pimpin ain't easy - 1992 buick roadmonster

i present to you, the winter ride, from the look of it for several years to come. CL, from florida, never seen salt, and i think the guy said it sat for 4 years. trans fluid was all in driveway under car, hole in right taillight, tires horribly flat spotted/cracked, no right turn signal, driver window wouldn't go up, grille in back seat, overall filthy outside and not bad inside. $800.

check out the straight!

the dirt on the hood, think it needs a bath.

dirty but very strong 350

and i couldn't help bolt on one of my ghetto fabulous 22's that'll go on in the spring, because they have new tires on them and i have not had luck selling them.

observations: it needs cleaned, bad. inside and out, but mostly out. leather needs conditioned. climate control works, heat works, air works. turn signal was a bad bulb, so that's fixed. i have snows to go on it for winter, unfortunately they are blackwalls. whitewalls on buicks make me happy. the power antenna is missing, but i have not looked to see if the line was cut or unplugged. radio is important. car is quiet as can be, which is both nice and maddening at the same time. i'm used to a little noise, but it'll do. front brakes are wasted, rotors are pitted big time from sitting. ordered hoses/calipers/pads/rotors today.

things i do not like: the rear bumper is the wrong shade of white. i will fix that in spring. one tiny spot of rust started just behind the RR wheel, but it's not ohio road salt eat you from the inside out rust, so it'll be easy to take care of and paint with the bumper. needs rt tail, should be relatively easy to get at pull a part.

things i love: super solid, very very little rust. i hate to subject a clean car to the salt, but i'd rather do that than drive a rusty car that loses pieces every week. vinyl top. not in awesome shape, but i love me some old guy vinyl topped land yacht. the seats make my back feel glorious. think big blue leather couch with seatbelts. roadmasters all came with real clusters with real gauges and a tach - why they did this in the old guy car and left a tach out of the impala SS i know not, but it's sweet. 2.56 gears are going to make for some 27-28mpg highway cruising, 10-12 better than my truck. it has a new radiator. trunk is so big. it's probably an 8 body trunk, 12 if you cut them up smaller.

the plan is to do a thorough cleaning, go through it to make sure it's ready for winter, swipe the trailer hitch off my impala and slap it on the buick, and roll it for winter duty when truck is not needed. it'll also be the backup in case anything bad happens to our dailies, as my only other running vehicle besides them is the 454/5 speed c1500. my wife can not drive it, nor can i fit 2 kids in car seats in it, so it's not a feasible backup. long run plan is very light "restoration" work like getting the rear bumper the right shade of white, rewrapping the peeling black on the b pillars, etc. we're going to try to get it cleaned up nice and do enough touch ups to get it to a car show next saturday for trick or treating from car to car for the kids.

updates to follow.

Perfect. I loved mine most of the time.

take a bath you slob!

grille back, and hit the headlights with the buffer and some polishing compound.

the top is much bluer now, scrubbed with a scotch brite and dish soap.

also cut the peeling vinyl off the b pillars and rewrapped them today. going to pick up the new brakes shortly, and plan to get those done ASAP, because i'm not driving it without new brakes. will be able to get a temp tag monday or tuesday.

need to junkyard up a hood ornament while i go to pull a part looking for a tail light.

patgizz wrote: need to junkyard up a hood ornament while i go to pull a part looking for a tail light.

Just make your own-provided it looks like a bulls-eye

Rats, for $800 bucks I'd make a Caddy-mino out of it.

Or is it a Retiree Ranchero?

I wish I lived somewhere that I could get a "winter beater"!

Put SS badges on it. Not because Super Sport, because Ocean-going vessel!

I love it!

sethmeister4 wrote: I wish I lived somewhere that I could get a "winter beater"!

no you don't, it sucks. i hate winter.

plate and insurance acquired. going to do brakes wednesday

drove today, as soon as the rust scrubbed off the rotors it stopped fine, but continuing with the new brakes wednesday theme.

starter puked. it didn't sound healthy to begin with, luckily it's the same starter as every other gm around here, so i have a couple on the shelf. think i have a bad one with a lifetime warranty so i could go straight new if i wanted, and the one i took off my 4.3 truck a couple months ago was fine too. the tires are so flat spotted they need to go ASAP. everything else is tight. it steers great, tracks straight, does not need shocks, has no creaks or rattles. very pleased there.

whatever dong removed the power antenna cut the wires, including the antenna cable. duh. not sure i have any complete antenna assemblies laying around. will have to splice the cable.

Nice Roadmoster!
If it makes it back from The Challenge then we will have to get together in Ohio with our Florida sedans that were the height of lux back when Ross Perot was running for President.

operation new front brakes wedensday was a pain in the rear end. first order was replace the ailing starter that started acting up tuesday and almost left us stranded. starter should be easy on these cars, except there is a big frame brace from crossmember-lca mount-frame rail that needs removed, and the head of one bolt is behind the control arm bushing, making getting the lock nut off almost impossible. once that was done the brakes went quick. calipers, hoses, pads, rotors. the fittings came right off and i was praising the fact that i bought another southern car.

bleeding time came around. one caliper had a smaller than stock bleed screw, so the speed bleeders i bought only worked on the left side. my motive pressure bleeder has nothing big enough to fit the reservoir, and i bought the $$$ kit with all the lids. my solution was pump pedal, jam pvc pipe against pedal and seat, run around and bleed. over and over. on the last pump a line popped. so i ran all new front lines and did the whole dance over again.

once that was done i borrowed the wheels from my impala to get rid of the scary dry separating cracked ones.

made it to the "trunk or treat" car show we were shooting for. great success, 60 mile round trip, lots of kids, lots of nice people handing out candy including us, balloon lady made tigger a little balloon dinosaur. tigger gives the roadmonster two thumbs up