Just purchased an RMW and joined here

Hello all,

I just purchased a 1993 RMW.

White/beige, wood grain delete

3rd owner about 175K on the odo

California car -- still here in fact





Was looking for something to replace my 2005 Subaru Legacy GT wagon (the engine popped) and my pickup truck, so I landed on the mid 90's B bodies.


Been driving it over the last few days, mostly just to acquaint myself with it.

The body is straight (minus some door ding stuff on the trim), though checking the VIN hints at some 'incident' but it is vague (I did notice baseball size dent in the passenger side D piller a couple of days ago). The prior owner did get quite a few things addressed so that part is good (new brake pads, rotors, cylinders, MAF gasket, alternator and some other bits), added a class II hitch (so I have something to work with to start on the towing game).

I will have some work to do on it.

Just started the raw fuel smell today, so assuming lines or sender from the tank as the smell is strongest near the back of the car and I just filled the tank.
Need to replace the passenger seatbelt retractor immediately (didn't catch that it wasn't working when I first checked it out... bad me) -- ordered
Some minor other interior work
struts for the rear window -- ordered


I do intend to tow with this, so will be working towards stiffening the suspension, trans cooler, bigger brakes down the road....

Been starting to get up to speed on wheel changes -- not planning to lower the car due to towing needs, though it's still tempting cause I like the look of them dropped a bit....

Any pointers on upgrading the stereo?

All the rubber seals look decent for a 28 year old car, anything I should really pay attention to, beyond just 'old rubber'?

I went through the RPO tag and figured out most of the options but the RPO key I found didn't have all the codes that are on the tag and some numbers are unfortunately not fully legible.

Looking forward to this new car journey!

Looks good Fizzix, welcome to the wonderful world of b body wagons. Unfortunately, you will have to drop the tank to fix the fuel leak, hope it's just a rubber line and not the metal lines from the tank. As far as replacing the stereo and seat belt, be extra careful removing any interior trim pieces, as they tend to break fairly easy, and are not easy to find in good shape. Imo, removing the dash to get the radio out is the biggest pita, but avoid a double din unless you want to cut the dash, I just did a double din in my wagon and it requires a bit more work.

Thanks for the reply and info. My stereo works for now, so I can research my options.... In fact Pioneer was one of my options! I don't necessarily mind cutting the dash

There are already some cracked interior pieces, so I get you there.

Then fuel thing.... yeah been trying to read up on what's posted here.

I you can't get the right color, SEM makes nice color matching paint for plastic and vinyl. Depending on the color code, the correct mix number from SEM is: 54 is 4639, 64 is either 4693 or 4694, and 66 is 4310. Check your codes for the interior number. It usually has a letter in back of it.

Welcome to the pod. I too have a California wagon, but it's a Volvo 240. My Caprice is from South Carolina. Most of the ones from NY where I am now are piles of rust flakes.

dmg4 wrote:

Welcome to the pod.  I too have a California wagon, but it's a Volvo 240.  My Caprice is from South Carolina.  Most of the ones from NY where I am now are piles of rust flakes.

I was looking at 240's also!!

Then prices for them jumped....

Prices for the B body wagons are starting to move upwards as well...or maybe the dollar is not worth as much.

Fred Kiehl wrote:

Prices for the B body wagons are starting to move upwards as well...or maybe the dollar is not worth as much.

Definitely agree with you there. Especially the 94-96.

Glad I got in when I did.

Fizzix wrote:

Fred Kiehl wrote:

Prices for the B body wagons are starting to move upwards as well...or maybe the dollar is not worth as much.

Definitely agree with you there. Especially the 94-96.

Glad I got in when I did.

Yep, a couple of Haggerty articles and boom up we go. When I got in the game in the late '00s I was buying running driving ones for around $400-900 all day long (I have had 14 of them since 2007), my current one bought about 3 years ago was the most I ever paid but it is rust free and had 70K and a 9.5 interior (couple of dents an scratches though, so I got here relatively cheap.

Price increases on cars are rarely linear once they hit 20 years of age if they were ever collectable. The youngest of these cars are now 25 yrs old. They were a unique breed, relatively low production, with clean lines for such a boat, and with good power. I don't think it was just a couple of Haggerty articles: the articles were as much of a reflection of the potential value as a cause for the increase. Then too, prices on all used cars that move have shot up in the last year. I insured my 1996 for $12K with Haggerty 4 yrs ago, and I'll bump it to $15K this year. For a rust-free, prime example with low miles, I think that's a reasonable amount to bank as a replacement cost. So does Haggerty, because they're the ones who write a check for that full amount if it gets totaled.

The 91s are 30+ per the build date on some, and the 92 are treated as 30 in Florida. Prices vary greatly depending on condition. I saw a 92OCC with 120K on ebay get bid up to $6988, and did not reach the reserve.

welcome!i have been looking for a while and they are going up and where i am almost impossible to find

for the radio what I did was get a Pioneer AVH-3300 NEX which has a retractable screen, but the main feature I had been looking for at the time was radio's that could be hooked up to rear view camera's as I regularly use my 94 rmw for hauling mine and my moms stuff to craft shows.

goldwolfnhn wrote:

for the radio what I did was get a Pioneer AVH-3300 NEX which has a retractable screen, but the main feature I had been looking for at the time was radio's that could be hooked up to rear view camera's as I regularly use my 94 rmw for hauling mine and my moms stuff to craft shows.

Yeah, I'm taking my time with the stereo choice since mine works fine, just don't have tapes anymore!!!

at 1.5 DIN it definitely creates some challenges.

the main reason I went with what I did is because of the flip screen, as on the 94 on up RMW's the a/c control and radio are flipped so the radio is below the A/C controls, plus I didn't want to do any modifications to the dash other then an adaptor.