New owner of an 87 Electra Estate Wagon

Hello All!
I'm a car nut myself and I wanted a fine road-tripping machine, so I went and bought a 1987 buick Electra Estate wagon in original Artic White with Blue interior.

Little bit of an ongoing horror story making the car driveable, but I'm not unhappy, nor am I going to go Oh rah rah rah GM just slapped them all together at the factory. No, I think it is a great car so far, it just had an owner (or owners) who had some things break on them and ditched the car in an unscupulous way, and despite my checking of its mechanicals I got a bit snookered. Just a little.

Turns out that the gas tank was leaky - squirting! Out the side. Not too big of a deal but a bit of a hassle. What really got me though was the brakes.

Yes... Wonders be. The car is in the shop right now, I don't trust myself to do my own brakes, and I don't have time for that anyway, but! Wonders be. Turns out that "Oh yeah I did the brakes recently" translated to: I crushed the rear brake line closed with pliers to try to keep it from leaking and I'll just not tell you and let you drive off in a car that only has front brakes that weighs 2.2 tons. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Ba-na-na-na. Na-na-ba-ba. Ba-na-nana-nana-na-na-na-na! La-da-da-do-de-da-na-na-na-da! Or something like that.

ok,..........

Wins best first post of the week.

LOL!!

Guess I should post a picture!

kameron m wrote:

Hello All!  Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Ba-na-na-na. Na-na-ba-ba. Ba-na-nana-nana-na-na-na-na! La-da-da-do-de-da-na-na-na-da! Or something like that.

That speaks volumes about our new membership drive.

Dave

My friend in the mechanic world is looking at the car as we speak. His preliminary quote which was a somewhat worst-case scenario was $820 for the brakes, which I thought was pretty good. He's checking to see what needs done and what doesn't need done but his quote was figured on

>Lines all around done in coated steel
>front calipers
>pads all around
>front rotors turned to true
>front wheel bearings and seals replaced
>brake shoe hardware replacement
>rear brake cyls
>rubber hoses all replaced

or something like that. We'll just have to see if the master cyl is still ok after being pumped dry and such but cautious optimism and all that jazz.

Old girl looks good...

Welcome to the Forum! Nice looking wagon you've got for yourself.

You may want to put your location on your profile.


Tom C.

Good to see another Electra, and with the wood delete.

Welcome! I find myself in a similar situation in that my wagon needs brake lines. I'm going with NiCopp line to replace what appears to be the last of the original line going to the rear of the car. I haven't driven it more than a couple blocks since losing the rear brakes. On these cars the rear brakes are more functional, amazing what a difference they make. If yours is a towing package car, take a look at the size of the drums, mine are huge!

Got my brakes done at a local mechanic who I very much like dealing with. If you are in the south Bend Area, Rage Customs. Great shop. Total price was $1500 I think, all told? I went with doing it all, not skimping out, not screwing around. For that price (steep but i'll explain) I got

>Front Rotors, Calipers, Lines, Wheel Bearings new, rubber hoses
>Rear Drums, Cylinders, Various Hardware, rubber hoses
>Every. Single. Brake. Line. Period. .
>Fuel Lines engine to tank replaced - while the body was jacked up.
>Quality brake pads instead of the cheap crap.

And Holy Cow! She stops like a modern car. Its amazing. Also, yes. Turns out I did have the tow package brakes, at least that's what I think I have because the rear drums are 11 x 2.5? maybe just 11 inch. They're HUUUUUUGE. She stops.

Also, turns out the front brakes were GARBAGE as well. I saw the parts after Matt was done. HOLY MOLY.

The rotors were worn well below min tolerance. (I guess this is normal)

One of the front brake pads had slipped from the worn pin on the caliper and was halfway off! (resting on the inside of the rotor where it had obviously been for a long-long time)

The rear brakes, as said before. Completely out of the picture.

well, whatever.

Welcome. I think you did pretty good on the price for the amount of work you had done. I do my own brakes but I've heard of people getting quotes of over $1000 just for rotors/drums and pads/shoes front and back.

Welcome! I'm also a (relatively) new owner of an '87 GM box wagon (Caprice Estate). Spent the last couple of months getting mine road-legal for CA. I know what you mean about the road trip machine...can't wait to take mine on one!

Good luck with yours!