What drew you (pre-2000s wagon owners) to purchase an old car, Personally, if I wanted to keep driving, I had no other choice. My bronco had issues that I couldn't afford to fix and had only 500 dollars in my name, I needed a ride, something reliable, something, anything. I couldn't find any car for that amount of money, even if it had no engine. The people want too much in my area and won't give poor people any breaks, in fact most of them make it harder just out of spite and pride. While I was out of a job this tazer of an elderly woman hired me to be her house boy, a firecracker, a job, but still a pain. I was glad I could at least pay my bills. While doing the needed chores I noticed she had an old wagon sitting in her field, I took my break and went out in the field to inspect the old beast. A horizontal monolith on wheels and stood in it's spot like a tomb. It was full of junk and nick knacks, the sun had bleached it's paint, the headliner draped like circus tapestry and had a smell of asbestos and cheap cigarettes. It was beautiful, within the moment I had locked eyes with it I knew I had found my next steed. I had to have it. I asked about it and tested it out, the next day we struck a very turbulent deal and I had the work horse for 500 dollars. Now, it's an icon of the town. If I had more of a financial opportunity at the time, I'd still get it. But it would be a whole 'nother car by now. These cars are dead easy to work on, even when it's a big task. The styling is beautiful (especially from the 60s imo), the body isn't too easy to screw up and you'll have a conversation piece no matter where you go. The gas isn't great, it's as wide as the days are long and rather easy to steal,. But as a daily driver, I wouldn't want it any other way. I love these old American cars, each one has it's own personality. I like older cars in general from all corners of the globe, each manufacturer had an essence of their nation and country. I don;t know about the rest of you, but whenever I look at a 70's Cadillac or a 60s Toyota, even in the 80s and 90s the cars had character. I understood what they were about. Today, it's too conforming (excusing a handful of cars)
I have always been draw to Chevelles/ Malibus/Beauonts, I just like the body style. I came across our Beaumont while surfing Kijiji. I wasn't looking to purchase a car. I just like looking. I actually didn't know that the above cars came in a wagon form and really felt that someone had build this one that I was looking at on Kijiji. After a few weeks of checking out the car and it's origin we decided to bring her home. For the moment she is a stalled resto project that I hope we can get back to soon. When I came across the Olds, he was to be my summer DD, a car that I could drive right away. I really like the size, the look and how useful he is. He really adds to our garage.
One thing you have to say about those Beaumonts, their lineage is definitely GM, but their character is strictly its own. Just like the first time I saw a pic of a Beaumont, anyone's first reaction is puzzlement, followed by astonishment. it definitely is its own class act. As for finding the wagons, mine was owned by a friend's dad, and I needed a car. I got mine for $200 and the trade of a running 302, including bent hood and non-latchable driver's door; I pulled the door panel and lashed the door closed, then took my BFH and bashed that hood down till it couldn't suck in an ounce of air under it, drove to my friend's house 25 miles away and picked up the hood and driver's door from the '79 Grand Marq I was parting out. I then headed back to the shop to install those two pieces and clean out as much of the pine needles as I could blast with compressed air. Changed the oil and filter, flushed the coolant and refilled it, flushed the brakes, flushed the P/S and refilled it, and though I changed the filter in the AOD, I didn't change any fluid because the fluid was in very good condition. I could not, for the life of me, find a replacement left taillight, so I bought a Jeep taillight kit and installed it. Certainly caught people's eyes...like cops. I was pulled over a few times but since the lights correctly worked, they couldn't ticket me. I did eventually find a couple left taillights and put it back to what it should've looked like until the car couldn't pass emissions and I had no money to fix it. That's when I parted it out, and if I had had access to a cherry picker, I would've pulled the engine and trans.
The 85 Colon Park is my ?? wagon, after trading in my 89 CP back in 1994 - I have always regretted it, always wanted another Why - don't know, just cause I liked big late 70's thru 89 wagons, partial to Colony Park but an Electra would do just fine. Would settle for Crown Victoria; Chevy or Olds - but that would be just settling and would never cure the disease. Have no interest in any other wagon but what I mentioned above - weird but that's what it is
I grew up with wagons until I was about 12 or 13. My mother sold Tupperware and was given a new wagon every two years. Her last one was a fully optioned gold Ford Galaxy I think. She had won a coveted golden Galaxy award and the wagon had a brass plaque mounted on the grill that said golden Galaxy. I still have that plaque. I had a 1970 ltd wagon for a year about 5-6 years ago and sold it to move on to something else. I had been looking for another wagon from the sixties but found my 77 cp on kijiji a couple hours north of me in London. It had been listed for awhile with the price steadily dropping and it appeared almost perfect. It was even brought up here and heavily discussed as it had an original 1977 car phone. I ended up paying a little more than he was asking because it had tentatively been sold to someone who was mailing a cheque. I still felt it was a fair price for the condition of it. I've since bought a 65 Cadillac and drive it mostly but I continue to improve the wagon by fine tuning anything that was sub par to me.
Everyone else's stories are much better than mine... Mine started after I bought my 70's house... I started to put all 70's stuff in it restoring the house back to a 70's look. Having a wife and two sons (now three) I was looking at 70's cars to go with my 70's house, and I fell in love with the 69-72 Colony Park's (if Lincoln made a wagon this would be it!) so I was just looking and dreaming never expecting to find one since they didn't make too terribly many CP's at the time compared to CS's... I was about to settle on a green 72 Country Sedan that needed work, but then my brother found my Barge, the '73 CP dang near fully loaded. Truth be told at first I didn't like the color since the pictures made it look yellow... but it kind of grew on me... then when I went to get it, and found out its a nice luscious gold I absolutely fell in love with it. Unfortunately the last owner messed up the engine so it's been a long process of swapping out motors out of a more recently acquired '73 Galaxie interceptor, but it's almost done and hopefully will be on the road soon! As for the Galaxie I do plan on restoring it back to its former glory as a New Orleans police car.
