Hey! Long time listener; first time caller

Welcome new members, please make your first post in this section. Say hello & tell us a little bit about you and your car. We're happy to see you here!
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Welcome new members, please make your first post in this section. Say hello & tell us a little bit about you and your car. We're happy to see you here!
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BitterLA_Ex
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2021 12:38 am

Hey! Long time listener; first time caller

Post by BitterLA_Ex »

Love the show, and thanks for having me on!

Facetious misunderstanding of this medium aside, I must say this forum was instrumental in getting my horrible auction experience on the road.

Purchased a 2012 PPV from online auction during the start of Covid lockdown, so there was no option to inspect beforehand.

After arriving to pick it up, I see that it must have been prepped last minute for auction:

Interior was gutted with abandon.

Front cover half heartedly reinstalled (for...reasons).

Rattle-caned doors with bubbling that makes stucco look smoother than slate.

No coolant, and a flat tire.

But hell, under $6k aftee TTL. "F*ck it, this is a driving project." I thought.

Ohhh.... How adorably naive I was, fellow humans.

LAX must have been chucking this poor thing around harder than fragile DHL air freight, because it was... Jagged, noisy, and threatening to fall apart the second I opened it up.

Which it did.

Less than 150 miles of ownership (the drive home, then once to work), the DoD did what DoD do.

What followed were 14 months of Murphy's Law incarnate.

Summary conclusion:

Intake and exhaust lifters and lobes on cylinder 6 looked like satellite photos of the Lunar surface.

There is so much more to this story, but the short is: Thanks to this community!

Without you, my terrible choices would have very likely axed my enthusiast itch.

My bitter LA ex is now reliably driving, but far, far from done.

I will be posing many, MANY questions in the near future.

Thanks for your time.
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elc32955
System Manager
Posts: 2718
Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2012 10:32 am
Location: East Central Florida
Contact:

Re: Hey! Long time listener; first time caller

Post by elc32955 »

Wow... the DOD letting loose after less than 150 miles of driving, that would be a wee bit frustrating! And then a 14-month open-heart surgery to boot to get it back on the road again. Yep, keep saying to yourself... "I LOVE MY CAPRICE.... I LOVE MY CAPRICE..." But, glad you persevered & the car's running again!

Welcome!
Eric
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
BitterLA_Ex
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2021 12:38 am

Re: Hey! Long time listener; first time caller

Post by BitterLA_Ex »

Appreciate it.

That wasn't even everything:

The radiator steam port was held on by nothing more than the hose, then the core started leaking once I jerry rigged a solution,

The collector flange looks like a dog went at it, which now means I have a faint exhaust leak.

The driver's side knock sensor wires were charred to a crisp, requiring a splicing.

The driver's door wiring harness has gone a bit wonky, and occasionally decides to not work.

The part of the driver's seat frame is cracked, so I cannot have the headrest in.

I had a a trunk (now box) full of random interior trim and brackets that may or may not even belong to this vehicle.

But...firing that thing up after such a cluster molestation brought indescribable satisfaction.

I'd never done more than simple bolt ons and maintenance on a car before this, so I tried to see this as a learning experience.

Just super fortuate that work let me hog one of their old lifts for a literal year. I would've had to junk the Chevy had that not been the case.
BitterLA_Ex
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2021 12:38 am

Re: Hey! Long time listener; first time caller

Post by BitterLA_Ex »

Took the opportunity to slap on a Janetty trans dipstick.

New radiator after the JB Weld experiment didn't hold for long.
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Mooseman
Posts: 1075
Joined: Mon Jun 12, 2017 11:35 pm
Location: Ottawa, ON Canada
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Re: Hey! Long time listener; first time caller

Post by Mooseman »

Hi and welcome!

That car had a hard life. Since it was an airport police car, it probably idled most of its life. While not hard on the reciprocating parts, it kills the cam, which you experienced.

Most people do the DOD delete with the engine in the car. First time I've seen an out-of-body experience but that would have made the engine work infinitely easier.

It's well on its way to being rehabilitated and becoming a great daily driver.
2011 Caprice PPV, former RCMP test vehicle, never put into service
Build Thread: http://www.newcaprice.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2419
BitterLA_Ex
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2021 12:38 am

Re: Hey! Long time listener; first time caller

Post by BitterLA_Ex »

Yeah, the subframe drop came as a complicated solution to a simple, yet impassable, problem:

I couldn't purge the AC, since I had the car at work, so I had to zip all of that inside the car and drop everything else.

There was likely a better option, but it was the only one that guaranteed I could fix all the issues, whilst still saving face with the GM
Blackjack
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Dec 26, 2021 3:36 pm

Re: Hey! Long time listener; first time caller

Post by Blackjack »

I may have worked on your car. I work at the airport in fleet. That sucks that your car was so trashed. Mine came from the county, either sheriffs or probation dept. It's way nicer, but I paid about double for mine. I wouldn't even want most of the B/W's we have. Some are just trashed when they leave for auction. They don't go on the salvage list if they're nice. Mine got auctioned because the warranty expired, I believe. It was in a batch of about 8 and they were all super clean and around 100k miles. Mine had velcro for a fast-pass on it. Super clean. All of the cars in the batch went for 12k and up, even the pre-13's. I think I got the nicest one. Other than the console (lack of, anyway), you can't even tell it' was a cop car. Anyway, looks like you got it handled pretty good. Enjoy it. I'm sure enjoying mine.
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