Wagons Ho!

Cheers, everyone. Newbie, here. Just joined the sight because I'm an absolute fan of GM clamshell wagons. I'm still on the lookout for that illusive '71-'76 Olds Custom Cruiser (my family thinks I'm NUTS), but since my daily driver is a diesel VW (45 mpg), I tell them I need something to help balance out my carbon footprint.

 

to the wagon train, ccf. Yup...the 71-76 CC will sure help you do that! Those are on my favorite list of all wagons!

 

Here's mine. I can't resist taking any opportunity to post photos of it, even when no one asks. It's not for sale, but if I hear of one, I'll post it on here.

There was one, another '73, for sale on craigslist in Wisconsin a few weeks back, and it was bought by someone who frequents this site. You should be doing that constantly...searching craigslist nationally for one of these. Something will turn up.

 

I'm planning to go the International Station Wagon Club's annual convention in Pittsburgh this weekend and take my CC. If there are any there for sale, I'll note the info and post it here.

http://www.tiptopwebsite.com/websites/index2.php?username=iswc&page=2

 

I especially like jaunts 73. Those tail lights on that body design are stellar. AND, yup...I love the color. I don't think it has the DARK brown vinyl, which is my favorite with the yellow, but I like this car anyway.

 

Thanks.

Here's the interior. The seat color is "saddle." The original carpet was more brown that what I replaced it with.

 

OH! That IS the color I like with the yellow exterior!
Is this "convention" a show? If so, I wish I had known about it earlier.

 

I found out about it myself only last week. It apparently runs Tuesday through Saturday (21st to the 25th) with all sorts of activities for the attendees through the week. The car show itself is on Saturday from 12 noon to 4 p.m. I'm going just for that.

Their website says that you have to a member of the club to show your car, but you can join right there on show day. A year's membership is $25, and it's $35 to register the car, so the cost is $60 total. But you get the year's membership.

 

By the way, the official name of my car's color is "honey beige."


Everyone just calls it yellow, including me, but there is a slight brown-ness to the color that's more apparent when it's side by side with my '67 Delta, whose color is much "yellower."

This is from a local car show I had them both at last month.

 

Dude, You. Are. Killing. Me.

Seriously, she is gorgeous! Love the color.
Love seeing the pics. Keeps me motorvated.
I wrote on an earlier post that I'm kicking myself for missing a local sale of a '72 CC with all the fixin's ($2,700).
Onward!

 

Agreed. Not nearly as elegant as the later 'cathedral' style lamps. From our gallery....




Welcome to the club, Cruiser....

Marshall

 

Oh wow, I like those HUGE wagons...
Welcome!

 

Thanks.

There's a great story that goes with it. I bought it in January of last year from the family of the original owner, who passed away in the summer of 2009. This guy was the most meticulous I've ever seen about keeping records. Every time he spent a dime on the car, he recorded it and kept the receipt. I have a record every service visit, oil changes, tire rotations, transmission service, PCV and EGR valve replacements, you name it along with the mileage at the time.

I have the window sticker (shown below) as well as the original bill of sale (shown below that). The car was ordered on March 16, 1973. The cash price, according to the bill of sale, was $5,938.80, which is not quite the $5,994.80 shown on the sticker. I believe the difference is due to the fact that the car was special ordered, not bought off the lot, as I have both the build sheet and the broadcast card (shown below the bill of sale), and the broadcast card has a date of March 30, which was two weeks after the date on the invoice and suggests that's when this particular car was entered into the assembly system. The build sheet has an even later date, April 3, which suggests that's when the car actually began its trip down the assembly line.

There must have been some small change in the cost of an option or in the actual options included that accounts for the small difference in price between the window sticker and the bill of sale.

Then, on the invoice. there is the notation "Add E.C.P." and if anyone can tell me what E.C.P. stands for, I'd love to know. Maybe "extended corrosion protection" or something like that? Undercoating was a common dealer add-on at the time (and at a lot of other times). The E.C.P. cost $79.95, for a total price of $6,018.75. A discount of $938.80 was applied, making the balance due $5,079.95.

I blotted out the name, address, and phone number of the purchaser, just for the sake of the privacy of his family. His widow still lives at the same address and has the same phone number.

One thing I don't have is the date he took delivery of the vehicle. Included with the car was a little "wallet" such as might be given to you by the dealership. It has a little pad of paper and pen, another little pad where you could note service done to the car, and a card with the name of the dealership, salesman, and purchaser, but the place where the date could be written in is blank. Neither of the pads of paper has ever been used, and I've never tested the pen to see if it works. Judging by the rate of mileage accumulation in his oil change records, I'm guessing he took delivery in late April of 1973.

Those pencil notations on the build sheet were made by the original owner. He was apparently matching up the codes on it with the various options, and that's him adding up the weight of the front and rear of the vehicle for a total of 5,916 lbs.

 

The usage history of those taillights is interesting. For '71 and '72, the taillights of the Custom Cruiser and of the 98 were the same, the vertical treatment that my '73 has. But for 1973, while the CC kept the vertical taillight treatment, the 98 went to the cathedral look in your photo. I think, but I'm not sure, that the '74 wagons also had the vertical taillights and that it wasn't until 1975 that the wagon got the same cathedral lights as the 98.

Below is a photo of the rear of a '73 98.

 

Didn't Ask !

Jaunty75, I didn't ask to see your wagon. But glad you showed us the pictures and the paperwork. Interesting. And a great looking wagon.