I recently bought a 1985 Chevy Caprice Station Wagon for 200.00 (I am only hoping to get a year or so out of it. I have already payed to have front brakes fixed, newtires and a catalytic converter fixed. As for other problems.1. I need valve covers but because car is leaking oil and or tramsmission fluid on bottom my mechanic said I should make sure I keep fluids in car and check and top off if needed and dont fix valve covers because it is not worth it.2. The owner told me that I should change my transmission fluid every 25,000 miles (The car has 156,000 miles) The mechanic advised me not to change it because it could actually be worse for the car) and last but not least. As I said the car is very rusted on the bottom. Should I have the bottom of the car undercoated whenever I take it to get washed?

hows the interior? does it have the patented Wisconsin Rust-floor? are you going to keep this one in the "salt-belt"? don't change your oil? Never heard such a crock~ used to go through quite a few fifty dollar cars, am right aware of the problems, but keepin' the motor alive and kickin' should be foremost~ ...could type volumes on the subject...

undercoating is too late in the game, if you were going to undercoat should have done it BEFORE it was exposed to a salt-environment- rinse it off as good as you can and take it away, out of state....Nevada, or Califonie will preserve what you have....move out to California, there's plenty of room here, every day is beautiful day and there's plenty of sunshine to spare~ we need beautiful people~

I'm sorry, He said to make the oil changes, It was changing the transmission fluid that he advised again. As for the interior. For a 28 year old car the seat is in good condition and the back is carpeted. I live in New Jersey and I drive a total of about 80 miles a day mostly highway miles.

Joisey, well alrighty then, visited Trenton in 1979 and could not believe the number of vacant abandoned cars and buildings there across the river was Morrisville, PA where I spent my youth~ as far as the underbody, remove rust and hit it with Krylon rust-o-leum and keep your fingers crossed, you'll be getting another season or two out of this one, sounds like it was cared for~

No idea why he said not to do the valve covers. Valve cover gaskets, if the covers themselves are good, are under $20 a pair and you can do them yourself in a couple of hours. Just be careful not to use too much torque on the bolts. Normally the are about 7-9 ft/lbs. As for the undercarriage, it depends on HOW rusty it is and just what parts are bad. If the frame is good, then I would have it sprayed to preserve it. If the frame is getting too flaky, I would think that the car has a VERY limited amount of life left in it. As for the rest of the mechanicals, they are bog simple and certainly easy to work on. My brother had a Pontiac Safari wagon (same vehicle) that lasted 400,000 miles with no problem.

I like big cars like that. If you dont have a lot of money then just keep water and oil in it and drive. Valve covers are not hard to fix. Make sure the edge's where the gasket sits are straight and put new gaskets and gasket sealer on them.