New guy from Virginia

First thing you might notice is I'm twenty two, and the first thing you might think is "Oh no, another car is going on giant wheels", well, you'd be wrong if you thought that. Just gonna slap some 16" bullet holes on my '89 Custom Cruiser, which was made the same year I was born, so you can't call it old without calling me old.

Anyway, another thing you might be wondering is why such a young guy is interested in in station wagons. The reason behind that is simple, we had a 1978 Ford Country Squire when I was a kid, it had a 351 modified, a motor which I would never even touch after the hell that car put us through, broke down multiple times, even caught fire once when we pulled into the driveway. I was about six at the time, and frantically unrolling the garden hose for my father while my older and younger brother fished buckets of water from the creek. Needless to say, my reaction was priceless

So, our 1986 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser,

My father got an '86 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser in the mid 1990's when the Ford finally got on his last nerve, but my uncle kept driving and smoking up his neighborhood with the 'skeeter fogger that 351 modified became. We still have the 1986, it's still got it's twice rebuilt 307, the first time it was rebuilt was before we got it, it wasn't a good rebuild, so we rebuilt it again. My father to this day wishes he'd just built a 350 for it. Keep in mind, this car is our daily driver, our beater, our truck, it is our car and our utility vehicle. It is not show worthy, it never has been, and it probably never will be. The car was wrecked sometime around 2000, another Oldsmobile hit it going the wrong way up the wal-mart parking lot.

We added a third row seat when we sold the car around 2002, re repossessed the car in 2003 'cause the guy failed to pay us. We had about $2,000 in the car at that point, we got that much for it, the guy owed us a grand on it. So the car literally payed for its self. Although we had to spend a few hundred fixing stuff like the garbage advance auto starter, and the aluminum slant brake reservoir he put on it. The thing stopped like the brakes where made of cheese with that master cylinder on it.

Our 86 has no real options, standard power windows, locks, drivers seat, interior is in shambles, the passengers side wiper broke over the winter when it froze to the windshield. Something with the connecting rod linkage broke, it hasn't been warm enough for us to care.

And, our 1989 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser

My father bought our 1989 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser in 2010, it was wrecked in 2008, he's going to let me have the car to fix up. It's got power everything, even mirrors, and a rear window defroster. White, with woodgrain, the woodgrain is going away, but the interior, sandstone I think is the color, is staying. It has a factory third row seat, and it's got one of the nicest non restored B body wagon interiors I've seen, headliner is falling down, but the seats are like new.

I have photo's of our 86 and 89 custom cruisers below

My plans for the '89 are as follows:

Currently, get it road worthy, sort out the few issues it has, needs a centerlink, tie rods, idler arm, suspension, that's about it other than the cosmetic damage.

First I gotta get a parts car, and I'm gonna raid it for any and all good parts.

replace windshield, was cracked in the wreck.

Install a new head unit, four factory size speakers, kicker KS series. Don't bother with the AC, as I'm going to swap it for a 350 later on. Remove rotted rubber bumper striping. Get car stripped of wood grain, and prep anything that needs to be prepped for paint. Car will not be painted until after the 350 is in it.

Later on for the 89:

350 GM Crate swap, looking at a budget line 290 horse $2,000 almost ready to go crate motor, everything but the intake and accessories

Convert said 350 crate to serpentine, fell in love with the serpentine belts when I had to change the one on our 1992 Camaro RS, for rear wheel drive anyway. Probably use stuff off an 88 or newer TBI 350 on a Chevy or GMC pickup.

Crate 700R4 swap

Differential re-gearing

Reworking of the suspension so the tank handles a little better, I'm not expecting miracles, it's a 4,400lb 21ft nine seating

15 or 16 inch wheels, nothing flashy, nothing fancy, fancy wheels show off crud coated brakes, flashy wheels show off brake crud.

Have the car repainted stock white.

All I've got so far, anyway, photo's:

My '89, no interior shots yet, haven't gotten around too it:

http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g139/Dead-Reckon/1989 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser/

My fathers '86:

http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g139/Dead-Reckon/1986 oldsmobile custom cruiser 2011/

 

Welcome to the madness DR!

 

Welcome from northern Virginia.

 

Welcome Dead Reckon

 

Welcome!
I think you're gonna like it here.
Great intro, too!

 

Welcome, from one newbie to another!

 

Welcome from a fellow new guy. Have fun with your projects!

 

Thanks for the welcome, I'm surprised noone mentioned the hood strapped to the roof in the pictures of our '86.

If you do notice, it's a third gen Camaro hood, which I got loose of said third gen Camaro, and then carried up and back down a hill, to strap it on our roof. We where supposed to sell it, but never did. That car use to be a beautiful sky blue, until the PO sprayed it purple, then for no reason, intentionally floored it until the 305 blew up. We've been thinking about taking it back up to the junkyard, but, haven't felt like it.

Anyway, I'm gonna try to get some pics of the interior of my '89 today. Weather permitting. It's supposed to be pretty nice out today. Oh, forgot to mention, the damage to that car was done at about 40MPH, glancing blow. Who needs crumple zones? That car doesn't, . The doors don't open on the pass side, but the '83 parts car is identical. I hope the power mirror wasn't damaged, that '83 has NO power options. 'Cept windows and locks.

I have access to a parts car, which I will be buying as soon as we get rid of a couple of cars. Currently, in my driveway, I have our daily drivers, the 1986 Custom Cruiser, and the 1992 Camaro RS, plus a '86 Pontiac V6 Fierro GT, which my father hasn't gotten around to selling. And, my uncles late 90's Caravan, which we had to get, 'cause, the city of Roanoke is evil and will take a van from a man in the hospital for months on end without care or consideration. It will be auctioned before you know what happened.

My '89 isn't even IN the driveway, there is room, but, we couldn't get it started 'cause the alternator belt wouldn't fit back on. We had to borrow the alternator for our '86, only to find out the plug was different. Three wires instead of two, strange.

Something else I forgot to mention, I simply love station wagons 'cause, they are a highway car, go anywhere, see anything, scare the you-know-what out of your friends with a sleeper wagon. Even more so when they hear the tires screaming in a curve. If you go on a road trip, you can live out of the car. Pop it into overdrive, cruise up the highway doing five or so over whatever the speed limit is. Some music going, faint drone of the car audible, nothing but the road and a sofa with a V8 pulling it up the highway. Comfy seats makes traffic not matter.

If your out driving around, see something at a yard sale, odds are you are like us and keep a blanket in the car of your daily wagon in case it won't fit in the back, and it has to go on the roof. Noone tailgates you when you've got a sofa stuck to the roof.

They're not so great for groceries though, you have no limits on what you can buy except to the point of being broke. That's why we use our Camaro for that, limited space, limited amount of how broke we can go at the "Oops we baked too much" rack at wal-mart. If you, however, are feeding the eight screaming brats this thing can hold, then the space is quite useful. I pity the bag boy in that scenario.

Anyhow, I've ranted enough, the last thing I'll say is, on the note of the sound system for my car, I don't really like subwoofers, but I'm not beyond adding something simple like an Infinity Basslink, which, is a simple, no frills, no loud boomy bass addon. I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do for a car stereo. The Retrosound head units are interesting, But none of them have a subwoofer preout, in case I add said simple low power sub. Except for the Model Two, which comes out this summer. My dash does have the standard 1.5 DIN opening, they did away with the shaft knob radio's around 87 or 88. So I'll probably just stick with some modern head unit. I will not use a sub that runs on speaker line outs, they sound terrible. I will be using Kicker KS35's in the dash, and Kicker KS410's in the back sails. I'm hoping it isn't too much of a nightmare to get those panels off in the back.

Anyway, like I said a paragraph ago, ranted enough, on that note, later people.

 

Welcome youngster Reckon, glad to have you and some red bull inspired adrenaline!!!!!!!!!!! Dont see many your age even worrying about "old" cars!!!

 

Dead Reckon have fun with your wagon projects and the station wagon forum. Good to see new blood ready to take over when us old guys slow down. :2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

Welcome Dead Reckon!! Great to have you here...love has no age limit and it is good to see the younger generation getting into the longroof scene.

 

Welcome to the madness ! YouLL FIT IN HERE JUST FINE , Can't wait to see MORE pics!

 

Thanks again for the welcome, didn't get pics of the interior yesterday. Was nice out, I should've, but my neighbor was outside, long story short, we don't get along. Don't know if I can get pictures of the interior today, it's raining.

Anyway, don't get me wrong, I love the '92 Camaro RS I'm driving right now, handles good (Anyone who says a third gen F body handles great is on drugs or is use to driving a Jensen Interceptor, beautiful car that handled like it's steering was set in cement). The ride quality is crap, and it's annoying to get out of sometimes with the long doors and low ground clearance, I've scraped both ends coming in and out of driveways. And more times than I can count I've spun more tread off the $10 back tires accelerating a bit too hard. It's a V6, but it's got go.

It does make a good runabout or daily, but, I'd prefer to have a wagon to drive. To hell with gas mileage, give me four barrels, eight cylinders, and two pipes that sound the trumpets of hell! I like all land yacht's, not just wagons, but I prefer a wagon.

As I said though, I like the Camaro, I like some cars like it, I would not mind having an '80's G-Body coupe, Cutlass preferably as an alternative to my B body wagon, but I have to have a wagon, and it has to be a full sized aircraft carrier. My car must ride like a couch on wheels powered by eight cylinders, therefor, it must be a wagon.

My father got his love for wagons from his father, and, I got my love for them from my father. The simple fact is, it's a family thing, two of my brothers want wagons, I just got lucky enough to get the white one. Plus, it was made on my birth year, so, that makes it a bit cooler to me.

Anyhow, jobs should be picking up again soon, should be able to find work, it'll cost me about $1,500-2,000 to get Operation White Whale started, get that tank road worthy again, run the 307 for now. Gotta do a few things to our Camaro first, however. I think the trans has been replaced in my '89, I don't know for sure. I know it needs suspension 'cause it's bouncing like a low rider, and it needs tie rods, a center link, and idler arm. I'm probably gonna replace the ball joints, all the bushings, just completely rebuild the front suspension and steering when I swap it to a 350. My father thinks it isn't needed, but I'd rather do it and forget it. Another possibility, rear disc brakes, more go, means I need more stop.

On a side note, our '86 is typically called Old Maud, "The tank", or the 'squatch mobile, 'cause my brother is 6'4", and he has been since the end of middle school. He use to drive it when he worked at a local theater, and they called him Sasquatch, so you get the idea.

I haven't thought up a name for the '89, I'm sure I'll come up with something.

I call our '92 Camaro RS Dorothy, 'cause she's from Kansas. Ain't in Kansas no more.

 

Welcome, I'm sure you will enjoy it here.:2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

Got pics, the rain let up long enough to lure me out... Then rain on me before I could get a good dashboard pic.

Anyway, here's the ones I got, don't mind the cobwebs, the car doesn't move much since it's wrecked.

The car originated in Winter Springs FL, found some dealer info AND the original owners signature on the warranty card.

I also found the original uncut keys with the gold (Is it gold?) plated Oldsmobile logo! I haven't seen a set of these before! I'm debating if I'm going to keep them uncut or cut them and use them. The car isn't a classic, so, I'm probably gonna cut them and use them.

Anyhow, as I was going out to take pictures, I noticed the tire was flat on the '92 Camaro RS I've been driving. So, I'm hoping I didn't run something over yesterday. Guess I'm not going anywhere for a while, I can't afford gas in our '86 right now 'cause I'm out of work.

Oh, the options in my '89 are as follows

Dual vanity mirrors, with lighting in sun visors
Power mirrors, power seats, power locks, power rear window defroster
Carpeted kick panels, dunno why
As per safety standards of the year, mid row seat shoulder belts.
Factory third row seat w/ ashtrays
non smoker, ash trays are so stiff they're like new
Wood grain (Being removed)
AM, FM, Cassette 1.5 DIN generic AC Delco radio, going to be replaced, I bet the front speakers have come apart.
Backup warning rear view mirror?

Anyway, pics, don't mind the cardboard and awning poles, we bought a unused still in box awning and had it back there, didn't want to mess up the carpet.

http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g139/Dead-Reckon/1989%20Oldsmobile%20Custom%20Cruiser/