New (to me) 1996 Buick Roadmaster wagon

Howdy!

About 3 weeks ago I purchased a '96 Roadmaster wagon... The late '80s and '90s GM wagons had been one of the vehicles on my hobby radar for a while and when it came time to get into a hot rod/cruiser again, this is what came home to me.

It's an adriatic blue wagon with 49k miles that had been owned by an older couple in New Jersey or New York. The husband passed away and it went to auction. The purchaser at the auction picked it up because it was so clean with unknown plans for the car but elected to sell it for other projects. That's how it came to me.

It runs and rides AWESOME. I'm currently changing all the fluids for a fresh maintenance baseline and things are looking good. I've added some street flow (Flowmaster) mufflers so that it actually sounds like there is an LT1 under the hood. The only other "mods" I have planned in the short term are some new tires and Torq Thrust wheels.

I got lucky... the car has the F40 heavy duty suspension, V08 heavy duty cooling system, V92 trailer package, G80 limited slip differential and the JA2 heavy duty brakes. There is no hitch assembly so it hasn't actually been used for towing. The paint is in super good shape although there are a few chips and dings here and there. The interior is just about flawless. I think the only things that DOESN'T work is a driver's side rear door window that won't go down and a tape deck that doesn't want to play tapes (any suggestions? tape goes in, the player switches tape sides and then ejects it).

I'm loving this car!

welcome to the forums!

great looking car!

Thank you! I'm looking forward to driving it on the weekends and to car shows/cruises and such.

""tape deck that doesn't want to play tapes""

This is a common problem for Delco decks of that era. Do a google search for your year and symptoms. There are a ton of YouTubes describing DIY fixes.


A beautiful example of a Wagon! Enjoy.

Yeah it was giving me an error code of "10". I have no desire to tear the dash apart myself (although I want the tape deck to work!). I'll put a tape in and it acts like its gonna play it, then it switches direction as though the tape has come to the end of one side and is about to play the other side, and then the deck ejects the tape...

Welcome to the forum.

Love the car! I also got my RMW three weeks ago!

""I have no desire to tear the dash apart myself""

Not that hard to get to the tape unit. Of course everything is brittle, but just take extra care.

FSMs are still available. It will prove to be your best ally during your ownership.

Yeah, the first thing I bought off of ebay was a factory service manual. I've owned them for the past 25 years for each Harley I've ever had (and still have) and they are priceless. I think I got both the "A" & "B" book for about $90.

And I found a YouTube video of a radio deck replacement on a '95 Roadmaster. It actually doesn't look any more difficult than taking apart the dash on my '12 Wrangler which I've done a few times to install auxiliary lighting so I'll probably tackle the head unit replacement myself too.

Thanks!

I had a similar issue with the tape deck on my 96 RMW. I found a company online and bought a refurbished am/fm/cd/cassette/bluetooth radio. I have few cassettes, but I tried it and it worked, CD player works, I really dont play the radio much, I mostly play via bluetooth these days. While I hade the dash open, I cut the wire to raise the antenna and spliced in a switch. Soldered, shrink wrapped the connection. Since I almost never use the radio function, I didn't see a good reason to run the antenna up and down every time I drive the car.

Welcome!
Enjoy!

Tom

at least it doesn't eat tapes - mine came with an after factory cd/tape unit that decided to stop working and held a tape hostage for a while before i was able to get it out without damage.... I had a cheap double din dual touchscreen in my old 96 that served me well, but if you want to keep it more original, should be easy to find working replacements. Nice wagon! how's the undercarriage? (being a northern car always curious)

The undercarriage is in rather good shape- some surface rust on a few things but nothing to be concerned about.

I ordered a refurbished AM/FM tape player (stock replacement) from OEM radios so let's see what happens. For $90 it's worth it to me and it's guaranteed so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Beautiful, definitely makes me miss mine. Congratulations and welcome to the forums!

Thanks! Transmission has been service, brake system has been flushed (and both look good, by the way), added some street flow mufflers to actually hear the LTI and planning on some 17x7 Torq Thrusts in the near future with some 235/60R17s.

welcome aboard, nice clean one!