Major or Minor repair

that first one is exactly like mine but mine has cloth interior, the second one is nice but i'd have to get rid of all the pinstriping on it. i'm really digging the fat whitewalls on that, i really want some like that. the second wagon should of shown some interior pics.

 

Yeah, I guess "rust free" isn't really the grey area that many of us want to believe. If its there...it's there and it's pretty unlikely that it can't be gotten rid of.

I have a feeling that the $3K FIRM on that '93 will move in time. It started out at $3500 FIRM a couple of months ago. It doesn't change the fact that this car has been messed with but I suspect his value is placed upon the amount of work that went into the car. That '91 Caprice that I looked at a while ago needed a fair bit of work and the guy had receipts to prove $10K worth of work boring the 305 40 over and other mods. Even at that he was asking $2400. Ultimately he lowered his price to $2000 and it disappeared in a couple of days. I think it's just a question of how realistic the seller is or how gently you can convince them of a better line of thought. I find a lot of asking prices don't necessarily reflect the value of the car.

We'll see how the '94 pans out if I can see it this weekend and then I guess I'll need to decide how strongly attached I am to the idea of an LT1.

 

I've been watching that one with the pinstriping for some time. I was prepared to purchase it a week or so ago until Fox tipped me off to the difference in the L08 and the LT1. I'm willing to bet that the stripes will come of with some rubbing compound a bit of body english.

 

I'm not against a 350 TBI, wiz. There are SOME positives over the LT1. In your case....using the car as a winter driver in your area...I would consider one because it will be cheaper (the one you are looking at isn't real cheap) to buy and to maintain. I'm wondering about the decision to buy a real nice LT1 wagon and then drive it on the Ontario winter roads? I have seen real nice TBI wagons for $2k and less. You are not likely to find a real nice LT1 for near that money. If this was a replacement for your Box wagon and a summer only car I would maybe have different thoughts about your purchase. If I wanted a year round daily driver I would have no problem buying a TBI wagon.

 

wiz, check about that 2nd one over on the gm long roof forum....
there are A LOT of guys over there from Ontario...some with many wagons.
if it isn't one of theirs it may well be someone that someone knows.
there is a difference between a wagon that has been screwed with and one that has been tastefully done... i find that 93 to be tasteful. (IMHO)
however ...that said....call the guy and have a conversation..feel him out to see what type of car guy he might be. if its a teenager...run fast as the vast majority of teens and college age student can't treat a car right to save their lives! (tom...your an exception!)

 

Sorry Fox, I didn't mean to imply that you had negative concerns about either engine, only that I was unaware that there was a difference in the engines between '93 and '94 until I learned it from you. I understand what you're saying and take it to heart. I have my misgivings about exposing an LT1 to the winter as well. Truth be told, the winters in our area are extremely mild and we can go many years without a heavy dump of snow. A few years back we didn't even see snow until well into December and I recall many green Christmases. If I were to find a sufficiently well-survived LT1, I could totally see my mind doing a flip and the LT1 becoming the summer car. At this point my Parisienne sedan is still an enjoyable that I don't want to drive in the winter. The wife is already at me to make the Parisienne the winter car while I keep hunting for a nice LT1. I'm still pretty attached to that Parisienne so I'm more likely to sell it before I drive it in the winter(even thought that's most likely what the buyer would do with it). At this point it's still very much part way through several projects and not in a condition that anyone would want to buy it so that's not an option for at least another year or two. There's no shortage of '78-'85 Cappy's and Poncho's around here for some reason and they aren't yet classic enough for people to show an interest in them as anything other than a winter beater.

I think I'll give some serious thought to the idea of a TBI as a year round daily driver while hunting for an LT1 for summer use.

 

Think outside the box though

1 owned by an older couple, and well taken care of, it would be a great buy for the drive train if the price came down allot, then scrap the body.

If the price was right though........

 

I totally agree. In my case, I just don't have anywhere to put them while I put the pieces together.

 

I called about that '94 that I've been looking at today. I was going to call last week and I was essentially too lazy to drive 2-3 hours to see it. The seller called me back tonight about an hour after having sold it. It's hard to say how much of what he told me was 100% truth of course but it sounds like it was pretty sweet. His father had bought the car and kept it maintained and detailed. He regularly took it to car shows but ultimately swapped out the intake on the LT1 for something that looked more impressive under the hood. I don't know just what that meant but the son said that he had just over $10,000 in receipts for upgrades done on the car before his father passed away. The car had been sitting in the garage for the last 3 years. Not entirely sure that it was the car for me due to the number of changes that had been made, but at $3300, I'm kinda kicking myself for not calling last week.

He did tell me about a cache of Roadmasters not too far from his home. Apparently there is a lot there with about 10-12 of them. I think I might drive down that way tomorrow for a look....camera in hand of course.

 

So it turns out that I got my callers mixed up. The fellow who called me last night to say that is car was gone was the seller of the 1993 with the funky pinstripe job on it. When he started talking about his LT1 I assumed that he was the seller of the '94. I called back today to speak to him and get the address of that "lot full of wagons" that he mentioned only to discover that I was calling the wrong seller and I discovered that the 1994 was still available (since I was calling the '94 seller and not the '93). She just hadn't gotten to calling me back. Quite a mix-up overall.

So the '93 was sold for $3000 and it sounds like that's a good thing. The engine had been rebuilt but also pretty heavily modified from the sounds of it. The seller was bragging on the phone about how the buyer was able to punch the gas and drive "sideways" down the street. I think I dodged a bullet there.

In a nutshell, the '94 that I link to in post #13 of this thread was still available and was actually in a little better shape than I had hoped for. It had been oil sprayed annually. The body and frame are in superb shape even for a non-Canadian car. The current owner is selling the car as her father just passed away at 80 and she doesn't have anywhere to put it since she has 4 cars in her driveway now. The relative that has let her park it in their driveway has just sold the house and she has two weeks to get rid of it or find somewhere else to put it. (Motivated seller!)

The car ran, shifted and stopped great. It had been sitting in that driveway since May and it fired up like a dream. There was wear on the interior door panels and the some of the colour had come off of the steering wheel but nothing major. A rear window was out of the track and the passenger side window switch didn't work. The rear seat was in good shape and folded up fine. The spare tire well was clean and dry as was the floor on the passenger side by the firewall. The rear passenger door has a parking-lot hickey in it and one of the trim pieces was wrinkled but fixable. Most of the trim was starting to peel but the DyNoc was in very good shape. As is generally the case the car needs a good cleaning inside and out but I think it's completely savable. I made a bit of a fuss about some of the minor things and offered her $2500. She needs to discuss the price with her husband but I think I have a decent shot at it.

The plan now, if I get this car, is to finish the work that I'm doing on the Parisienne next summer and sell it so that the Roadmaster can become the summer car and I can start shopping for something else for winter.

 

I hope this one turns out for you. It sounds like a decent "used car" that will, with some elbow grease on your part, be a nice keeper.

So, any idea when she is going to speak with her hubby?

Fingers are crossed for ya.

 

The color wearing off the steering wheel is common as is the window problem. Some cheap vinyl or something on the steering wheels...they all wear down to black after a time. As for the windows (all 4) they have weak guides and they break. There is a new fix...you just order up a wheel type guide to replace the weak flat type. It takes a little finesse but no big problem to replace these. You may have to do all of the windows over time. Another weak area are the back wing windows. I would not open them. They get stiff and break and are a real PITA to fix. I would just leave them closed. Which car is this? Do we have a pic of this car?

 

I think it is this one Fox

http://guelph.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-cars-trucks-1994-Buick-Roadmaster-Wagon-W0QQAdIdZ235357922

 

Here's a little ammo for you Cyber regarding a lower price:

http://ontario.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-cars-trucks-1996-Buick-Roadmaster-Wagon-W0QQAdIdZ238697285

 

silicone spray, mineral spirits and black magic tire wet work great on making rubber n pleather/plastic soft again.

Best done when the parts have sat in the hot sun, then soak em down often and let it soak in. Have brought back dashes from the dead with black magic.
[ hard n brittle to soft n supple ]

stay away from armorall, its water based and no good for that, the plasticizers have been leached out by the sun and water don't replace them well.