This Buick was built at the Atlanta, Georgia factory during the 4th week of January, 1954. The body was built in Flint, Michigan and shipped to Atlanta for installation on a chassis. It was one of 3,305 Roadmaster Convertibles built that year. Buick referred to it as Model 76C. As best as can be determined from the options on the car, its advertised delivered price was $3,520.56. Not a lot is known about this specific car’s history other than that it lived much of its first life in Arkansas. When it was located in mid 1988, it was in the northeast corner of Oklahoma in the town of Ketchum. As of the census of 2000, there were 286 people living in Ketchum. The car was last driven by a retired adjuster for Farmer’s Insurance. The last fellow to own it purchased it as a parts car. In other words, it was considered to be junk and was to be sold off a part at a time. What saved it was a fellow in Phoenix, Arizona, who in the 1980s was in the business of shipping 50’s American cars to Scandinavia and Japan. With Japan’s economy booming in the 80’s, a late 50’s Cadillac was bringing $25,000. in almost any condition. This gentleman in Phoenix had others searching barns and backyards throughout the country looking for cars to ship overseas. They received a commission for finding them. A retired fireman living in Tulsa located a Caddy convertible in Ketchum. The Caddy owner agreed to sell him the Caddy only if he also bought the Buick. The Buick was in too poor a condition for export so it was placed for sale in the July, 1988 edition of Hemming's Motor News – where I found it. North American Van Lines brought it to Massachusetts. It then underwent a 10 year complete restoration.
It has a 200 horsepower 322 cubic inch V-8 engine with a 4-barrel carburetor, a Dynaflow automatic transmission, power steering, power brakes, a power antenna, 4-way power seats, Wonderbar radio, a power top and power windows. It weighs 4,355 pounds, does as much as 17 mpg on the highway and cruises happily at highway speeds, limited only by the caution necessary with bias ply tube tires. |
In 1993 the body was removed from the frame. The body and frame were blasted down to bare metal. All rust was repaired and the entire floor pan from gas pedal to trunk and rocker panel to rocker panel was replaced with a solid floor from a Buick in Idaho. Virtually every nut and bolt was replaced as was every wire. The engine and transmission were rebuilt. All mechanical parts were rebuilt or replaced with NOS (new old stock) parts, that is original factory parts still in their boxes. Another 1954 Buick we own and many Buicks in junkyards from Texas to Oklahoma to Idaho gave their lives so that this Buick might live again. Most of the chrome is NOS that has been replated. The leather interior is new, matched in color and stitching pattern exactly to the original. The exterior color, Cavalier Blue, though done with a modern paint, is an exact match to the original metallic paint. Details from the original dealer option Kelsey-Hayes wire wheels, the 8.00-15 bias ply wide white wall tires with tubes, the original headlamps found in a junkyard in Idaho, the color of every wire to the brackets that hang the exhaust pipes are as they came from the factory in 1954. Even the glass is cut from sheets of new old stock. At the Buick National Meet in Batavia, NY in July 2005, this car was judged for authenticity and workmanship. It was awarded 399 of a possible 400 points, given a Gold Senior Award and chosen as the Best Post World War II Buick at that year’s national show. And it was driven 456 miles each way to that show. This Buick is no “trailer queen”. These Buicks were meant to be driven. |
