“Hello, Brown Car Appreciation Society? You better get somebody down here…”
After the snow from last week had melted, I decided I ought to grade the backlot and get the vehicles there re-organized before the next blizzard comes along. Of course, the first step in that process is to clear the way for the tractor – which means moving everything out to the parking lot for a while.
Once I got the first few moved, I realized that a brown car (and van) parade was forming. So I paused to take a few pictures, before something like a white Suburban could come along and sully this color-coordinated lineup.
First up we have this half-ton Chevy van, a former resident of Washington State that I picked up last summer.
You may recall that my old man found himself in need of a puppy-friendly vehicle not too long ago, giving up a Chevelle sedan to keep its interior from becoming a chew-toy. This was the replacement. It’ll get its own COAL when the time is right.
Of course, you all should recognize this one by now – it’s Project XJ6, the Jaguar that’s currently waiting for some love.
So far I’ve had little success in tracking down a fuel tank(s) for it. But once the weather is more cooperative (maybe next week, they say) I’ll be back on the prowl, hitting junkyards near and far in search of the needed parts.
Of course there’s also this gem – one which got a brief mention in a Junkyard Outtake last fall.
It’s an ’82 LeSabre coupe, for which I’ve now collected all the needed parts (except for the front bumper fill). It would have been on the road by now, if not for a certain Jag which has been hogging the spotlight.
Still, it seems content to wait, so long as it gets a little attention in the meanwhile.
Although it’s not actually brown – more like maroon – who was I to deny this Caprice its chance to join in? (By the time you read this, said Caprice will have been sold… so it was now or never!)
They’ve all got keys in their ignitions, air in their tires, and gas in their tanks (at least for now, in the Jaguar’s case)… all more-or-less ready to hop in and go for a spin. Which would you pick?
Jaguar for a one day spin, Chevy for the three week road trip.
I think that maroon has a lot of brown in it. Brown is not primary color though. All of the vehicles seem to be similar in color with some violet radiation.
The 91-96 Caprice is a vehicle I have wanted for decades, but I am always torn between a 9C1 or a 1A2. If I stumbled upon a 9C6 I might not turn that down.
The Chevy Van (official name?) still has a coolness factor all these decades later especially with the rims. Plus, it is easier to sleep in than the Caprice and the lack of windows gives you privacy while you are sleeping. Is that Chevy Van even shorter than the 12 passenger version or are my eyes deceiving me?
Cragar S/S all the brown cars!
That’s actually a coincidence, in this case. I had a few lines written out about it, but deleted them from the article before it was published.
Long story short, the Buick only has Cragars because the original rubber wouldn’t hold air, and that set was handy. It really needs 15s to look right.
And yes, the van is a shorty (110″ WB if I recall correctly).
The Caprice Classic if it was to be my everyday car but the Buick if it was a weekend driver.
Even though the Van in your pic is a Chevy(and not a GMC van) the A-Team theme popped in my head while looking at it in the pic
A-Team was my 2nd thought…..Strange Brew was the first. Though theirs was a GMC too.
I like the old rally wheels on the Caprice. I got some of those for winter wheels on my 96 half-ton, they look sharp in almost any application.
Not only do the wheels make it look sportier, but lightly used truck tires also make great winter rubber 🙂
For a day spin I suspect I would have a hard time choosing among them. To keep, I could be talked into either the van (probable #1) for the caprice. You have an interesting collection.
Caprice drivetrain (if said Caprice is a 350) plus LeSabre body = win. Though I suppose that would be a waste of a perfectly good Caprice, it’d make one hell of a sleeper Buick.
If the Caprice is a 5.0 or a 4.3, not worth the trouble.
Just picking one, I’d be torn between the Jag and the Buick if both were in proper working order. Being that the XJ6 currently has a hate relationship with its fuel, I’d go Buick.
The Caprice is either a 93 or 94, so usually it’d be TBI 305 or the 4.3 V8, respectively.
I’m not seeing LS badges so don’t know if the LT1 was offered as an option on the lower-level 94 models.
I’d thought ordering the trailer package got you the 350–was that only an option on the LS?
Oh that was probably the ticket, yup.
Can’t tell if there’s dual exhaust on this unit.
A 1994 price guide that I have shows the LT1 available for any Caprice. It was standard on the Impala SS. Standard engine is the 4.3
It is (was?) an LS, with an LT1 and dual exhaust… 1994.
I had a Buick like that a while back. Great great car but not that quick.
I’d love to find another even with the memories I have of the car.
Like picking up a 5 gallon bucket of tar for some roofing. Took a corner too fast. Buckett fell over, lid popped off and the whole trunk got soaked with the stuff. Took weeks before I could breath in the car while driving.
One day during a thunderstorm, I backed into it with a Ford van.
Crashed the front clip rather well and the bumpers locked.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so incredibly depressed and furious, all at the same time.
Thankfully the family knew enough to not laugh.
Found out through the insurance company that I could not sue myself. Damn it.
Years later after it had been parked for a few years we decided to move it.
She still fired up and 3 mice came blasting out of the exhaust.
I didn’t know that mice could turn blue.
Some time later, during a particularly bad bad day at work, I came home to kids arguing, a nagging wife, and some other extrememly bad news. I quietly left the room,
grabbed an axe, went outside and took out my frustration on the Buick carcass.
ironically enough, when I came back in, not only had all of my frustration been relieved, but my wife and children were all acting perfectly – no nagging, no arguing, just nice and polite and rather quiet at that. Ended up with a few days of domestic peace.
When I finally had her towed away, she was pretty rusted out, except for the trunk floor.
That will be around forever.
Love the mice blasting out of the exhaust!
I’m positively brown with envy. I want a big back lot that I can fill with the beaters of my youth. Good memories in all those vehicles, especially the shorty Van and the LeSabre.
These four models haven’t been next to each other in running condition since…a Kroger parking lot in 1991?
The answer depends on whether the car comes with a maintenance agreement. If you are maintaining it, the Jag for me, all day every day. If I am responsible for my own wrenching, it would be the Buick.
The Caprice leaves me flat, and I am still not over my ill feelings towards that generation of GM van that is the result of having driven them in the 70s and 80s.
I’m a fellow member of the BCAS, with a “Dark Stone Metallic” F-150.
Shaggin’ Wagon.
If this brown van’s rockin’, don’t bother knockin’.
Only ever had 1 brown car,a Mk 4 Cortina.Some toerag also liked it and stole it from outside my flat.I’d have the Buick,plenty Jags in the UK and the Chevy looks a lot like a Vauxhall/Opel Senator.The Buicks different
I had a brown Mk 3 as my first car, and got it up to 450,000km. I still had it until about five years ago, and passed it on to a guy who was going to restore it. I’d have kept it, but it needed some welding by then. Even in Australia…..
Mk 3s are hard to find in the UK the rust monster saw off most of them.I heard there’s less than 1,000 now.Mum had a light green metallic 1600.I got an orange 1600 which had been flooded for braiding a girl’s hair like Bo Derek and got it going but it smelled awful and I sold it to one of my brother’s rugby mates.He took the glass out for his car after his psycho girlfriend smashed the windows in his.
Despite Bryce’s warnings an Aussie Cortina 6 is a car I want to have one day!
The answer is short and simple: the Caprice.
I’m torn between the Buick, preferably with the wheels from the Caprice swapped on, or the van.
I also have to say, HOLY COW the in-dash clock in that Buick is BIG! I guess they were trying to make the dashboard somewhat symmetrical, as it matches the gauge immediately to the left of the center stack.
I agree, big clock but that’s what I like. Analogue anything, but clocks specially, are like jewels if done right and they dress up interiors very nicely.
Even the one on my PT Cruiser gets positive comments lol.
I like the Buick because the dashboard is very similar to the Eldorado from that generation but with round gauges, which I like better.
Cabin boy! Bring me my Brown Pants!
The Buick is my choice, Id love to see it beside my brown Pontiac Parisienne. The van is my close second choice, but I would paint it black and give it a Led Zeppelin mural
That van would look awesome!
For driving I’d take the Jag no contest really, but for brown cars I think Ive had 10 or so I never picked em by colour more a case of does it go and cheap.
I should also add that I never set out to own this many brown vehicles… just like I never set out to own so many white vehicles. (That’s another picture for another day)
Buick.
I’m surprised at the amount of people picking the Buick.
I’m pretty torn, any would be nice.
I like the Chevy van since I’ve always wanted a shag van.
The Caprice if it was a 9C1 or with the LT1.
The Jag…who can turn down a Jag? But I would make sure it’s in good shape before going far.
The Buick is probably the more interesting and unique one. What engine is in it?
I love that dashboard. As I said above, very similar to the one on the contemporary Eldorado but with better round gauges.
So as they are, either the van or Buick.
“What engine is in it?”
A 3.8, unfortunately. It moves it around, but it’s no V8.
There’s a ’70 Buick 350 in the garage that I’ve been saving for my ’82 Regal (not shown, and not brown). Had the Jag not come along, I may well have given in to temptation and dropped it in the LeSabre by now.
These cars when equipped with the base 3.8 231 Buick V6 have always intrigued me. What few older examples I have driven in the B-body cars seem terribly sluggish which is understandable moving 3600 LBS around. On the other hand when I was a teen in high school I distinctly remember being driven to and from school in two 3.8 equipped cars (one was an 85 Cutlass sedan and the other an 85 Delta) and they actually felt quite spunky when new. I actually made there father pop the hood on both cars to confirm that it wasn’t some other engine lurking in there. For some reason these CCC equipped Buick V6 cars seem to lose a lot of response when the miles pile up even when in good tune.
The Buick looks significantly more substantial than the Jaguar.
Any update on he XK6? running yet?
In short: yup.
At length: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/project-xj6/project-xj6-the-long-walk-home/
Nice to see brown cars getting some appreciation. That’s a good looking fleet on display. If the van comes equipped with a ‘special lady’, That’s the one I’ll take out for a day. But since I suppose not, if I get to try them all I’ll take the Caprice, The Jag (and a big can of gas), the Buick and finally the Chevy Van.
I’ll take the brown one.
Good choice.
To take a spin in, the Jag. Only because Ive never driven one.
To own, gimme that shagging wagon! I cant say no to a shortie with a 70s custom van vibe and cragar mags! I could re-live the hazing scenes from Old School in that. And just getting the look on a girls face picking her up for a date in that…PRICELESS.
The Buick is interesting too though. Maybe its the Cragars, but ordinarily I wouldn’t go for a big heavy broughammy car, even if it IS a 2-door. If that Caprice has a 350 and a 4spd auto, I say swap the guts in and have at it.
Ive owned 1 brown vehicle in my life, my pristine ’81 CJ-7 Laredo. I didn’t dig the color then, but nowadays I can see that I didn’t fully appreciate what I had.
I once had a ’72 2002 that had a brown interior – but I don’t recall yet owning anything with wheels that has been brown on the outside. Nice, eclectic array of vehicles, Keith. I’m trading away a nice old Glastron runabout to a friend next weekend – and getting a clean, low-miles ’81 Impala 2-door in return. The car has been sitting in storage for at least five or six years, and I’m looking forward to dragging it out, changing a brake line or two, tuning it up, changing fluids, and turning the key. This one is also a 3.8, so it’ll be interesting to discover what power, if any, it will manage to produce.
Keith, your van reminds of one I owned for a number of years. I think mine was a ’79 short wheelbase, with windows all around. It also had a 400ci 4bbl engine with TH350.
The original owner (whom I purchased from) purchased with no interior and had a custom interior put in 2 captain chairs only brown shag carpeting everywhere and burled walnut formica headliner and console, door panels…etc. The original owner got a job overseas for a few years when she came the van would not run and she left in her garage for a few more years until she decided to sell. I revived the van and put it to use as the family truckster. Since I had three children and there were only two captain chairs I installed two horrible blue bench seats from a Dodge van. My kids though we had the Cheech and Chong van. After years of faithful service and trips to New Mexico and Florida it spun a bearing and I sold it. Kinda miss it.
I’d pick the Buick.
With that missing bumper filler panel, could you either form one out of sheet steel, or retract the bumper a few inches so it doesn’t need the panel? I’m guessing the old impact-absorbing bumpers don’t need to be functional for the car to be legal.
JPC’s thoughts on the Jag / Buick are mine as well. I have a lot of experience with the Caprice and Buick (via Olds), so the Jag would be new to me.
Without a doubt, first choice would be the Chevy Caprice. A big boat offering a nice comfortable ride. And, with plenty of room for passengers, along with a huge trunk. Runner-up would be the Buick LeSabre.
Brown’s not THAT rare. It’s the color of the flaky stuff that falls from underneath cars of CC age in God-forsaken places like Pennsylvania.
You know…you close the door, and…
SLAM…tinkle-tinkle-tinkle.
Ha. You remind me of a neighbor who was driving his brother’s rusty 64 Studebaker Commander sedan (that also happened to be brown.) while he was working on another car. Wherever that car parked in the driveway would always be deposits of rusty powder from people slamming the doors shut.
I’d pick the Caprice hands down regardless of engine. My buddy owned several 4.3 V8 versions and they were plenty quick enough and saw 25-26 on the open road all day long. Of course my 1996 5.7 was the cat’s meow but mileage suffered.