wagon doing a burnout, because that’s how I feel right now.

With a name like shop-teacher on a car related site, a lot of people assume I’ve done a ton of work on cars, but that’s just not true. I teach wood and metal shop, along with CAD and 3D printing. I have no training on cars, and when I was young I was actively discouraged from working on cars by my dad (who was a mechanic for several years before I was born). Over years I’ve done little things and slowly built up my skills, but I’ve never tackled a major repair.

My Roadmaster Wagon popped a brake line a couple weeks ago. It turned out to be one of the hard lines that went from the a spliter on top of the pumpkin, out to the right rear drum. I decided it was time to dive in, despite the fact that access was a bitch. I spent a lot of hours on my back on the cold broken concrete with rust falling on me and I ruined a pair of jeans, but I didn’t get injured and dammit it works!

Unfortunately when I went to the DMV last week they wouldn’t take cash, so I can’t drive it until Tuesday when I get it registered! D’oh! I took a quick test drive tonight anyways.

v8corvairpickup > shop-teacher 11/15/2015 at 23:28

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I’m jealous. My Roadmaster is sitting in the driveway and I don’t know if I’ll ever have the funds to get it running again.

Brickman > shop-teacher 11/15/2015 at 23:39

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YEEEAAAA! America!!!!!!

shop-teacher > v8corvairpickup 11/15/2015 at 23:46

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Sorry to hear that :(

Fortunately this was a cheap repair. The brake line and a bottle of fluid were under $10. After the line flaring kit I borrowed from Napa turned out to not have the right size, I spent an additional $22 on a cheapo Harbor Freight flaring kit.

unclevanos (Ovaltine Jenkins) > shop-teacher 11/16/2015 at 00:10

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Is a posi a future upgrade?

Khalbali > shop-teacher 11/16/2015 at 01:10

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Awesome to hear! I'm still looking to get one in the next year or so as a second car, but now I'm considering the older 350 over the lt1, my boss offered to help me stroke it like he did in his Yukon.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > shop-teacher 11/16/2015 at 01:57

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Glad you got it working! Did you end up bleeding all four?

Sorry if this is random, but I feel like you guys (shop teachers) maybe don’t hear this enough. Thank you for what you do (and if you do, great!). Seriously. I wouldn’t be where I am today without my two high school shop teachers. They gave me so much support and taught me so much. Neither one of them had much car experience either, but they were great with wood, metal, small gas engines, CAD, basic engineering, etc. Interestingly, when I first started turning wrenches professionally they both ended up being customers of mine and asking me for car advice.

shop-teacher > unclevanos (Ovaltine Jenkins) 11/16/2015 at 04:18

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Nope, mine has the towing package, which means it has a positive already :)

The wagon pictured isn’t mine doing a one-tire-fire.

shop-teacher > AMGtech - now with more recalls! 11/16/2015 at 04:29

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I didn’t bleed the fronts, because the pedal was firm. Also I didn’t have room in the garage to take off the right front. I may still do that in the driveway in the daylight. The “brake” warning light is still on. I didn’t look into how to fix that yet. I called it a win after my successful test drive, cleaned up my tools and headed in for a celebratory root beer.

Thank you! I really do appreciate that. My high school shop/CAD/architecture teacher was one of the biggest influences in my life. We’re pretty close friends now.

shop-teacher > Khalbali 11/16/2015 at 04:30

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The older 350’s are definitely easier to work on without the Optispark system. Less power, but stroking it will more than take care of that :)

fryguy > shop-teacher 11/16/2015 at 07:03

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Oh yaaaaa!

Khalbali > shop-teacher 11/16/2015 at 22:34

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Yeah and the lt1’s just command such a premium, the cheapest lt1 I’ve found locally is $8k and the sbc’s go for like $2k.

shop-teacher > Khalbali 11/16/2015 at 22:42

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$8k!!!! That’s nuts! The LT-1 is definitely not worth that. There was a pretty mint LT-1 Roadmaster wagon for sale nearby for $5k.

Khalbali > shop-teacher 11/16/2015 at 23:21

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To be fair, I'm working with pretty small sample sizes here. But even on eBay, clean lt1 roadies are almost all five figures, some are even pushing $20k, although who knows what they'll actually sell for.

shop-teacher > Khalbali 11/17/2015 at 07:12

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Wow. I love this car .... But not that much!

Khalbali > shop-teacher 11/17/2015 at 11:57

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Kinda my train of thought exactly. And I would love the experience of rebuilding and stroking the engine, it could be a real beast if done well.

shop-teacher > Khalbali 11/17/2015 at 13:30

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Oh yeah, very cool.

When I bought it, I planned to only keep it a couple years as a fun car while my youngest is in a rear facing car seat. Then I started driving it and fell in love with it, so I started thinking about keeping this thing for a long time, and building it up into a real beast. Now that I’ve spent several hours underneath getting acquainted with just how much rust there is under there, I’m back to plan A. That’s why I chose to just replace the broken brake line, instead of replacing them all.

I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see myself buying another more solid B-body wagon in the future.

So, find yourself a nice solid one and upgrade the mechanicals yourself. That should be easier in your area. Also, find one with as good of an interior as you can. The interiors are not built well, and I don’t think anybody makes replacement parts for them.