Hello from Grand Rapids, MI

I have spent some time on the impalassforums wagon section before when I had a '91 Olds CC.

I had travelled from MI by plane to Florida to buy the wagon and drove it back home. A few years ago I sold it to Fred Kiehl (also a member here I believe), who flew up to MI, and drove the car back down to Florida. I guess it likes being in a warm climate.

I have generally missed the car since I sold it and though I'm not quite ready to buy another, I'm always shopping/looking/learning/watching/dreaming, etc.

Ideally I'd eventually like to end up with an LT1 wagon to use as a trackday tow rig for my little '80 VW Rabbit track car, and as a family road trip machine. I've had my eye on a few Impala clone wagons. I love the look of the bubble wagons with smoothie bumpers front and rear.

I haven't been on the impalassforum.com in awhile, namely because it's blocked at my work. ha! So far this site is in the clear.

A few pics of my wagon when I had it:





...and not a GM product, but my wife has a smaller wagon now as well. '08 Volvo V50 T5 when we picked it up:



Maybe we'll have a B-body again in our future someday.

Welcome to the gang "oldswagon" and that is a beautiful wagon that you sold Fred.Kinda like
the way you painted all of the lower cladding the same as the rest of the wagon.I have a 91
OCC and a 95 RMW.Better hurry up and get you another wagon from florida!
Jim
PS Really like that little V50 Volvo too!

Flasheroo wrote:

Welcome to the gang "oldswagon" and that is a beautiful wagon that you sold Fred.Kinda like
the way you painted all of the lower cladding the same as the rest of the wagon.

Thanks Jim. I actually bought the wagon with the suspension and bodywork already modified as shown. I only painted the door jams as they did not match when I purchased the car and did some other mechanical work. The gentleman I bought it from was an elder kustom guy heavy into lead sleds and older rods. He kept the cladding and grille as he wanted to keep the Olds heritage intact. Though I love the Olds grill, I always thought the cladding transition to the smoothy bumpers was a little awkward.

Flasheroo wrote:

Better hurry up and get you another wagon from florida!

I always look south! For the couple hundred bucks a cheap one way flight and a tank or two of gas, the lack of rust is priceless. As someone who turns all my own wrenches, I'll take a day trip south any day especially when buying 10+ year old cars. I have a '97 Jimmy 4x4 in my garage as I type this that was a Michigan truck and in trying to change the front wheel bearings I sheared off seized rusted bolts on the front calipers on BOTH sides! ARRGHH!

Flasheroo wrote:

PS Really like that little V50 Volvo too!

Yeah we love it too. It's fairly compact but makes excellent use of it's space. We live right near downtown GR and it is easy to parallel park and for her to maneuver downtown. I like it as the turbo inline 5 rips! We stumbled on it mainly by accident as we were going to test drive a Taurus X at a Ford dealer and they had it marked way below KBB presumably off a corporate lease or something and it was out of the scope of all the rest of the vehicles on their lot and it was immaculate. My wife drove it, came back with a big grin on her face about how "zippy" it was, and that was all it took. It passed the stroller fit test, and all the seats fold flat so it's still plenty useful.

Welcome and hope you get another whale soon!

-Mike

Welcome - Now you gotta hurry up an gitcha one