Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 Another trip to the wrecking yard.

Pick and Pull inventory page.

A poor picture, but there's no mistaking this car!

But this time it was only ten miles away, instead of over 120 miles!

Pick and Pull's inventory search site is a great time saver. I've been checking it every week or so, to see if any other cars are available. The last one I found was in Chico, and I certainly wasn't going to drive that far! This time I found a '98 Riv ten miles away in North San Jose. 

A very good sign was that the car was junked because it had sustained a massive left rear quarter panel wreck. This is usually a good sign, because it means that the car was up and running at the time. It had been a well kept car, the brown leather seats looked like new. 

This is the list of parts that I was searching for:

A right side window regulator

A right side inner front fender panel

A right front wheel house trim

A HVAC control panel.

Maybe a radio if it has the security code written on it. 

The window regulator was easy to see since the door panel had been previously removed. I had thought that it was one of those wire and pulley set ups, but no, this was a good old fashioned steel unit. I'd been watching some Buick factory videos that morning, on electrical repairs to the '98 Buick, and had noticed that the cars displayed had the old fashioned regulators. Truth be told, I haven't pulled my car's door card yet, I wanted to have a replacement in hand first. But I think I'll take a peek into the left door first.

It was kind of a bear to remove. The top of the inner door panel has another narrow panel riveted to the top, I didn't think that I was going to be able to get the regulator out, but it went into the door at the factory, so...

As I was sitting on the door jamb trying to remove the regulator, sweating in the hot sun, I experienced a thoughtful moment. I used to own a beautiful dark brown '71 Riviera, It had a pearl white bucket seat interior, with console, a white vinyl top, and a set of Buick road wheels. The car was in very good shape, close to immaculate. It had recently been custom  painted, which the seller informed me was a Mercedes Benz color. It was a very good running car. If I had held on to this car, which I had bought over 25 years ago, I could have easily fixed any problem areas that could have cropped up, and amortized all the costs over many years of usage. I had kept the '71 in the garage, and it was always scrupulously clean in and out. So much so that my Wife often commented on that subject.

If I'd only kept it.... I wouldn't be sitting in this wreck, sweating away my afternoon. Or would I? 

So why didn't I keep it? Oh, I guess that I just wanted to move on, and I was pretty sure that I could find another Riv like that one, if I ever decided that I wanted another one. Well, they are still out there, but now they cost quite a bit more, which reduces their attractiveness. 

"How do some guys hold onto their cars for so long?" That's a question that I'll have to explore in a future post. Now back to the task at hand, let's pull that window regulator!

I bent the two riveted felt covered window guides out of the way. I disassembled the motor and back rail of the regulator and detached the window. The widow itself slid right out. The regulator came out eventually. It just took a bit of jockeying. This is such a heavily built item that I wonder if this is really the problem, maybe it is the motor. No matter, I've got two replacements, since I took the motor and the regulator.

The front wheel opening trim is bent a bit, since the fender sustained a minor crease. I figure that I can straighten it enough to work. Some of the plastic push pins that hold the inner fender liner in, also hold the clips for the trim so I removed that first. This liner was a long and flexible piece that went all the way to the underside of the front bumper. After I removed it, I pried out the trim and then the clips. I went back after placing the parts in my goodie bag, a large contractors trash bag, and checked the area for any tools that I might have left behind. That's when I saw the biggest, fattest, Black Widow spider that I've ever seen!

Not something that you want to find after you've just pulled your hand out!

I grabbed a piece of insulation lying on the ground and squashed the spider. I hadn't seen it while working in the area, I should have been wearing gloves but I wasn't. I wondered what was that spider expecting to eat with the car sitting in the wrecking yard?

When I related the story to my Wife she answered, "you!"

It's a good thing that I'd watched a couple of "how to" videos this morning. One illustrated the manner to remove the HVAC control panel and radio. The whole front fascia of the dash has to be removed. I thought that they would come out by prying the trim piece that surrounded the units. It actually came out pretty easy.

This donor car's dash fascia had a wooden veneer applique and I seriously considered buying it. It all depended on how much they would charge me for it. As it turned out they gave me a 75.00 price and I decided I would keep my stock piece and maybe apply a gunmetal gray applique that I found online instead.

I considered taking the radio, but only if it had the security code written on it. I had asked the dealer about securing this and he told that I'd have to call up some Buick office on the phone. My radio works and sounds fine, but the CD player won't read CDs and I got a cassette tape stuck in the player. Luckily I was able to jockey the cassette around enough to restore the function of the radio. 

The price for all these goodies was 72 bucks out the door. Not too bad. 

Generally speaking, it's always better to buy a car that is not missing any trim parts. It's not just the additional expense of getting those parts, sometimes they are pretty hard to come by, This can put a crimp in your plans of getting the car squared away.

It's also a good idea to buy a car that has everything working, at least the important stuff like the power windows, heater and a/c, and the radio. Everything can be fixed of course, but it's more hassle and you don't get to enjoy the car right away.  

Of course if I was buying a car to use as everyday transportation I would have been more picky, there's usually lots more examples to choose from. However I was looking for a certain collector car, and there aren't that many for sale locally, or anywhere else, so I made the exception. And the price, mileage, and condition were strong incentives. Things have been working out for me, the needed parts have been secured in a couple of junkyard runs, and the missing key situation was also taken care of, fairly easily. 

Wrecking yards and the occasional swap meet used to be the way that we sourced parts for our old cars. It's not as convenient as ordering parts off of the internet and having them arrive in a few days. The wrecking yard used to be a big part of the old car experience. 

Now I have to dig into my car's door and see what's up with the window. I'll pull the dash fascia and replace the HVAC control panel, maybe it will solve the problem, maybe it won't. Installing the fender liner and trim shouldn't be too difficult. Then I'll have the car at a base line, and I can begin a program of catching up on any deferred maintenance and flushing the radiator and other fluids. 

So far I've put a couple of hundred miles on the car and it seems to be running really well. 

Keep those fingers crossed!