Got my Baby Back!

Drove to San Antonio this morning and picked up my '96 Roadmaster today! It's funny, I bought it the first time in San Antonio years back. Now here we go and do it again! My friends Rich and Robbi took outstanding care of it...it felt like I'd just been in it yesterday, and not over two years ago!

Sadly we had a mix of sun and downpours the past few days, including today, and I got the car pretty dirty driving around. We picked it up and took it to a family reunion in Stockdale Texas, southeast of San Antonio, and then came back through New Braunfels. I could not get Joseph and Tuck out of the 3rd row, and all the kids were happy to have it back. Quite a way to reunite with my baby, with a big drive, and it did fantastic on the trip, despite the downpours, and it's now home safe in my garage here in Austin.

Pics from today. Most are not great, but you get the idea. Now to totally clean and detail it!!!

Here we are in San Antonio picking it up. You think I'm happy...???




Heading from San Antonio to Stockdale. Car still drives fantastic! So smooth!



Joseph and Tuck in the Way-Way Back


Had to stop at Buc-Eee's on the way home.


She's home again!


Now time to clean her up to spotless again!

-Mike

 

Mike, that is great news. I am glad it is finally back in your garage. Looking forward to hearing all about the new adventures you and your family experience in that big beautiful car.

 

Now, don't let her go again!

 

Congrats Mike, glad to see you got her back!

Dennis

 

you relize you are trending .

Not a good example for the kids........they will never leave now!

Congrats you wanted it back since you sold it!

 

Mike I'm looking for a white with woodgrain 96 Roadmaster in really good clean condition. Do you know of one in Texas for sale cheap?

 

Welcome home to the RM, and to Mike and family back to the forum with the great news. Oh sure, you've posted from time to time, but now we know you are back for good.:2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

Holy Cow that was a long wait! You have been amazingly patient waiting to get your baby back. Finally the day is here. Congratulations...EEEEEEE!

:banana::banana::banana:


So your driveway must be getting pretty crowd, if you want to make some space and clear out that GTO just let me know. I've still got a little vaca left for a road trip to Taxes.

 

Mike, i was beginning to think that torture game you were on the bad end of was going to be permanent! So glad for you and the family that the Roady is back where she belongs. Many good times ahead!

 

Glad to see the Roadie is back where it belongs, Mike!
Congrats!

 

Hey Mike, well done and congrats you look pretty pleased! For the rest of us, what was the actual story? did you sell it to friends or to a random couple? Was there always a plan to get her back? Fill us in!!!

Cheers Mike.

 

U lucky dog!

 

It is really nice to see the pure joy on your face. Best of luck in your new chapter!

 

That's fantastic news Mike and it don't show its been a while

 

Well I posted and then I left everyone hanging. Ha! The holiday weekend was NUTS, and I still have not gotten the wagon detailed out like I’d like yet. It’s stormed the past few days, and is still doing it today and supposed to tomorrow, and now I’m back at work, so am setting aside a day this weekend to REALLY do a top-to-bottom wax and detail on it.

I did go all over the car, noting things it will need and to-do projects.

- Steering wheel: The leather on the top is deteriorating now, and the non-leather parts are wearing through to the black, especially on the left side of the wheel. I’m going to try to find a wheel with better leather in the salvage yards, and will also be ordering some new SEM dye/paint. Would also really like to do the steering wheel radio control mod.
- Turn Signal Stalk: All the white lettering is pretty well worn off. Will order a new stalk soon.
- I NEED a new front center arm rest/storage box lid. This is the 95-96 one-piece design.
- Interior: Need to totally clean and treat the leather seats, they’re getting dry, and will do a full interior detail at the same time. Inside is still very pretty! Only very slight wear on the driver’s seat leather, the steering wheel, center arm rest, and to the carpet where your left foot rubs when you drive.
- Both front door panels are still PERFECT, no cracks. My lecture about not slamming the doors when I sold the car seems to have worked, but some of the clips that hold the rear door panels on are broken..so those rattle when you close the door. I may try to CAREFULLY remove those panels and replace the clips soon.
- The armrest light on the driver’s front door panel is still INOP. I did the bulb ages ago, and that was not it. Need to chase the wire I guess.
- I need to re-paint all the black paint on the roof-rack, behind the Vista roof. It’s faded out and it’s time.
- There is still a dent in the metal trim on the left-front corner of the front bumper. Anyone know if the bumper has to come off to remove that trim piece, or can I get it off with the bumper attached?
- I eventually want to have both the front and rear bumpers repainted. The front has bug stains in it that will not come off on the lower part, and the rear has scratches that were there when I first bought the car. They hide well when waxed, thankfully!
- I need to totally detail under the hood again. Happily the car was never outside so it still had ZERO rust under there, or under the car, but it’s dusty and will need to be spit-shined before the next cruise-night!
- The car will need another set of tires again soon. They still have tread, but not great.
- The car still runs fantastic, but I’ve never done the plugs, wires, or cap and rotor on the Opti. I think I’ll pay my mechanic friend Truong to do those soon. I do not want to mess with the Opti!

That’s about it. I did notice a couple of odd things….on Saturday when I picked it up we went through a lot of off-and-on rainshowers, and the rear wiper would not work. That ALWAYS worked when I last owned the car. Well last night playing in the garage I hit the button…and it worked! Ha! Weird. Also the front up-down tilt feature on the driver’s seat did not work Saturday, but it also had come back to life last night. Maybe Christine is fixing herself since she knows she’s back home again???

The plan this coming weekend is to totally detail the car top-to-bottom, and then to re-arrange my garage…I forgot how HUGE the car is, and I want to move shelves and motorcycles around so I can walk all the way around the Roady in the garage again. Right now it’s kinda tight in there with both cars and both motorcycles. We’ll sort it out.


Oh and my other adventure this weekend was on Sunday. We borrowed my Uncle’s tandem-axle trailer to tow my Dad’s ’82 Z28 to the shop for its new 350 motor, and on the highway one of the trailer tires EXPLODED! Scared the hell out of me! The trailer started jumping up and down and fishtailing at 70mph! MAN! Happily we were able to get off the highway and into a Target parking lot, but only then did we discover the Denali jack would not lift both the trailer and the Camaro, and in addition I had the wrong size wrench for the lugs! So I had to un-hook the trailer from the Denali and left my Dad there, and drove all the way home for my floor jack and a 4-way. What a day! Ha!




Oh and the Roady is officially retired to weekend cruise-in and occasional trips for fun to Dallas or the gulf (MAYBE a wagonfest!). It was my daily-driver when I first owned it. No more...these cars, especially nice ones, are really getting hard to find, and I'm not going to wear this one out or subject it to flying Prius-doors in the parking lot. No daily-driving for it, no towing, no work, no rain, and no sun-baking in the work parking lot. She is going to be parked in the garage and polished and only used for fun times and weekends!

Oh and as for mileage, it had 102K when I installed the Z28 gauge cluster, and I had the cluster set to zero. It now has 17K miles on it, so the car has just under 120K miles on it. I DO plan to drive the car, I love driving it, but hopefully can keep the additional miles from racking up too fast!

I'm not letting her go again. I plan to keep the Roady forever.

-Mike