Custom Cruiser Before and After

Cleaning out my computer today I found a pic of the '89 Custom Cruiser the day I got it. I know a lot of you like before and after pics, so enjoy.

This car only had 47K miles on it when I got it. It was traded in at a local Toyota/Honda dealer, it belonged to an older lady's husband who had died and she wanted a smaller car. Traded it for a Civic or Corolla if I remember right. Had all the paperwork in the glove box and I called her about it to see if the miles were true.

The inside was nearly perfect, just needed a bath, but it had always been parked in an open carport and the passenger side of the car faced the afternoon Texas sun, so the wood on the passenger side was shot. I debated about replacing the wood...this was in 2004, but could not find any, so decided to strip it.

It took me a full week of evenings with a hair dryer, razor blades, and WD-40 to get all that wood off the car. Was a PAIN. The drivers side come off in large sections once I heated it up. But it was REALLY dry on the passenger side so there was no peeling it, even hot. It came off in little chunks, took HOURS to get it off, my fingers bled, no joke. I promised myself I'd NEVER do that again!

GM painted the car brown around the gas lid, bumper fillers, and trim on the tail lights, so I had to have those parts of the car painted white. BUT in the end I really liked it de-wooded. And unlike some wagons the chrome trim that outlined the wood before actually still looked fine on the car. It followed the body line so I left it alone.

Lots of detailing, a set of aluminum "Turbine" Buick-style wheels from the salvage yard, and some nice tires and window tint later, and I had the sharpest Custom Crusier in town. ; ) Wish I had more before pics!

Before Passeger Side


After Passenger Side


Before Rear View


After Rear View


Before Driver's Side


After Driver's Side


After a solid week of scraping off wood and cleaning:



Added the Turbine Wheels...still had White Walls....tinted windows:




Added T/A Radials:




Olds 307....a regular ball of fire...HA!


Sharp Dash and Interior!






My kiddo at the beach, Padre Island Texas....age 3!


Wally World Dad? That's right son! Roy Wally World!



And here is how it looked the last time I saw it. I sold it too a good friend and he added red pin stripes to the bumpers and side chrome, blacked out the bare metal parts on the wheels, and added surfer stickers to the car....and removed my Wally World sticker. Boo. : (






It was later sold at action and I've lost track of it now. Wish I could have kept it....have never seen a nicer one!

Wow. That thing looked the balls!

When I first saw it I almost didn't stop and look at it. I figured it was totally shot from a distance. You never know!

I traded a crap-ass 94 Ford Aerostar van even-up for that wagon. The guy thought I was nuts when I told him I wanted to trade even. The Aerostar, while an ugly design, was spotless, waxed, and looked new in and out (it was my car...). I HATED that van, it was given to us by a family friend, only Ford I've ever owned. No power, something ALWAYS wrong with it, leaking on it, falling off on it......and it looked like a Dustbuster.

I was thrilled to trade even. The dealer thought he'd made the deal of a lifetime. That Olds, other than cosmetics when I fixed it up, never gave me a problem mechanically. ; )

That is exactly what ive been thinking of doing with my Caprice. I like how the molding looks even without the wood, I've seen a 91-96 like that too.

toomanytoyz wrote:

Wow. That thing looked the balls!

AMEN!

81X11 wrote:

I traded a crap-ass 94 Ford Aerostar van even-up for that wagon. The guy thought I was nuts when I told him I wanted to trade even. The Aerostar, while an ugly design, was spotless, waxed, and looked new in and out (it was my car...). I HATED that van, it was given to us by a family friend, only Ford I've ever owned. No power, something ALWAYS wrong with it, leaking on it, falling off on it......and it looked like a Dustbuster.

It is worth noting that the base engine during the first several years of Aerostar production was an 88-horsepower 2.3L four-cylinder. NO, I am NOT KIDDING.

Well this was an extended-wheelbase model....so it looked like an extra-long Dustbuster, it was even white...but whoever ordered it new didn't spring for the 4.0 V6. Ours has the little 3.0 Taurus "Vulcan" V6 engine in it. I tried to take it on a trip to Tennessee and it WOULD NOT got over 25 up the hills, and then for fun the rear main seal blew in the middle of nowhere.

Compared to that gutless Ford the 307 in the Custom Cruiser felt like a 502 big-block. ; )

It's a close race between it and an '83 Isuzu I-Mark for the least favorite vehicle I've owned award. I think the Ford wins....

Nice pics! love the turbines, would love to score a set of them....
my buddy's dad has an 82 isuzu diesel pic up. you had to turn the AC off and down shift to pass a bicyclist.... slowest thing ever....

Mine had a gas engine, but was no ball of fire. I traded that I-Mark for a 1979 Bonneville Brougham that smelled of old people but had the most comfy seats of any car I've owned. ; )

Had a lot more Custom Cruiser pics in that Parisienne file, so I updated the Before and After pics at the start of this thread. Goes from a dirty car with peeling woodgrain to a clean car with no woodgrain, adding wheels, tint, and then tires.

A LOT of sweat and elbow grease went into that car.

I do miss that Cruiser. It was a really nice when I sold it. Enjoy the pics gang!

-Mike

Ok, I've officially added ALL my Olds pics to the start of this chain. Better than a scapbook!

-Mike