Hi Everyone! First a little about myself. My name is Steve, I'm 25 years old and I live in Camby Indiana. I am a new homeowner (best part is the over-sized 2 car garage!) I do scheduling for roughly 500 people for a company that presses and welds body/suspension parts for new model Toyota and Subaru Vehicles. I have always had an interest in station wagons, preferably the older ones. I always had a thing for older cars in general. I like how easy they are to work on and the gratification of fixing a car yourself rather than paying a high priced mechanic to do it for you. I have owned several cars in the past, some noteworthy and some not. Up until just recently (around 3 years ago) the most dependable car I had ever owned was a 31 year old 1976 Ford Torino. Not a wagon but still a looker and very old! Sadly due to my living situation at the time (lack of a garage) cost of gas and distance to drive to work I had to let her go. I always kick myself for doing it but at the time it was the best thing for me and for the car since I had no where to store it. Pictures for viewing pleasure: Fast forward to the present, what was my current daily driver (a 1996 Cadillac Deville) recently took a dive. After about a week a troubleshooting my issue was nailed down to the alternator going out. Unfortunately to get the alternator replaced I had little options. For those of you who don't know anything about these 90's Cadillac I'll fill you in. Apparently some engineer(I would like to meet him and let him know what I think!) decided it would be a fantastic idea to put the alternator on the bottom of the car, directly above the frame, behind the radiator, in front of the oil pan/engine and under the water pump! To fix it I can jack the engine out of the hood or remove the pump/alternator and work from the top down. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I would not be able to knock this all out in 1 weekend and still get myself to work on Monday. So I had 2 options: A: Take it to a mechanic and pay him to do what I could do myself, and get taken to the bank for it! Or B: Pick up another daily driver for near the same cost until I could fix it myself for pennies on the dollar. Luckily for myself, I picked looking for another Daily driver. And so the search began! I was originally looking for a truck, for the practicability, but with just purchasing a home, a dog, and many things for the house my funds were low for a decent truck in my price range. I was also short on time, since the Caddy already ate 1 battery that was roughly a year old, I was able to get it replaced via warranty but the new one would not last long. Eventually I came across a nice looking 1983 Chevy Malibu wagon listed at $1500.00 on Craigslist, I figured why not take a look and this is where the story begins! Pictures for your viewing pleasure: Please excuse the dirtiness of the car, its been snowing here none stop and washing it at this point would be pointless. When I went to look at the Malibu I had 3 things in my mind the car had to have in order for me to purchase it. 1. I was not going to pay $1500.00 for the car, its nice, but its old and its not finished and will take some work, so the seller had to be willing to go down on the price. Plus I'm cheap! 2. It needed to run and drive well, since it will be the money maker to get me back and forth to work until I have a chance to fix the caddy. 3. It needed to have very little body issues, so it would be easy for me to fix the bodywork and allow me to spend more time on the fun stuff once the caddy is in running order. When I purchased the Torino back in 2005 It was an impulse buy and I knew very little about bad bodywork, cars, and how some people try to be deceiving about some of the shoddy repair work on used vehicles. I have grown since then and know better so I came prepared. I went over every inch of this car before I made my decision. I made sure everything was in working order and the car ran and drove well. In the end I decided to purchase the car, it has very little rust (unheard of in this state, I'm so jealous at all you dry state car owners I see on here!) Drives great and is a very solid car all around. Its has a 305 Engine with TH350 transmission. I'm not sure if its original, as the car used to be fuel injected and someone gutted most of the electrical harness and fuel injection components and put in a Qaudrajet 4 barrel in its place. I will keep you guys filled in on what I do to it and look to you members for your help and knowledge as I dig deeper into this car. Finally I apologize for being so long winded, and I look forward to sharing my journey with all of you as I restore this car into something great. Regards, Steve
Welcome! New member myself,lots of cool stuff here though. Nice Malibu,no luggage rack thats cool! I really like your old Torino!!!
WOW...that was a very interesting intro. Torino looks great, we all have parted will something that we have regreded. And your new(old) wagon looks good too. Thanks for the pictures...we do like visuals aboard...I believe you will fit in here very nicely.
Great Intro...and with pics not promices. Allways liked the Torinos....I was a 70's Stasky and Hutch kid and still to this day love the body style. Love the wagon because of your pics....you drive it!
to the wagon train, swaz. Spectacular intro!! You will have fun with the bu. And it has a lot of possibilities if you want to mess with it. If not....just drive it.
Steve. This is the best intro I've ever seen. A little history, pictures and a little about yourself. The noteworthy things I noticed. 1. You choose cool cars. 2. You aren't necessarily brand loyal. (likes all cool cars) 3. You are cheap! This is the best one as I've always said cheap means..inexpensive cars, inexpensive insurance and inexpensive maintenance.
To the Funny Farm Steve. CUDO'Z on the intro and I'm not ah Government Motorz guy but that don't mean I don't appreciate 'um. Over the course of yearz I've owned 'um all. BTW, Don't loose sleep about giving up the Torino either. My Son-in-Law gave up a '71 Torino that waz ah piece ah junk back in '01, and he . 'Bout 10 dayz ago he brought home another '71 Torino FACTORY SCREAMIN' ZONKER YELLOW, 351C, SHAKER HOOD PULL YER LIPZ OF YOUR TEETH CROWN JEWEL that literally fell into hiz lap and he wasn't really looking! My point: Theirz alwayz another one and you're jes gettin' started with the toyz. Enjoy every one of 'um while you've got 'um, drive 'um like you stole 'um, and theirz alwayz another one I'M GONNA TAKE AH NAP NOW
Welcome Steve. Thanks for helping us get to know you. I like the way you think. If at first you can DIY it, get another. Rev, Come On Down! Shovels are all warmed up and tuned!
Love the Torino! Some day you'll find another and have the cash to go nuts with it... Maybe even as nuts as the dozens upon dozens of guys who've done this with them...
Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. I plan to do quite a bit to the wagon. I will share with you all my plans for her, please give any input you have! After a few snows here on work days with it being left to the elements some surface rust has shown itself on parts of the car which I expected. Fortunately it has showed up only on the doors (car is only in primer at the moment). The driver door is rusted pretty badly on the bottom, pretty common for a car of this age. I am debating on replacing the driver door with another entirely instead of messing with the rust since the bottom corner is completely gone anyway. I hate dealing with rust! What could someone expect to pay for doors on an 83 bu? The rear driver door was involved in an accident prior to my purchase and its definitely going to be replaced with another when I find one of these bu's being parted out since its beat up pretty badly. I also plan on replacing the front passenger quarter panel as it is the only other part of the car that has rot that's not a door. Some more info on the car. When I purchased her the front end was lowered 2 inches and new shocks installed. This makes the ride very smooth, it comes close to the ride of my caddy even which makes me very pleased. The rear end of the car has new air shocks which came with it also so the back end is jacked up a bit. I have never owned a car with a short wheelbase like this one and the handling is very nice, I did not expect that out of this car. It is much different than driving the Torino. She also came with some shoddy cragers that have been in the elements. How much do these cost to get re-chromed? I like the look and I'm tempted to buy another pair for summer to look nice and leave these for winter if re-chroming costs too much. The dash pad is cracked, but most of the interior remains near mint so I don't plan on doing too much to the inside until that's all that's left to tinker with. I do need to put in a headliner though since its missing! As for the sound system I have a nice pair of PYLE 10' subs I plan to put in the rear, might make a custom Fiberglas box to fix the back of the cab behind the rear seats? Have a 850W amp to go with them, they could take more but with the subs being in the cab of the vehicle I think this will be overkill anyway. Never done a fiberglass box before, but I know a guy at work he has experience with it and lives close to my house who has offered to help me in the past so that's a thought. Electrical engineer too so it'll be done well. The front bumper is in good shape but needs re-chromed. I'm told I can take pretty much any 80's bu bumpers to put them on this car so I may find one in good shape that may cost less then re-chroming? Not sure since I have not checked pricing. The rear bumper will definitely need replaced since its been backed into. I also plan to cut down the tubes and tuck the bumpers close to the body as possible. Once all my bodywork is done I've thought that a gun metal black with clear coat would look good. Would look close to primer, and for the most part I enjoy the look sort of reminds me of a rat rod. If money permits I would like to get flames airbrushed on the front end clip coming up the hood. Of course the engines looks will need an overhaul its got tons of electrical harness that's no longer used since a carb was dropped in. Going to grab a nice set of headers and plan on doing some exhaust work. Everything from the muffler back is new but they used a stock muffler so you can barely hear her at all! This is new to me and I may end up keepin it this way its nice to not have to deal with loud exhaust. The smog pump was taken off the car but all the hoses still remain, I will need to do some research on what exactly I can do to get rid of all of it. The engine runes extremely strong and transmission shifts smooth. If I do end up rebuilding it, its going to a mild rebuild at best. I got tons more to talk about but the laptop is dying and dinner is about done. Merry christmas everyone I will stop by again sometime soon!
i'll only voice on the Cragars dont even think about re-chrome...just look up Summit.com....they're so cheap its silly
