My new obsession

Let me first say what I am not. I am not a mechanic or body man. But I have caught an obsession virus for these Buick Roadmaster wagons. Couple that with extraordinary long winters in Northern Wisconsin and you have a project on your hands.
Recently I bought this.......





I stumbled upon it on Craigslist. For reasons not understood by myself I drove a few hours to look at it. What I found was  pleasant surprise for vehicles in this area of the US. The Roadmaster had been purchased at auction in northern California and truck shipped to Minnesota for retail sale. Thus it had no, non, notta zip, nyet rust. I could fint not one speck of rust anywhere on or under the vehicle. To make it better yet it had this actual mileage with a clean Carfax report.....



Under the hood looked like this...........







The only downside to the purchase was that the transmission was on a down hill slide. I had the transmission rebuilt and pulled the wagon into my workshop for the winter. My plan is to spruce it up over the winter and go through everything to make sure it's as good as I can make it with limited skills. I thought I'd document my trail here on this site. I have learned so much from reading all the posts and seeing the gorgeous autos that are pictured. With that said I look forward to reading any advice or ideas that I can glean from this site.

I'll be posting my progress from time to time as I decide which way to go and what to do cosmetically to make it me....a 60 something retired fart.

These wagons are far too technical for a novice to work on,I will be glad to fly out and take it off your hands.LOLWelcome to the group,thats a beautiful wagon you found,low mileage and no rust makes it a rarity so take good care of it and no driving on salty roads.

That roady is CLEAN!! Nice find. You will enjoy!!

After reading over the local track's rule book it seems that all the exterior trim must come off before it can be entered in the demo derby. Lot of work ahead.

Nice buy. Great colour combo. Really like your neck of the woods.

kadonte wrote:

it seems that all the exterior trim must come off before it can be entered in the demo derby. Lot of work ahead.

I can only assume that the above was a joke.

jasonlachapelle wrote:

kadonte wrote:

it seems that all the exterior trim must come off before it can be entered in the demo derby. Lot of work ahead.

I can only assume that the above was a joke.

You might consider changing only the rims and tires. That color combo and mileage is very rare.

sherlock9c1 wrote:

jasonlachapelle wrote:

kadonte wrote:

it seems that all the exterior trim must come off before it can be entered in the demo derby. Lot of work ahead.

I can only assume that the above was a joke.

You might consider changing only the rims and tires.  That color combo and mileage is very rare.

I do like the color. The wood trim is a little flakey and the vinyl, although in decent shape carries 20 years of wear. I think I will keep the color and try my hand at a couple new experiences such as putting new vinyl on the wagon as well as repaint the trim surrounds, pilar saila and luggage rack, as well as hood, fender tops and bumper aprons as they are showing some clear coat wear. Also while it is inside for the winter I will replace shocks fore and aft, brakes all around, and two new mufflers. The exhaust is all clean but there is a soft spot beginning to show on the muffler seam by the outlets.

Gorgeous colors! Great find! PLEASE keep it safe and dry!

I like the color also maybe with time you will like it more Welcome. Jeff

Nice find, it looks super clean from the pics. And you have a sense of humor... demo derby, them's fightin' words round here.

Nice find!! Looks very clean under that hood!!

Keep the updates and pics coming!

Chris

I used to live in Eau Claire. Beautiful in Fall. What year is the wagon ?

sj95rmw wrote:

I used to live in Eau Claire. Beautiful in Fall. What year is the wagon ?

It is a 194 model year, born in March of 1994. Makes it a Pisces I 'spose. Yes it is beautiful in the fall up here, but ask me how I like it in Feb,Mar,Apr, and most of May and I may have additional adjectives.

brokecello wrote:

Nice find!! Looks very clean under that hood!!

 Keep the updates and pics coming!

     Chris

I sure will. And may I say that your wagon pictured in your post is stunning. I know that I will be changing my vinyl, I picked a 3M vinyl called "brushed titanium". I am close to attempting removal of woodgrain and then try my hand at vinyl application. Also, cleaning off the aluminum pieces around the perimiter of the wood vinyl is a pain in the arse.

Well, the woodgrained vinyl has for the most part been removed, and the trim is being stripped and painted a dark grey metallic, as well as the black rub strip on the stainless beltline.







Also got the set of wheels and tires I decided on. I chose to retain the 15" wheel diameter and went with the optional sized tire with raised white letters.



Now to try my hand at the vinyl application and paint spraying........

Wow, you started off with a really nice car.

That Dark Cherry Metallic / beige interior is one of the more uncommon, and therefore sought-after color combinations.

Interesting choice to replace the woodgrain:

3m brushed titanium.



I'll be following the thread to see if this works out.

YachtDriver wrote:

Wow, you started off with a really nice car.

That Dark Cherry Metallic / beige interior is one of the more uncommon, and therefore sought-after color combinations.

Interesting choice to replace the woodgrain:

3m brushed titanium.



I'll be following the thread to see if this works out.

The 3M color swatch is really misleading, the color is more towards a brushed aluminum with a little brown/pinkish tint. Very subtle. I too am hoping it works out. I am trying a lot of disciplines that I've not tried before. If I come even close to having a work product like the folk's wagons on this site I will be satisfied. If it turns out not so well, then I won't let anyone closer than 15 feet to decrease my odds of ridicule.

Looking forward to seeing the transformation on this cleeeeeaaaaannnn wagon!

So, today I tried my hand at auto painting. I Have plans to do a panel at a time where needed to rid the wagon of the weathered clear coat. The challenge I think will be the hood as it has the clear coat checked, so I will sand that down to the electro coat. I might even chicken out completely and have a pro do it, but usually I'm stubborn enough to plow through my own shortcomings til I get it somewhat acceptable. We'll see. I did the front and rear bumper aprons as well as the front fender tops. They turned out pretty good I think...done for today.

Looks pretty good from the pics,..and they are closer than 15 ft,.
so the ridicule meter never even moved,...

Holy cow! That is your first time laying paint like that? Looks great!!
  
Chris

Awesome paint work from a beginner!

brokecello wrote:

Holy cow! That is your first time laying paint like that?  Looks great!!
  
  Chris

Well, thank you. I must have watched every You Tube video on this subject. First time ever exceeding my data allowance for the month.  There's a lot to remember doing that stuff. Next time you see him, hug your painter!

What equipment did you use to paint?

sherlock9c1 wrote:

What equipment did you use to paint?

I have a Quincy 60 Gallon 2 Stage Compressor, Harbor Freight 2 gun kit #94572. I sprayed with the 1.4 needle set on both color and clear. I used Dupont ChromaBasecoat and the HC-7776S SnapCoat Clear with the 7765S Activator (60-70) Degrees. I used 2 full shots of a Canadian Blend Whiskey in Ginger Ale to aid in the application process also.

A sort of productive transformation. The first of the 3M 1080 Vinyl went on. I started with the tailgate as it looked like it would be the most difficult due to it having both convex and concave attributes. I was right about that. All goes well until that last corner. By the time you get there you have managed to minutely stretch your vinyl into the third, and quite possibly the fourth dimension. In the end it looks okay as far as execution and as far as anesthetics I really like the contrasts. It's hard to tell, but the trim color of a dark grey metallic picks up the colors in the vinyl.

looks really good! you work fast! lol

dang....I bow down Sir!! I could not get my tailgate vinyl on that well!! Had to do two halves (and left out the plate area)

AWESOME!!

You do work very fast I've been dragging my ass on my wagon. I notice in the cars reflection you have a nicely stocked shop of tools. Anxious to see the sides done. Jeff

You dont waste any time do you?Awesome first effort but you are embarassing some of us,mainly me.Keep up the great work.

benn wrote:

looks really good! you work fast! lol

Never let my wife hear that.

brokecello wrote:

dang....I bow down Sir!!  I could not get my tailgate vinyl on that well!!  Had to do two halves (and left out the plate area)

AWESOME!!

I found out rather late that the trick to the tailgate was to start from the bottom center and work up and out. Silly that something as small as that made all the difference in the world on the gate. Did the plate area  like Buick did it, in a separate piece.

bamalongroof wrote:

You do work very fast I've been dragging my ass on my wagon. I notice in the cars reflection you have a nicely stocked shop of tools. Anxious to see the sides done. Jeff

Well, you can't ever have enough tools. And it's a known fact that whoever dies with the most tools wins. I'm retired so I don't have a lot of responsibility other that to keep myself busy and content.

Flasheroo wrote:

You dont waste any time do you?Awesome first effort but you are embarassing some of us,mainly me.Keep up the great work.

Gentlemen; thank you for your encouragement. It makes the endeavor much more fun when others take an interest. I do appreciate it.

Another panel installed and some repaint work on the drivers front door pillar to remove paint chips. Also found that the passenger side rear door had been dinged at one time and pounded out. Most of the noticeable denting was luckily under the body strip molding however there were many small peen marks on the lower door apron that were hard to see with old eyes and standing upright. I went ahead and pushed it all straight from the inside of the door panel with wood wedges between the door skin and support horizontal support bar. It looked like the factory used expanding rubberized material to stabilize the door skin material in reference to the cross bar. Those were loosened so I sprayed a bit of self expanding foam to each area that the rubber was. Seems to do about the same thing it looks like.

Beautiful car, great find!

So, the drivers side is covered and the trim put on. It looks pretty good from my eyes. I still have to paint the mirrors and get them back on, but that can wait. I was thinking of tinting the windows and like manna from Heaven I snagged some. I was wandering the electronics isle of the local Goodwill store. Old people do that! Anyway there sat a box of 3M window tint. 22" wide by 100' long. New in a weathered box. So It priced at 16.99 and had a 1/2 price sticker.  For 8.50 I now have enough of this stuff to cover most of the vehicles in my community.











Another bit of good fortune  in that I found a Roadmaster wagon that is going to be parted out. I've made arrangements to go pick it this weekend. The gentleman that has it has made a deal with me that for 200.00 I can have all that I desire from the car. Thought that to be a pretty good bargain. Wondering what I should pillage from it. Suggestions? Thanks in advance.

This is looking really good. Nice work.

Wow. Subscribed for updates. GREAT paint work!!

OK,now you are just showing off and I no longer believe you are a rooky at body work.  
Always retrieve these parts
Rear cargo light lenses
Working power antenna
Moonroof shade and the surrounding frame
undamaged inner door panels
rear cargo area privacy cover
tailight lenses
rear opening glass
undamaged grills regardless of make
91 thru 93 roof rack sliders
front seat folddown armrest
MORE TO FOLLOW

Anybody have a link to the pictures of Jarrod's car? This is becoming a clone to it.

Is it a '91-93 wagon or a '94-96 wagon that's being parted out?

sherlock9c1 wrote:

Is it a '91-93 wagon or a '94-96 wagon that's being parted out?

It was a 1994. I drove there yesterday and picked it's bones today. It had a typical Minnesota body, pretty well gone. I did get quite a lot of the interior as it was in good condition

loweredd wrote:

Wow. Subscribed for updates. GREAT paint work!!

Thank you very much, it is sort of fun when somethin goes right.

Looking good so far. The titanium looks much better on the car thatn I thought it would from the samples.  

The first photos did not show the state of the paint. I didn't realize the paint was in need of so much work. You have quite a project going here.

Keep up the good work.

kadonte wrote:

loweredd wrote:

Wow. Subscribed for updates. GREAT paint work!!

Thank you very much, it is sort of fun when somethin goes right.

car looks realy good in the artificial light,. I hope the blow ins' match good in the sunlight,.

nick

phantom 309 wrote:

kadonte wrote:

loweredd wrote:

Wow. Subscribed for updates. GREAT paint work!!

Thank you very much, it is sort of fun when somethin goes right.

car looks realy good in the artificial light,. I hope the blow ins' match good in the sunlight,.

nick

Thanks, it's always good to think about what's in the other half of the glass. However, I think I'll concentrate on the part that is half full.

Any updates?

Slow progress due to weather. With the temperature at -23 yesterday and the bitter cold hanging about for the past weeks it is hard to keep the shop warm as I like it. Couple that with 4 dollar plus charge for propane and it makes it down right un-American. I think I'll blame it on Obama, everything else is. I did manage to make some progress. The parts that I picked from the wagon in Minnesota surprisingly had all the sideline rubber trim in a box. It had what I thought was the Holy Grail of trim; the tailgate trim. Seemed most every picture I saw had none on the tail. Anyway, I post a few pictures of my trek.








Various stages of priming the hood. Man that is a lot of area to sand. Put a coat of etch primer, followed by three coats of filler primer, block sanded, sprayed two more coats, final blocked and sanded with 600 grit.





Sprayed my rear view side mirrors and got them back on.


Had the tires mounted and balanced.




Took the grill from the parts donor, peeled the chrome off, filled the Buick logo and sprayed to match the rest of my trim.

Coming along nicely I need a shop with heat....

it looks great

I am having more and more trouble believing that you have never done this before,looks awesome!
Could you send some of that determination my way?

Flasheroo wrote:

I am having more and more trouble believing that you have never done this before,looks awesome!
Could you send some of that determination my way?

If you could see the hood I just tried to paint you wouldn't have any trouble at all believing. It seemed to be going okay up to the clear coat. I began spraying and all of a sudden a splatter of grey primer came out of the gun. Looks like self inflicted bird crap. Unfortunately in the first clear coat so there is nothing to sand til I get to the basecoat. Some days are much better than others.