My $175.00 Lumina- new to site and first W body.

[myaerocars]

Hi. I got a Lumina from a friend who got it as part of a trade and didn't want it. I came by and found him on the phone to a junk yard. The only offered 108.00 for the car. It had good tires ab barely ran. He asked if I wanted it for 175.00 and I said yes.

 

Straight body with typical thin paint, interior overal OK just filthy and full of junk. Trunk had 7 empty antifreeze jugs in it and a few cans of stop leak. HMMMMM - maybe that's why they stopped driving it!!

 

Honestly, my plan was to swap the 16 inch tires onto my Crown Victoria and yank the battery then part it out.

So I put the new tires on the Victoria but started looking at the old car. Not being a police model and have a base 3.1 engine didn't help much. But with all its problems it still drives nice. So I opened all 4 doors and the trunk and cleaned it out. I actually used a leaf blower to get all the dust and dirt out!!! The front seat back was bent badly from the xl sized previous owner.

 

The body had so much mold and actual moss on it from sitting under the trees that I actually washed it by hand with hot water and dish soap - something I normally would never done. I washed one half of it -the passenger side- and thought about leaving the other side as is as a joke. My 16 year old daughter was not amused!

 

I degreased the engine to find all of the leaks. Came to this site and read about many of the problem areas and how to fix. Clearly this car is just gonna be an a to b car so it will get only mechanical work for now. It needed water pump, all hoses,LIM gasket set, replaced all lifters and push rods, plugs, and thermostat. Amazingly the oil was black as coal with no trace of water. The reason for the lifters was b cause of the constant clattering- plus the push rods were starting to actually get a ridge on the upper end. The passages were full of small hard carbon pepper sized flakes and clogging the oil flow. That's why I put new lifters and push rods. Now it's really quiet.

 

I'm 52 and this is only my 3 rd GM product. Honestly I have had horrible luck with GM them and have restored mostly Mopar cars. But this cars only fault was a poor gasket design (thanks again GM for another lousy design) and just worn out. . But, I believe it still has some life left. It's at 155,00 now. Runs good and gets 20mpg in town. Total cost so far- just under a grand. It is my backup car now.

[myaerocars]

By the way, great site and a lot of great information. Doubt I would have saved the car if the information wasn't readily available here

[Nas Escobar]

Welcome to the forum!

 

GM's are reliable but notoriously cheaply built. These V6 engines can run forever.... once you fix the "nylon" plastic gaskets. 

[runt]

Sounds like you have a decent driver for not much money.  Welcome to the site!

[Euro]

That is pretty neat.  What a score that turned out to be

[myaerocars]

Yeah it has turned out to be a pretty good daily driver 😄

[Leadfoot]

Welcome.  I would love to see before and after pics of it.  Where are you located?

[myaerocars]

I'm located in Gainesville Georgia. Just reread my post and didn't mean to come across so hard on GM. but I'm just glad it's still running.

[myaerocars]

Here are 2 before pics. You can see the heavy mold on the car. On the interior shot see all the trash and empty antifreeze jugs. Plus the horribly bent drivers seat! I have straightened it out but need to replace it for safety sake because I'm sure the metal is fatigued.

The blue "stripe" is masking painters tape. I was playing around with stripe ideas out of boredom. I removed it after the photos. The paint is shot so almost anything I do would be a great improvement!

[GabsOlds]

Daaaamn! That seat is done! 

[Nas Escobar]

So the mold is only on one side?

[myaerocars]

The passengers side was dirtier than the drivers side. But I washed only 1/2 as a joke and told my daughter it was gonna be her first car 😀

These pics show how filthy it was.

[Imp558]

That's a pretty clean Lumina! Welcome to the site! The paint doesn't look bad in the pics, I wonder if it could be wet sanded and clear coated.

BTW we have a bunch of cool stuff in the FAQ section, and we use the "Whatever" thread as sort of a "Wall" just for social networking too.

[Euro]

Wow, looks way better after a good scrub.  Call me weird, but I like that painter's tape stripe..reminds me of a police car

[myaerocars]

Yeah the "old police car" / city vehicle look is what I like. I put " 175 " in small black vinyl numbers on the fenders near the door as a nod to the cost. It's also a reminder to me not to go crazy dumping too much into it. I'm really bad about that........

 

My DD is a 1999 Crown Victoria Police Interceptor that has served me well for 12 years now. Former South Carolina State Police vehicle. A " slick top" car with full cloth interior, carpet and power drivers seat. Windows are not tinted- just a lot of heavy shade! 248,000 and counting-motor never apart and trans still holding up well.

[Nas Escobar]

That Vic looks really nice. If I didn't know any better I'd say it's a 2009 instead of a 1999

[myaerocars]

Thanks. I've hand waxed it every year since I bought it in 2004 after it left service.

[movielover40]

That Vic looks great...