That was a lot of driving.

My son found this beauty last month and fell in lust.  It's a 1978 Buick Century sport  wagon.  Motor and trans out of a 3/4 ton 1995 pick up (350 and 4l80).

So today we drove 485 miles to buy it.   Got there, started inspecting, and found catastrophic rust.  Holes in the front floor pans, collapsing rear frame, and generally  crusty undercarriage.   Add in that the interior was just as shot and we were left with a cool shape and what seemed like a solid driveline but a project that would eat up far to much time and money trying to rescue it.

So we cut bait and drove home 485 miles. I'm ready for a shower, bourbon, and ibuprofen.

that sucks. didn't get the seller to take some good pics of the frame, etc?

As I read this, and your description of the condition, I started to dread that you bought it. Good choice.

That sucks, sorry to hear about it. Before I even go that far I request LOTS  of GOOD  photos. 

Better luck next time.

I'd drive maybe half that distance for an unknown car, but that seems a bit much for a one day turnaround.  Sucks that it turned out to be a lemon.

Haven't there been a buttload of wagons on here for sale?  Any interest in them?

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Boy leaves for the Air Force a week from tomorrow.  It was a decent chance to spend some time together.  He still wants something older than himself, cool, maybe a wagon maybe something else, relatively easy to repair.

Bourboning has commenced.   It was a good dry day for most of the drive with rain coming in only for the last 10-15 miles.  Enough to remind us how much it could have sucked.

Why can’t people be at least a little bit honest about rust? 

Did the guy say anything at all the condition of the parts you can’t see in the photos ya did see?

That does suck. So, sorta related, we sold our wagon this weekend--the dude picked it up Saturday morning. He said that he'd be here at 10:00 in the morning and checked in when he was 35 minutes out. So I assumed he was from here in Florida.

Nope. He drove 16 hours through the night to get here from Ohio. He looked at the car, handed me cash, and loaded it up.

I bet the seller said something like "A bit of rust, but it's a 42 year old car".

In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) (Forum Supporter) :

Ahh... I remember those days.  Still have the letters Dad wrote me in Basic.  Called my TI a "Mary Jane-Rotten-Crotch lover" and other wonderful things "for reading this over my son's shoulder"

Thankfully our TI never gave a crap about that stuff and just handed out the mail without invading our privacy.

Dad and I didn't get to do any road trips before I left, but we trekked across the country from Cali to Florida when I cross trained and got out of that tech school

Would you spend more than a day's wages fixing rust? Would you spend more than a day fixing rust? You dodged a bullet.

I've done a couple 500+ mile drives out to a car or motorcycle and had it turn out to be a bust for one reason or another. Luckily they've nearly all been with my dad and not a week goes by that one of the trips aren't mentioned and chuckled over. Anyone who can do that is a lucky one in my book and there isn't a single trip that I regret because of it. 

Bummer :(

This is why my limit is like 50 miles.  I just don't have the patience for people (and dealers!) wasting my time.

I have driven day road trips so far. I think the dishonest sellers figure you’ll buy it bc you drove so far.

Good on you for leaving it. Awesome you spent the time with your son.

It can be pretty hard to get yourself to accept the fact that the reality that you're looking at is not the reality you had built in your head for the last several hours and harder still to mentally overcome the sunk cost of the trip.  It sounds like it wasn't truly a waste since you got to have a little father-son time and a story to tell.  Plus, gas is pretty cheap right now!

About 5 years ago, I dragged my dad along on a 600 mile trip to see a '91 Bounder that was in "Excellent condition".  Seller acted put-out that they had to show us the RV, the rig itself was very much not in excellent condition, and I was straight-up lied to about most of the specific items I asked about ahead of time.   "Like I told y'all in the email, that stove works."  "Yes, but you've removed the entire LP system from the RV!"  "Alls y'alls gots to do is put in a new propane tank and some pipe and that stove works just fine."  Throw in a nice long racist rant that I still don't fully understand about how it was unfair that we should have to get the cracked windshield fixed because we're White.  Follow that up with a "you gonna buy it or not" closing line about 90 seconds after Dad and I stepped to the side to have a private chat to verify that we were ready to drive home empty-handed.  We were out the cost of about 50 gallons of gas, a third of an oil change, and a very cheap night in a very cheap motel.  Oh, and my dad had to buy himself a new atlas at a gas station because he's dad.  But it was time and money well spent for the father-son road trip.

I wanted one of those.

After I crashed my Caprice wagon I looked at one in a sad little car lot that had a v8 and a manual transmission. At startup, the cloud of burning oil was so thick I couldn't see through it. I was living 40 mins from work, and needed reliable transportation. A warmed over 350 would have been so much fun in that car. Really easy to walk away but a lot harder to forget it.

I had a friend that drove from Michigan to Washington state to pick up an old Mopar of some sort driving a pick up and pulling a full size trailer.  Turned out to be a bust very similar to the OPs story. Turned around and drove home.

thats the problem for us midwesterners. We have to drive 1000 miles one way to try and find rust free

When I went E38 shopping a couple of years ago, I did a train and drive to visit my parents, being pretty darn sure I was coming back with a car. 

First car I was going to look at, the guy got called into work so I didn't get to see the car in the short time window I had.  That one was high mileage, but the timing chain guides had been done and the pictures made it look very well cared for.  And it was fairly cheap. 

Second car turned out to be a complete POS (nearly every inch of the thing that wasn't shown in a picture had damage).  Only 77k miles, but interior was beat, 2 doors didn't open, had electrical issues, was a salvage title, suspension needed work, 4 mis-matched tires, etc.  And the guy still wanted $6k for it... 

Then I remembered another car I'd seen an ad for.  Hadn't even bothered calling the guy, as it was more expensive, still had original timing chain guides at 148k miles, and worse, it was silver with grey interior (2 things I didn't want).  So after grabbing some lunch and being annoyed about the other 2, I gave the guy a call.  Went to look at the thing, looked through the stack of maintenance records and handed over a stack of cash.  Didn't even test drive it, as it was going to take some serious car shuffling to get it out of the garage it was in and the guy's kids weren't home to help.  Came back the next day, picked it up and drove it a few hundred miles home. 

I've since determined that I probably over-paid a bit for the car based on some little things I've found that I didn't notice at purchase, but other than me still not loving the grey interior, it turned out to be a decent end to the ordeal. 

bobzilla said:

thats the problem for us midwesterners. We have to drive 1000 miles one way to try and find rust free

 

Exactly this. ^^^^

I drove about 300 miles one way to buy a car that ended up having torch heated and pulled back structure in the whole engine bay from a nasty front collision.  Said no thank you and turned back home.  I should have known not to buy the dump truck from the guy's dad the next year. 

thedoc said:

I have driven day road trips so far. I think the dishonest sellers figure you’ll buy it bc you drove so far.

Good on you for leaving it. Awesome you spent the time with your son.

This.

All of this.

Ya gotta kiss some frogs before ya find a prince.  

And, the hunt is often more fun than the capture.  

Some of the smartest money is knowing when to say no!

David S. Wallens said:

That does suck. So, sorta related, we sold our wagon this weekend--the dude picked it up Saturday morning. He said that he'd be here at 10:00 in the morning and checked in when he was 35 minutes out. So I assumed he was from here in Florida.

Nope. He drove 16 hours through the night to get here from Ohio. He looked at the car, handed me cash, and loaded it up.

 

Does the back window of the truck read, "Sh!t'll Buff Out"?