Bought My First "Whale"!

Hi.  Name is Matt and I live in So. Cal.  I've been lurking about here for quite some time, commenting and asking questions here and there occasionally, but as of yesterday I now actually have a whale wagon! I figured the most appropriate place to share my story would be here in the Introductions section.

First, just a quick thank you to those of you who took the time to answer the questions I had while I was shopping.  Until I took delivery on my wagon yesterday, I had not even seen this generation of GM's wagons in person (I grew up with a clamshell CE and later a box CE and as an adult have subsequently owned one of each as well.)  But for some reason, the body style of GM's last full size wagons recently started "speaking" to me.  So last month I sold my '87 CE wagon when I started zeroing in on a couple of contenders.

After months of looking around online, I bought a 1993 Chevrolet Caprice Classic wagon, sight-unseen, from the midwest.  It has just over 107k miles on it.  The seller and his wife were wonderful folks do deal with; the dialogue went on for almost a month.  They owned it for about 12 years and took very good care of it, did some restoration work here and there along the way (new paint, new wood decals, re-upholstered the seats, door panels and replaced the headliner) all very tastefully done.  They entered it in a local car show about a year ago with the intention of taking advantage of a captive audience to try and sell it.  Instead, it ended up winning an award lol.  

Anyway, it has the TBI 350 engine which is mostly still factory correct, save some sort of CAM adjustment he made "to give it a bit more pep" (I'm not a tech guy so I don't exactly know what this means). Everything works, save one radio speaker. The seller and I spoke last evening when I got it into my garage and he told me it was 84 degrees and very humid there; which explained why the AC was left in the on position when I started the car; the AC blows cold!  Oh, which reminds me, he also had it converted to 134.

My next step is to do the DMV thing to get my temporary registration tag so I can drive it; so far I've only taken it about 100 yards from the delivery truck to my drive way lol.  

My first challenge will be getting it to pass CA smog.  I'm not expecting this to be easy, so any advice from fellow CA folks would be greatly appreciated lol.  

There is one thing that came up last night as I was putting her to bed.  I opened the tailgate (like a door, not flat down) and when I went to close it I noticed the two interior courtesy lights on either side of the rear window would not go off; nor the read "gate ajar" light on the dash.  I subsequently tried re-closing the gate and the window several times with no success; even trying to lift up slightly on the gate door as I was doing so.  The gate lines up perfectly when closed, but the lights just won't turn off.  Has anyone experienced this before? Could this be a switch thing? If so, where is it? I ended up disconnecting the battery before I went to bed.

Anyway, thanks listening. (Still trying to figure out how to post a photo.)

Welcome to the forum!

Quote :

I opened the tailgate (like a door, not flat down) and when I went to close it I noticed the two interior courtesy lights on either side of the rear window would not go off; nor the read "gate ajar" light on the dash.  I subsequently tried re-closing the gate and the window several times with no success; even trying to lift up slightly on the gate door as I was doing so.  The gate lines up perfectly when closed, but the lights just won't turn off.  Has anyone experienced this before?

There's a thread on this problem, and an eventual solution.  Make sure you read until you get to the happy ending:  https://gmlongroof.4umer.com/t13201-yet-another-thread-about-gate-ajar-light

THANK YOU dmg4!

Fixed! Well, sort of. I opened the gate and "massaged" the lower right latch, then closed the gate while holding the release handle up; courtesy and dash lights went out! I realize this may happen again, but for now problem resolved.

Welcome aboard. I don't think you will disappointed as these were the pinnacle of GM station Wagon evolution. Ride great, reliable with decent mileage and haul a ton of stuff. what could be better?

There is a VERY active B-Body community in SoCal as well with alot of meetups and outings. I know there are several clubs around your parts.

Congrats! Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks everyone! I'm really glad to be a part of this group.

Sprocket: Good to know! I used to live in Los Angeles and (still am) a member of the Vintage Chevrolet Club. Since moving down here I haven't yet explored the B body community here but look forward to researching it.

Congrats on the new ride,post those pics when you can.

My first attempt to post a pic here on this forum. Not quite sure of the difference between "hosting" versus "inserting" a photo, but here it goes.

This was taken last Friday when I drove it for the first time to work.  It was the first day the wagon became street-legal in CA (albeit temporarily until I get it smog tested and passed).  

OMG!  I think you have my old wagon!

Haha! Mine came from MO, originated from SC before that. What color is yours in that photo? Looks very nice!

Mine was DGGM: Dark Grey/Green Metallic, and it was originally from SC. I sold it in 2009 and picked up a white Roadmaster from AZ with 33,000 miles. After that I picked up the 1996 Caprice that I now own.

Wow, maybe this is the same wagon!

By the way, I'll be starting work on decoding the service parts ID codes next weekend (thinking of your "potato chips" thread lol).

Congrats,looking good.