I just finished a round trip drive to NH during a hurricane to look at and ultimately buy another full-sized v8 RWD station wagon.

(photos from the ad)

It was drizzling the whole time, except when I pulled into his driveway it started bucketing down, and continued until I left his place to drive home. That was probably the universe trying to give me a hint, but I continued regardless.

It is a 2005 Dodge magnum, with the 5.7L Hemi, and about 195K on the clock. There are dents on the passenger side, but only one rust bubble on the rear wheelwell. The interior is dirty but intact, and it runs well.

I paid all of $2200, plus another $100 for him to deliver it the 1.5 hours to RI for me. Obviously at that price it has issues. There is a small exhaust leak, likely from the flex section on one/both of the front pipes. The check engine light is on for an o2 sensor (probably due to the exhaust leak), and the brakes work, but don't inspire confidence, so probably needs a brake job. It also has a terrible cold air intake with the sensor held in with zip ties, so I will be looking for an OEM intake or less shitty aftermarket unit.

This is probably a terrible decision, but likely to be a fun terrible decision.

I realized after filming this that I forgot to put on the blue side hoses. By the time I got that done it was too dark to film another video.

This is all temporary, and was a ton of fun to build.

Ho all, this is Pixel from the old Kinja. I finally got around to posting here.
I also picked up a new project car in the mean time. It is a 1956 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday. Its pretty rough, but it is mostly rust free and runs well. Plan is to fix the prior owner's janky "repairs", strip the half-assed bedliner paint job (fortunately the spraycan stuff and not the real deal), and do it up as a mild 50s Kustom.

I am really happy about how it all came out.

The $2200 Magnum was dropped off today. Got to stare at it out the window for half the day until I finished work, only to have it start drizzling as soon as I was done. So I haven't been able to dig deeply into it. But I am putting together a shopping list.

The good:

• interior is very grimy, but intact. With decent leather. Gonna pay someone to detail it.
• No creaks/bangs/thuds or weird behaviour from the front suspension when I intentionally hit potholes.
• engine & trans work great, with no weirdness.
• A/C blows cold.
• tires have at least 50% tread.

Junkyard/used needs:

• Passenger mirror (doesn't move)
• tailgate wiper motor assy (gear seems to be stripped)
• stock 5.7 airbox & pipe (to ditch the cobbled together "cold air" intake on it)
• less crappy wheels (would love a set of 18" steelies)

New needs:

• tailgate struts
• definitely back pads/rotors, probably going to do fronts at the same time
• new exhaust flex joints to weld, in or new front cat pipes
• O2 sensor(s). Code might just be due to exhaust leak, but probably going to just put sensors in it and be done.

Probably going to do oil change, plugs, PCV, fuel filter, belt. for my peace of mind.

Unrelated, the very silly thought popped into my head that if I installed a supercharger it would be a Magnum of Whine.

Finally finished replacing the wheel studs and repacking the front wheel bearings. So she could get her new tires installed. I also cleaned ancient tar off the hubcaps and polished them up. So she's looking better.

I loved having the cargo terminal as a backdrop on my old diorama, and finally got a chance to add it to the new one.

The building flats are the same pieces as the old one, just re-arranged for the new space, and the parking lot and road were done with acrylics over the black basecoat.

The diorama has kinda fallen by the wayside with all my other projects, but it was nice to put in a few hours today.

We finally got the first seat section completed! Only took several weeks of trial & error and buying a heavy-duty Singer 301 sewing machine to get it done. Now we just need to do the rest of the interior.

Also found someone selling a '55 Pontiac project and bought all his spare rear bumpers & parts. For $300 I got 3 bumpers, a set of bumper brackets and a splash pan. I've been hunting for one of these bumpers for the '56 Olds project pretty much since I bought the car.

None of them are prefect, but the friend who picked them up for me did a test-polish on one and it came up pretty good. Supposedly the painted ones are in decent shape under the paint. So I should have at least a driver quality rear bumper.

Now I just need to finish replacing the driver's rocker so I can start fitting the bumper.

As a side-gig I design and 3d print various stuff for 1/64 scale dioramas, garages, junkyards etc. Everything I sell is up on my ebay page, I'm not going to post it all here because there a 35 different things. But here are some sample shots (paint is just for show, everything is sold in bare resin for you to paint).
You can buy through ebay or directly from me, whichever you prefer. I also do custom design work when i have the free time, so if you work in this scale and need/want something let me know.

I make both the jack stands, and the brakes.

I made everything in this shot.

Those were once the factory flex joints just behind the cats.
I award the prior owner the brown "maybe you shouldn't have tried" ribbon for their efforts.

@chariotoflove No, not enough free time. Tried to buy some costumes but none were available around here in my size.

I am really happy about how it all came out.

@kac believe me, if there was a way to swap one in I would. I love bench seats.

@whoistheleader swap is planned for as soon as i can locate the parts

@hfv No luck in my area, and none on ebay. I check craigslist and FB marketplace regularly for someone parting one out.

@essextee Most police chargers have a custom console with the radios/etc. The only cars that would need the filler piece are detective spec chargers that have the column shift but the stock console. So not worth engineering a useful piece for such a low production part.

The later ones are even worse, they just blocked off the hole for the shifter.

Just discovered that the police package Dodge Charges came with a column shift. As they are basically the same my Magnum, it means I can swap the shifter on the magnum to the column, which god intended it.

Apparently it requires drilling a couple holes to mount it to a brace under the dash. Cutting a hole in the dash or getting the charger lower dash piece, running a different shift cable, and extending 6 wires from console to column.

There is a filler piece for the old shifter location, but I would probably make something custom to better use the space.

The hard part would be tracking down a cheap column shift assembly/cable. I am not going to pay dealer money to put it in my $2200 wagon.

I put that same hitch on my '87 Mercury wagon. Took similar amounts of modifications

@forsweden It is janky enough I would probably not survive a highway trip. I'm going to mess with the car in other ways. I specifically bought this car to mess with. So there will be other weirdness going on.

@taylor-martin Oh yes.