Newbie: Durham, NC 1985 Custom Cruiser
May 25th, 2012, 07:53 AM
#1
Newbie: Durham, NC 1985 Custom Cruiser
Hey y'all!
About a month ago I bought a 1985 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser station wagon. I bought it for $500, to use in the BABE Rally. For those of you not familiar, BABE is an acronym for "Big Apple to Big Easy." The idea is to drive from New York City to New Orleans in a $500 car.
I'm doing the rally as a fundraiser for a music charity. My original plan was to sell the car at the end of the rally and donate the proceeds to the charity, but I really love this car... I may end up keeping it.
It has a few issues, but they are minimal considering what I paid for the car. It looks pretty awful, there's a lot of rust. The previous owner tried to cover up some of the rust with a coat of paint, but he left brushmarks and got paint on the chrome trim. The wood-grain vinyl has faded to a uniform beige color, and is flaking off.
The motor for the rear window is dead. The rear door was stuck closed, but I managed to fix that... although in the process I destroyed the plastic panel on the inside of the rear door.
The check engine light comes on intermittently. It's throwing code 22, indicating that the throttle position sensor is bad. I'm not going to replace the TPS before the BABE Rally, but if I decide to keep the car I'll need to replace it eventually.
The factory radio is dead, so I replaced it with a cheap aftermarket radio. Unfortunately, that also meant having to cut the hole in the plastic dashboard panel a little wider... I'm sure someone is cringing as they read that!
Since the paint was already garbage, I didn't feel bad about decorating the car for the rally. I'm going with a musical theme to go along with the charity I'm supporting.
I've been blogging about the car and my rally preparations, and I'll be posting daily updates during the rally (June 3 - 9). If you're interested in seeing pictures of the car or reading more about it, the blog is at geraldbelton.wordpress.com.
About a month ago I bought a 1985 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser station wagon. I bought it for $500, to use in the BABE Rally. For those of you not familiar, BABE is an acronym for "Big Apple to Big Easy." The idea is to drive from New York City to New Orleans in a $500 car.
I'm doing the rally as a fundraiser for a music charity. My original plan was to sell the car at the end of the rally and donate the proceeds to the charity, but I really love this car... I may end up keeping it.
It has a few issues, but they are minimal considering what I paid for the car. It looks pretty awful, there's a lot of rust. The previous owner tried to cover up some of the rust with a coat of paint, but he left brushmarks and got paint on the chrome trim. The wood-grain vinyl has faded to a uniform beige color, and is flaking off.
The motor for the rear window is dead. The rear door was stuck closed, but I managed to fix that... although in the process I destroyed the plastic panel on the inside of the rear door.
The check engine light comes on intermittently. It's throwing code 22, indicating that the throttle position sensor is bad. I'm not going to replace the TPS before the BABE Rally, but if I decide to keep the car I'll need to replace it eventually.
The factory radio is dead, so I replaced it with a cheap aftermarket radio. Unfortunately, that also meant having to cut the hole in the plastic dashboard panel a little wider... I'm sure someone is cringing as they read that!
Since the paint was already garbage, I didn't feel bad about decorating the car for the rally. I'm going with a musical theme to go along with the charity I'm supporting.
I've been blogging about the car and my rally preparations, and I'll be posting daily updates during the rally (June 3 - 9). If you're interested in seeing pictures of the car or reading more about it, the blog is at geraldbelton.wordpress.com.
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