PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

1984 Dodge 600 in typical 1980s guise, with a rare 5-speed manual!

 

Everyone knows how popular the Chrysler minivans were well into the 21st century; My aunt and uncle had their first child in 1986, planned on having a second child, and needed something up to the task of hauling a family around...

They decided on a 1986 Plymouth Voyager; They lived in Georgia at the time, and ended up going to a dealer in Alabama to get the best deal. This dealer in Birmingham (I think; I just know it was Alabama) had only one Voyager in stock with the options they wanted, but it was red on red like the 600 above...

My aunt and uncle did not like the red interior, so they ordered one in dark red with a gray cloth interior; The van had the LE trim, the larger of the two 4-cylinder engines, an automatic transmission, A/C, cruise control, tilt wheel, and an AM/FM cassette. Rear A/C was not available until the release of the extended wheelbase "Grand" minivans in 1989 or so, and my aunt and uncle's van did not have power windows. They had that van for 11 years, replacing it with a brand new Plymouth Voyager in 1997!

 

1988 Cadillac Allante

 

1975 Cadillac Coupe Deville

 

1985 Cadillac Eldorado, with seats that look like they came right out of Huggy Bear's office!

 

You got that reference? You're certainly old enough to have watched Starsky & Hutch when it was still in syndication...

 

I have a soft spot for the Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera for some reason; I have no idea why! My aunt and uncle (same ones who had the two Plymouth Voyagers) had a 1989 model in the early 2000s that they got from my uncle's parents (related to me only by marriage); It was grey, it had the V6 engine, and it was for the most part reliable, but it was old...

By 2002 it had almost 140K miles miles on it, and it was supposed to be my cousin's first car as that was the year he turned 16, but the car just died in 2003 or so and they donated it to purple heart; The car was not in perfect condition, but the A/C worked and it always passed inspection as far as I know. I actually did not think too highly of that specific car through no fault of the car's own...

Everyone knows about the soup nazi from Seinfeld; I've talked about this before...

My aunt and uncle were safety nazis; That 1989 Oldsmobile did not have any airbags, but my aunt and uncle would let my cousin and me ride shotgun even after we turned 12 and were more than big enough to sit in front when the vehicle did have airbags. My dad was letting me ride in the front seat when I was three!

 

Anyway, I just like the way the Cutlass Ciera looks, and since it remained in production virtually unchanged from 1982 to 1996, it was regarded as being a very high quality vehicle for what it was. Engines got more and more refined, switching from a carburetor to electronic fuel injection, and much more powerful as the years went by; By the early 1990s, ABS was standard, as was a driver's side airbag. I'm also pretty sure that A/C was standard by the early 1990s; Despite the addition of modern luxuries and safety features, most Cieras from about 1987 to 1996 are virtually indistinguishable from each other at a distance. Watch the 1996 movie Fargo, where then-new 1996 models played the roles of new 1987 models (the movie was set in 1987).

The nearly identical Buick Century also remained in production alongside the Ciera until 1996, and was just as good in terms of quality, but I like the Oldsmobile better for some reason. The Chevrolet Celebrity and Pontiac 6000 were gone after 1990; One of my neighbors in Montgomeryville (Where we lived from 1990 to 1996) had a silver 1986ish Pontiac 6000, but I have not seen one of the those on the roads in years. I do see the occasional Celebrity driving around here from time to time...

 

Murilee Martin found a first-year 1982 Cutlass Ciera in a California junkyard; This car is particularly unique in my opinion because it has cruise control, tilt steering, and an AM/FM radio, but no A/C! Air-conditioning was an extra-cost option on the Cutlass Ciera in the earlier years, but Oldsmobile was considered to be a cut above Chevy and borderline luxury; I have NEVER personally seen a Cutlass Ciera without A/C! This silver Ciera was also obviously taken care of by the previous owner, because it is near-mint!

 

This car has the 3.0L V6 (largest available at the time); A dead giveaway that the car does not have A/C is the absence of the usual guts (drier, etc) on the firewall opposite the power brake booster (The brake booster is on the right in this photo)...

 

Clean interior! The steering column appears to have been replaced at some point; GM tilt steering mechanisms were known to fail prematurely...

Another hint that this car does not have A/C would be the presence of two vents in the center of the dash, but no vents on the far left or far right...

 

I've always loved the Cutlass Ciera emblems...

 

Just look how clean that interior is!

 

Most GM vehicles had 5-digit odometers in the late 1980s, but this 1982 Ciera has a 6-digit odometer; Sadly, it didn't make it to 150K...

 

Factory Delco AM/FM radio; Like most GM vehicles of the time, an AM radio was standard on all Cutlass Ciera models regardless of trim level, and upgrading to even a basic AM/FM radio was not exactly cheap (though most Oldsmobiles had a bare minimum of an AM/FM radio by 1982)...

 

The most obvious clue that this car does not have A/C; If it had A/C, it would say "AIR COND" on the HVAC controls...

 

Likely the original spare...

 

One thing that annoyed me about GM products was that well into the 1990s, most of them had two separate keys (one for the locks and one for the ignition; My dad's 1993 S-10 Blazer had this 2-key setup)...