Bell's Speed Shop

10/26/2026

There must be a shortage of steel exhaust pipe in the USA, because this is the second car this year that I got that the exhaust terminated under the car.

I was able to put together a fix and tart up the van a little in the process.

10/26/2026

No such thing as too much bling.

10/25/2026

Well, my original intent was to repaint the wheels Brittany Blue and use the bottle caps.

But I have a nice set of 14" wires that I m going to use instead. The wires dress the van up a bit.

Wish that I figured this out before I spent $45 on matching blue spray paint.

10/23/2026

The original owner sold the 67 Club Wagon in 1999. The buyer did quite a bit of restoration work on the van in 1999-2000.

I cannot find the dated oval on the tires. I believe that dating tires became mandatory in 2006.

So I looked up Goodyear S4S tires. Goodyear stopped making that tire in 2000. So it fits.

The tires look good, but at least 26 years old? The wheels need to be repainted as well. So that's a project.

10/23/2026

Someone did the Full Monty on the 67 Club Wagon, bought the Marti Elite Package.

Prior owner only owned the van for about 1/1-1/2 years and never drove it. I asked him why. He said that he runs a dog rescue and that he was going to use the van to haul around the dogs, but he could not bring himself to ruin the van.

10/22/2026

The 67 Club Wagon arrived. The restoration is about 25 years old now, but it has held up well. The claim was that this was a California truck, but the paperwork does not support this. The original owner had CA and WI addresses. I believe that she wintered in CA and summered in WI, where this truck spent its life.

I am not planning on doing anything with the truck other than clean it up and basic maintenance.

10/22/2026

I changed out the rear shocks on the E350 Club Wagon. This is the hole that you have to use to access the rights side top shock pin. too tight for a ratchet. The pin is at an odd angle, so my Gearwrench would not swing in a big enough arc to click. I had to use an open end wrench, turning the nut about a 16th of a turn, then flip the wrench over for another 16th of a turn. Lather, rinse, repeat. And the pin was not rusted, but rusty and turned hard. With a little 8" wrench, I needed both hands. It took me 45 minutes to get this nut off. The left side went a little easier. Only took about 30 minutes.

I do not know what the book rate for labor is on changing these shocks, but it is not enough.

10/21/2026

I needed a 3/8" bolt. I am in no hurry. In fact, I might never use it. But I keep them around. I cut the head off and use them for locating pins for diff. covers, MCs, etc.

Home Depot has them for $0.87/ea + free delivery. I drive right by the Home Depot on the way to the shop, but why even park and get out of my truck when HD will bring it out and put it on my porch for free?

There has to be a reckoning with this free delivery someday.

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10/20/2026

I installed the new battery cable on the Squire. It is getting hard to find the 24R batteries, so I ordered the cable a little long and was able to turn the battery around.

There is some funky rewiring under the hood, with some bare wires just sitting there over the shock tower. I attached some of them so that they do not just flop around and put protective sheaths on them. Fixing it correctly likely will take installing a whole new harness, which I am not inclined to purchase.

10/19/2026

I know that it is a bit of an overkill to put these on a church bus/family van, but they look so much better than the factory rusty tailpipes.