Creampuff Cruiser

Check out the low mile Cruiser on epay, for sale by a certain NY based wagon nut.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160385201775&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT

Someone keep this in the family.

when are you picking it up?

I spoke with Fred on Sunday, and he was very excited about that Cruiser. Also, Fred left his next prize at the Syracuse airport while he's on travel - a '95 MAB RMW from West Virginia with 92,000 miles on it that is absolutely mint. The underside is as clean as this one. Woodgrain is lovely too. Call him if you want it.

You wouldn't happen to know if he picked that CRuiser up from the York, PA area Joel? I saw one on craigslist like that but had to fly overseas so I missed it when I got back on the ground.

It did come from that area, it ended up on E-bay where Fred quickly snagged it! That is a nice wagon!!

I sent a message to a friend in York via email to to get it, he never responded. Mad I missed it.

After a long three week wait, I am bringing her back to SC on Thursday.

Congratulations! I hope to see lots of pictures, she's a beauty.

SCbarber wrote:

It is staying in the family, it's going to S.C. I was at wagon fest in 06 with the low mileage white woody, which is long gone and now got the fever again.

Woo hoo!! Another OCC in the Southland I do hope we can meet up sometime so I can see this one in person!!

Chris

The grey '92 OCC came from the Scranton PA. area. A small dealer there had it on ebay back in late Oct. My wife gave me the ok to hit the buy it now button, but when I logged in I saw Fred hit it about an hour before me. Missed it, bummer. Congradulations on the purchace.

Yep, thought it was a creampuff, turns out to be a money pit. Spent numerous amounts of money on different things, one being a radiator, radio does not work properly, and I was told the A/C blew cold. Well in SC heat I turned it on and it does not work, it never ends. You guys did not miss much by not getting this car. I would of never paid what I did if I knew I would have to spend another 3,000 fixing it.

Luck of the draw, unfortunately. Do you do any of your own work or was it all performed by shops?

Dude I just got a BRAND NEW radiator with a lifetime warranty for like $90 shipped. A stock replacement radio can't be $50. If you paid $2,860 to fix an AC system, you're doing it wrong.

Regardless of the money, when a car is said to be in full operating condition and you fly to NY and drive it home 14 hrs., you expect it to be as stated. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones who does everything yourself, I happen to not be one. I have not been mechanically inclined and never will be, that is just me. Find me a stock radio for 50.00 and send me the link, I will gladly buy it. The radio works but the volume control sticks all the time. Sometimes very hard to turn up, or will not turn up at all.

I am sorry that you didn't get what you expected, I have been there and it really sucks, I hope you get it to a state that makes you happy.

However, a Stock Radio can be had for much less than $50, here is but a small sampling for what's available on ebay. Installing one require no mechanical inclination whatsoever, and once you get the dash off, it is completely self explanatory. If you find one and have trouble getting the dash off, pm me your phone number and I'll be happy to walk you through it.

Radio for 37.50

Radio for 26.25

Radio for 30.00

Radio for 22.50

None of them look like my original any idea if they are a direct replacement? I have the up and down switch for the volume, not the knobs.

Well they are a direct replacement, and the knobs tend to be more reliable than the buttons, the original radio in my 91 caprice still works perfectly. They may indeed look different but they will not look out of place. All GM radios 88-01ish* use the same 24 pin plug and 1.5 DIN Size. The mounting equipment on that generation of radio stays with the car, so you won't have to worry about that.

*Except Select 95+ Olds/Buick Models

Sorry to hear that your not happy with the car, but I still would have bought it. Most 18 year old cars are money pits, you still have a great foundation. I have an Delco/BOSE AM/FM cassette radio in my '92 Caprice that will be going to the yard soon, if you want it I'll send to you free of any charge. Don't get too frustrated, you have a sweet car with less than 40,000 miles on it, hang in there. Send me you mailing address and I'll get the radio out to you this week. I know it's not the cool Olds radio, but it should mount in your car, it works, and the face might be the same color as the OCC. Here is a pic.

Mike

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SCbarber wrote:

Yep, thought it was a creampuff, turns out to be a money pit. Spent numerous amounts of money on different things, one being a radiator, radio does not work properly, and I was told the A/C blew cold. Well in SC heat I turned it on and it does not work, it never ends. You guys did not miss much by not getting this car. I would of never paid what I did if I knew I would have to spend another 3,000 fixing it.

?? Those sound like pretty minor issues overall. AC is a given on such an old car. Sorry to hear you are not happy. I know it was a long wait in getting it.

I too put a new rad and compressor on my OCC this season. I know it adds up...do you do the work yourself?

Put it this way, I could never do what you do looking at your pics LOL. I like the car no doubt it is just always something.

Well, if you need help sometime ( once I get my heap running) perhaps we can meet up. I know all the little things can add up quick...but it will feel like a million bucks once you get them done. Just hang in there. I know you are slammed with getting your biz going. But I think you do have a worthwhile wagon to work on and keep! If not, you know you will be able to get your money back on E-bay with that thing! Clean it up and take some good pics. The miles will sell it!

Na, not selling it, besides non wagon nuts would want it for nothing anyway.

The Cruiser came with three different radios. The one pictured in the links on the first page is the 'base' am/fm/cassette radio. Yours has the buttons and equalizer? That's the 'upgraded' am/fm/cassette radio. The Base one will plug in but there's an extra plug left over if you do that, not sure what it's for. There's also the rare am/fm/cd radio which is a direct swap for the upgraded cassette radio, uses the same plugs.

I may have an extra upgraded radio but it would require refurbishing as the failure you describe is quite common. I have a company which will refurb them, they did the CD unit in my Cruiser. It's not $50 unfortunately.

Swapping radios is quite simple. A local to you wagon nut would likely be happy to help as mentioned.

Concerning being mechanically inclined.....

I've never considered myself as lucky - just always either too broke to pay someone else, or when I HAVE had the money - I'm too cheap to.

Look, my family worked in the auto factories since the 1930's. I'm the first one not to. My Grandfather only had an 8th grade education and my dad was a lousy student in HS with ZERO college. Now I'm not saying ANYTHING bad about auto assembly workers, but the fact remains that almost every car built since the invention of the assmebly line was designed to be assembled by a chimp. Taking parts off of a car is NOT rocket science - and neither is putting one back together.

I've always looked at cars like a really big legos project - and if a middle block needs replacing - you just remove the ones on top of it - swap it out - and replace the ones you removed - and they even make HUGE assed books with pictures called the Factory Service Manual to show you EVERY little step of the way.

Here's an example....
Like my radiator swap - I pulled my rad with dwindling daylight turning to night - with a flashlight in my mouth for light - using a pair of vice grips and a 10mm socket- in an empty parking lot - by myself - in an empty parking lot in the middle of DOWNTOWN FLINT, MICHIGAN, which is the #1 highest crime city in the NATION.

I had to go back the next day to put the new one in - and it popped in like a friggin LEGO.

My point being - it damn sure didn't all go down like that because I'm "lucky".

Dude, I totally get what you're saying - but the bottom line is that the car DID get you 14 hours home and it's still a creampuff despite the few incidentals you've incurred - that are very COMMON on cars this old.

If you really do want to be happy - my advice that you didn't ask for is to make a decision of the following choices - either figure out how LEGO blocks work, then apply that same principle to replacing your own car parts, OR keep paying for other people to do easy work for you, but you forfeit the right to complain about how bad your butt hurts, OR stay away from old cars and just lease something shiney and new.

I'm not being snotty either - but I just can't take somebody serious who complains about the cost of simple stuff like that any more than I can sit and listen to people complain about how much it costs them to have someone else mow their lawn.

$3,000? C'mon. I know better - and even if it were true, a bill that ridiculous damn sure isn't the sellers fault.

All that been said - I do own the factory service manuals and will be MORE than happy to help you out in ANY way I can, day or night.

Bewber wrote:

Taking parts off of a car is NOT rocket science - and neither is putting one back together.

No it isn't, but being someone that does the work of a "chimp" for a living. I have made more money correcting things done by people that "thought" they had a clue as to what they were doing than on anything else, lol.

I've worked with people that couldn't repair something with a gun pointed at their head. Saw plenty of scattered engines built by a "Mechanic".

Anyone may be able to do it, but few can do it right.

That said, there are some things that I am amazed people cannot do on their own, like change oil, a tire, etc.

Oh I totally agree. I'm not talking about major rebuilds, etc. - but for real, even a dude with ONE arm can change the oil or a tire of he wants to.

Also - quite obviously - "DIY" doesn't apply to people with any level of disability.

Again - I'm not calling people who do manual labor "chimps". I'm saying that I worked in auto design for 13 years and everything had to be designed such that assembly was as close to idiot proof as possible - like having no two underhood electrical connectors being identical. The other thing I learned was that no matter how idiot proof you make something - someone will always just go and build a better idiot.

As cars age various parts and components wear out, break or fail. many of these issues are normal wear and tear. Often with cars that are low mille cream puffs, garage queens, and even museum peices have issues with parts breaking, failing, seizing from lack of use.

I've found through years of owning cars, that cars go through a cycle of various parts breaking and needing to be replaced. Yes it can get expensive during this cycle the point does come when you've replaced all that can go wrong for this cycle and you then enjoy a few years oftrouble free use. Unfortunately many people give up after changing a few parts when the next part fails. How many of these car end in junk yards because their owners got frustrated with the latests issue. These cars are the ones some of us grease monkeys find new alternators, fuel pumps, water pumps, brake calipers and so on, when we walk through salvage yards.

If you have to farm out the work it can get expensive. Hopefully you have a good mechanic that you trust that works for a reasonable cost.

Don't think ill of the your OCC, you paid a good price for a good car that needs some TLC to bring up to your standards. I've got a friend who collects high dollar classic cadillacs and other GM collectibles. It's nothing for him to pay barrett jackson prices for a car. He will then farms it out to RM Classic restaurations where they will go through the car bumper to bumper. Once RM is done with the car he then gets the car home he'll spend a week or so changing parts to bring it up to his standards. He likes to drive his collectable and wants them ready for long road trips when ever he gets the urge to take what ever car he wants from his collection.

Be patient with your OCC and it will reward you in the long run.

Well said Pat.

I will only say this. The problems described are mechanical. While they can get a little expensive to repair if you're not a DIY-er the cost is minor compared to having to address rust issues. I'd take a rust free southern car with a blown engine any day over a crunchy northern car with a great drive train. No doubt Pat can attest to this from work on a certain 93 Roady he has.

Don,t feel bad. All old cars are money pits. Do what you can and grin and bare the rest.

If you want to learn how to take the cars apart, go down to your local pick-n-pull junk yard and take a car similar to yours apart (B-body 91-93). Take a set of wrenches (metric and inch) and screwdrivers (flat #2&3 phillips and maybe a body panel tool) Take a couple rags with you because you will get dirty.. The cost is minimal to be allowed to practice on their car, and you can stay all day (even go get lunch and come back).

If you find a part you like, they are cheap (5-25% of the "new" part), and you can take it home with you.

If you do not find any parts that you want, you can get a great education on the how-to of your car, so when the time comes that you do need something, you can just go get it, and install it.