1989 Chevy Celebrity 4 door - kammback ideas

[Daox]

Wow, that looks great. How are you planning on covering it all up?

[wagonman76]

For the top part I am currently thinking of using a heavy transparent shower curtain liner, stretched over it and held down by retainers made of flat bar. I bought one for $6 at Walmart, and they seem to be at least as transparent as a convertible top window. Shoud be good for starters. If it works out well and if we get back on 40 hours at work, I would probably try lexan. The flat bar I can get for free from the scrap pile at work. I want to keep this as economical as possible. For the sides, I am thinking of either coroplast, aluminum sheet (I have a roll I picked up from a garbage pile once), or steel sheet from a dryer skin (which I might just do since I can weld it to the frame and add to the rigidity).

I have this idea for the rear. Same as I did for a trailer I made a long time ago. The lights are 4 1/2" round trailer/truck lights. The license bezel with backup lights is from a Celebrity (or other a-body) wagon.

[wagonman76]

Originally Posted by TestDrive

Sounds like you'll do fine once the welder is up and running again. Hope that turns out to be a cheap an easy fix.

Got the welder going again tonight. I didn't get to do much except strike a couple arcs, since it was starting to thunderstorm, but it seems like a stronger arc than when it was working before. It ended up being a whole slew of problems, not sure if they all happened at once or if it was cumulative, but I am thinking the latter. Out of 8 diodes, 5 were bad (3 dead and 2 shorted). The optocoupler and a resistor were burned up. 1 burned trace on the circuit board, a couple other melted solder joints. The diodes themselves were going to cost around $100, but after enough digging I found another brand with the same specs, and total cost with shipping was under $40. That includes a spare optocoupler and 2 spare diodes.

The board was a piece of cake to repair, after soldering 3 mpguinos.

This is a downstate weekend, so I should be able to get going again on the kammback/boattail early next week.

[wagonman76]

Got a little more done. 2 or 3 nights ago is the dark pic, then it stormed for awhile, then the light pic is before it got dark tonight. It is very rigid and still really light. I trimmed the trunk rods and added bumper supports (still need to brace to the hole in the center of the bumper). Bumper supports are scrap bedframe rails from the neighborhood piles. Only framing left on the shell is to make a piece each side to better follow the rear glass of the car, and to finish the bottom of the back part. Then I get to skin it and add taillights. I picked up 3 scrap water heaters in neighborhood piles so I should have enough skin for it. I also tried on the shower curtain liner, it fits like it was made for it and even without stretching it I can see halfway decent out the back. I am really hoping to have something that works by next Thursday so I can try it out going downstate.

I am really not fond of how this camera distorts the image. Most of my pics make the tail look twisted off to one side of the car, and make the rear transition look really sharp. It is not sharp, right now it is even less than the 15 degrees that I started with.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by wagonman76

Got a little more done. 2 or 3 nights ago is the dark pic, then it stormed for awhile, then the light pic is before it got dark tonight. It is very rigid and still really light. I trimmed the trunk rods and added bumper supports (still need to brace to the hole in the center of the bumper). Bumper supports are scrap bedframe rails from the neighborhood piles. Only framing left on the shell is to make a piece each side to better follow the rear glass of the car, and to finish the bottom of the back part. Then I get to skin it and add taillights. I picked up 3 scrap water heaters in neighborhood piles so I should have enough skin for it. I also tried on the shower curtain liner, it fits like it was made for it and even without stretching it I can see halfway decent out the back. I am really hoping to have something that works by next Thursday so I can try it out going downstate.

I am really not fond of how this camera distorts the image. Most of my pics make the tail look twisted off to one side of the car, and make the rear transition look really sharp. It is not sharp, right now it is even less than the 15 degrees that I started with.

The form looks dead on! I think,once it's skinned and you get a tank on it,you'll be smiling at the gas station.

[wagonman76]

The frame is finally all welded. It is totally sturdy, I push on it and it moves the car as a whole. Bumper supports are braced to a center hole in the bumper. If tomorrow is nice, I will start skinning it. I think I am going to skin it as shown in the photochop, with a panel at the front part that will follow the window better than any piece of flat bar I can form.

[wagonman76]

Sunday's progress. Got to work on it all day. Looks hideous now, but should look a lot better with a coat of burgundy Rustoleum.

Now just need 3 things. Paint, lights/license plate, and to attach the shower curtain liner which is just laying there in the pics. Still hoping to have it done by Thursday.

[knowbodies]

That is amazing but please get rid of those mudflaps.

[COcyclist]

Kudos for your well thought out work on a sedan Kammback. I am sure many of us are hoping you can log some good fuel mileage data over the long weekend. Do you have similar highway mileage data that you can compare to, with trip conditions as close as possible to your new data? I am eager to see if you notice a significant, measurable increase in fuel mileage at highway speeds with the partial boattail.

Also, I couldn't quite tell from the pictures if the clear top part is still hinged to allow access to the trunk.

[MetroMPG]

I think we might learn more from some quick coastdown tests than MPG figures (unless you're planning some A-B-A with your MPGuino... don't let me discourage you!)

I haven't stopped by this thread for a while - wow, you've done a lot!