Hello from Santa Barbara

Hi there.  Good to find a place where the knowledge and love for B-Bodies runs deep!  I'm Simon in Santa Barbara. Previously I was in DC for 20 years and I grew up in England, up on the Scottish borderlands.

I am on my second RMW. I had a 1994 that I picked up 6 years ago on Craigslist in St. Louis and drove back to Santa Barbara.  That was a good car but had been run rather hard.  Nonetheless, I got it in decent shape and sold it to a friend last year.

My "new" ride is a 1996 that I picked up last year with only 68k miles.  Strangely, the original title was to "The Walt Disney Company" although I got it from its second owner, literally a "little old lady." - or more accurately her son, as she had died.  The car had some sun damage as it had been sitting for a year or so, but it is in tremendous shape.  Recently my teenage son and I took a summer road trip to Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Palm Springs and then home.  Car ran flawlessly and the temp needle never even made it to the half-way mark.  How I love thee RMW...

All I have done so far is throw on a new serpentine and tensioner. (I'd love to do the second tensioner if I could find one (anyone know where?). Also did brakes front and rear.  Oh yeah, and replaced the hood ornament with one off a Park Ave.  I like the gold and it sits back at a nice rakish angle.  I assume that's good for 5-6 MPG...  Eventually I will shape the Park Ave gold base to fit the hood but that will be on a rainy day. In Santa Barbara. (Which could be a few years!)

Jobs coming up: Water pump, spark plugs & wires, and perhaps opti-spark (will definitely look for help with that decision). Am now pondering hard on putting in RMS rear seats. I am slowly pulling and reattaching all the rubber trim as much of it was coming unglued. I have an upgraded wiring harness for the lights being fabricated by Gary at Innovative Wiring, and once that arrives I will be trying it out with 80/100 9004 bulbs.  As I said to him, the current setup is just slightly better than the lights on Louis XIV's stagecoach!

I also just put on new light housings front and rear as the old ones were cloudy and I found a good deal on some perfect OEM's. Putting LED's in the rear today, once I crimp some wires to reverse the polarity.

Anyway, good to be here!  Am looking forward to basking in the radiant wisdom of you chaps!

Cheers,
Simon

Welcome aboard Simon!

Sounds like you have yourself a nice. Lot's of knowledge here and I'm sure you can add to that. Pictures when you get a chance.

Tom

Aha! Was wondering why I could not get my picture link to work. I have to wait 7 days. Oh well, close your eyes and picture a beautiful beige RMW with tan seats. A bit of missing rubber but nice clean chrome and... wait! Is that a gold hood ornament? Sweet!!

Simon, I'm pretty sure you can upload your pictures to a remote location, such as photobucket, then post the link before 7 days.

Tom

sounds like a nice ride.
I stopped for a night in Santa Barba for a night on my roadtrip last year. Nice place! My wife wanted to move there.

Sadly, not able to post a link, am getting this response. "New members are not allowed to post external links or emails for 7 days. Please contact the forum administrator for more information."

I will wait impatiently...

And yes, Jason, Santa Barbara is rather gorgeous When I was a kid, it was my dream to one day live next door to a less smelly chemical factory. I did not even imagine there was place a beautiful as this. I call it "improbably beautiful." I'll post a pic. Oh wait...

I have an airbnb and a 4-ton Lincoln-Warner jack for the next time you roll through town.

Welcome to the group.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome!