1996 DGGM Roadmaster for sale: July 2017 LROM - SOLD

Now that the Norwegians have had their fun, it's time to let someone else enjoy this car.  Read the story under the July 2017 LROM to learn about the car and see a lot of pictures.   Ask anyone who was at Wagonfest about this car.  It spent 1996 to 2010 in VA, 2011 to 2017 in Cape May, NJ, and then I bought it.  Zero rust.   Beautiful car.  Here are the details.

117,000 miles
DGGM wood delete with tan leather interior
2.93 gears, non-towpack car
Rear sway bar and severe service shocks
2 1/2" exhaust from cats back
Dual electric fans
Bailey Engineering individual coil ignition on each cylinder
Tuned by PCM-For-Less

New stuff in the last 1000 miles: New Walker mufflers (rumble nice, but no drone... quiet on highway), New AC compressor and receiver/drier, 4 New tires (General Altimax 235/70/15), New Meziere 100 series electric water pump, New oil pan, oil pan and valve cover gaskets, new battery.

Added three matching headrests to the rear seat.  Now you can carry rear-seat passengers with less risk of broken necks.  They do not interfere with lowering the seatback.

Everything works.  Squeaky clean, inside and out.

I have $5000 and a lot of sweat in the car, and $5000 will be the selling price.  I'll let it sit here for a week or so before putting it on Craigslist and eBay.  Look around.  Let me know if you find a better one for the price.

Really pretty car and you are AWESOME for doing what you did for your friends!

how is the underside? With NY plates, rust is ALWAYS an issue.. Not bustin yer bawlz, I've been bitten by a pretty New England car in the past.

I bought the car in April 2017.  NY license plates do not cause rust.  My Caprice (from South Carolina) has had NY plates for 3 years, and it has 0 rust.   My prior Roadmaster from Arizona had them for 6 years.  Neither went outside in winter.

As I wrote: there is no rust, top, bottom, inside or out.  This one has never seen a New York winter, and hopefully never will.

Saw this person,nice ride. GLWS. I hope it stays in the family.

Krzdimond wrote:

how is the underside? With NY plates, rust is ALWAYS an issue.. Not bustin yer bawlz, I've been bitten by a pretty New England car in the past.

Robert

It would be a great car for you sir. I did not "look it over" for rust but Dave is a straight up guy and will not mislead you. I am sure you can get a good second opinion from those at WF17. Not a typical NY car by ANY means.

Tim

I'm interested in the car can you email me more pics : hartjr @ gmail.com please?

Quote :

Saw this person, nice ride

We're just friends, actually.

Yikes...who wrote that?

Not that there would be anything wrong with that....

Beautiful car, GLWS

BigBlackBeaSSt wrote:

but Dave is a straight up guy and will not mislead you.  

I did not mean to imply otherwise.... You remember the issues I had with my MAB from Maine...

Once bitten, twice shy.  I understand completely.  But, this car really is rust-free, and I doubt it has ever seen road salt.  It's also 21 years old, so there are the usual hairline scratches and a few door dings, but nothing you'll see from a casual walk-around.   Overall, it's a very nice car.  I replaced anything that was either not working or about to fail because it was for a friend to use with his family on vacation.  A vehicle report is attached below.

I was under it when we rewired the fans at my house. If I was in the market, I would not hesitate to pull the trigger on this one. It is a "New York" car only in the sense that it is where is has been sitting for the past few moths awaiting friends for overseas.

As the Vincheck indicates, it has been in Virginia most of it's life, and has averaged less than 5k miles per year till the recent trip. That was barely 100 miles per week for the first twenty years of it's life.
It's clean.

Dave

Last call. It will be on Craiglist and eBay tomorrow.

GLWS

I can't swing it, been without a paycheck for the past 4 weeks due to recovering from surgery.

I've delayed listing the car on eBay and Craigslist because I sent the PCM out to Solomon get the correct code entered for the 2.56 gears and 235/70/15 tires.  No sense having the new owner asking all the dumb questions I posed.

I'll have the PCM back in about a week.

Good idea

PM sent, when you can. Not for me, for a friend. I really would like to see this car go to a good home!

-Mike

Done.

Sold pending funds to Texas Mike's friend Dan from Minnesota, Land O' Uffda! The perfect home for a Viking Wagon, assuming the new owner stays away from road salt.

Thank you Mike, for saving me from the joys of Craigslist.

dmg4 wrote:

Sold pending funds to Texas Mike's friend Dan from Minnesota, Land O' Uffda!  The perfect home for a Viking Wagon, assuming the new owner stays away from road salt.

Thank you Mike, for saving me from the joys of Craigslist.

I'm starting a wagon-brokering gig. That's two this year.

Got to make sure these find good homes!

-Mike

If all goes according to plan, I'm meeting Don and his father at the Rochester airport on the 22nd, and they are going to drive the Viking Roadmaster back to MN. He's waiting for his membership on the forum to be activated so he can build up a few posts and show some pictures.

Too bad I left the horned helmet in New Hampshire. That would fit right in among the MN natives.

I'm sure one can be located where they're going.

Really glad that car is staying in the Longroof family, and hope he does NOT drive it in the winters there!

-Mike

Hi All,

After 2 weeks my account was approved. I am Dan, the purchaser of the RMW that Dave has put so much work into. Since this car was fixed up for Dave's Norwegian friends, it seems that Minnesota "Land of the Vikings" will be an appropriate home for this ride.

My Father and I are taking a late flight out next week Thursday to meet up with Dave on Friday morning to pick up the car and drive it back to MN. I hope to take a few picture of our journey and share them back with all of you.

I see that there is a bit of concern that this car will see some salt. No worries, this WILL NOT be driven in the Winter. If I do get anxious and pull it out in the early Spring with some salt on the roads, she will get a wash down, including the undercarriage before being put back in the garage. This car is not intended to be a year round daily driver - I have a Ford Flex for that. This will be our Spring-Fall cruiser for longer trips and I will use it fairly often in the Summer months. She will probably make the +/-75 mile drive to Target Field to watch the Twins play 15-20 times a season.

We have another car arriving to our stable soon, a 1969 VW Squareback. This is going to be my Wife's car. We may use the RMW to pull the Squareback to any shows or cruises that are over a couple hours from home.

I told Dave that it would be stored in a heated facility and I am hoping that will be true. We currently are renting 2 cold storage units for our boats/paddleboards...you know Summer stuff. With 2 cars on the way, we will not have enough room and I found a heated space in a multi-unit industrial building and the day before we were scheduled to sign the lease, someone put an offer in on the building. If the offer falls through, we will have a heated space for sure, if not she will be chilly this winter but will be undercover in a storage unit next to the other ones. I would really like to see the 2 new to us cars and our boats sitting in a warm space so I can work on them throughout the Winter. If you didn't know, it is tough to work on boat projects in the Summer, the free time we have we try to use it.

Rest assured, this car is in good hands and will be well cared for. It may not retain it's factory look for too long, but will be well loved. Tint is scheduled for the week after we pick it up and hoping to get a slight stereo upgrade as well. I would really like a head unit with satellite and navigation. "Texas Mike" warned me that changing the head unit will prevent some of the controls from dimming when the headlights turn on. My friend has been installing 12 volt gear for 20+ years at a few different shops in the area, hopefully he will find a solution. I am thinking he may be able to use a relay that can be triggered with the headlights to activate a line with a resistor in it dimming the display...fingers crossed.

I do appreciate your concern about road salt, but I will do my best to keep this car as solid as possible for as long as I have it.

Welcome to the forum,Dandy. Hope you enjoy your new toys maiden voyage.

Glad that car found a good home, and am looking forward to trip pics and updates. It seems this car really will have 9-lives! Looking foward to the next one!

-Mike

Dan what's the latest? Was this last weekend? How did the trip go?

-Mike

Dan picked up the car a 8 AM this morning and is en route to MN.

Looking forward to updates, and hope he's happy with the car!

Quote :

hope he's happy with the car

If not, I'll just have to refer him to my broker in Texas.

dmg4 wrote:

Quote :

hope he's happy with the car

If not, I'll just have to refer him to my broker in Texas.

I keep checking my mailbox for my commission check....

I suspect that Don is going to be very happy with that car.  His father wants me to contact him if my Caprice ever comes up for sale.  That's unlikely... my instructions to the wife are to bury me in it.

There are days she might be tempted to get an early start on digging the hole.

feel free to tell him that mine is for sale

Quote :

feel free to tell him that mine is for sale

Done.

I wish I had more room in my garage.

Good Day All.  

I believe it is time to update this old thread.  I am the purchaser of dmg4 (Dave's) 1996 Roadmaster Wagon.  This vehicle has not been lost or forgotten about.  It was brought home to MN and driving a little bit, but has sat for the past 2.5 years sadly, but it has been in climate controlled storage.  

Below are a few photos of the trip.  

Since we were in Rochester, NY to meet for the vehicle pick up, we felt that as Twins fans we should swing by the Rochester Redwings stadium since the Redwings are the AAA team for the Twins.  The staff saw us outside and asked why we were there.  They were kind enough to let us walk around the stadium...not onto the field.


We then realized we were not far from Niagara Falls, so we stopped in.  We ended up parking between a white Suburban and a black Flex.  My father drives a white Suburban and I drive a black Flex


After arriving back, I had the windows tinted.  I feel I should have gone a little darker on the rear windows.  The front windows are as dark as allowed in MN



When we got it home, the passenger floor was wet, so I removed the carpet and let it dry out and then unplugged the drain from the AC.  It seems this is a common issue.  Not sure if it resolved the issue or not as I haven't driven it with the AC on since.  

There is also a parasitic electrical drain, I am going to start working on locating that soon.  It actually damaged the battery and fortunately Dave provided me with the paperwork for the battery he installed and they covered it for me under warranty.   I hadn't had the battery hooked up for 2 years, I recently did and it fired off on the 2nd try.  I forgot how much I miss the sound of a good old V8.  I am hoping the draw is within the poor installation of the gauges the previous owner had installed on the A pillar.  I am going to get those removed first.  Dave was kind enough to send me a new A Pillar trim knowing that the gauges would be out.  

Since picking up the car, our collection has grown.  About a month later we picked up a 1969 VW Squareback for my wife.  We then picked up a 1978 classic mini.  In 2019 we picked up a Jeep Wrangler, most of my last Winter and Spring was putting upgrades into the Jeep.  Last week we just signed off on a 2013 Cadillac CTS-V wagon.  When I got the green light for the mini, I was supposed to sell the RMW but time has passed, since I didn't want to sell it with the known electrical issue.  I know get to keep it.  I am looking forward to Spring and lining up the RMW and CTS-V wagon together...2 RWD V-8 wagons!!!

My focus this Winter is going to be getting the RMW ready for some roadtrips next year.  We have a couple trips scheduled for family things to CO.  Not sure if we will want to fly, so it is a good reason to get to working on the RMW.  

I am researching 18" wheels, I really want to upgrade the wheels, still debating on lowering springs or not.  I hope to keep updating the status of this vehicle.  Sorry I haven't sooner, had other priorities that I needed to take care of.

Glad to see she is well loved...

Hi Again,

I was unsure about updating Dave's thread on this car, or continuing my work and updates here.  I decided to continue the posts here.  The original story from Dave can be found here...pretty good ready with some good photos to boot.
https://gmlongroof.4umer.com/t13583-july-2017-lrom-the-viking-roadmaster

Between the 2 threads, I like that there is some documentation of what has been done.  I wish I had the story on the owner that Dave purchased it from to see what they had done.

As I noted above, I was hoping to get some updates/upgrades done to the Roady this season.  So far, I am making good on my promise.  

A few weeks back, I installed a new set of headlights with LED bulbs.  I did take it out for a short spin and they are better, but not great.  When I picked up the car, it had been rewired and had 9007 bulbs installed, the housing are designed for 9004, so I wired it back to that.  This way the filaments are horizontal instead of vertical.  The pattern seems to be improved.  The new corner markers had room for a corner marker bulb to be installed but the car was not wired for it.  I rewired it so that the corner marker comes on with the appropriate directional turn signal.




I am going to be installing QA1 Coil-Overs on all 4 Corners along with their Tubular Upper and Lower Control Arms. I am also replacing all of the steering components while I am in there. The Ball Joints were original and the tie rod ends were fairly sloppy. I am in debate about upgrading the steering shaft and the steering box while in there as well since things are so open.








My new wheels have arrived, going to upgrade to 18" and run 245/50-18. I wanted to get rid of some sidewall, but not go to 20s so that the ride stays somewhat "Buick"


I have a Z28 gauge cluster ordered from Gary. In addition, I have upgraded battery cable and a new wiring set up for the electric fuel pump on the way from Innovative Wiring.

The coolant reservoir is leaking, I have a new one and will be installing that. I am hoping to source silicone coolant lines as well, since a few need to be replaced. I also have the typical GM Trans Oil Cooler line leak. I have to sort out how the lines are ran and intend to replace them as well.

Some stereo upgrades will be done as well. I want to get Apple Car Play for hands free and nav since we intend to do use this for some of our road trips.

I will do my best to keep my project updates on this thread.

Nice clean car!

May as well do all the steering while you're there, you'll need an alignment anyway so no sense in doing what you've already done, then the rest of the steering and have to do another alignment.

I like the wheels - details on what they are? What are you planning on for tires?

Fix Until Broke wrote:

Nice clean car!

May as well do all the steering while you're there, you'll need an alignment anyway so no sense in doing what you've already done, then the rest of the steering and have to do another alignment.

I like the wheels - details on what they are?  What are you planning on for tires?

Thanks, I was lucky to find such a nice clean example. If you read through this thread and the link I included in my above post you can read some of the story. The story in the link of how and why this wagon was acquired by the previous owner is really a great story. It is then followed up by my Father and I flying from MN to NY to pick it up and road trip back together. Great memories.

As I noted I do plan to replace all the steering linkage. Napa tie rod ends and the sway bar end links are through Napa, all US Made. The idler arm is Napa but made in Taiwan. I went with a Proforged center link as they had good reviews and it was $100 less than Napa but Taiwan made as well. The only steering components I am in debate about is replacing the steering box with a quicker ratio and replacing the steering shaft with a solid shaft. I will also be bypassing the variable rate steering so that it is constantly at the lowest setting, the variable has been adjusting in turns and it gets a bit nerving when the steering lightens in ta corner.

The wheels are from US Mags. They are the Rambler U110. 18X8 with the 5X127 pattern of our car and a bore the same as our hubs. Offset on these if +1mm. I am planning to run 245/50 18 tires. They are a bit wider and still close to my current 28” diameter. If I recall the tires will move out about 1/2” giving just a slightly wider stance and won’t be tucked in so far.

Hi Dan,

I don't know a lot about the former owner of the wagon, but he was a member of this forum and the Impala SS forum for many years. His name was Edward Caparro, and he now lives in Cape May Courthouse, NJ. Older members of the forum may know him personally. I bought the wagon from him in April 2017. I know he raced and built cars in his younger days. He was the one who added the Bailey Box ignition system on your car, which added a nice kick to the throttle response. As I recall, he said he used the car on trips to Maine for number of years. I'll send you the contact information that I have for him via PM if you want to get more history on the car. He might hang up on you for the first few calls thinking its a scam, but he loves to talks cars once you get past that. I'll send his mailing address too.

Cheers,

David