Mike Hayes got a whopper here: a battered Buick Roadmaster sporting a Chevy caprice front door. How many other body parts would fit? A Chevy front clip and some Chevy badges would turn it into a Chevy…Master!
I’m going to just insert Mike’s comments at the Cohort:
Battered But Unbowed. The stories this car could tell…
What do you mean “Size doesn’t matter?”
Label from a dealer in Terre Haute Indiana. Apparently still in business selling trucks, with the same telephone number. The car now resides in Seattle, WA.
Now that’s a real car!
I’m impressed that not only did the owner find a Caprice door that fit, but also managed to match the color.
Complete with the required compact spare tire! Perfect! Now if it was only shot in a trailer park…
These only ever came with a full size spare. The rear wheels are stock road wheels just with the wheelcovers missing.
Because the trailer park is where the battered and unbowed deserve to end up as far as you are concerned?
Let them eat cake
You show you have little class with such a remark, oh who can you shame next?
So many options…so many kinds of people to scorn…!
In my imagination, the owner/driver of that Frankenbuick knows exactly what he’s up to and is striving for something mean and gritty in the way that the Bluesmobile (and sometimes other retired and battered police vehicles) conveys. It’s so rough, it’s cool. Very cool.
The neighborhood it seems to be parked in doesn’t exactly look like one where owners are driving whatever they can find. No, I think this is very purposeful.
What I hope is that the randomness is all buttoned down tightly and that it doesn’t sound like a bucket of bolts, flapping panels and bottomed out suspension when moving. I’d also love to see what the interior looks like. Lots of opportunities in there for transplantation of GM parts other than those originating with the car.
In 1959, Chevrolet, along with the other GM marques, were forced to use Buick’s doors. So it only seems fair…!!!
I truly admire the Craftsman house behind the Buick. So many received half-hazard additions during the depression or WWII labor surge depending on the city.
The rest of the neighborhood looks fine to me. Surprised someone hasn’t snatched it up and brought it back to its original glory.
Many of us are familiar with the edict GM handed down in the late 1950s that in order to get the hurriedly restyled 1959 models, all five car divisions would have to share the front doors originally designed for the Buick. This resulted in a downward slope built into the sides of the car needed to match up to the Buick door contours, giving the 59 and 60 models a distinctive look.
As far as I’m aware, GM didn’t share front doors between divisions `1on their big RWD sedans again until the “whale” bodies of the early ’90s – I’m pretty sure a Cadillac Fleetwood or Olds Custom Cruiser front door would have fit this car too. It looks like the rear doors may also interchange on all but the Caddy, as the wheelbases are shared, even though only the Buick sedan has that small piece of fixed glass in the rear side door.
Does anyone know which car the ’91 front doors were originally designed for? I’m guessing not the Roadmaster; most likely Chevy had the most influence in the design’s shape and Buick, Olds, and Cadillac just had to make it work the best they could. I always found the 1991-96 Park Avenue looked and felt more like a Buick than the Roadmaster did, largely because nearly all the sheetmetal and interior was unique to Buick.
I’d venture to guess that the doors were originally designed for the Chevy, and every marque that used that platform had to use the Chevy doors. I based my assumption on the fact that the Chevy was the volume seller, and was the one being redesigned from 1990 to 1991. Buick didn’t have a RWD sedan in 1990, only the Electra Estate wagon was RWD. The wagon versions all used the Chevy’s front clip with different grilles.
Front doors for all the full size GM cars will work across all car lines including the wagons. Cladding can do amazing things.
I suspect that the B-Body doors were shared in the box era, at least after the 1980 aero refresh. It’s a little hard to tell, but the doors are definitely all the same shape and the character lines all seem to line up. See below.
Chevy:
Olds:
Buick:
The ’77-’79 B-body doors aren’t shared; I ran to go look as soon as I saw the challenge. But I think you’re probably right about the ’80-up B-bodies.
77-79 B body wagons all used the Chevy door. Buicks had a little metal grafted onto it by the mirror to match the body lines, oldsmobile pressed wagon specific front fenders to blend the lines. i cannot recall if this continued in the 80+ wagons….
The platform is gm B Body this era 91-96 started with the Roadmaster and caprice with a total redesign. The public wasn’t very excited about the upside down turtle caprice but they sold plenty for taxis and law enforcement because they were powerful enough with the 5.7 and Posi rearend but they didn’t really start becoming infamous until 1994 when they added a De-tuned LT1 engine from the corvette and the impala ss was returned. The Cadillac Fleetwood got the lt1 standard and most Roadmaster as well. Unfortunately some caprices at this time also got a 4.3 cubic inch’”baby LT1” looks the exact same but about 50% of the power and I still don’t understand what was the point.
The Fleetwood is a D body not a B Body only difference is back passenger is 10” more length. I love these cars. I have a Fleetwood and a Roadmaster same color. Finishing up my turbo install should put down 650 to tire easy
Demolition Derby candidate.
On cable show “Gas Monkey Garage”, they made a nice Roadmaster into Derby car, but then it wouldn’t start at the event. Bought another contestant’s FWD Seville and trashed it.
Thanks for a great look back to a tie when aging cars, particularly GMs thanks to interchangeable parts between brands, would have field expedient body repairs. Often not nearly as color matched as this one, but with parts from more than one division. Something I haven’t seen in years now with more modern cars, even alternate color body panels. This car though is now nearly 30, older now than the hooptie Buick was at the time in Sir Mix-a-Lot’s video. Nice to see it still going!
A beautiful mongrel mutt!
I found this car in the Greenlake area, just a bit north of the University District. That’s an area without a lot of parking! I don’t think I’d change a thing about this Buick/Chevy. It’s a real Urban Assault Vehicle.
That was my point exactly!
This has me asking, again, why Buick did not use the front clip of the Roadmaster sedan on the Wagon version instead of the obvious Chevrolet front clip with a Buick grille?
I’ve wondered that myself over the decades.
I’m not sure why they didn’t use the sedan front clip on the wagon. I mean, it’s a bolt on affair. As a fan of front end swaps, I love the look of it.
IIRC, it’s because all the wagons (Chevy, Olds, Buick) were built in the same plant, whereas the RM sedans were built elsewhere. For expediency, they just used a modified Chevy clip on all the wagons instead of shipping in the parts from the sedan plant.
the 91 was wagon only. the sedan did not come around till 92
That car has Terre Haute Indiana written all over it. I still see the occasional Roadmonster in these parts, most of them looking a lot like this.
This is what I still think of when someone says “American car” – a large, solid old barge that may have you out in the driveway replacing parts from time to time but has the basic toughness to keep on moving after years of neglect and abuse. I am not sure that kind of American car is being built today.
Here I thought I’d be clever saying “it’s 1959 all over again!” Leave it to the CC commentariat to beat me to the punch not once but multiple times.
Now this is one car that really cries out for bigger wheels. Not the full donk treatment, but something like 18s or 19s, and a bit of lowering.
Why is it that every time I see a Roadmaster for sale out here in Northern California even they looked battered? Clearly not our environment.
Grandma died. Her 17 year old stoner grandson Trevor got her Buick. Any questions?
Perfect car for a remake of the movie “Uncle Buck”.
Does anyone know if the rear vent windows on the Fleetwood and the Roadmaster sedan match up?
It’s kinda hard to tell from the images I see. Thank you!