96 Roadmaster wagon, 7 years in

I got the wagon in 2013 as retirement car and have been tweaking since.  Finally decided it was very much as I wanted it mechanically so definite keeper and did bodywork and paint this last winter.

Started life as the run of the mill decent shape, not great, wagon.





Looks like only two pics uploadable so will put more in next post

Now

Looks great. Nice work.

Hood and wheel detail





Hood is one piece glass from Phantomcf1 to replace damaged aftermarket steel hood that was on it.  As with everything fiberglass it took a lot of fitting and smoothing as well as bounce removal.

Wheels are Vision Rally wheel repops in aluminum, 17 X 7, with Vision centers that are repops of mid 60s Corvette Rally centers without Chevy or Corvette on them.  Ebay Buick badges added to blank centers.  Tires are Continental True Contact Tour in 235/60/17 running 34 psi front 29psi rear when without big load.  I never have cared for the narrow spoke 4 or 5 spoke wheels on older vehicles with ugly calipers and rear drums, so wanted something that showed a lot less opening, and these seemed to fit the rest of the style well.

Black bumper tread area and rocker panel black is Herculiner for durability.

The silver is very reflective and in bright light looks nearly the same as the white but in the shade almost gunmetal.  Scheme is sort of a nod to woodgrain history pattern.  PPG Omni base and clear urethane.

The ride height is standard height for a Caprice, which is a bit higher than a Buick normally.  It is a hauler so need clearance and capacity.

All new front end parts and springs, and then removed the damper as I truly believe they shouldn't be needed. New bushings in all of rear suspension

Air shocks and compressor removed for rear and in spring bags for minor leveling and load capacity was needed.

Started testing with KYB shocks, now Bilstein all around.

Crown Vic rear swaybar.

Handling and driveability are a bit of an obsession, so it has been tweaked a bit, all of it it not visible.  

Front upper control arms were removed, cut apart, some material removed other added, and welded back together, to get more caster without messing up the camber.  Easy to get +6 degrees now and much improved directional stability.

Steering gear and pump were  sent to Lee power steering for upgrade and rebuild.  I went with a 30 inch pound torsion bar and and 14 to 1 fixed ratio gear.  No more variable assist, horrible, steering.  Blueprinted reverse direction pump without the bypass from Lee, and then went with Caprice non variable assist PS hoses.

Drives very well now.  Stable, responsive, straight, surprisingly good in the corners.

Engine and trans are original and stock.  

2" receiver hitch.

Partial use of a Spectre cold air inlet but used the stock airbox, to get rid of the big cover and chambered duct, which hit the glass hood.  

Upsized one of the fan motors to the towing higher wattage one and added manual override as factory brings them on very late, like over 225 degrees.

You've been a busy man!  She looks great; it's come a long way from the basic white Roadmater.  I guess I was wrong about having 5 posts before you can post pictures.

Question, did you paint the rubber belt line trim?

Tom

silverfox103 wrote:

You've been a busy man!  She looks great; it's come a long way from the basic white Roadmater.  I guess I was wrong about having 5 posts before you can post pictures.

Question, did you paint the rubber belt line trim?

Tom

I was actually very surprised that the forum let me put up pix so early, but it looks like it limited to 3 per post? I did do the "host" link to store them, maybe that makes a difference.

Didn't paint the beltline rubber trim as it was in decent, if shorter, condition. It is quite shiny as it was when I got it. I did have to reattach some of it.

The biggest trouble with the beltline was digging up the right clips. On the front passenger door, for instance most were broken and held on with rivets, with the bent up door underneath. Numerous others also missing or bad. The car was a grocery getter for many years, it appears, and it had been bumped from nearly all sides. Worst was the right fender and passenger front door, which were very hard to get flat. It got hit high on the fender and door, right below the top body line bend which pushed up the fender at the hood area. The repair that had been done just gooped in the bondo to get looking OK on the fender and then it appears they bent the hood edge up about 36/16" to match, probably by shutting it on a fender pad or something.

I did spring for a couple used rear corners, though, as they were too damaged to straighten. Getting them on and stable is quite an issue, it appears, and I wound up using a couple long trim screws that were just hidden under the rubber that I took off and reinstalled after mounting the moulding.

Obviously, the front bumper beltline was painted and cleared with rest of the cover.

Welcome, nice introduction post, and thank you for sharing the wagon porn.

Kewl ride!

lots of thought and effort put into it!

nice looking car!!

rcktpwrd wrote:

Kewl ride!

lots of thought and effort put into it!

You can't imagine how much time, angst, and discussion when on here, with DW, about the paint scheme.  I tend to like "non standard and non common" and she is very much more conservative and "safe" in her guesses.  We have never run across any vehicle that had mixed a very bright silver metallic with white, so had no real idea what it would look like on a big vehicle like the wagon.  We were locked into the white part as I didn't want to do the ugly masking on the roof or jams for a driver.

We were both pleasantly surprised just how well the silver worked and were very relieved as that would have been a pain to change afterward.

This is the previous toy that we had for near 30 years.  Homebuilt twin turbo EFI 340 CID with a 5 speed manual 600/600 power and super driveable.  It also had non standard striping which some Mopar purists didn't care for

[url=https://servimg.com/view/20200311/8]