Brought another one home with me...

[Blake442]

Well the 700-R4 in my rusty-but-trusty pickup lost 4th gear last week, so the hunt was on!
Since I make terrible decisions, why would I spend $500 to rebuild my trans when I can blow $500 on a completely NEW set of problems?!? lol

It's an '84 Regal... 3.8 V6, 3-speed auto.
Came with an extra set of doors that were sitting in the dirt so long the bottoms are gone.
I'll harvest some window related parts and scrap 'em.
I don't know what's wrong with me sometimes...

 

[Longroof79]

Blake,
Why should you be any different than any other irrational thinking car guy?...
We're all guilty of making mistakes from time to time. Will this become another daily driver/ winter beater, parts car, or flipper?
The body looks like it's all there.

 

[Blake442]

It's going to be my daily bomber/winter beater.
I'll hang onto the truck for now so I can still haul sh*t around, but realistically I don't need it everyday.
This one will get driven into the ground.
The other side looks shitty with a bunch of grey primer spots covering some shitty bodywork.
Red oxide primer is a pretty close match, so I might do that to make it less of an eye sore.
That, or it'll get the Ambassador Special down the street at Maaco!
Luckily they only did one side. The door bottoms are gone, but the rocker, floor and frame are pretty solid.
It also has a bent tie-rod, so the tires squeal going down the road lol...

 

[Blake442]

Looks much better with my dog-dish caps on it!

 

[Longroof79]

It looks good with the Malibu dog dish caps on it. You're right about the red oxide primer, it blends with the existing red color. Sounds like it will make a good winter beater/ bomber...hahaha!

 

[Blake442]

Did a little work on the Buick so far...
The outfit handling the previous owners estate boggled the title so I need to wait another week or so for the duplicate to show up.
Still needs tie-rods and tires, so I'm not in a rush...

On wednesday I stripped the pair of rear doors that came with the car of any useable parts, then donated the shells to my buddies scrap pile.
This morning when I got home from work I pulled the drivers side rear door apart to fix the window.
Judging by the blue steering column in the red interior, this car has been, or was attempted to be stolen.
Naturally I assume they broke out the rear window and/or vent... and whoever fixed it ****ed up.
Most of us here know that sedan and wagon rear windows are different, but apparently this guy missed the memo.
Having to drill new holes in the vent should have been a pretty solid tip-off for the guy... Surprise, nothing fit right.
Open gaps on each side of the window, vent latch was below the top of the door blocking it closed, and everything was loose...
And of course the vent I needed was missing the glass on the donor doors. Once the lower pivot breaks they come out with a tug.
I decided to put it together anyways because now I'll just look for another car with a loose window at the junkyard saturday.
That way it only takes two seconds instead of pulling the whole door apart, plus I bet there's a lot more loose ones than good ones... lol
I also replaced the window channel with the one from the donor door and got everything back together correctly.

After that I peeled the nasty steering wheel cover off and cleaned all the sticky grunge off... I hate a sticky wheel...
I'm looking forward to starting to drive it...

 

[81cutlass]

I saw the passenger side and thought it was surprisingly clean, then I saw the drivers side....

But yeah, $500, not bad!

Buick 350 swap!

 

[Blake442]

Well the day after my last post I hit the junkyard and scored a vent window for the LR door. Perfect instance where my laziness pays off...
Since I decided to put the door together with the broken vent frame, getting a glass would be much easier.
Once I got to the yard I couldn't even access the area I needed to get because the weeds were so high.
Luckily there was a Cutlass sedan right on the end of the row stacked on top of another sedan.
I walked on top of a couple cars to get to it and the window pivot was already broken! Good to go!
Window pops out and I'm on my way. No prickles from the weeds, no wasp stings and no half hour digging inside a rusty door!
So while a lot of my decisions may seem lazy... a lot more thought goes into it than you may think! lol

Saturday morning I changed the oil/filter and replaced the passenger side inner and outer tie rods.
Set the toe with a tape measure and went for a ride around the block.
Car drives straight now and actually goes down the road pretty nice.
The American flag stickers on the bumper may seem patriotic, but in reality they're covering up the fact that there is an old road sign pop-riveted in place to cover up the rusted out section of the bumper.
I bought a roll of 3M aluminum tape and covered it all up so it doesn't look as shitty.
Replaced the hood struts today so that I don't need to carry around the emergency broom handle lol...
Still needs tires and I think I may flush out the coolant before I start driving it full-time.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

Buick 350 swap!

I was thinking the same thing!

 

[Blake442]

I don't need another project! lol
I'd rather build a new motor for my wagon...
And like I said, this one will get driven into the ground.
It's RUSTY, so I will be investing as little as possible into it...

I'm already fighting the urge to buy back my Buick wagon from Lue that I did the 350 swap on a few years ago...