Bought a blue '76 Caprice in 1981. Paid $900. Growing family, and my '66 F-150 cab was too small for us. Found the car in a local paper near my work in a toney suburb. Barrington, Illinois. Asking $1500. Surface rust spots all over it, especially the hood, but it ran sweet. Perfect interior. Back doors wouldn't open. Latches dry and rusted shut. When I popped the hood the entire engine compartment was red with surface rust. Even the valve covers. Looked under it and saw the cat was gone and the muffler stuck on with a plumber's nightmare. Weirdest shit I ever saw. Don't know where anybody found those old elbows and clamping contraptions Maybe at the U.S. Steel South Works. Stuff there going back to the
1800's. After I checked it and ran it around the block I decided I could handle it - for the right price. The 350 and trans operated flawlessly. A/C pumped cold air. Went to the front door and told the lady I'd give $900 for it. She yelled loudly to her husband, who was in the shower. "He says he'll pay $900!" I could hear his yelled reply over the water coming from the shower. "TAKE IT!" I gave her 9 c-notes, and she gave me the title. Everybody happy. Had a quarter tank of gas in, so I first went to a gas station to fill up. When it hit half full gas started flowing to the ground. Rust pinholes all around the gas tank seams. Wasn't as happy. The car had been parked under a tree for a couple years, and seldom used. Horsey set. Trunk still had clumps of oats in it. When I came home with it, my wife was out front raking leaves. As I turned the corner into my street the exhaust started dragging on the street. That caught her attention and she stopped raking. She was looking hard down the street to see if that was me bringing the "new" car home, as she knew I bought it on a lunch trip from my work. I knew she was praying it wasn't me. I pulled to the curb next to her, and as I stopped the muffler fell to the street with a loud CLANK. She was looking at me, mouth open, in shock apparently. Speechless for a while. I got out, told her not to worry, that I'd fix it up quick. In about a week of after-work labor I had the doors working perfectly, hung a perfect gas tank in it, and had all the rust spots sanded off and repainted with about 8 cans of Dupli-Color. A little blotchy - but hey. The different shades of blues gave it kinda the look of a cloudy sky, so it was a nice touch. Had a local exhaust shop bend and weld a pipe for a new muffler and fix up the hangers. Business was slow, so it only cost me 50 bucks. Of course I did new hoses and fluids, all ignition parts, and tuning. Everything I did was less than $200 in parts, and I had a sweet $1100 ride for about 4 years before rust ate through it and I gave it to a neighbor. Besides, I had more kids now and went to a G-20 - Beauville van. Thing is, some of the talk here got me to thinking . When I did the first oil change on that Caprice, I pulled one of those damned Fram oil filters off it. Went to an AC/Delco. I was wondering if the initial problems with this car were due to that Fram filter. Once I screwed an AC/Delco on there the car was fine, and the issues were gone. I know this is all anecdotal. But that's all I got to work with.--Vic