Every younger generation exercises their right to avoid buying what their parents did. Those of us who grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s have a deep aversion to minivans. No matter how great a minivan is, and they are great, we will lean towards the gas guzzling SUV. That’s what makes this custom Buick Roadmaster perfect.
Commissioned by Hollywood producer, Ray Stark, this Buick Roadmaster has three forward-facing rows of seating and still one rear facing. Mr. Stark is made his mark on Hollywood with his successful films: West Side Story, The Misfits, Annie, and Steel Magnolias. He must have been doing very well because he reportedly spent six figures on the customization of this sweet, sweet wagon.
There is so much room for activities in the Roadmaster. It has six doors plus the rear liftgate/tailgate combo. The car is big enough that mandatory evacuation drills need to be practiced. The paint-matched cargo box adds to the usability of the rear-facing fourth row of seats by moving some luggage to the top. There is also enough room for a rooftop tent if you were thinking about safariing the Roadmaster. The breakover angle is so large that it isn’t worth calculating.
The interior is very blue with a modified front bench as the second row and the standard rear seat behind it. A TV/Video Tape Player is also in the second row along with a fold-down desk for the rear passenger. The dash does appear to have suffered some since 1992 and is wearing a blue dash pad.
It possibly has the standard 350/4l60e combo, meaning it’s an LS swap away from big power, burnouts, and some big radius donuts. Who knows how strong the lengthened driveshaft is? But it would be fun to find out.
Is it a candidate for Radwood Royalty on December 2nd? We think so. It only could be beaten by a Wagon Queen Family Truckster.
So don’t buy that minivan, buy this Roadmaster. Your kids’ stories will be better and you will definitely have more fun.
Custom Buick Roadmaster is the Answer
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24 responses to “Custom Buick Roadmaster is the Answer”
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I like it, and yes, an LS swap would help, along with a mini-tub and narrowed Ford 9″, to get the extra power down, along with bigger brakes.
As far as the driveshaft goes, you’d want to go two-piece. Given the stretch, it may already be running a two-piece, but you’d want something stronger with an LS motor, and maybe a better four-link setup in the rear.
Here’s the ad, if anyone is interested:
https://www.styleautocars.com/1992_Buick_Roadmaster_Monterey_CA_22531504.veh-
$25K? Take my money!
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Reading your comment, I mistakenly thought I was on the Rivian electric pickup truck article until I got to your link. It’s a very funny comment in the context of that electric truck.
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No-go on the narrowed rear, or you can’t load plywood in the cargo area.
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I hope it has a Car Phone and a Billy Blanks Tae Bo tape stuck in the VCR. I’d love to go full ’90s on this and fill it full of sullen teenagers in Bundeswahr tank tops and tanker boots listening to Shriekback and smoking clove cigarettes.
How’s that for a Gen-X mid-life-crisis car purchase?-
Connect a Nintendo to that TV!
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It is the answer to a question that was never asked . Land yacht of the year.
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I saw this on Barn Finds and had a good laugh. When I see stretched cars like this, I always consider how they were built. I’m wondering if the center doors are made by welding together the front half of a rear door with the rear half of a front door?
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That is usually the way.
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Ah. Dumbass me, I guess I never looked into it deeply enough to learn. I suppose after that, the custom glass isn’t really a big deal.
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You try not to use custom glass if you can, you try to find a piece of glass used in another variant of the car, with the same curvature. That’s why there is a quarter light there on the new middle doors. It’s impossible to cut the toughened glass down that is used for side glazing on cars, unless you can cut it before toughening.
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Ok, tell us the car you streched in a limo.
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Ha, it was going the other way, making a two door version of a four door car. But I got to see a few limos being built and stretched out.
I was going to make a replica of this,
https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3122/3238967205_99824a85b2.jpg
or to be more exact, this, the V8 version with a different roof line. The original and only Rover 3500 Graber Coupe has gone missing. The only Graber Coupes left are the 2000 and convertible.
http://motorbase.s3.amazonaws.com/pictures/contributions/990529-european/std_74_rover_p6_3500_v8_by_graber.jpg -
Coupe is always stylish. I loved even the Lancia k coupe, that was very odd. Nice idea for your project.
The Rover 3500 reminds me an Italian retrocar magazine were there was the test of my friend’s red Fiat Panda 30 (I helped the photographer taking the pictures) and an article about the 3500 and because it was the last car of Grace Kelly -
I have the Kappa’s ancestor, a Gamma Coupe. Slightly less awkward looking. Grace Kelly’s demise has had a lot of scurrilous gossip surrounding it.She was driving her self described favourite car and it undoubtedly saved her, and her daughters, lives after she suffered a stroke while driving. The car plunged over a 30+ metre cliff after ploughing through a rock wall. The occupants were both alive after the accident, Princess Stephanie was almost unhurt, but Princess Grace suffered another stroke, a major brain haemmorhage, that night, and never recovered consciousness. The remains of the car were crushed and dumped into the Mediterranean.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/25/6b/78/256b78f619ca327c2478e59964e1c534.png
http://www.letribunaldunet.fr/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/3516543_grace-600×336.jpg
http://reelreviews.com/images/stories/gracekelly/grace-kelly-car-crash.jpg -
Gamma Coupe was beautiful, just as crazy as the Kappa, I still remember some of those around the streets (I live in Italy).
For Grace Kelly I didn’t know it was a stroke, I remember she died because of the accident (read articles many years ago and Rover 3500 V8 was the only thing sure in my mind) -
I always take the opportunity to point out that the car wasn’t at fault and actually saved their lives.
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In the picture with open doors looks like a modding of the front one. I started looking at the pictures with your same interest, how do they do the middle door?
“…Radwood Royalty… only could be beaten by a Wagon Queen Family Truckster.”
The WQFTs were actually ’79 Fords, one year too early for Radwood, so I have to assume they would of course be firmly denied admittance.
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Regardless of underpinnings, the WQFT is an 80’s car, the same way the 1966 Batmobile had been incubating for more than a decade after its Futura beginnings.
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I’d say that what the car prop guys used underneath doesn’t matter, it was a new car in whatever year the story was set. If that is 1979 then fair enough but 1982-83 is more likely.
The ‘can’t fit there’ is strong with this one
“So much room for activities” – Like the Catalina Wine Mixer?
In reality I grow up in a white mk1 VW Golf 1.6 diesel. But with optional 5th gear. My father, what a hoon.
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