1979 Electra Limited Road Trip Pics and Story

Let me start off by saying these are OLD road trip pics, from Feb 2004. I can't believe this trip was that far back, but it was. Also, the dates showing on the pics were wrong. I was new to digital cameras back then and the date wasn't set. The pics are pretty small too, but I found them again last night and thought ya'll might like to see them.

That said, after posting my latest road trip adventure to get my '92 Custom Cruiser from North Carolina, I mentioned the 2004 trip to get the '79 Electra from Los Angeles California. I also brought my Dad along for this adventure. I was much thinner then!

SO here's a quick back-story. My good friend Ben in New Jersey drove a pale yellow '79 Electra Limited Coupe in high school. We called it the "Mellow Yellow". It was beat up, had New Jersey rust on it, and had a Buick 350 in it that tended to knock. Still he drove it for two years, we turned a lot of wrenches on it, and it had good memories. He sold it during his freshman year at college to buy a...ahem..new 91 Cavalier sedan....

So fast-forward to 2004 and Ben is looking on Ebay and spots a brown '79 Electra Limited with only 43K miles on it in California. Car looks great, and other than being brown instead of yellow, it's a twin of the Mellow Yellow, only in like-new shape, and as a bonus it had the Olds 403 in it, not the Buick 350.

Keep in mind Ben lives in New Jersey, but on a whim he bids on it. The price is really low. Well he wakes up the next day and he's shocked to see he won the car! Holy Cow.

So he calls me in a bit of a panic. He's in a new job and can't take time off, and is worried about shipping it across the country. I'm woking at Dell then, but still have all my car-shop connections. After speaking to the seller and me, Ben asks if I will go get the car, bring it back to Texas, fix any issues, and then deliver it to New Jersey. He'll pay the airfare, lodging and gas. All I have to do is drive.

Well I love a road trip, and asked my Dad along. It's Feb, and we're a little worried about weather, but we get on the plane and fly to LA.

The seller is a young guy, and he pics us up at the airport in the Buick. It's gorgeous. He tells me he inherited it from a family member in Barstow, so it came from the high desert. It sat in a garage for years. He's had the gas tank boiled out, done a full tune-up and put on new Michelin tires. Other than that, it's original.

For issues, the paint on the hood, roof and trunk is "checked", like GM paint of that era tended to do. It's not bad, looks perfect from a few feet back, but is a bit dull up close. Sides are fine, chrome is gorgeous. Nice car.

The seller takes us back to his apartment, which is right in downtown LA. Here we are just after exchanging paperwork:


The car runs super and the weather is great in LA. Dad and I decide to go see a bit of LA before getting on the highway east. First we drive across town and to the beach. Here we are with the Santa Monica pier in the background. We've had the car less than an hour:


Then we drive to Hollywood and get a pic in front of of the Chinese theater:


We next go to Pinks hot dogs, sorry no pic from there, but a GOOD dog if you are in LA, and we spend the rest of the afternoon trying to get OUT of LA. Max speed 40mph in solid traffic. Amazing.

We finally reach the outskirts of LA at dusk, and begin driving up and up and up out of the valley and into the high desert. The higher we go, the cooler it gets, and we find the first issue with the car...no heat. All we get is frigid air blowing on the floor. OK then.

We stop for the night in Barstow...the Buick has found it's hometown, and get a hotel.

The next day we get up early and head for Las Vegas. We're planning to spend the night there and then head to the Grand Canyon the next day. Still no heat in the car that morning, but the sun is out and it warms up quickly, and happily the car is running like a watch and rides SMOOTH.

We stop off in the desert and get some pics of the Buick to send to Ben, who is nervous as hell about this entire ordeal. It's really sharp!






We keep heading east, and just over a rise I spot a car-hauler FULL of brand-new 2004 GTO's. These are the first new GTO's I've seen in person, they had JUST come out, and as a Pontiac nut, I was really excited.







As we get closer to the Nevada border, we spot an abandoned water park on the other side of the road. Overgrown water slides and rides can be seen in the distance. There is NOTHING, I mean NOTHING out there other than that highway. I'm sure that park was designed to get LA-to-Vegas travelers, but where in the world did they get water for it? I can guess why it went belly-up!


We get to Vegas around lunchtime and decide to go tour the Hoover Dam. Dad and I have never been there.



The tour is great, and the dam is really impressive. I'm on a diet and Dad makes me point at my Slim Fast to show my wife that I'm "being good". The dam behind me.


After the tour we walk out on the dam, the view down into Black Canyon is amazing. If you've never been there, you just can't imagine how tall this thing is.

 

Dad is leaning over the other side of the dam, looking down at Lake Mead. He says "HEY COMEHERE" and then spits a big loogy off the dam. "Watch how long that takes to hit the water!" My Dad, the retired AT&T executive, is showing his inner Arkansas.. Goofy! I hope no other tourists saw my Dad spitting off the dam.

We head back to Vegas and pull over on a residential street that has a great view of Lake Mead behind it.



Then head to our hotel in Vegas, unpack, and hit the town.

Dad is astounded by the overhead light show on the strip. Here they were blasting The Who music.

We drive by the fountains at the Bilagio


We had dinner at the Harley Davidson cafe and then put the Buick in the parking garage for the night.


The next morning I decide the thermostat on thecar must be stuck open, which is why we have no heat. The seller was nice enough to give us a box of spare parts in the trunk, and in it is a new thermostat...a no-name brand, but new. I proceed to pull out my tools and install the thermostat in the hotel parking lot. Dad takes my pic while we wait for hotel security to come see what these goofy folks in the old car are doing.



I get the thermostat in the car, top off the coolant, and we say goodbye to Vegas with the plan to see the Grand Canyon. We drive across town, over the Hoover Dam, and into Arizona. The day is sunny and cool, the car is running fine, and we find out the stock Delco cassette still works fine, and sing along to Dad's Jerry Jeff Walker "Viva Terlingua" tape. Nothing like singing "Up Against the Aall Redneck Mother" in the middle of a desert.

We've been driving for a little over an hour, and there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING out there. The desert landscape is gorgeous but desolate and the highway is a 2-lane with hardly any traffic. I'm pushing the Buick at about 80mph, feels like 50, and Dad and I are talking and singing and having a good time. Suddenly I notice smoke in the rear-view mirror. The car has no gauges, only idiot lights, and none are on, but there is smoke pouring out of the car. Dad turns white...we round a corner and all the sudden we're in a tiny town. Welcome to Chloride Arizona the sign says.

I pull off into a gas station and pop the hood. Coolant is coming out of the overflow and the upper radiator hose is rock hard. My new thermostat is stuck. Nice. We let the car cool down and then I take the upper hose off and proceed to throw the thermostat as far into the desert as I can...

I then use the last of my coolant from the trunk, and go inside the gas station to ask if I can get some water. "Ten Bucks" the guy behind the counter says. $10, for water?? Yep! I pay the guy $10 and he lets me use his water hose to top off the radiator. Dad snaps this pic as I'm finishing up.


So we wasted two hours in the gorgeous metropolis of Chloride, and now it's too late to make the Grand Canyon detour. We need to be in New Mexico by that night, so we miss the canyon. I'm still upset about it today.

We head east, and slowly the desert turns greener as we head into the mountains of northern Arizona. Gorgeous views but the sky is grey, temps are dropping, and we have no heat.


That night we cross over into New Mexico, get in a motel, and sack out. We wake up to this:


Happily the car starts right up, but we still have no heat, so we put on layers and settle in. Some smaller roads are closed but the highway is open. Snow and ice are blowing...what a trip!




Thankfully we get ahead of the weather as we cross into Texas. We still have HOURS to go, but it feels like we're home. We lived in Amarillo back in 1978 and have not been back since. I was only 4 when we moved away, but Dad wants to see out old home. We find it easily


At the end of the street is a park, and there is a "monster" jungle gym that Dad says scared me to death as a kid. It's stll there, now 26 years later, and he says it looks just the same. He makes me get on it. Ha!


We leave the old neighborhood and go have dinner at The Big Texan Steak House. We do not try to eat the 72oz steak, but what we have is awesome.

 

We sack out in Amarillo at a little motel, and then head home to Austin the next morning. Car running great,cruise control locked on 75mph, and finally warm weather again:


We pass the wind generators between Lubbock and Abilene


We get home that night, and other than our issues in Chloride Arizona, and the lack of heat (turns out to be a stuck heater valve), the Electra ran like a watch the entire trip!

On getting the Buick home, Ben wanted it painted before it went to New Jersey. Here's pics of it taken down for paint.




That spring, with new paint, I drove the car to New Jersey. Ben loved it, but it only lived in New Jersey for two years. He lost his storage and the car was put outside. He called me in 2006 and asked if I would come get the car. At the time, he was planning to move to Austin, and I was supposed to only have the car for a year or so. Well he never moved here, and it's 2012 now, the car is still under my carport, now with 50K miles on it.

It's still pretty. I keep it exercised, and Ben uses it when he comes down for hill country motorcycle vacations. I've had the windows tinted, turned the white-walls out, and installed dual exhaust on it. Other than that, it's still stock. Neat car!






-Mike

 

Still my favorite pic of the brown Buick since ever.



Thing is you can fit 2 people in a dumbCar and get 40mpg so that's 80mpg per person but you can fit 6 people in the Buick and stand on it all the time to get only 15mpg and that's the equivalent of 90mpg because you carry 3 times as many people Eat that, minicar owners!

All your stories have me wanting to do another out of state car purchase. Trouble being with my luck the wife would only allow a couple hundred miles so it'd be Oklahoma and that's only 15 minutes away

 

Great pics and story


Yeah, sure...... ""Dad MADE ME GET ON IT""..........sure......

 

Boy, sure makes me miss my '79 Electra Limited. Great pics and it looks like you had a great time!

 

I love those beautiful old Buicks. I had a 78 Limited coupe from 85 to November of 88. Only one reason I got rid of her. The body sagged, and the repair was going to be about $30,000. 3 body shops quoted the same ball park, so I gave up on her. Mine was the darker blue, white top and wide side moldings, with the light blue velour interior, and the Buick 350. When I bought the old girl, I was warned that she was heavy on fuel. 22 mpg (Imperial) was the best they could do. I drove her a week, tweeked the carb, and the next thing you know, I was doing 30, or about 26 to the U.S. gallon, and that was with the Turbo 400 transmission. I drove that car everywhere, and loved the comfort. I'd love to find another, but with a good body. Just not in our winters.

 

How does the body sag? Frame rust? I've never heard of that.

I will say it's one of the most comfortable cars I've ever driven. Everything about it is smooootth. The doors however weigh more than a new Honda and the Olds 403 gets 14mpg max.

These were taken last August. Everyone asks about the Jersey plates. Ben still has it registered up there, even thought it's been here since 2006.

She's a pretty old girl. Amazing to think that this was considered "downsized" in 1979. It's longer than my Custom Cruiser..the same lengh as my wife's '03 Suburban.

 

26 to the gallon? Wow! I think I only ever got about 20-22 with mine.

 

81X11: When I bought it, and I needed wheels RIGHT NOW, the roof had rotted over the A-pillars. Water went down inside them, and rotted the firewall supports. Without the reinforcement of the body, the whole car started sagging in the middle. When I saw tears in the sheet metal going off at a 45 degree angle from the top corners of both doors, I knew something was radically wrong. She only had 150,000 miles on the clock in 10 years. The last time I drove her, i had to jack the middle of the frame to close the driver's door. Figured she'd hit the end of the road at that point.

CE: Most people ran the carbs too rich on these cars. That's where the driveability problems came from in the 70s as well. Too rich, and not quite enough initial timing. I laugh at people who don't know from carbs when they try to tell me that a carb has issues. Then I start Nora, faster than their modern fuel injected cars will catch. Plus, the throttle response is better as well. My foot comes off the gas, and the revs drop. new cars are designed NOT to do that, which can be a challenge on a snowy day in an emergency situation.

I'm still doing that same 26 mpg (American) in Nora, with a big block 351M and FMX transmission. Even Bertha (78 Grand Marquis, 400 cid) is doing 24.

 

I learned from my dad, but still let him tune my carbs most of the time. He's got the magic touch and more patience in that department than I do. He spent hours tuning the Edelbrock on our Satellite just right. That thing is incredible, now!

I didn't tune the Electra too much. I was much more focused on the overheating problems and once I had those taken care of, I sold it! I see it all the time, though, it's just around the corner from my parents' house.

I am impressed at how well you can adjust a carb. I can't believe that kind of mileage, especially out of the Grand Marquis with a 400!!! What can you do with a 460? lol

 

Thanks for sharing. Love the small cars vs. Electra photos

(USA) Road trips will be THE way to spent our (GF and I) holidays in the years to come (as long as gas and flight tickets will be affordable).
Made a trip of 5,750mls last summer in a '69 Electra:



a quick overview of the trip in less than 3;00min:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azQxzZw71-o&feature=share&list=UUcpRFOrYloOASggMAzAGtcg




The Electra will soon be transported to Austin, TX where it will be garaged till next road trip in 2013.

 

Caprice Estate: I was on my way home from Long Island in the Electra. When i stopped for gas, an Izuzu 4 cylinder was on the other side of the island. Turns out we had filled up at the same station, about 5 minutes apart. His 4-banger used 25 cents MORE gas than my 350 V-8 Electra! If you think 24 is good out of the Grand Marquis, wait until you see what I aim to do with it! By the time I am done, my goal is 40 miles to the U.S. gallon, at a minimum! Using that same, original, 400 cubic inch V-8. The 78 Thunderbird with the 351 has the goal of matching a Toyota Prius for highway fuel economy, with the original 351M big block.

 

VERY COOL! And I'd love to see the Electra. Would be great to have a pic of the 79 and 69 side-by-side!