vectorsolid

Well. We picked up a Wagovan. Kinda like the little buggers. Had a thing for them since Bisi kinda got us looking at them (thanks a lot).

Found this beast in Oregon, with the b18b swap in it. It was a 4wd van, but is now 2wd, with the rear stuff gutted and swapped to regular rear suspension. All 4wd stuff has been removed. Interior is pretty decent. Doesn't appear to be any rust. Body has it's share of parking lot dents. Was throwing 3 codes when we got it, got it down to just throwing the VSS code right now, easy fix. This thing was boosted at one time, lot's of things cut up or missing for clearance, and it's still got an oil return in the pan. I'm not sure why, but there right side motor mount is not factory and welded in by somebody else.

We compression checked it and it went 205-210 across the board. It's got some weird issues we're going to have to diagnose, as in, "I think" it's randomly loosing fuel pressure. Going to put a gauge on it so we can monitor it. Junk ebay coils on the front, and cut coils on the back. Every screw and clip has been hammered, stripped, or lost at one point. Some people should not be in charge of their own car care. It's got a LOT of rattles.

We're going to drop it HARD. I mean like so hard that it's bottoming out and scraping just going on smooth road. Right now it's low, and scraping the mud flaps. i think we can go another 1/2-3/4". Just enough clearance so you only hit ground say once a minute or so. I'll make some skid plates if necessary. Whoever started the original drop absolutely boned the alignment, it's off I'm gonna say 1/2-1" of tow out right now. We'll get that sorted. I've got some leftover tanabe sustec pro coilovers we're going to stick on it. so we can get it low and make it stiff. Gonna have lots of camber and a pretty stretched out tire.

Has 3 different lug nuts on each wheel *sigh..."kids"...*... and one of them is a 6 point key that I don't have... so we can't even work on stuff until I get the key here *lovely*, but it's ordered. Needs to have the e-brake installed. That's the first thing we're working on. then the steering, and getting it to lay low.

Build thread needs to start some where. So here's the start. Showing what we got to work with.

vectorsolid

fndbt

looks like a good starting point! i'd love a wagon too, subscribed..

Domnificent

hells yea i plan on getting one after i get my rex back in the streets

munchies91crx

subscribed for sure vertor u should check my build thread out

efjones9

u should throw a awd crv drive train in there and keep the awd alive!

efjones9

i love the color btw

89LSED

dude! you just found my car!
haha jk
But that is literly exactly what i bought just a month ago!
90 wago with an ls. Mine was an A1 But still.

Same color, Interior and exterior!

Keep up the build! Keep Wagons Alive!


I just have stock wheels, stock height, and tint

props on the ride!! WAGO's ARE AWESOME!

vectorsolid

Can't do much still waiting for my lug key to get here so we can pull the wheels. ...lol...

Did manage to whip up a proper intake, using the big blox air filter. Can run with or without the filter (dragstrip) the way we put mounts on it and welded it together. Battery is in the trunk area in a box... I don't care for it. I think it's going to end up on the right frame rail, on the outside, in the wheel well area in front of the tire. Tidy up some wiring that way and move some needed weight around.

vectorsolid

Randon fixed the left front headlight and re-did that whole area and we re-fitted all the lights so they fit nice and flush. Looks tons better. Ordered new front blinkers, the one is kinda roached.

Working on rusting the hood to get that proper "hood ride" look. We were surprised at how much work it is to utterly strip a hood of paint. I've done a little area here or there... This took hours and hours to get this smooth and clean. We used some aircraft stripper until we ran out, and then some zip strip. Both worked okay and then we roughed it with air grinders and DA's with 80-120 grit to finalize it all up. I kinda felt like we were polishing a Delorean at the end. I think there were 5 more layers of paint and primer AFTER we got most of the clear and the brown off.

To get the rust look, here is what we decided to try. We mixed a lot of rock salt into a spray bottle full of water. I then took a magnet over to our grinder and picked up about a 1/2 cup of metal filings. We misted the salt water onto the hood and blew iron filings all over it. And kept misting salt water onto it until it looked good and damp. We set it outside for the evening. We'll see how it looks in the morning.

I'm sure there's a chemical method to create a good rust quickly, I wasn't able to find it for sure. Lot's of odd speculation and complaining about rusting good metal on the interweb. Harder to find good information than you might think. Lot of people don't like the rust look and good threads go to crap pretty quickly with haters.

Randon liked this look, and I was curious, so we tried it. I think it's gonna look cool if we can get a decent rust on it. Be fun to try and clear coat the rust so you could make it shine... ...lol... I will say that I'm glad we didn't blindly start sanding on the roof.... OMG, would take 100-120+ hours I'll bet to get it the whole thing to clean bare metal.

Makes it look really easy and fast in these few pictures... it took HOURS and hours to get it down that clean. The whole time we're doing it, I'm thinking, "PLEASE don't let there be any bondo..." got lucky, only minor dings and no bondo. *whew*. Last picture is the one with the iron filings spread about on it, soaking in salt water.

munchies91crx

very jealous i wish i had a shop. the hatch would be in piece right now if i did. haha.

uneek4dr

Ah Ive been wanting one FOREVER!! I should of bought my friends wifes when she decided to buy a new car

J_Marc

Not a 100% sure, but from what I recall the RT4WD mount for that is different than the FWD mount, so if they converted it from RT4WD to FWD that might be what's going on there.

leteg98

You crazy with that rusty hood business haha. It looks like a sick wago though I would definitely like to build one. You should boost it and **** on fools haha.

vectorsolid

It's easier than you think. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't hunt, I don't fish, We don't own a boat or an RV... that frees up a lot of money for a garage and tools. I have a lot of friends that are B*R*O*K*E* and I see them in the bars, drinking and smoking, bitching about how they can't afford anything...

Hmm, good thought. I was wondering about that.

Yea the rusty thing, it's just a project. Have fun with it. If it sucks, we'll do it over, no big.

munchies91crx

haha i am broke. got a truck payment, bills, and a 10month old daughter. plus on military pay. i wish i could find a garage for sale around here. not even a big one. just like a nice 2 car haha

vectorsolid

locally, we have dudes renting oversize storage units to build cars in.

munchies91crx

yeah thats what imma do. but im not gonna be able to have the money to source parts if im renting the storage unit right now. so i gotta wait and build up the parts first haha.

munchies91crx

you should hook me up with some ef parts. haha i need black interior. im not diggin my blue **** haha. but thats last on my mind is the interior. i need a si wiring harness.

vectorsolid

I knew this was going to happen... (shakes head)...

I found a turbo manifold in the garage, kinda hidden there (was part of some horse trading I did, and then forgot about)... I saw it and instantly went.. well. there goes the wagovan... ~~~

I blame garage 808 for this whole "about to unfold" fiasco... 200whp, that's all I need, this doesn't need to get nutz... just 200whp.... I can do this.

vectorsolid

Here's the turbo manifold. It's a coated Full race with (2) 40mm wastegates and a T4 flange. they were about a $1000 ram horn with coating. But I need a t3 flange and a 38mm WG flange.

I thought about it for a while. if I sold it for $300-$400 I still have to buy something to use. SOooo, I'm gonna mod this one. I ordered a T3 flange and some wastegate flanges. Gonna mod this baby to fit my Cheap-*** knock off waste gates and Chinese Turbo. gonna slice off and fill the one side flange and use/mod the one facing forward. We want to boost this wagovan with leftovers and whatever is laying around. So that's what we're doing. With any luck at all, I'll only have to pay for getting it tuned. (oh yea, I had to spend $70 on an intercooler and $25 on flanges). That should be about it.

vectorsolid

rust is coming along. It's been about 24 hours now. It would seem that wasps don't dig on salt water. We came in, looked at the hood, and there he was. I think we should "carefully" wipe it down tomorrow and hit it with vinegar and peroxide. I'm surprised at how interesting it's been to create rust.

vectorsolid

Worked on it tonight. Finally got my six sided key to take those silly lugnuts off. Hasn't had rear brakes and e-brake didn't work. Turns out the brakes were utterly misadjusted and the cables for the e-brake weren't hooked to the pads... so we fixed everything up, reset it all, cleaned and lubed everything and put it back together.

E-brake holds proper now, will drag the rears or squeal them at speed. "perfect".

Dropped the front another 1/4" and the rear about 3/8". I think we can get lower. Maybe another 1/2" each. We've developed a massive alignment problem, and we'll need to sort that out. Front tires are tearing up the fender lip, we'll need to roll those lips.

I think as soon as the weather goes to crap and the snow flies were gonna pull off all the suspension and get it powder coated. Kinda pimp it out.





What's there, cleaned up pretty good.


E-brake "testing"...

vectorsolid

stance as of today on some 17's we had laying around.







at this point, even on 2x4's we almost can't get the lift under the car. About 1/4" clearance. We're going to need bigger stuff to roll up on to work on the car.

hillssol95

this is a sick build i cant wait to see how this ends up turning out! I officially want a wagovan now