Save the wagon.
A 1985 Chrysler Town & Country Turbo wagon, a lot of optimism, and a garage full of lessons I did not know I needed.
The most important pages on the site.
Current Status
A snapshot of what is working, what is broken, and what I'm tackling next.
Current Status →Everything I've Done
Every repair, diagnosis, success, failure, and questionable decision I've documented so far.
View Timeline →Buyer’s Guide
Thinking about one of these wagons? Here’s what I’d check first after living with mine.
Read Buyer’s Guide →2.2 Turbo Survival Guide
Everything I've learned so far about keeping one of these strange wagons alive.
Read Guide →A weird old wagon with a very real story.
Broke Weirdo's Garage follows the revival of a 1985 Chrysler Town & Country Turbo wagon. It is not a perfect restoration. It is not a museum piece. It is a project, a memory machine, and occasionally a source of chaos.
The goal is simple: get the wagon back on the road, keep it there, and document the whole thing as honestly as possible.
Thinking about buying one of these wagons?
Should You Buy a 1985 Chrysler Town & Country Wagon?
Before you buy one of these wonderfully weird wagons, here’s what I’ve learned from rust checks, cooling issues, vacuum lines, interior parts, wrong turns, and small victories.
It is not a perfect-car buying guide. It is a real-world guide from someone slowly bringing one back to life.
Newest video update.
Every repair teaches me something. Sometimes it is how to fix the wagon. Sometimes it is how not to.
Latest wagon adventure loading...
Sometimes it is a repair. Sometimes it is a wrong part. Sometimes it is me learning that a job is harder than it looked in my head.
Current condition: complicated.
Pick your rabbit hole.
Everything I've Done
The honest project tracker, including what is finished and what is still chaos.
View Progress →Latest Repairs.
Instrument Cluster Adventure
Half the dash lights worked. Then I found a disconnected harness and created several new problems.
Read Repair →Sagging Headliner Fix
An $8 solution that actually worked and made the wagon feel better immediately.
Read Repair →Paint Mistake Recovery
Sanding revealed orange peel, primer burn-through, and mystery roof bondo.
Read Repair →The previous paint job became my problem.
Paint Mistake Recovery
The bad orange peel paint job came with the wagon. I started sanding, then primer revealed the texture was still there. Then I found a ton of body filler on the roof.
So now this is not just paint. It is mystery archaeology with sandpaper.
It is not just a project car.
This wagon is the same model I drove as a teenager. The original one came from my grandparents, and this one came back into my life because some amazing friends remembered how much that first car meant to me.
It is also a fake wood 1980s turbo Chrysler wagon, which means it has exactly the right amount of personality and exactly the wrong amount of vacuum lines.
Repairs, photos, videos, and questionable decisions.
One more thing working than yesterday.
The wagon is not done. That is kind of the point. Every repair, mistake, and weird little discovery becomes part of the story.