I now own one of my dream cars.

Hello from Ferndale, MI (just outside Detroit)! I'm Alison, and I bought my 1991 Roadmaster Estate Wagon at a Copart salvage auction last month. All it needed was a right headlight and corner light, hood, and grille -- I've replaced the lights, but I'm waiting on the hood and grille till I find a nice white Caprice/CuCru/RMEW in a pick-n-pull (and till it's warmer so I don't give up on aligning the hood hinges when I freeze my fingers off).

This one is an interesting spec -- auto climate control, power seats, but manual mirrors, and RPO 6Y2 third seat delete (one of only 461 for the year!)

So far, I've...

• replaced battery
  
• replaced right headlight and corner light
  
• replaced a bunch of bulbs
  
• replaced turn signal flasher
  
• put on a set of Chevy Astro steelies with Michelin Defender LTX tires (tires it came with were bald and two barely held air)
  
• replaced front speakers with Pioneer TS-G460 (front left speaker was blown)
  
• replaced the stereo head unit with one from a 1993 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight Royale (original one's right channel was dead)
  
• replaced vista roof interior trim with one from a late type RMEW with roll-up sunshades
  

She currently has 155k miles and I managed 23mpg on a run across the state (home to Holland to Kalamazoo and back) last weekend.

How she looked at the auction


How she sits now (slightly instagram filtered, i'm @passport.mid if you want to follow me)


The replacement head unit

Welcome! I live in Sterling Heights, work in R.O., so I’ll see this car around. Is it considered in poor taste to ask what you paid for it? Never occurred to me that 5 lug Astro/safari rims would fit our cars. Good info, thanks for sharing!

Ferndale and Tony's Sports Bar are one of my must stops when I go to the Dream Cruise it's a wonderful town with really great people . Enjoy the car I've owned a few wagons but the B bodies are my favorites .

[quote="Swaggerwagon"Never occurred to me that 5 lug Astro/safari rims would fit our cars. Good info, thanks for sharing![/quote] The 5x5 bolt pattern was used on Chevy C10 trucks from 71 to 87 and Chevy vans the later years had a rally wheel that was also used on the P71 Caprice car

Swaggerwagon wrote:

Welcome! I live in Sterling Heights, work in R.O., so I’ll see this car around. Is it considered in poor taste to ask what you paid for it? Never occurred to me that 5 lug Astro/safari rims would fit our cars. Good info, thanks for sharing!

If you ever go to self-service junkyards, I frequent Parts Galore on 8 Mile but sometimes visit US Auto in Sterling Heights.

I paid $2500 before Copart fees, about $3500 after fees and delivery from Lansing to my house. More than I planned to initially, probably more than I should have, but not more than I can afford and not more than I think the car's worth given its condition. (The chassis and floors are solid and the only area of body rust is behind the rear wheels. The spare tire well and the pillars are beautiful)

Wojtek wrote:

P71 Caprice car

The police package Caprice is 9C1 I think you have Crown Vics on the brain

Nice save! I very nearly moved to Sterling Heights last year but a family situation prevented that! The '91 also has a vacuum-operated heater core bypass valve above the passenger side exhaust manifold that shuts off all coolant flow when the HVAC is on full cold. It's a cool one-year-only feature that I may add to the '96 I'm building.

Alison wrote:

Wojtek wrote:

P71 Caprice car

The police package Caprice is 9C1 I think you have Crown Vics on the brain

Sorry I offended you guess I was thinking about my Crown Vic FBI car and yes I know the Chevy version is a 9C1

nice ride. I'm in sterling heights also. just sold 2 roadmasters now I'm down to 2 left welcome

pics of the rear seat area? never seen one without the 3rd row

$3500 seems reasonable. To find one cheaper, in similar condition, …..requires wasting every weekend for months, driving hundreds of miles, looking at overpriced junk. Since your time is valuable, you made the right call. If I have to repair minor body damage on a vehicle….front end is preferable!

Also, who knew the Dirty Heights was so popular in the b-body community?
Sherlock, I had the impression that you resided somewhere down south (not sure how or why I would know that?!?).
Michigan is a great place to live, if you can accept road salt is a way of life. Tough on your winter-driven cars. Annnd the roads around metro Detroit are comparable to a 3rd world country! I look at pics of lowered wagons & short sidewalls, and always have the same two thoughts, in the following order:
‘That looks really sharp’
immediately followed by
‘That setup would be a nightmare round here!’

I'm in Huntsville, AL. I lived in the Northeast for awhile. As you say, nice in the summer, tough in the winter.

Congrats on the find! Most of the 3rd seat delete wagon's I've seen (Roadmasters) were Funeral Home or Coroner purchases. Nice!

Nice save and welcome! My first wagon was a 1A2 and had the 3rd row delete. It was a nice extra storage space

My 96 is also a third seat delete, but they are pretty rare. When I was looking for a wagon I never saw any but the one I got. The underfloor storage is as big as many trunks in cars.

Swaggerwagon wrote:

$3500 seems reasonable. To find one cheaper, in similar condition, …..requires wasting every weekend for months, driving hundreds of miles, looking at overpriced junk.  Since your time is valuable, you made the right call. If I have to repair minor body damage on a vehicle….front end is preferable!

Also, who knew the Dirty Heights was so popular in the b-body community?
Sherlock, I had the impression that you resided somewhere down south (not sure how or why I would know that?!?).
Michigan is a great place to live, if you can accept road salt is a way of life.  Tough on your winter-driven cars. Annnd the roads around metro Detroit are comparable to a 3rd world country! I look at pics of lowered wagons & short sidewalls, and always have the same two thoughts, in the following order:
‘That looks really sharp’
immediately followed by
‘That setup would be a nightmare round here!’

Yeah, I'd been looking for a while and I either found pristine examples well into the five digits, or beaters around the $1000-$2000 mark. I think I managed to get a happy medium.

I've been driving it in the winter for the last month as my newest car (2009 Mini Cooper) is down with a dead battery and I've been procrastinating taking it to a shop and having it replaced. I prefer older cars that I can work on myself to newer cars that require a shop to reprogram the computer after a battery replacement.

I’ve got a theory about newer cars that claim to require pro-level scan tools to inform the ECM that a new battery has been installed. It is true that modern charging systems take into account the age of the battery, in an attempt to fine tune the charging strategy. But it’s only one of the many variables the ECM takes into consideration. For example, I feel like the temp sensor built into the battery tray provides much more feedback, allowing the alternator output to vary as needed. Compared to the primitive b-body charging system….I don’t feel like batteries last any longer in a modern car vs something older. While Most my experience is with GM & Fords….I can tell you that whether I perform a ‘battery reset’ or not ( I usually don’t), that it doesn’t seem to affect battery longevity at all, in my experience. Reason I tell you all this, is to say you shouldn’t be afraid to replace the battery yourself in your Mini Cooper. Don’t think it’ll make a difference. But let’s pretend I’m wrong, that NOT resetting the ECM shortens battery life by a couple months. If you took it to a shop, they charge you full retail price for the battery + an hour labor to R&R and reset the computer. Costs you $400, battery lasts 72 months.
Compare that to if you did it yourself. You buy the same battery, without the shop’s markup. And you skip the ‘battery reset’.
That route costs you $140, and the battery only lives 68 months. You’re still $ ahead doing it yourself. A 2009 vehicle is a fully depreciated asset, hate to spend more then you need to, especially for a boring part that doesn’t make your car faster/cooler. Just something to think about