We all love wagons here at Barn Finds, but there’s something special about the combination of a sleeper and a wagon. That’s what this clean 1989 Chevrolet Caprice wagon appears to be, which has been modified under the skin while maintaining its bone-stock exterior appearance. The seller mentions several other recent repairs and upgrades, so check it out here on craigslist for $12,500 in South Dakota.
The baby blue color and wire hubcaps are two of the big reasons that looks are deceiving with a vehicle like this. The paint job just screams grandma car, and wire-style hubcaps are a throwback to an era wherein you didn’t use your station wagon for anything other than hauling the kids and the groceries. The idea of making a wagon into a bit of a performance machine is one of the fresher takes in the modifying scene, and it’s high time we started seeing more builds like these given how easily high-performance parts drop in.
The Caprice is equipped with a “fresh” 383 stroker engine paired to a recently rebuilt R700 transmission. It seems odd to be selling the wagon so soon if the drivetrain is still fairly young, but that’s always the risk with taking on a modified project: do you enjoy driving it after all the hard work is done? I ran into that with a car that took about two years to put together, as I found out I really didn’t like the drivetrain in stock form. I eventually went down the rabbit hole of adding triple Webers and a set of beautiful headers to try and make the drive more enjoyable, but it was too little, too late.
The seller’s Caprice should be pretty easy to love, as even with the modified drivetrain, I’ll bet you can still cruise in this long-roof like any other grandma-mobile and it will be perfectly content to loaf along. To be honest, just knowing it probably makes a sweet burble at idle is enough for me, and I likely wouldn’t change a thing other than maybe going to a set of wheels with a lower offset to poke outside the fenders a bit. Otherwise, this is an awesome sleeper build for reasonable money.
Gotta love the reverse lock out shifter and the tach hanging out of the stock dash. Here’s a sleeper.
I don’t mind the floor shifter so much as the big, ugly tach hanging from the side of the steering column. I’d swap out the stock instrument panel for a Dakota Digital panel with an electronic tach, as part of an upgrade to fuel injection for the 383 Stroker plant. Maybe swap out the bench seats for a pair of bucket seats and a console. If the budget could stand it, I’d do a frame replacement with an IRS setup to finish the “modding” part of this restomoded wagon.
In all sense-big enough to sleep a modern family inside and looking sleepy as it cruises down the highway.
I love a great sleeper car like this!
Wow how cool is this ride. To bad the seller didn’t give us a specifications on the 383 stroker. And pictures under the wagon to show us how the exhaust system was built. Otherwise it’s worth it because it has AC!!! I would get this car a professional detail and make it look almost new. Wouldn’t it be fun sitting at a street light and one of those young teenagers that know everything and they’re hot rod and just blow them off the line 😂! Somebody out there is going to enjoy this wagon immensely! 🐻🇺🇸
I don’t know if the 383 stroker is the same almost animal like how the small block Chevy 400!engine is I know for one thing my cousin put in a small block 400!in his 1978 el Camino,that car is much lighter than the station wagon is but that four hundred engine was a beast and planted your butt in the seat like a rocket 🚀 i can’t imagine how this 383 would be in the wagon I bet it will lay you planted in the seat well too when you put your foot into it lol!
A beautiful car from the outside. Too bad they ruined it.
How did they ruin it? By making it more powerful?
I dunno, I don’t think it’s “ruined”. It’s an old car in good condition and literally without value in the used car market. So they did something unique with it AND the fact it is a genuine sleeper is pretty cool if nothing else. I like it.
This reminds me of The Old Man’s Garage Bill’s Malibu, but in station wagon form. I really dig his combo and could see myself driving this. Probably the first station wagon I would admit to liking lol.
I had an 87 Chevy wagon like this 30 years ago. It was a good car, but had the boat anchor Olds 307, a far cry from this wagon. Reliable engine but burned way too much oil. Dealer replaced engine under warranty.
Having driven an 1977 Impala SW with a 350/Turbo 350 transmission and 1983 Buick LeSabre Estate SW with the Olds 307/200R-4, I can see the great merit of this one with the 383 and 700-4R. I would put a more conservative rear-end in, and if I needed more power, I would mat the pedal and downshift!
I had 3 77 Impala wagons, transmissions on all 3 went out in the 125,000 mile range. Wish I could afford this one, it’s definitely a sleeper. On my first one, left work at 11pm. Only reverse worked. I drove home 2.5 miles, down the side streets, in reverse. Ya do what ya gotta!!!!!
Why does everyone’s 383 look like they just pulled it out of a dirt-track car? Clean it up. If you’re going to have it dirty, leave it stock looking by painting it black and hiding it under a mid-80’s 442 air cleaner.
Amen.
The problem with all those modifications is when something goes wrong, you don’t know what they did, just that it’s no longer working. Nice looking car and probably fun to drive, I hope the transmission has been modified to withstand the engine, they weren’t all that great stock. I would also be concerned about the axle standing up to that kind of power it wasn’t designed to cope with.
I would love a car like this!! There is a lot to be said about the element of surprise!!!😱😱😍
I’m sorry but this really gave me a good laugh because I find it hilarious someone turned this into the little old lady from Pasadena 😄👍
I love it. Not at 12.5 though.
WHY, does everything have to be some race thing. We have an 87 Brougham with 260,000 miles on it. Me and my son took it on a 300 or so mile run yesterday. Put the cruise on 65 and let it go. A 305 with a 700r, no giant tachometer or that crap shifter. I hated those miserable things back in the early 80s. Like the comment above, when the mystery machine stops, yup it will be a mystery to figure out, not to mention this unit likely only gets 8 miles to a gallon with the ac on. Not everything needs to be a race car…pass
With 4.10 gears you’re probably right about 8 MPG!
Wouldn’t call a Caprice Wagon a grandma car. In 1989 my wife and I were in our early 30’s with three kids. I ordered a wagon exactly like this one. Before the invasion of the minivans it was a great choice for a family vehicle. Don’t recall seeing any grandmas driving one.
That’s the way to build a sleeper!Nothing on the outside even indicates that it is nothing more than an ordinary wagon.I like the fact it still has the wire hubcaps on it too.
I’ve always loved wagons and I love this one too. There’s usually something that a previous owner has modified that later owners won’t like and the same is true with this one. I won’t be buying it but if I did I would loose that floor shifter and put the shift back on the column. It’s not expensive or difficult to add fuel injection to an engine now and that would be another thing I would do to this wagon. It’s so common now to build a 383 sbc that you would not have to worry about parts and repairs if it gave trouble. If it doesn’t have a radical cam and it idles good so that driving it would be smooth and quiet then I think this would be a sweet ride that I would love to own. GLWTS.
This is what everyone wished Mom’s car would have become.
BIG C, YOU DA MAN, love that look like what us poor military guy had to do with little pay!
They did an excellent job with. Usually with a “sleeper” the person is tempted to do something that gives it away. Exhaust, wheels, just something they can’t resist. Not so here except inside with the tach & shifter. If it were mine, I also would not have that 4.10 rear, but 3.2whatever at most and it would still be quick for what it is. Cool vehicle!
4.10 is too much, 3.73s would be just right Chevy Chase might like this one!