Gave up on The Betty

I'm sorry to report that my brother Mike and I have abandoned our efforts to restore The Betty ('96 BRMW). Not only did Mike break the good windshield trying to remove it from the donor car, I demolished the vista roof doing the same (I think that makes us even...just sayin'). Looking at the damage to the roof, 'ol Betty would never be right anyway. So we're junking the '96 and '94 wagons. Mike stands to make enough money to recover the cost of the parts car and has been compensated for the damage to The Betty. I may snag the '94 engine and trans - my Fleetwood is making scary bottom-end noises when it's cold.

Mike is on the search for a decent '96 Roadmaster Wagon. Price has to reflect reality, not speculative collector value (as many asking prices do). Willing to pay a premium for a lower mileage car, but let's not get crazy.

We'll keep the 2 junk wagons around to make sure the "new" wagon (once acquired) doesn't need anything.

It's just wrong to not have a wagon....

Near You!!

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/ctd/3459194506.html



http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/cto/3439551736.html


http://newjersey.craigslist.org/cto/3416793412.html


http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/ctd/3386940757.html - Sharp Boxy!


http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/cto/3434160279.html


http://newyork.craigslist.org/fct/cto/3456967751.html


http://jerseyshore.craigslist.org/cto/3369741735.html


http://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/ctd/3473129705.html


Near ME...if you want rust free. I need to come pick up a Blazer in Chatham NJ. You pay the gas and I'll deliver the below one to your door.

http://houston.craigslist.org/cto/3421699720.html - Can't believe this one is still for sale....


Good luck on the hunt!

-Mike

Saw most of those. Trying to upgrade a bit. A couple of them, however, we hadn't seen and look pretty good. Thanks for the info!

EDIT: That one in Texas is a winner. If you're coming to Chatham, and have room for it, we can compensate you for delivery. Chatham is close to us. We can meet you there. PM me if it's a possibility!

turbojimmy wrote:

Saw most of those. Trying to upgrade a bit. A couple of them, however, we hadn't seen and look pretty good. Thanks for the info!

EDIT: That one in Texas is a winner. If you're coming to Chatham, and have room for it, we can compensate you for delivery. Chatham is close to us. We can meet you there. PM me if it's a possibility!

Wow! Matchmaker Mike strikes again!

Dude in Texas isn't returning calls - me thinks that's why the car is still for sale.

^^^very well could be sold already. The ad for my t-56 that I bought 3 or 4 weeks ago is still up on CL.

Sprocket wrote:

^^^very well could be sold already. The ad for my t-56 that I bought 3 or 4 weeks ago is still up on CL.

Why not delete it?

GN1220 wrote:

Sprocket wrote:

^^^very well could be sold already. The ad for my t-56 that I bought 3 or 4 weeks ago is still up on CL.

Why not delete it?

Not his ad - he bought the car, didn't post the ad... :-)

s1l1sc wrote:

GN1220 wrote:

Sprocket wrote:

^^^very well could be sold already. The ad for my t-56 that I bought 3 or 4 weeks ago is still up on CL.

Why not delete it?

Not his ad - he bought the car, didn't post the ad... :-)

DOH! Sorry, I did misunderstand.

The search is over. I give you "Black Betty":



She has 82k miles and was owned by an octogenarian in Long Island. It's in better shape than the original The Betty and the black looks great on her. It's a '96 tow package car and everything works perfectly. It had been sitting in that spot for 2 years so it could use some cleaning. It made the long trip home flawlessly, too.

I'm sure my brother (the owner) will post more once he has time to go over it.

Looks to be in great shape. Congratulations.

Octogenarian (plural octogenarians)

One who is between the age of eighty and eighty-nine, inclusive.

Don't park this one under any trees.

whoa, black betty (bam-A-lam) that's a good looking woody in the rarest woody color no less. One of the first wagons I looked at years ago was a black woody but it was rusty even then (mid 2000s).

Nice! Tint it and lower it!

And as mentioned, stay away from those pesky trees!

Congrats! Looks good.

Thanks guys! I think this one is a keeper. It would look killer with some tint.

The owner knew all about this wagon, and knew how much he could get for it. He knew it had the "Limited" interior and some other stuff the average joe wouldn't know. Still, we got a fair deal compared to what they appear to be going for on eBay and elsewhere.

turbojimmy wrote:

The search is over. I give you "Black Betty":



She has 82k miles and was owned by an octogenarian in Long Island. It's in better shape than the original The Betty and the black looks great on her. It's a '96 tow package car and everything works perfectly. It had been sitting in that spot for 2 years so it could use some cleaning. It made the long trip home flawlessly, too.

I'm sure my brother (the owner) will post more once he has time to go over it.

Do you mind telling us how much you guys paid for this beautiful "Black Betty" Bam A Lam?

Flasheroo wrote:

Do you mind telling us how much you guys paid for this beautiful "Black Betty" Bam A Lam?

$3,400

turbojimmy wrote:

Flasheroo wrote:

Do you mind telling us how much you guys paid for this beautiful "Black Betty" Bam A Lam?

$3,400

Awesome price and no more body swap needed,hows it look underneath?

It looks great underneath. No rot. The usual stuff is rusty but not rotted - tank straps, random braces, etc. Exhaust looks great. Load leveling pump doesn't work anymore - shocker. Other than that, it's all good.

The (original) Betty had some rocker and quarter rust going on. Some bubbling through the paint, but nothing that had poked through yet. This one is clean. The only rust on it is where the paint was penetrated by chips. Nothing from the inside out.

Under hood is really clean. It's the most quiet LT1 I've ever heard. My brother said the G80 gearing makes a noticeable difference.

The tailgate has a bad hinge, but he tossed some new ones in. We'll have to put all 3 wagons side-by-side before we junk any of them, but it's looking like Black Betty doesn't need much.

Congrats, TJ! Sweet ride, good buy.

Congrats, looks like a keeper.

jayoldschool wrote:

Congrats, TJ! Sweet ride, good buy.

Thanks Jay! If this one had turned out to be a dud, I think my brother would have given up. I've been doing my best to keep him interested in the wagons. He was getting discouraged at the lack of decent ones on the market, and the high prices associated with anything that was not a total basket case.

He set up an "alert" on CraigsList and got a hit Wednesday. He called the guy right away and knew by talking to him that this might be the one. The ad didn't say what color it was, but as soon as we rolled up and saw the black I knew we had to leave with that car.

The owner was 80-years old, but as spry as a 20-year-old. He had some sort of relationship with his neighbor where he used his garage for working on his cars. Between the 2 of them they rattled off some nice machinery that they owned. At the garage was a '47 Plymouth street rod and a '66 Mercedes that the 80-year-old had converted to an "El Camino" 35 years ago. The neighbor was buffing out the fresh paint on a '91 Z28 convertible. It had the LT1 Corvette engine from that year and a 5-speed, which he said was special ordered by a GM exec. It was really nice to bump into people as passionate about automobiles as we are.

Really nice looking wagon. Great find!