Today was a pretty sad day for me as the new owner of our old Roadmaster picked up the car. I sold the car to a fellow car aficionado in Italy where it will be appreciated and loved. My wife and I owned this car for more than 10 years and enjoyed every mile we could drive it. It was our holiday cruiser and we only drove it during the summer months. I had planned to restore the car when I "accidentally" found our new Roadmaster in the fall of 2017.

Me and Remo, the new owner of our old Roadmaster.
I could not keep both of my Roadmasters as I already own too many cars and I do not have the necessary funds to keep it alive. I'm glad that I found a great new owner for it.
With tears in my eyes I took a last video of the car departing. I know - I'm way too much attached to my cars and I hate seeing them go…

A short video of the Roadmaster driving away.

Tags:1996, Buick, Roadmaster, Video

A project that kept me busy for the last few months was to bring back our "new" Roadmaster to its former glory. The car has only 23k miles on the odometer and in many areas still looked like new. The undercarriage was not protected very well from the factory and like on all cars had developed some surface rust over the last 2 decades although the car never was stored outside nor regularly driven in the rain. It also never saw road salt or snow during its entire life. Below are some before pictures where you can see the fantastic condition the car was in before I started cleaning it up.

This is how the car looked like after dry ice cleaning.

READ MORE...

Tags:Underbody, Undercarriage, Undercoating, Video, Undercoating Removal, Restoration, 1996, Buick, Roadmaster, Dry Ice Blasting, Dry Ice Cleaning

In August 2017 our Roadmaster was due for its annual technical inspection and unfortunately it did not pass… It needed brake work and there was some corrosion in the rear wheel wells. To make things even more fun, it also decided to develop a leak in the heater core…
So we decided that we wanted to restore our beloved car during the winter to get it back onto the road for next summer. Then we accidentally ran into our brand new low mileage 1996 Roadmaster…

I now had to decide what to do with the "old" one.
I had already bought all the spare parts before we found the new one, and my dear friend Lucky was so kind to offer me his help and let me do all the work in his fantastic workshop…
The plan now is to sell the old one, but of course nobody wants a car with all these things that need to be fixed. And to be honest I do not want to sell any car in this condition.

My friend Lucky helped me for a full day to fix the Roadmaster.

First we started to replace the heater core, which is a huge pain in the a** to replace on these cars. Everything is hidden away and access to the heater hoses and the heater core itself is very limited and tight.
The heater core is hidden behind the glove box and the two hoses going to the heater core can only be un-tightened with a special hose clamp plier I had to buy. We then did not get the hose off the heater core… Several hours later, after lot of cursing, twisted and bloody fingers and a sore back, the heater core finally was out and the new one in. We pre-filled it with fresh coolant and it works perfectly again. No more fogged up windshield.

At the technical inspection the inspector noticed that the front brake rotors needed to be replaced, as they were slightly vibrating during hard stops. So I ordered new ones from AC Delco. We replaced those as well and cleaned up everything and re-greased the wheel bearings as well.
In the front wheel housings we cleaned up some corrosion and welded some fresh metal in.
So we managed to fix a lot of things during this long day at the shop.

Next time we will rebuild the rear brakes, replace the wheel cylinder and a brake hose. Then the car is back in perfectly working order again technical wise. We will then fix the corrosion the rear wheel well and I can then do the technical inspection again and it should pass it without a problem.

I will then offer the car for sale and drive it until a new owner takes over… If I would not need the money I would just keep this car, as it drives beautifully and I like it verrry much…

Unfortunately I did not take many pictures of the heater core removal process, but there are a few videos on youtube showing how to replace the heater core on the 96 Roadmaster.

Thanks again for a great day in your shop Lucky!

The old heater core is out - it had a small leak. Luckily the coolant did not drain into the car but escaped through the drain hose on the firewall.

My friend Lucky working in the wheel housing…

Tags:1996, Buick, Roadmaster, For Sale, Austria, Europe, Heater Core

Almost exactly on this day 10 years ago my wife and I bought our first 1996 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon. We really love these cars dearly and we think that they are some of the best cars ever produced from a practical point.

In August 2017 our Roadmaster was due for its annual technical inspection and unfortunately it did not pass… It needed brake work and there was some corrosion in the rear wheel wells. To make things even more fun it also decided to develop a leak in the heater core…
So we decided that we wanted to restore our beloved car this winter to get it back onto the road for next summer.

The other plan we had in mind was to find a really good one in the USA and import it to Austria. As we soon found out there are some extremely high taxes involved doing this.
A $ 5000,- car in the USA would cost at least $ 15.000,- until its on the road in Austria, and it is very complicated to have it registered… While we were looking, we also could not find any other Roadmaster for sale in Europe, as they are very rare over here and were never sold in Europe when new.

So we were ready for the restoration and I ordered all the necessary parts.
Shortly after everything arrived, we found an ad for a Roadmaster for sale here in Austria.
I immediately called and got in contact with the owner.

The car has only has 23k miles and was collector owned from day one. The first owner bought the car and never drove it during the 9 years he owned it, and he stored it in his climate controlled garage. In 2005 a new owner bought it and only drove it in summer on dry days and maintained it carefully. It also was always garaged.
Thats why the car is still in fantastic condition and looks and drives like a new car. It has zero rust and the woodgrain is in perfect condition. It's a "Limited" version with all available options ordered for it except the CD radio. Everything works as it should. It is in beautiful "Adriatic Blue Metallic"

After a couple of weeks of negotiating we bought the car almost on the same day in December as we bought our first 1996 Roadmaster 10 years ago. Coincidence has it that we also found this one in the same district in Vienna (Austria) as the last one. I know of 5 Roadmaster Wagons in existence in Austria - so they are pretty rare here.

The previous owner had a very "special" taste, and he glued a couple of decals, emblems and other things onto the exterior and interior of the Roadmaster which I could not live with, as they were absolutely not my style.
With the help of a heat gun and some WD 40, I luckily could remove everything without leaving a trace. I just warmed the decals and emblems with a heat gun on the lowest setting and applied some WD 40 and it came right off. The remaining residue could also be removed with the help of a paper towel and WD40.
Works great!
Our new car will now get a full detail and I will change all fluids and it will then be ready for the road next spring. I also plan to install white wall tires instead of the blackwalls it came with. They are a "must have" for the Roadmaster IMHO.

Our old Roadmaster will be for sale, I will fix it up during the next few winter months and it will be available around May 2018…
10 years ago and now.

Strange items were glued onto the car…

… but everything came off easily.

While I can agree with what is written here: "Life is too short for small ugly cars" I wanted to remove the decal…

The previous owner had an eclectic taste…

Thanks for your help WD40

A few of the things I had to remove

In my garage now.

Tags:1996, Buick, Limited, Roadmaster, Decal Removal, For Sale, Adriatic Blue Metallic, Limited

As its too cold in my garage to work on my 1974 Coupe deVille at the moment, I spent some time to update my website.
I added a couple of images to the "Best Of" image gallery on my website and put a couple more of my videos online in the video gallery.
Check them out - here are a few previews of the new pictures you can find in the "Best Of" gallery.

I had the pleasure to photograph my friend Lucky´s 1958 Eldorado Biarritz in August 2016.

I shot a couple of pictures of my 58 Seville at a mountain at sunset last summer

My wife and I crossed the Swiss Alps during a road trip with our 1996 Buick Roadmaster Estate in August 2016.
The Cadillac BIG Meet 2016 was one of my personal highlights in 2016. We took lots of great pictures there like this 1964 Cadillac Fleetwood.

Tags:Website News, 1996, Buick, Roadmaster

With winter approaching rapidly, today I returned the license plates of my cars and put them into winter hibernation. I did not drive my cars very much this summer due to a mostly very rainy summer. So I did not rack up too many miles on my cars this season. I just made about 200 - 400 miles on most of them...
The cars are now in their cosy garages and will all get a new wax-, lubrication- and thorough cleaning job during the next few weeks. I usually also disconnect all the batteries, give the weatherstripping and rubber a good coat of silicone spray and treat all leather areas with leather conditioner. I also clean the interior carefully and over-inflate the tires to make sure that they do not get any flat spots. I will also park the tires on styrofoam. I really hate winter and snow and I am already looking forward to next spring... Over the winter I will rebuild the starter motor of my 1967 Eldorado and detail the undercarriage. The Lincolns undercarriage will get a very good cleaning as well. The 67 DeVille will get some new front wheel bearings and probably a new wheel cylinder and power booster. The 58 Eldorado will also need new front wheel bearings. So there will be a lot of minor things that will keep me busy over the winter...

Below are some pictures of our very last cruising tour this week with the Mark III

Cruising through the scenic landscape of Austria looking down at a lake

The Mark III enjoying the last sun rays...

The whole family in the Lincoln - little Elliot is taking a nap as usual - nothing beats the soothing sound of the V8...

Tags:1971, Lincoln, 1967, 1958, 1996, Buick, Roadmaster, Eldorado, Seville, Deville, Continental Mark III, Winter, Storage

The Roadmaster today got fresh 5W30 oil. It needs 5 liters for a complete oilchange.

Tags:oilchange, Roadmaster, Buick, 1996

All cars imported into Austria have to pass a technical inspection to get a license. Its an inspection done by state inspectors where they are checking every car thoroughly.
The cars have to be safe and in very good condition. They check the brakes, all the suspension parts, rust, emissions and everything else what is important. The regulations are very strict - so basically everything has to be in perfect order. We even have to change the lighting system. Its obligatory to have amber rear turning signals, which makes it impossible to keep the rear lighting system in original condition (at least for the time of the inspection...). Often there is no other way than to install additional amber turn signals somewhere on the rear bumper or trunklid. (!)

The 1967 Eldorado is now at the restoration shop - here it is on the side of a nice low mileage 1971 Lincoln Mark III.

As I finally want to be able to drive the Eldorado on our roads, today I delivered the Eldorado to my restoration shop, where they will do some of the necessary conversions and repairs. They already helped me with my 67 Deville and the 58 Eldorado.
The Eldorado will now get a new radiator as the original one is leaking badly. Actually I will have the original one recored and repaired. The front disc brake will get an overhaul due to a partly sticking piston, together with all new brake hoses. The fuel line will be replaced as it started to leak as well. The lower ball joints and the idler arm will get exchanged along with some rubber bushings. Besides of this list of repairs the rear lights will be converted for the inspection.
After the Eldorado is back in perfectly working condition, the inspector will check the car and hopefully approve it... Unfortunately until all this will be done it will take some time, and the winter is just around the corner - so it will go right back in winter storage after this procedure.

The 1996 Buick Roadmaster - new rear wheel cylinders

As our 96 RMW did not pass the technical inspection 3 weeks ago I had to order new rear wheel cylinders which were installed today as well. It then passed the annual inspection and can be driven for another year.

Tags:Eldorado, Restoration, Roadmaster, 1967

While my wife and I were on holidays in Vorarlberg, we shot this music video for the local band “MAGUAMS” where my wifes cousin played bass.
We shot this “no budget“-production on a rainy sunday morning in a storage facility - the cars in the background were the perfect backdrop for the band. The musicians are a great bunch of guys and we had lots of fun during the shoot. Our Buick Roadmaster also served as a background props for the shooting - thats why I´m posting this video on my website.

The shooting location with our Roadmaster in the background

The finished video

Tags:Video, Roadmaster

Today I started to change the oil on my cars. The 67 DeVille was first and now has some fresh oil in its engine. Next up was the Roadmaster. Unfortunately I did not have the correct oil for the Roadmaster at home but I eventually found out when I already had drained the old oil... The RMW its now stuck over the pit until I buy the correct 5W-30 for it... So the 67 Eldo and the 58 will have to wait for a couple of days. Stupid me - I should have checked which oil it needs before starting to drain it... BTW: The 1967 Cadillacs need 5 quarts of oil at an oil-change when you also replace the filter and only 4 quarts without a filter change. Considering the displacement of the engine this is not that much oil...

I had to drive one after each other over the pit...

somehow its always a mess to change the oil...

Tags:oilchange, Roadmaster, Restoration, 1967, Deville

The US-CAR-SHOW in Dornbirn is held every second year and is Austrias finest car show.
I always exhibited one of my Cadillacs at the indoor show in the past years, but this year I decided to take the Roadmaster for the trip and just take part as a regular visitor.
We met with some friends and drove there in a 7 car convoy. It took us a 7 hours to get there as we also stopped at a very cool diner along the route.

The show itself is a class of its own. You can find hundreds of Hotrods, Classics and Muscle Cars there which you do not see at any other shows in Austria. We really had a great time there and are looking forward to the next edition of the show in 2011.

You can find a huge selection of pictures of this trip in the image gallery. Most pictures were taken by my wife Afra as I did the filming part this time. The black and white one were shot on real "old fashioned" analog film with a medium format camera. Afra also shot two roll of slides which were scanned after development.
Enjoy! A very cool High Definition film will follow in a couple of weeks. So stay tuned.

a great 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz

Sepps Lincoln Zephyr - Aweseome and rare car. Click on the images to go to the gallery for more images like this.

Alex´s 1963 Riviera shot during the night cruising on Saturday

Tags:Dornbirn, Car Show, Roadmaster

When driving home from our holiday we found the best diner I ever saw before.
The owner took care of every little detail, like a working V8 at the bar, lots of old cars on the outside, a pickup truck as salad bar and much, much more.

I have added a gallery with some pictures - check it out!

Check it out if you are near Innsbruck in Tirol/Austria!

The “Oilers69” in Tirol - click to go to the gallery!

Tags:Diner, Roadmaster

During our last trip we had bad luck with the transmission of our Buick Roadmaster. (See entry below)

Finally, after 2 1/2 months in the shop we got the Buick back yesterday. The shop had problems locating all the parts for the rebuild. As I lost patience and they still could not find the parts, eventually I found the parts myself without a problem. Anyway, the car now is back home in the garage and drives beautifully again. The transmission was completely rebuilt, including all internal parts.

we could follow the repair on the webcam of the car dealer - this is a screenshot of the final day.

Tags:Restoration, Roadmaster, Transmission

My wife and I were on the way into our holidays. Of course we took our Roadmaster for the roadtrip. Suddenly the "Service Engine Soon" lamp came on while driving on the highway.
We stopped on the next rest area, but I could not find anything wrong with the car. So we continued our journey and stopped at the next specialized dealer to have the error code read out. Code "P1886" showed up - which is transmission related. The 2-3 upshift solenoid seemed to be defective. So we decided not to drive any farther, as it turned out that the car only ran on second and third gear. Finally the car was delivered to the next national automobile club service station of the "ÖAMTC" to be towed to the dealer I bought the car from. I still have 6 months warranty left, so he has to repair the transmission at his costs. Worst thing was that we just could not continue to enjoy our trip with the Roadmaster and had to borrow a tiny Suzuki Jeep from my wifes mom instead...

UPDATE: In the meantime a transmission specialist took over my car and is completely rebuilding the transmission now... At least I´ll have a like new transmission!

suddenly this lamp showed up...

delivering the car at the national automobile club "ÖAMTC"

checking the Buick´s digital shop manual we had with us...

Tags:Roadmaster, Restoration, Transmission

As we had springlike temperatures today in the middle of winter, I decided to wake my cars from hibernation and drive them around the block. I put the batteries in only to find out that the one from the 67 was quite empty and the car would not start. I wanted to charge it with a battery charger but it also quit working... So I had to use jumper cables and eventually I could start the 67. The 58 also had problems starting up as the fuel pump needs to be replaced. I already have a new one lying around which I will install soon. After some cranking the 58 came back to life and ran beautifully. I took all the cars for a quick spin around the block and after they were fully warmed up they went back into storage for about 6-8 more weeks. Can´t wait for spring to come!
I also installed a new hood emblem on our 96 Roadmaster as a wrong one was on the car when we bought it.
It was great to work on the cars again.

the cars in front of the garage

the Buick´s brand new hood ornament

the Buick´s new hood ornament

Tags:Garage, Roadmaster

As my buddy Tayfun was in town for a new years party, we decided to start detailing our new Buick Roadmaster. The temperatures were way below freezing outside and only slightly warmer inside my old garage, so we really had to work hard to feel comfortably.
The paint on this 1996 Buick Roadmaster was pretty much neglected and a lot of cleaning, buffing, polishing and waxing was necessary to bring it up to like new condition.
It took us 2 days to just do the paint properly. We worked more than 20 hours in reviving the paint job and the exterior chrome.
We´ll do some more detailing work on the car later - it is now in winter storage anyway.
The car looks really good now - the white paint job is very bright. I have the impression that the shade actually changed...
Next up: Interior, engine and engine bay, rims and everything else...

My buddy Tayfun with the buffing machine...

more polishing....

and more...

Tags:detailing, Roadmaster

Today my wife and I bought a new daily driver car for the spring, summer and fall months. As we have very strict laws here in Austria and could no longer import the desired car from the USA we had to find one locally - something that is almost impossible as not many of these cars exist in Austria…
Here it is:
It's a 1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon and we will mainly use it to haul our film and photo equipment to various shootings.
We finally bought it from a dealer in Vienna and brought it home today. The car is in nice condition and drives like a dream. So far we are very satisfied with it.
Attached are the first pictures.

At the dealer lot when we picked up the Roadmaster.

first tank of gas...

Tags:Roadmaster