Hello, My name is Jeff, I live in Peachtree City Georgia. I have a 1984 Ford Country Squire Wagon and I love driving it. I bought it on Craigslist out of Sebetha Kansas, the man I bought it from thought I was crazy, who would want to fly from Atlanta to buy an old wagon that has been off the road for 4 years and drive it back to Atlanta in July! I had a friend fly out with me to Kansas City so that he could drive the rent a car back to the airport and fly home if all was right with the car. The wagon started right up and sounded good with most of the rear mufflers rotted out, took it around the block, it moved in all gears and stopped, so I bought it. My friend said good luck and headed out, to shock of the guy I was buying it from, where is your friend going? Back to the airport to fly back. Isn't he going with you? Nope, he has things to do. To make it even more interesting I don't own a cell phone, I'm going to get in this car and drive it straight back to Atlanta non stop. I told him if it will go 5 miles it will go 500 but I need it to go 1000. After doing the paperwork and checking the fluids, I was off. Went to a gas station and filled her up and headed out for the highway. It took about ten miles for the tires to decide they wanted to be round again and it drove really well. I stopped into a O'Reillys at Topeka to put some new headlights in it as 2 of them had aquariums in them and I would be driving all night, put some additives in the gas and trans and oil just to be on the safe side. Noticed it seemed rather hot out as I was changing the headlights and caught the temp on a bank sign 111 degrees Yikes! Put down any windows that would move and aimed her southeast. The headliner is sagging all the way across the roof so it billows like a sail, you hardly notice it after awhile. The car was getting around 20-21 mpg all the way home. Hit a good rain storm in St.Louis and realized I should have changed the wipers, as they were all dried out and smudged and smeared more than anything else making for some interesting driving. Got to Memphis and got a little lost trying to get to hwy 78, I think it was 3am wasn't the best side of town to be lost on. Finally figured a way back and noticed the car seemed to be hesitating sometimes but would run fine otherwise. As I got into Alabama it got worse, then I realized I could control the hesitation depending on where the gas pedal was, I thought about this as I kept driving moving the pedal through its range and decided it had to be the throttle position sensor. I had idle and about half throttle then nothing until you went past to full throttle and then it would take off so it made it interesting as Sunday morning traffic and stopping at lights became more frequent. The car has cruise control and it worked if I could get the car on the highway going about 65 and lock it in. Working the throttle and putting the car in neutral and back in drive as the sensor got worse kept me alert as I was past 24 hours since I had slept. Made it home and called the guy I bought it from to tell him all was well. It was a fun trip and half the reason I love getting cars from all over and driving them back, it's the adventure! The reason I went with Ambulanced as my name is that my first car was a 1970 Pontiac Superior 51 Rescuer, I bought it when I was 15 for the whopping sum of 215.00. Since then I have had a 1970 Cadillac Superior 51 Rescuer, 1975 Cadillac Superior 54XL and 2 1959 Miller Meteor Combinations, I only have one of the 59's left and it needs a complete restoration, it's patiently waiting as other projects keep jumping in front of it. [/URL][/IMG] The day I bought the car and previous owner, thinking this guy is nuts! [/URL][/IMG] The 1970 Pontiac, this was around 1980. [/URL][/IMG] I am going to work towards making the Country Squire a Wagon Queen Family Truckster, I am collecting parts for the conversion now and have quite a few although I am lacking the crowns that will go on the sides, if anyone has one of the copies of the original one I would like to make a copy of it or I will try to make one based on the pictures and build threads on this site. It has been awhile since anyone has done a conversion and as soon as I start in doing real work on it I will make a build thread. So far I have replaced the throttle position sensor, put a good tune up on it, new mufflers and a set of tires, got all the windows working and replaced the shocks and rear brakes and put several thousand miles on it! Looking forward to joining in on the site.
Great intro and cool story! I think we had the same fashion consultant in 1980. I had the same socks and shorts at least.
Jeff. I've tried six times. Bad weather. Will welcome you later> It's later. Thanks Jeff for the best introduction I've ever seen. This should be used as a sample for those one liners we usually see. Nice story. Have fun with your wagon.
Welcome to the website. Good to see some younger members. I really like the picture of the 1970 Pontiac ambulance. What became of that one, and some of the others that you owned? Today, old ambulances are quite collectible in the antique car hobby. I myself own a few, along with a few other cars.
Welcome Jeff congrats on the purchase...looks pretty good from here ...and I just sold my Amby the other day
Welcome to the forum. LOVE that Pontiac Rescue... ah, thingy! Looks very stylish and you must have been popular at school.
Thanks for all the welcomes Paul, The 1970 Pontiac ultimately broke a timing chain and sat in the driveway for awhile, I had purchased a 1965 VW Bug in the meantime and after several tries to sell it a neighbor up the road who owned a junkyard took it in trade for all the VW parts I could use to fix up the bug. It was a sad site to see it in the yard sinking up to its frame, I took the light switch panel that still hangs on my garage wall today along with the original ad in the Yankee Swapper. The car served in East Providence RI for Costello's Ambulance Service. The yard was Bears Den junkyard in Tiverton RI. It wasn't there 6 months later so I'm not sure if it was crushed or not. The 1970 Cadillac I sold to PCS member Danny Ryder, it was in, We are Marshall, the movie in a brief crash scene. He sold it and that couple sold it on Ebay and it went to Russia. [URL=http://s1159.photobucket.com/user/00sniper/media/Misc%20pics/IM000901.jpg.html] [IMG]http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p640/00sniper/Misc%20pics/IM000901.jpg[/URL][/IMG] The 1975 54 XL I got on Ebay out of Dallas TX but it was related to the white 1970 from Montana. When I went to Montana to get the white 70 the guy showed me a picture of a black 1975 he had modified and rented to a radio station and a band and had sold it to a dot com company in Dallas TX. When I saw the car on Ebay I recognized it as the same one from Montana. I put a low bid on it not expecting to win it but did anyway so it was off to Dallas to drive it back to Atlanta. Because it was already modified I removed the band vinyl decals and redid it as the Margarita DeVille Landshark Express and took it to several Jimmy Buffett concerts. I sold it on Ebay and it became one of the infamous Jailbuster cars in Alabama. I think it now belongs to another PCS member in PA. [/URL][/IMG] The red 1959 Miller Meteor looked good from 50 feet but was badly rotted and not structurally sound at all, I got it from MI and kept it for several years before completely parting it out to have spare parts for the green 59. I gave it to a friend locally and he sold it to a father and son in Indiana who sold it to some kid in Oklahoma that is trying to turn it into a Ghostbusters car, but it was just a shell of a car. [/URL][/IMG] The green 1959 Miller Meteor I still have, it served in Virginia and I trailered it home from PA. IOt looks ruff but has a solid frame and is structurally sound needs typical floors and quarters.
Thanks Ambulanced great intro and nice pics. I really enjoyed reading about your road trip home with your new wagon. Glad to hear you did have to much trouble...aquariums in the headlights... Hope you stick around aboard.
Welcome to the nuthouse. You will fit in just fine around here! Great story of getting the Squire. She's a beauty! That was a fantastic intro, too. Wish more new members would follow suit. Be sure to start a build thread when you start working on the Squire, too. If you want inspiration on that, check out Vetteman's thread about rebuilding a Pontiac Grand Safari. We love our wagon porn around here, and no detail is too small!
