Batboard

Hello all. I am currently 16 years old and will be getting my license in about 3-4 months and a car to follow shortly after. I plan on purchasing a Chevy Caprice (around '95 ~ish model) I also plan on installing a CDM1250 of mine and possibly a M1225 or scanner to follow as a thought. Does anyone know of any possible locations to mount a '1250 (or pre-built consoles)

Thanks for any advice.
-Ray

well, if you're sixteen, and your funds will be rather limited (unless you have some serious silver spoons action going on there) i'd say right on the ol tranny hump in a standard standoff angle mount (seen em' made by a million people, so not gonna drop names here) right on the floor.

I hope you have an extensive slush fund for vehicle repairs, because old Chevy's are not cheap to maintain. They'll five and dime you to death. I know, as I have two of 'em. Major parts are still plentiful (for now), but they ain't cheap and some are a b*tch to R&R.

Oh yeah, something else to keep in mind for the high school budget...my last fill-up was $66.

You may want to consider something smaller and less prone to age-related failures. Seriously.

Thanks for the heads-up then, guys. I had no idea they were a quite a pain in the a$$ like that. I knew they were gas hogs, but I didn't think that much. Thanks for the advice.

I have a 94 9C1 LT1, and I'v had the alternator go out. That's all I had break in the last 2.5 years and 40,000 miles. It's only up to 170,000 miles, so I would not concider it to it's halflife yet.

As far as being a gas hog, I get around 18-19 mpg in the city, and my lasy highway trip was 23.7 mpg with an average speed of 81.3 MPH (GPS timed).

There are several B-Body forums, two in general have lots of info. If you'd like, I'll find the links to post. The B-Body is a great car, and I plan on getting another when I can.


One thing I'll add, changing the sparkplugs will take some time. Good thing it is not needed too often

When i was in high school, gas was $0.99/gal. I don't know if I would be able to aford driving to school now that it costs almost 2.5x that. Find a Honda Civic and mount the radios in that.

I've thought of gas prices, but I also know both of my vechicles are paid for, run well, and are full size American iron

With cheap insurance, very cheap taxes, and a very durable & easy to fix design, I'll keep my Caprice & bronco

As far as a caprice install, I have a scanner velcroed to the dash

007 wrote:I hope you have an extensive slush fund for vehicle repairs, because old Chevy's are not cheap to maintain. They'll five and dime you to death. I know, as I have two of 'em. Major parts are still plentiful (for now), but they ain't cheap and some are a b*tch to R&R.

Oh yeah, something else to keep in mind for the high school budget...my last fill-up was $66.

You may want to consider something smaller and less prone to age-related failures. Seriously.

yEah, another former multi caprice owner agree's, great cars but they aren't cheap to maintain and the gas mileage is worse than my Tahoe.

Try a Lumina instead.

On topic: Since the Caprices are getting up there age-wise, not too many people make custom consoles for them anymore. I think Galls had one, but it was too narrow to take a Spectra or something silly like that. Anyway, I used a cheapo 4-unit rack in mine:




Off-topic: My car was also a maintenance-hogging bomb. Then again, I've known people who ran theirs up to 250,000. The mitigating factor is (assuming we're talking about surplus 9c1 units) is how hard the original agency drove them. Watch how your local cops drive; if they dog their cars then you obviously don't want to waste money on one at an auction or something.

007 wrote:I hope you have an extensive slush fund for vehicle repairs, because old Chevy's are not cheap to maintain. They'll five and dime you to death. I know, as I have two of 'em. Major parts are still plentiful (for now), but they ain't cheap and some are a b*tch to R&R.

He ain't kidding. The 94-96 Chevys are particular in the parts they use, but there is an aftermarket following and some items can still be purchased through the GM supply chain. http://9c1.com/ http://www.nolimitsmotorsports.net/products and of particular note http://9c1.com/parts/dal.htm

Oh yeah, something else to keep in mind for the high school budget...my last fill-up was $66.

Where are you hiding all the extra gas?

You may want to consider something smaller and less prone to age-related failures. Seriously.

Yeah, unless you're a gearhead who likes turning wrenches every chance you can get, it may be a bit taxing. Buying a transmission, then a new rear-end four years later can get expensive.

motorola_otaku wrote:On topic: Since the Caprices are getting up there age-wise, not too many people make custom consoles for them anymore. I think Galls had one, but it was too narrow to take a Spectra or something silly like that. Anyway, I used a cheapo 4-unit rack in mine:

Whacker!

Off-topic: My car was also a maintenance-hogging bomb. Then again, I've known people who ran theirs up to 250,000. The mitigating factor is (assuming we're talking about surplus 9c1 units) is how hard the original agency drove them. Watch how your local cops drive; if they dog their cars then you obviously don't want to waste money on one at an auction or something.

County cars are also preferred to city cars -- the miles will be more road miles. And start looking for junk cars of the same vintage for spare parts.

I had a caprice when i turned 16 too.. I had an mt1000 convertacom at first and then upgraded to a maxtrac. I put the maxtrac under the dash with no problems. A stacker style mount would probably work well.

Just dont get to hamsexy with it. Girls dont like riding around in a whacker mobile.

wb4bsd wrote: Just dont get to hamsexy with it. Girls dont like riding around in a whacker mobile.

Amen...glad somebody said it

SlimBob wrote:

007 wrote: Oh yeah, something else to keep in mind for the high school budget...my last fill-up was $66.

Where are you hiding all the extra gas?

It's only 23 gallons, but at $2.5x a gallon it was damn expensive. The price has moderated since then....I think there was a car wash in there, too

Well, I finally got a car.

It is a 1994 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP, w/ DOHC (dual over-head cam) V6 3.6 litre.
Cosmetically it's 10/10, but has 150,000 miles (all highway, tho)

The reason I opted for that over the caprice was that it was offered to me by my neighbors for $300. So good of a deal I decided not to pass it up. Right now it has an MCS2000, CDM1250 and a Yaesu FT1500m in it.