Howdy from Eastern Washington

Well, I'm new to the forum, but not to wagons. When I was little we had an '83 and an '81 Caprice, both with the Olds 5.7 diesel, one was a plush sedan with pillow topped seats, the other was a wagon with vinyl seats that burn your legs in the summer and got so hot that my sister and I melted crayons in the trays under the back windows. The sedan got totaled one winter by a drunk, and when my twin brothers came the wagon got traded in on our '90 GMC Suburban. A few years, kids, and 250k miles down the road, the 700R4 gave out in the Sub, so my dad bought an '86 Parisienne Safari to replace it (beautiful car) I'm the oldest of seven, these wagons only have eight seatbelts, but my dad thought it was a good time to go to Costco right after he bought the wagon with our whole family of nine. Fun times.

That's the car I learned to drive in, it became primarily mine when my parents got an '04 15 passenger Express. I crashed it pretty hard in my first year of driving it coming back from a ski trip doing 70 in freezing rain, it still makes me mad. I continued to drive it in college even though every panel is dented and the grill is gone. Then, I found a great deal ($200) on a '90 Caprice wagon in blue, so the Safari got parked, mostly because the AC wouldn't hold a charge anymore and it was August. I drove that from Washington to San Francisco to Massachusetts where I went to school. It overheated really bad in California, so for most of the rest of the trip I mostly drove at night. I didn't replace the intake gasket until December, in the snow, because I just couldn't afford to keep putting radiator fluid in it. I made a few more trips across the country with that car before it started burning oil like crazy. Not wanting to replace but to *upgrade*, I bought an '81 Cutlass with an Olds 350 diesel for $100. A few days later and my friends and I had the 307 swapped out with the diesel. I think we did it just to say we could. My now wife (Kate) decided that was a good time to drop in from Massachusetts for a vacation. On the maiden voyage the torque converter bolts came out while I was climbing the hill to the Mt St Helens museum, about 3 hours from home. Good thing my parents love me.

I drove it with the diesel back to Mass, after I crossed the Rockies I was getting just shy of 30 mpg, not too shabby, and ironically that's when I got chastised at a rest stop for driving such a large, inefficient car across the country, so I let him have it with my 30 mpgs and made him feel bad. That's the only time I've ever been criticized for driving what I love. Anyway, I graduated the next spring, and with my graduation money in hand, I sought out a wagon without a diesel engine (it was a fun experiment, but I had a lot of trouble with glow plugs, a new starter, and you could follow my oil trail through parking lots) I ended up selling the '90 for $500, so I sort of made money. I looked at several bubble wagons, and missed out on many more (there are not reasonably priced box wagons in New England) Finally I found a rusty '95 Caprice in Boston with only 190k miles and working AC to drive back to WA, just two days before Kate and I were supposed leave. My dad actually had to overnight the new Washington plates to me.

I was so pleased with the new found power of the LT1 after driving that 350 diesel (and the 307) for so long. I loved the features the car had, the small vent windows in the back, the lifting back window, the windows went up and down so smoothly and fast, the transmission was so much smarter than the 200-4R, everything sealed up so tight and quiet. I just couldn't get used to the way it looked, some people can clean theirs up so they look pretty nice, but to me, they look like bloated whales. I really wish I could put all those features in a box, I would be so happy.

I drove it for a little over a year, maybe 16 months, when the driver side trailing arm came out of the frame. So, for $1300 I had gotten 30k miles and a donor LT1 out of the car, not too bad, I guess. That's when I started looking for a box to put my engine in, eventually I found a suitable body 300 miles away in Seattle. I was driving a 1988 Caprice Estate home the next weekend

It took several months to get the LT1 in and running, but I've been driving it almost daily for about 9 months now. I haven't hooked up the cruise control or the AC yet, but I drive it to work. I'm excited to get to know more wagon people, my wife doesn't really understand the attraction, but she knew long before she married me, and my friends just accept my ailment.

Welcome

Nice story! That is no easy accomplishment putting an LT1 in a box wagon...nice job. We would like pictures when you get a chance.

I lived in Kennewick in the late 70's and early 80's. I worked on the nuclear plants when they were being constructed. I really hated leaving Kennewick, great place and weather. I'd be there now if I could. No one believes it doesn't rain there. My wife is from Othello and I have cousins, the Creeks, who live in Kennewick.

Glad you found us!

Tom C.

Thanks, it took a while to dig through my memory and piece it together.

Wow, it's a small world, my wife is from Lancaster, MA, so we get over there a few times a year, her brother is in Maine.

I'm not sure I know any Creeks, but I'll look out for them. I work at the Boise Cascade paper mill down the river, most people here are trying to get out at Hanford, but it's not necessarily the most stable job because federal money comes and goes regularly.

I've actually got a video of it running, but the forum won't let me post external links? Kind of strange, but you can search "LT1 in '88 Caprice" on youtube and it should pop right up.

I've got more pictures, but they're on my phone. Hopefully I can find pictures of my old wagons, too, I know I had some good ones, I just don't know where they went...

Welcome aboard! Your intro reads more like a Long Roof of the month story!
I saw you post on the Impala forum and was going to dig around for pics of your ride, but hadn't got to it yet.

Best way to post pics with IMG tags or post, edit it, then go advanced and you can embed you tube etc.

Sprocket wrote:

Welcome aboard! Your intro reads more like a Long Roof of the month story!

That's exactly what I thought Jon, hope he saves some.

Tom C.

That was some great reading young man.Welcome to the group and when you get this picture posting procedure down,save some of the good ones for the wagon of the month story!

Thanks guys :-) I guess I don't know about the wagon of the month story. I tried to post the image of the '54 Nomad from my computer instead of from photobucket, I guess that doesn't work so well. As far as the YouTube link, there was actually text at the top of the page that said I'm not allowed to post links until I've been part of the forum for seven days.