My wife wanted something new, and I had been wanting a Malibu wagon since I was 15 years old. I had found one, and I was trying to save up the money to go get it. I was selling some old parts I had sitting around. A guy came to the house to buy some wheels from me, and asked what I was up to. I explained to him about my love for malibu wagons and how I had been looking for one. He smiled and said he had one sitting in his front yard, he would sell the body for $800 or complete car for $1100 and it needed a fuel pump and exhaust put on after the new headers he put on.






I drove a hour out to his house and found the back yard painted blue beauty. A 1983 Malibu Wagon. I quickly descided I didn't need the original 305 even though it only had 107,000 miles on it. I kicked the tires and walked around it for about 15 minutes. I finally descided to offer him $500 for the body and headers. I would pull the stuff he was keeping for him. He said $550 and we are done. He got to looking around and couldn't find the door keys or the title. He returned with the finish panels that go between the quarter panels and the rear bumper, and all new weather stripping for the door windows. I gave him $250 cash, and loaded it on the trailer.







A week later, he showed up at my house with the title. His wife found it somewhere when she got home from work. I gave him another $250 and he went on his way.

A little birdie told me that my wife didn't want the malibu. She wanted something bigger. So we descided we would find her something else, which ment the malibu was now mine.

I started looking around for a good 350. I friend of mine had a set of vortec heads that only had 300 miles on them, so I picked them up. I found a "GOOD" 350 "4 bolt main". I pull that engine down to find that it was no good and was not a 4 bolt main. I called the guy back, and he said he had a rebuildable 4 bolt main short block. I drove back out and traded. I sent the 4 bolt short block to the machine shop. They called and said the best they could do was a .060 bore. I told them to go for it. A week later I drove down and picked it up. I took it to my buddies garage, and when I got there, there was a guy talking about this car, I bought it.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=81517&p=620767#p620767

Later that night I found my wife a 1987 Chevy Suburban 2wd with a 6.2L diesel. The truck had a bunch of work done to it.

Way we bought it, friday night

how it looks now, after a full days work monday



Which brings me up to date, until yesterday. The guy also wanted the wheels back on the malibu. The suburban had 2 brand new tires on the front, but they got replaced in favor of 4 new Yokohama P265/70R15 tires on some aluminum wheels. This left me with 2 new Tiger Paw P255/70R15's. I called a friend and he said he had some s-10s with aluminum wheels. I went down and he cut me a deal on set of aluminum wheels that had 2 new P205/70R15's.

Today I pulled the motor and transmission out of the car. I mounted my Tiger Paws on the other 2 s-10 wheels and stuck them on the Malibu. Not the greatest looking wheels, but I have new tires on all 4 corners, the big/little look I wanted, and only have $100 in the whole setup.



Tomorrow, I am trading some scrap metal for a used starter, so I can get the cutlass started. I got the cutlass to run for a second. It died and wouldn't start again. The starter had died. I checked to make sure the motor wasn't locked up, it turns over exactly as it should. Once I see if the transmission is good, everything will be pulled from the cutlass and stuck in the malibu. I am hoping to have the malibu on the road, by the middle of next week.

It sounds like your headed in the right direction. Good luck

If it doesn't show. Half the fun to me, in building a project, is figuring out how to do it cheaply, but without cutting corners. I often will buy a car for parts, trade stuff around, and even scrounge up some scrap metal to pay for the stuff I need.

I will rebuild cheap stuff to save a buck, and to learn how it works. I try at least one new thing on every project car I get, just to learn.

I have an old slightly used set of cragars you can pick up cheap and will look great on a low budget car.

My buddy has a set old MAG slots, like the wheels on starsky and hutches car. They were only 14 inch, and I had 15 inch tires.

you have a very clean looking wagon... great find.
big and little tires look good and save trouble fooling with springs for ride height.
those s10 rims look kinda nice on your wagon.
keep us posted.

Nice find!



IMO, if you're going to do slots on one of these, ya GOTTA go 17"...the smaller ones just look too old for the car..again, in my opinion.

17"



Too small



I have more blue wagons with different wheels....if you want me to post them.

The car was originally a dark charcoal gray. It will be repainted the original color, even if it is just a maaco quicky job. I like blue, it's my favorite color, but I don't like this blue.

OMG what a dream come true

Don't you feel guilty for stealing that car from that poor guy? Good deal, looks like a really solid car.

He has no conscience If we couldnt get good deals on cars we would have any.

That seems to be the one thing I am best at.

Well, I learned something new today. Sorta anyway. I can weld now, I'm a hack, but I welded something and it stays together.

Work was slow today so I took off. I picked up some angle and a new grinder (ours finally ate itself). I went down to the shop and grabbed the junk tranny crossmember I had, bolted it on the car. I had already made a box out of some angle. I marked the crossmember, got in a hurry and hacked it clean to death.




I am not sure exactly what happened, but I clearly cut it way to big. So I went ahead and tacked it together as you can see. I then took it off the car, laid it on the good crossmember and marked its position. I then slowed way down, took the good crossmember, clamped it in the vise on the work bench and slowly notched it little by little. This time I decided to leave the top of the crossmember intact rather then making some sort of jig. I made another box out of angle, and hammered it in to an ever so snug and tight fit. I then proceeded to continue with my hack welding until everything appeared to be solid. I ground it down, ran another weld around, and ground it down again. I then shot it with some black paint just as it was time for us to clean up and head home.





I have some welding books. I guess now is the time to read. My buddy only welds exhaust, and uses a 110 lincoln welder with flux wire. I kept having alot weld splashing about, and had slag all over I had to ground down and clean up. Anyone have any idea why? Was I welding to hot? It wasn't blowing holes in the metal.

Updates from today. Got the motor and transmission in. I bolted up my home made crossmember. I am getting closer.








It looks alot better with a motor sitting in it. I like the way the wheels look on the car now.


I am thinking 2 inch drop in the front and 1 inch roughly in the rear.



This car showed up at the end of the day. It need a new motor. It is super clean. I had to keep back so I didn't get any drool on it.




My parts car sold today. I got my money back out of it. Nothing cooler then a free bunch of parts.

Ok I am headed that way tonight with the trailer. We can scoop that cutlass and I can loose it in paperwork and swap the VIn. Yeah lets do that. Tell Billy you dont know what happened.


Although if that thing is stolen now I am the first suspect arent I.