Hello,
My name is David, I'm 42, I live in Belgium.
I'm in the car hobby since I'm 16 years old. I started with aircooled beetles and the hobby became my job as I opened a restoration and parts shop with a friend.
I had always been in love with american cars since the age of 12, but the beetles were more available at the time....
I bought my first US car in 1999, a friend of mine brought me a 72 Buick Skylark Coupe from California. I still have it and it is now equipped with an ATI procharger, 4 BAER discs brakes, tubular arms, locking diff, 17" salt flat wheels, and so on....
In 2006 I bought a neglected 1968 Pontiac Catalina Station Wagon (imported in Belgium in 1970) , I lowered it on 17" Cragar 390N wheels.
In 2010 I bought a 71 El Camino, that I restored with a new paint and 18"matt black OZ wheels....
I sold it in 2013 and bought a 78 Dodge B200 maxivan that needed some TLC....and a new shaggy interior !! :lol:
You can see them on this page (with my watercooled VW and some ex-cars) : http://westcoastgarage.blogspot.be/
A friend of mine , my ex partner of the VW shop, (who still owns it) has recently bought a Chevy G20 Van, and seems more and more interested in US cars as this summer he made a trip to Arkansas to buy a 79 Malibu Wagon V8 , 4 speed, he made a road trip and drove it to Florida to put it in a container.
As I was looking in the local add website, I saw a 78 Malibu wagon for sale, I set an appointement and went to see it. It was sitting for 20 years, only driving once a time in the driveway. It had previously been used in a funeral company to wear flowers so no modifications had been made to the body or inside and it never saw a coffin... :wink:
It is a V6 3.3L engine with auto gearbox, the odometer read 5000 km but it is surely 105.000km.
The body has some surface rust but needs no welding. The only modifications are the vinyl top, amber front turn signals on the front wings (necessary in Belgium when you have a hitch) and a very ugly rear fog light :evil:
The car started but was loud because of the rusted muffler, I bought it for 900 euros (+-1200$) and drove it home.....
On the way home the radiator gave up the ghost, and I had to stop by a friend's house where it sat until I fitted the old radiator from my Buick (which has more cores than the V6 but has the same dimensions as the Malibu's one !) .
I finally managed to bring the malibu home last saturday.
I join some pictures of the Malibu, which by the way drives very nicely and smoothly.
I plan to check and replace all mechanical parts that need it, to make it reliable, and it will perhaps became my daily driver.....I'm thinking about a new paint and some wheels.....
My friend 's 79 Malibu :
Thnaks for reading me
regards
David
My name is David, I'm 42, I live in Belgium.
I'm in the car hobby since I'm 16 years old. I started with aircooled beetles and the hobby became my job as I opened a restoration and parts shop with a friend.
I had always been in love with american cars since the age of 12, but the beetles were more available at the time....
I bought my first US car in 1999, a friend of mine brought me a 72 Buick Skylark Coupe from California. I still have it and it is now equipped with an ATI procharger, 4 BAER discs brakes, tubular arms, locking diff, 17" salt flat wheels, and so on....
In 2006 I bought a neglected 1968 Pontiac Catalina Station Wagon (imported in Belgium in 1970) , I lowered it on 17" Cragar 390N wheels.
In 2010 I bought a 71 El Camino, that I restored with a new paint and 18"matt black OZ wheels....
I sold it in 2013 and bought a 78 Dodge B200 maxivan that needed some TLC....and a new shaggy interior !! :lol:
You can see them on this page (with my watercooled VW and some ex-cars) : http://westcoastgarage.blogspot.be/
A friend of mine , my ex partner of the VW shop, (who still owns it) has recently bought a Chevy G20 Van, and seems more and more interested in US cars as this summer he made a trip to Arkansas to buy a 79 Malibu Wagon V8 , 4 speed, he made a road trip and drove it to Florida to put it in a container.
As I was looking in the local add website, I saw a 78 Malibu wagon for sale, I set an appointement and went to see it. It was sitting for 20 years, only driving once a time in the driveway. It had previously been used in a funeral company to wear flowers so no modifications had been made to the body or inside and it never saw a coffin... :wink:
It is a V6 3.3L engine with auto gearbox, the odometer read 5000 km but it is surely 105.000km.
The body has some surface rust but needs no welding. The only modifications are the vinyl top, amber front turn signals on the front wings (necessary in Belgium when you have a hitch) and a very ugly rear fog light :evil:
The car started but was loud because of the rusted muffler, I bought it for 900 euros (+-1200$) and drove it home.....
On the way home the radiator gave up the ghost, and I had to stop by a friend's house where it sat until I fitted the old radiator from my Buick (which has more cores than the V6 but has the same dimensions as the Malibu's one !) .
I finally managed to bring the malibu home last saturday.
I join some pictures of the Malibu, which by the way drives very nicely and smoothly.
I plan to check and replace all mechanical parts that need it, to make it reliable, and it will perhaps became my daily driver.....I'm thinking about a new paint and some wheels.....
My friend 's 79 Malibu :
Thnaks for reading me
regards
David
