Well, Tuesday after work I stopped over to meet this guy, we talked a bit, checked out the car, and he even let me take it for a test drive down the road a few miles to be sure I liked the wagon enough that I wanted to buy it. I said I needed transportation and this seemed to work fine for now (even if it leaks oil). So, we went back, he went inside his apartment, came back with a clear, unsigned title and a bill of sale form it looked like he downloaded off the Internet. We filled out paperwork, I gave him cash for the Olds, and he gave me the keys and now I'm the "proud" new owner of an old wagon.
Yesterday morning, I drove up to the DMV at 8am to register it. I have to say, while I was surprised at how many people were there right when they opened, it was still a good time to show up at the DMV to get in and out quickly. I had my registration and plates in hand and was out of there before 8:30, so I was only about 45 minutes late for work. After work yesterday, I drove over to the prior owner's apartment again and threw the plates on it and drove it home.
I noted a list of things that need immediate attention on the car though:
1) Rearview mirror fell off and needs to be reattached.
2) Driver's side door mirror is the wrong one and sits too low to see anything behind you and can't really be adjusted since it hits the door. It looks like it was supposed to have a mirror that is adjustable from inside without lowering the window, but someone broke it off and just slapped on the first mirror they could find at a junkyard that wasn't even for the car.
3) Figure out why the interior lights don't work. May just need bulbs. The front interior light was held in by the headliner, so I'll have to find a way to wire it up there. For now it is in the glove box.
4) Properly secure the spare tire in the back. While I was driving it, you could hear the tire rattling around in its compartment because it is just loose in there. I hope they didn't lose the mounting bracket for it or anything...
5) The engine needs a GOOD proper tune-up. I know those 80's 307 V8's weren't all that powerful, but this thing is about as doggy as can be! It was raining pretty good yesterday when I went to pick it up and I tried to floor the car at a light to see if I could break the rear tires loose in the rain and it couldn't even do that! The acceleration in that thing is glacially slow. I know it is a station wagon, but I should still think that the 0-60 time should be sometime before next week...
6) Figure out if I can easily fix the oil leak. I brought 2 quarts of oil with me to top it off before I drove it home since the valve train sounded pretty rattly on it when I test drove it Tuesday. It was at least a quart low and the engine still sounded like it had a tick in it when I was driving it home. (It could have even been a pin-hole exhaust leak though.) But after running the engine for only a few minutes, you can already smell burning oil, meaning it is leaking pretty quickly.
7) Try to figure out how to fix the driver's arm rest on the door. Looks like someone had disassembled the door at some point to try and fix the power locks (yes, it does have power locks, but they don't work...). However, they lost some screws it looks like that hold the arm rest on, so it is just loose and wobbly right now.
Other than that and the missing headliner, it looks like it should be a half-way decent ride for now. It sure beats paying for a rental car week after week! I'll probably start a separate thread for the wagon once I get some time to take better pictures of it.