Ok most of you know that I got an 88 gl-10 wagon from new york not long ago. I have since gutted the interior to see how bad the rust was in the floors.

 

Well the rear strut towers are gone. How can I rebuild/reweld those? Will any be at the 9/13 meet that can weld or help with those?

 

Second when it first gets started after sitting it smokes and the smoke smells like anitfreeze. What would cause that and how can I fix it?

 

Next can you buy replacement panels for the rear of wagons? I have seen them for other type of cars and just wondered.

 

I want to restore this car to it's original glory.

Antifreeze smell generally indicates a blown head gasket. Is the smoke white? That's generally the color. Figure on doing a head gasket - and the heads likely could be cracked as well, so figure on replacing one or more of them.

 

GD

That's crappy. I drove it home from new york city without a problem. Didn't notice any power problems or anything.

I remember somebody was welding up some rear strut tower replacements, up in New England somewhere...

I can't think of his name, Paul should know?

 

I'm sending you a PM.

suppose an intake gasket is leaking. it may trickle slowly enough into the intake without noticing, but when the car sits it may puddle up in the ports, thus smelling like coolant at startup until it burns off.

 

does the smell go away?

I agree about the intake manifold gaskets. My '88 GL-10 had that problem. There is a coolant channel that runs inside the joint of the manifold. You may be able to listen for an air leak while the engine is running by placing a piece of water hose to the joint and your ear. After I caught onto it, my leak it was so loud I didn't need the hose to hear it. Hopefully it's not the head gaskets, but it may be them also.

 

If you take the intake joint apart I would replace the three bolts that are on each side with new ones and use some antiseize compound on the treads when you put the bolts back in.

the smell does go away after a few minutes. I drove it to work one day and I made a stop. When I started it, it didn't smoke, but when it sat overnite it smoked when I started it.