1994 Roadmaster Tow Rig Project

Well I towed the Roadmaster home today, and as usual it wasn't as nice in person as it looked in the photos.  I did go over it looking for rust and didn't find any, so score there. And it seems to run well, and he had receipts for recent work, so that also checked out. The price was right so I can't complain too much, but I have some interior trim issues to fix before the kids will really enjoy riding in it.  The hatch area is pretty beat up, the rear windows are off the track, and it needs a major detailing.

First step is to just hose her off, vacuum her out, and make a list of issues to address.

Next up is finding a transmission and replacing it so we can use it, then building a hitch.

The misc cosmetic stuff will come later once she is roadworthy.

Here's a shot of her loaded up, ready to head home.

Love the plate.

Wish I could keep it, but maybe someone in Washington can use it.

Ill take the plates if you are doing away with them!

I see the headliner is drooping....take it from experience here....since you want this wagon nice, pull out the interior, have the headliner redone and while everything is out, water test the heck out of it to seal any leaks.

You will thank me later!

I have one last residual seam leak at the rear I am sleuthing out. There is no bigger bummer then having a damp or wet interior in one of these.

Looks good see you went for the full trailer best choice for safe transport. If you need some bits make a list and post it.. Jeff

I'm still working on the list, finding more stuff every time I drive it. I am having fun driving it around in 1st and 2nd gears. It gets lots of looks in Portland, half good, half "what the ?".

I'm hoping to swing a trip to the local Pick N Pull soon, I need to start hunting down stuff like door panel wooden trim strips, a headlight knob bezel, front corner lights, etc.

Wagoninabox wrote:

Ill take the plates if you are doing away with them!

I will certainly hold onto it when we register it, if I decide I don't need it for the wall it's yours.

I also reprogrammed the remote this morning thanks to instructions from here, making progress!

That's some wild paint on your Alfa.

It actually came like that. Was owned by a friend of a friend here in Portland, and right around my 40th birthday I got the itch for another Alfa. Saw it on eBay and the rest is history.

It needs interior work and is starting to rust a little, but is reliable as hell and fun to drive. Never mind it gets attention everywhere, especially when my wife is driving it.

Back to the Roady, I decided it probably should get smogged before I drop $2k on a transmission. The good news is it passed with flying colors, only 20 ppm vs a spec of 220 ppm for HC, 0.1% for NOX. It seems that the engine or at least the cats are working well!

Off to get a new trans next week! And hopefully tomorrow I can pick up a wiper relay and some door trim at a local yard.

Check the sticky of other parts to gather that are hard to come by....in case you find a wagon.

Unfortunately there isn't a wagon, just a sedan that has been there for months.  I will double check which parts interchange, but unfortunately I need a headlight, corner light, and grill which are all different.

Front bumpers are different sedan to wagon too, right?

I took this shot today, she's looking better.  I need to pop out the front bumper in the short term, and maybe paint it so it doesn't look quite as battle scarred.

I hit Pick-n-pull today. A few 91-93 Roady sedans, one 95 that had been picked over, and a few Caprice sedans. I got a corner light, headlight, intermittent wiper module and hood ornament for $37. Not bad.

No interior trim worth saving, but did see how the dash from pads are clipped on, so I can try removing mine and reattaching.

I've chipped away at a few small projects, and one big one.

We got the car back from the transmission shop just in time to go out of town.  The day after we got it back it stalled three times on my wife, once right in front of our daughter's school.  Not fun.

I had noticed that the radio shut itself off earlier in the day, so I threw it on the trickle charger overnight and it seems to be running fine now.  Likely the shop ran down the battery a bit, plus we have only been driving it for short bursts.

We did notice that it shifts funny when taking off from a shop, so I need to call the shop and ask them if something needs adjusting.  The 1-2 shift is much firmer now, almost too firm.  But if the shift kit prolongs the life of the transmission I'm ok with that.

I also had a change to change out  few broken parts.  I swapped in the passenger headlight, installed the new hood ornament, and installed the intermittent wiper module.  The wipers now work as they should, and I can aim the headlights.  And with the hood ornament I can actually kind of tell where the bow er front of this ship is.

My daughter also helped me install a new grill courtesy of Tony (DirtyD) who sold me a much nicer one.

I'm now in process of trying to score a hitch so we can sell of the Tahoe and start using the Roadmaster full time.  

Here's the grill before:



The engine compartment needs a good detail.  Heck, the whole car really does.



After a quick clean with a rag and diluted Formula 409 (what I had laying around)



With new headlight, grill and hood ornament.  At some point I need to bang out a dent on the other side of the bumper, and repaint the top.  She'll look much better then. (see photo in previous post for dent).

Look like it's coming along. Nice tow-pack car. Good plate too.

Keep up the good work!

Wish I could keep the plate, but it will make a great wall decoration if nothing else.

Coming along nicely. Jeff

Looking good! Plate is fun too, and if Oregon has something close available at a reasonable price...

The bumper cover will most likely be fine with a respray, GM made them pretty durable.

I'm still chipping away at little stuff. Like I figured out that the rear lights don't come on when I open the back gate. The "gate ajar" light also doesn't light up, and a few other warning lights are out. I'll have to replace those when I replace the radio.

I spent a few minutes aligning the headlights and can see a bit better at night. These lights are still pretty poor, but I don't do that much night driving so they can wait.

I did figure out how to get one of the door courtesy lights working, it was just a bad connection. Unfortunately the last one out is a missing wire, so I need to pull the panel to fix it. I will likely upgrade the small light over the window switches at the same time.

Today I also yanked the console and gave it a good cleaning. It had years of coffee and other misc dirt in it. It looks much better now.



Unfortunately I'm missing a bolt on the console, and forgot to grab one at the junkyard last week. But I did score these speakers as part of the two door panels I bought to cannibalize.



I'm a fan of vintage audio gear, so these might go in the Roady when I replace the door speakers.

Next up, new front shocks.

Very exciting news around here, I finally got a hitch!  I was so I excited I was literally hugging it:



Here's a better shot, not unwrapped yet:



A big thanks to everybody who tried to lowball the seller, so when I came along with a full price offer he was glad to work with me.

Since I couldn't figure out how to get it installed and need more hardware I decided to tackle the rear cargo lights that wouldn't come on when the gate was open.

So I yanked off the panel, which wasn't hard since it was only being held on by 3 or 4 screws...



I found the switch and figured out that the rubber boot over it was keeping the switch from closing and making contact.  So I pulled the switch, adjusted the boot, lubed it a bit and reinstalled. And voila!  I have light!



One of my future projects is to figure out why the rear seat isn't laying flat.  I would love to pull the whole floor and really clean the carpet, vacuum everything well, then reinstall.  I also want to sand down some of the scratches and paint the side panels, the whole back area is pretty beat up unfortunately.  Maybe a tan wagon will show up in a local yard, but until then I can hopefully clean this up for now.  I have the trim piece for the roof, just need new clips for it and the panel for the gate.



Next up, installing the KYB front shocks and finding hardware for the hitch!

timmy swink's doppleganger.

Maybe this one owns a pair of shoes, though.


Hitch install is a cinch with the hardware. Do you have a lead on it? If not, I think the dude who got my hitch bought all new stuff and probably wrote down the sizes and all that jazz. I can ask him (he's on facebook, not here)

Thanks Ray. The instructions list all the hardware needed. I can find the small plates on eTrailer.com but I still need to find a large 2.5" plate. I might just have to make one and drill a hole in it.

This hitch doesn't bolt to the bumper mounts. So the front bolts need to be strong, and they bolt through the big hole in the frame. Hence the plate.

It's coming together. Thanks for the offer but I think I have it figured out.

Just a side note on the rear seat not laying flat. there should be a hook on the passanger side where it's arching up that should latch to the seat housing. Sometimes I have to give mine a nice shove to get it to latch.

Thanks Shawn. I think that's it. The wire for that latch is loose, so I haven't wanted to get it stuck. Once I get that adjusted and check the bolts I should be good. I think the hinges need a good lube as well, I bet they are full of drywall dust.

I spent a bit of time today scrubbing the wheels, and got them looking halfway respectable.  Good grief they are a PITA to clean, but hopefully the new ceramic pads will keep them cleaner.

Saw one just like yours today you cruising Alabama...Ha. Jeff (ive only see three others here in 15 months)

I now know of two others in town, wait three. Two LDM 91-94s like mine, and one Dark Red 95-96. The red one lives 3 blocks from my daughter's school, and I never saw it until I bought ours! I need to leave a note on it. Heck, on all of them!

Ceramic pads will be cleaner, stop a little better but I don't think they last as long. I'm okay with that trade off.