New Member, No Wagon

Greetings,

I just signed up. I am currently the proud owner of a 1996 Roadmaster sedan. I bought a 1995 RM sedan for my three children to use as teenagers for safety reasons and was so impressed with the car that I bought one for myself back in 2006. Ever since then I've lusted after a wagon.

Someone on the Buick Roadmaster forum mentioned this forum just as I was about to buy an immaculate stock 1996 White Woody Roadmaster wagon. The interior and body is near perfect. Someone on these forums cautioned about buying cars from the rust belt and the original owner of this beauty had this car in Michigan for its first thirteen years so I did a last minute inspection of the bottom of the car and ouch! there is rust everywhere. I crawled under my sedan for a comparison and there is almost none so I walked away from it. It was heart breaking because the car is near perfect otherwise and the sellers are very nice people.

So here I am a member with no wagon.

It does raise a question. How hard is to find a rust free specimen in excellent condition and how much would one expect to pay? I love Roadmasters and really want to go on a Wagon Fest. Also, are sedans allowed to participate?

Welcome and glad you found us!

Glad you saw the posting about the rust belt. There are plenty of rust free wagons around, you just may have to travel to get it, either out west or down south.

It would probably be a good idea for you to put your location in your signature.

Tom C.

Welcome aboard!

Sorry to hear about the rust on that nice car. As for finding one that is rust free - not so easy. I couldn't even begin to suggest, unless you look down in Arizona/New Mexico...the dryer parts of the country. Though, I don't have a lot of expertise in looking for that sort of thing!

Welcome to the forum there are rust free examples in GA AL TN FL MS LA and TX use search tempest to help and it's sometimes possible for one of us in the south to look them over for you. My wagon was from Florida and found in Michigan where it spent only 2 years. Jeff

Welcome to Longroof! Yes, it is possible to find a rust free, or very little rust wagon. Spend some time reading around the forums, you'll pick up lots of information. When in doubt, do ask and we'll do our best to answer. As to price, it really depends on lots of variables.

And YES sedans are welcome at WagonFest!

Rust is subjective to opinion,.

you say tamhto, i say tomayto,.

i have to ask the question,. how often do you look under peoples cars? or yours for that matter,.

surface rust is one thing,. gaping holes are another,.

Cars from the rust belt ride and drive just as well as cars from the south,.

Sometimes a rust free car is purely bragging rights,..

My OCC is a low mile car from the rust belt, been here it's whole life. That being said, it did have some spots of surface rust on the underside. GM did not undercoat the "belly" of the car from the factory, just primer coated, so don't be surprised to see some surface rust starting in places. If the rust is real heavy or uniform, and there are soft spots, steer clear. Otherwise if you can knock on the metal and it's still solid, I'd go for it.

Some spots to watch for, inner wheel wells on the rear tend to rot, bottom of the b-pillars, and the front inner wheel wells.

Welcome aboard!

Sprocket wrote:

Welcome aboard!  

Just happened to notice that was your 4500 post, John! Good for 4th place, I think TX Mike is safe for now.

Tom

Welcome aboard,fellow Hoosier!

Welcome to the forum, and good for you for looking under the car first.   You should be able to find a nice southern or western car for $3000-7000.   That's the usual spread, with super-low-mile cars more than that, but these cars run forever, so don't be too scared of higher mileage.

After living in New Jersey as a teenager, and being in Texas for 20+ years now, I will say that I FOR SURE recommend buying a car with as little rust as possible.    Being an old car, you WILL have to work on it, and there is something magical about laying down under your nearly 20-year-old car and removing a bolt like it was installed a week ago...with no Liquid Wrench/torch/rust-flakes-in-the-eyes.   And God will appreciate the lack of cuss words involved in repairs compared to rust-frozen northern cars! Ha!!

I've just spent a year working on a New Jersey '82 Camaro and a Jersey-raised '90 Blazer, and I can tell you it's no picnic compared to my made-in-Texas-and-never-left Roadmaster wagon.  

Salt is for French Fries and Margaritas, not roads!! God Bless Texas!!
[/quote]

-Texas Mike

Thank you all for your replies. When I bought my RM sedan it was a Grandma car that had never seen snow. Although I live in IN it still is pristine because I usually don't drive it when they salt the roads and if I have to I go to the car wash when I'm done. I live in a small town and don't mind long walks.

Please keep your eyes out for a nice wagon. I am happy to fly to wherever and drive one home.

Until I get one it is fun having the dream. Since I already have a beautiful sedan I'm happy.

Welcome, I'm in the same boat you're in, just 50 miles east of the state line.

Your lust for wagons is completely understandable here. This is a place where that lust will turn into love. Rust free wagons are out there. I bought mine when I lived in AZ. $3500. The $3000-$7000 is about the ball park for one in decent shape. Perhaps less if you are willing to for go motor/trans dependability and concentrate on body and interior. We have members all over the country who, I'm sure, would be willing to go look at one for you. I had my '78 Malibu wagon shipped out to PA from AZ for only $900 so that could be an option as well. Glad you are here. Paul

Search-tempest.com is your wagon hunting friend. Will scour CL and ebay for you Happy hunting.

New member new wagon!

A buddy in FL found me a 1996 a Roadmaster wagon that is dark cherry metallic with a tan interior without the tow pack hence a 2.56 open rear end and with all of the bells and whistles. I'm awaiting a police report so that I can get plates and drive it home. It has 104K miles and was a grandpa car.

Since I already have a sedan this is an RV. Count me in for a wagon fest!

Congratulations!

I bought a 96 RMW almost 3 weeks ago. I paid what I would consider top dollar because of low mileage and little to no rust. For a northern car I feel like I scored. That said, with low mileage comes 'sit-itis'. With the shocks, a few oil leaks, battery & tires and sourcing a Class III hitch, I figure I will be just south of $10k by the time I am done.

Hard to get a good Suburban or Pickup for that up here. Since I need a tow rig, those were my options.

Welcome! I think I remember your post on the SS forum.

Out here on the West Coast rust free cars are the norm. We paid well under $2k for ours, but it needed a trans, a dent fixed in the front bumper, and a serious cleaning. 130k miles, 2 owners with records. They are out there, just be patient.

Another option is to have someone local check it out for you, we built a tool to help with this. www.jewelorjalopy.com where you can request an inspection near the car. We would love to see lots of folks here sign up as inspectors, not a huge B-Body presence yet!

Good luck, and hope we can help! I'm certainly happy to help look at any here in Portland.

I like your site and good business idea. Jeff

rjathon wrote:

Greetings,

I just signed up. I am currently the proud owner of a 1996 Roadmaster sedan. I bought a 1995 RM sedan for my three children to use as teenagers for safety reasons and was so impressed with the car that I bought one for myself back in 2006. Ever since then I've lusted after a wagon.

Someone on the Buick Roadmaster forum mentioned this forum just as I was about to buy an immaculate stock 1996 White Woody Roadmaster wagon. The interior and body is near perfect. Someone on these forums cautioned about buying cars from the rust belt and the original owner of this beauty had this car in Michigan for its first thirteen years so I did a last minute inspection of the bottom of the car and ouch! there is rust everywhere. I crawled under my sedan for a comparison and there is almost none so I walked away from it. It was heart breaking because the car is near perfect otherwise and the sellers are very nice people.

So here I am a member with no wagon.

It does raise a question. How hard is to find a rust free specimen in excellent condition and how much would one expect to pay?  I love Roadmasters and really want to go on a Wagon Fest. Also, are sedans allowed to participate?

Was the wagon you were looking at in Silver Lake? I just purchased a very very clean white woody from a super nice guy in Silver Lake and the car was from Michigan for the first 12 or 13 years of life.. Seems like a nice car and the price was right $3150.00. Everything worked and 112k mi, tow pkg, hitch etc... I put on a new set of WW tires (can't stand black walls!) a good leather steering wheel cover and the car drives 100%!. Had it up on the lift and everything checked out. The underneath was pretty clean for a northern car, no body rust at all, surface rust all over the frame but solid ( who ever had this did not do much winter driving). It's not as clean underneath as my other 96 but that one (although also from the midwest) has never been in the snow (not one time). I've owned serveral of these wagons now including two from the south and almost all of them had there flaws.I had one wagon from TN and it was not nearly as clean body wise as this one. I wouldn't be afraid of a midwestern car as long as it isn't all crusty underneath. If this is the car I'm glad you past on it because I wouldn't of had the chance to buy it otherwise. Good luck with your search and I'm glad you found a nice car. I'd say for the most part unless you want to spend $6k-7k plus you should be alittle less picky. There are a lot of good wagons still in the midwest. I'm sure they are out there but for alittle over three thousand I can't imagine finding a nicer one.

I fly to Florida tomorrow to pick up my new wagon!

I've been reading these forums and am overwhelmed with all of the information and am very impressed with the skill set many have. I am not mechanical, I just love these old wagons. My plan with this one is to clean it and drive it but keep it stock. I don't want to worry about repairs until something breaks.

One question though. This is a rust free Florida car moving to Indiana. Would undercoating be a good idea or is it too late?

Other than that I just plan on enjoying it.

Thanks

Russ, I got your email. I'll call you after Sunday Dinner.

As for undercoating, it is NEVER too late to Ziebart it.

Superior Finish wrote:

Russ, I got your email. I'll call you after Sunday Dinner.

As for undercoating, it is NEVER too late to Ziebart it.

You're probably better off with an oil based rustproofing, like Krown or Metropolitain.

Let me clarify, to me, Ziebart is to rust proofing as Kleenex is to facial tissue. Until yesterday, I thought Ziebart had gone out of business.

New member, new wagon! I'm visiting a friend in Huntsville, AL on the way back from Florida driving my new rust free dark cherry metallic wagon home. Yahoo!  It runs great.  There is only one unusual thing- the speedometer is way out of calibration. It reads 78 mph when the gps says 70. It appears to have a new transmission. I wonder if that could be related.

Rear tire diameter will affect speedometer reading.

I have non stock wheels and tires and read similar I've been told this can be corrected within the PCM.  Jeff

Hi Jeff,

It has stock rims but the tires are size P205/75 R15 so they must be a smaller diameter. They are in great shape with lots of tread left so I can't see replacing them. They will probably last me five years. They are Firestone Tempests. I wonder why they didn't put stock P225/75 R15 on it? It has the 2.56 rear end so it is probably fine.

I looked it up on the tire size calculator and learned that these tires are 1.18 inches shorter and have 3.71 inches less circumference leading to 31 more tire rpm's per mile. This would make the speedometer read 83.5 when it should say 80. It is off by more than twice that.

Russ

It sounds as if it should be closer to the actual speed but maybe they were not that accurate even new.

Mine doesn't bother me as you get used to it and when I take a trip i'm using the Waze app on my phone it has an accurate speedo as part of its display. Jeff

The speedometer is off by nearly exactly 10% which is very easy to deal with. No worries. My buddy hooked up an OBD2 bluetooth device to it which read rpm's, etc in real time which was a hoot. The smaller tires don't make much difference in that all of the way up to 70 mph the engine never went above 1900 rpm, even when accelerating. I drive very conservatively. What a neat device that is.

Thank you for the help,

Russ

jasonlachapelle wrote:

Superior Finish wrote:

Russ, I got your email. I'll call you after Sunday Dinner.

As for undercoating, it is NEVER too late to Ziebart it.

You're probably better off with an oil based rustproofing, like Krown or Metropolitain.

I talked with a friend from Michigan who has a novel technique for rust proofing. He simply sprays his used oil underneath his car after every oil change. He has never had a rust problem.

Russ

The used oil sprayed on the under carriage has been done in Canada for a long time everyone I know who has done this swears by it. Maybe some of our Canadians wil chime in.

rjathon wrote:

jasonlachapelle wrote:

Superior Finish wrote:

Russ, I got your email. I'll call you after Sunday Dinner.

As for undercoating, it is NEVER too late to Ziebart it.

You're probably better off with an oil based rustproofing, like Krown or Metropolitain.

I talked with a friend from Michigan who has a novel technique for rust proofing. He simply sprays his used oil underneath his car after every oil change. He has never had a rust problem.

Russ

Our uncle for years drove a 1970 International pick-up truck.He bought it new in 1971. Every fall he would spray the whole exterior of the truck with oil. Underbody, paint, chrome, glass and all. He would let it drip in the gravel yard overnight. The next morning he would go out and clean off the glass. He would then drive it and never wash it all winter. The truck would be black (paint was white). It always looked so dirty! Spring time came and all the dirt and oil was cleaned off. That truck had over 350,000 miles on it when he stopped driving it in 1995 and hardly any rust at all! Just a few bubbles around the windshield. When he sold it the buyer remarked how he must of never drove it in the winter time. My uncle laughed and told him the story.