Fuel tank?

Do they repop the 90 and earlier wagon metal tanks? Another option, and it won't crack. I know you can use the plastic 91-up tank in the boxies, so you can probably use the metal tank in the whales.

If you do decide to repair, rather than replace, you are going to resign yourself to a DIY job. Most licensed shops are put off by the Not Repairable embossing on the tank.

Show us some pics of the car, too

jayoldschool wrote:

Do they repop the 90 and earlier wagon metal tanks?  Another option, and it won't crack.  I know you can use the plastic 91-up tank in the boxies, so you can probably use the metal tank in the whales.

Hey that's an idea there!! My only concern would be the opening, since the older cars used a carburetor and the newer models have a pump in the tank.

Think I found a tank. It's being shipped to my mechanic (ETA next week) and comes with a 30 day return policy. Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, I took the Caprice on our first road trip yesterday. Drove up to L.A. to visit some friends over brunch.  "He" performed flawlessly.  Had the AC and cruise on.  What a difference in ride compared to my box '87, not to mention mpg's:



By the time I pulled into the garage, the trip odometer reach 170.0 with still a half a tank full.

You won't get 170 miles out of the last 'half' of tank. None of the TBIs I've owned has had a linear fuel gauge. The other difference on the TBI cars is below quarter tank when you corner, it'll fuel starve. This is normal.

LT1 car my wife would run dry and it'd take 21-22 gallons. on the TBI cars (I've DD 5 or 6 of them) most it would ever take was about 17.5-18 gallons due to the starvation 'issue'. I think the pickup sits higher and they fixed it on the 2nd gen....

Good to know about the cornering thing. I generally don't let my tanks get to ¼ before filling up again; perhaps a result of when I used to live in LA where one never knows how long a traffic jam will take lol.

Glide-Aways wrote:

Good to know about the cornering thing. I generally don't let my tanks get to ¼ before filling up again; perhaps a result of when I used to live in LA where one never knows how long a traffic jam will take lol.

Working in LA occasionally I also learned to go pee before getting into any car for same reason!

Well, it's looking like I might head up to meet Buicknutt over the upcoming holiday weekend.  It will be about a 550 mile trek up there from where I live in San Deigo, but I'd rather give the business to a fellow forum member than a junk yard who may or may not have properly catalogued their inventory (speaking from experience over the past few days lol).  I'm excited to meet him and see his collection.  Wish me luck?  

I will cost you about the same as shipping would cost.

It took 3 tries to get a good one last time I heard.

Wagon people are the best. I bet you leave with more than just the tank.

Andebe wrote:

Wagon people are the best. I bet you leave with more than just the tank.

Haha, I'm kinda hoping so!

Hey Everyone, thought I'd post an update.

I made the 1K mile (round trip) journey up north to meet Buicknutt.  He showed me his collection of donors and drivers and it quickly became evident to me that his handle fits him perfectly! His knowledge of these wagons' anatomy was really impressive.

Anyway, he (can I use real names here?) came to the rescue with a replacement fuel tank and worked his butt off installing it! I'm not sure my level of involvement qualified as "helping", but I did get a little dirty lol.  Despite being a beastly hot day, it was a lot of fun hanging out with him...and I learned a lot too.  Oh, and yes, I did pick up a couple of other parts I needed as well.  My tb cover needed factory-correct bolts (previous owner had a tb spacer that I removed as one of the first steps towards attempting to pass smog).  I also bought a replacement third brake light unit from him.  Buicknutt even bench-tested my original one to see if my bulbs worked (they did) and determined I had an issue with the electrical contacts.

All in all it was a productive trip.  Objective was of course to replace the tank, but equally valuable to me was the experience of finally meeting another wagon-fan...especially of this generation of GM B-bodies (still kinda new to me).  If Buicknutt had a formal business going, I'd give him ten stars out of five on yelp.  Thank you Buicknutt!

Sounds like a win-win. Might count as a mini-Wagonfest,gotta check with the judges.

Wagon folks are just great folks! Glad it worked out!

Glad I could help! I didn't even realize this thread was going on so long and just read through it all

We got lucky on this tank...first one we pulled out from my cars was good...

The one Fred mentioned was a guy who showed up for a tank and the first one we pulled had a drywall screw jammed through the sending unit plate right into the plastic to make up for a broken mounting stud.

The second one we pulled that day was a good one.

At this point, I most likely have 2 more good wagon tanks...and 3 sedan tanks sitting around as well.

Thanks again for the referrals guys!

Andebe wrote:

Sounds like a win-win. Might count as a mini-Wagonfest,gotta check with the judges.

and yes, sometimes I crack a beer and go out in the backyard for a wagonfest all by myself

BUICKNUTT wrote:

Glad I could help!  I didn't even realize this thread was going on so long and just read through it all

We got lucky on this tank...first one we pulled out from my cars was good...

The one Fred mentioned was a guy who showed up for a tank and the first one we pulled had a drywall screw jammed through the sending unit plate right into the plastic to make up for a broken mounting stud.

The second one we pulled that day was a good one.

At this point, I most likely have 2 more good wagon tanks...and 3 sedan tanks sitting around as well.

Thanks again for the referrals guys!

No need to thank us, just send money.

ha..ok, maybe ill make the 2000 miles trip to wagonfest next year and pass out some of these rubber impact strips & D pillar grab handle light lenses iv'e been hoarding...

BUICKNUTT wrote:

Andebe wrote:

Sounds like a win-win. Might count as a mini-Wagonfest,gotta check with the judges.

and yes, sometimes I crack a beer and go out in the backyard for a wagonfest all by myself

Well I believe the very first Wagonfest in NY had 6 wagons show up. So I've always used that as a measuring stick. Even when I had 6 at my house, we had about a month of WF there ha ha ha (and two owners as 2 of them were my son's).

I therefore declare as two owners and 6 wagons qualify (hard to fest by yourself....self-festing just sounds wrong and may be illegal in some states) You had a WF gathering.

self festing...in other words...go fest myself?

Hey, where can I find footage of 16' or 17' WF?

only found up to 14' I think on youtube

There are some posts in the wagonfest sections.

So the saga continues...stay tuned...

...and now we return you to our regularly scheduled program...

Following the trip up to meet Buicknutt, more issues arose with the wagon. These were general repairs that - albeit common for old cars - were surprises with bad timing. I was still a couple of thousand dollars away just from passing CA smog. (Did I mention that due to a modified cam from the previous owner I was looking at having to rebuild the entire engine just to pass?) So after replacing rear brakes and then incurring two separate transmission fluid leaks, I had to call it quits. My other half and our budget just couldn't tolerate spending any more money on this car. In short, this wagon just turned out to be much more of a project than what I thought or even wanted in the first place.

So, Buicknutt came to the rescue again. He agreed to buy my wagon. I shipped it off to him two days ago and it should arrive on his doorstep tomorrow. My search for another wagon will resume shortly, but this time I either return to ones of a smog exempt era or one that is already residing in CA, lol.

More updates from Buicknutt in the days to come, I'm sure. In the meantime, thank you to all of you out there for your advice and suggestions. I'll still be lurking about and commenting occasionally...this is a great group here.

Cheers.
Matt

Sorry to hear that it didn't work out. I've let a few cars go that I really liked that were just 'too much project' before. On the flip slide you want out of control resto costs, get a GMC motorhome like I did. I bought it for 6500 and am now pushing 20K with the motor rebuild...And I still don't have AC when I drive....

Sprocket wrote:

Sorry to hear that it didn't work out.   I've let a few cars go that I really liked that were just 'too much project' before.   On the flip slide you want out of control resto costs, get a GMC motorhome like I did.   I bought it for 6500 and am now pushing 20K with the motor rebuild...And I still don't have AC when I drive....

Glad to know I'm not the only one; this was a first for me. I had a '75 Caprice wagon that I partially restored...put more money into it than what I originally bought it for too, but then I did get quite a few years of enjoyment out of it as well. I admire your dedication on the motorhome project though. What year is it?

I call my white 92 OCC the White Elephant for the reason that I put so much money into it, that I can not sell it. I have to drive it until it dies.

My 91 has an engine in it worth more than 10 times the value of the car, and the  trans is worth as much or more than the car as well.

I do drive them a lot though, and am determined to get my value out of them.

Sorry to hear you had to bail on the wagon. I'm learning myself that owning an old car is not as cheap as you might think. Are you frustrated that your state has made it so difficult to drive an old car? Are exempt cars just pre emissions era cars, or is it a constant over 30 years or something like that?

I like the way you think Fred!

Jon7190: Yes, I am very frustrated over CA's regulations. They make it very difficult to own/enjoy/preserve older cars; especially anything newer than a '76 model year. 1975 and older are exempt from CA smog testing.