Hi, I just joined. I just got a really nice 94 Buick RoadMaster Estate. It’s only got 100k on the clock. Wonderfull car! Very surprising amount of power. We still have some snow and it gets too wet for much of a road test but being a hotrodder I’ll give it the full test. It will be competing with my 77 el Camino SS for road duties. Both cars can burn rubber easily so I’ll compare road tests this spring. The el Camino handles better since I’ve done suspension and tire work already on it. But the Buick does it a bit more comfortably. LOL

My Buick is Dark cherry metallic with blond wood grain so it does stand out. It’s name when I purchased it is Rosemarie, it’s fitting so it will remain. It’s never seen a winter and ther is very little rust underneath. Just the rear end cast iron and some other cast parts that either were not painted or wore off. I’ll get after the under side in the spring at my son’s shop.

The leather interior is spotless. The front seats have been sat upon but the second and rear seats look like new. The carpeting is perfect.

I have some questions so ill post them in threads later.

Byron

Ok, here is the el Camino story. I was actually just passingly looking at classic cars at a local dealer. He had a Pontiac I was interested in but it was way too high priced for what it was. I wandered around the showroom and spotted the 77 el Camino SS. I had only ever seen one years ago at a Good Guys event. I had a 77 in 78 that I drove for many years until it just rotted apart so I knew what they were.

Looking at this one the black color was perfect with the white SS markings. Opening the hood I saw it had a crate motor replacing the awful emission motor the original had. The interior was spotless light gray. So I took it for a ride. It was -5 degrees in Dec so a bit hard to test drive. It was a flawless ride like a 40 year old new car. No rattles and a great highway car. I drove about a half hour as it was just pure fun. I though I just couldn’t let this one go even though I was looking for something else. It was just too good. So I made an offer and we had a deal.

This 4th gen (73-77) el Camino is the largest, heaviest and least popular of all el Caminos. Parts are a bit hard to get but getting better as more of these come out of hiding. They do have one saving grace and that is the suspension is shared by our B body big cars. This fixes the horrible front end geometry of all other el Caminos. It only takes larger front and rear sway bars and larger wheels and tires to make these into great handling and riding cars. You can lower them a little and get better shocks too. The wheel wells are really big so there is little chance of interference.

This one has 3.42 gears and a nice tight positraction rear end so with the T350 and the 300 hp motor it moves out pretty nice. I can carve corners way faster than is comfortable in most cars although I do take it easy. This car has a hardwood deck in the bed and a lift up tonneau cover so it’s nice in the back too. The body has been restored even though it only had about 70k on it. It rides firm but not harsh. Harder than the Buick but the same feel. The el Camino has a much faster steering ratio so it would feel twitchy to a Buick driver.

Its quite a bit bit lower than the Buick and has doors about 50 inches long so you have to pay attention to parking. Getting in at my age is not feet first, it’s rear end first then feet. Wagon drivers would feel claustrophobic in these cars. However once the door closes it’s quiet. Starting the motor you hear the distinctive rumble of Flowmasters. It guzzles gas at about 14 on a good day maybe 16 highway. I’m looking at adding multi port EFI and an overdrive in the spring.

The only problem ive had was with the AC. These were R12 but this one was converted and uses the serpentine belt system and similar compressor to the Buick. The compressor seized up probably due to improper purging before the conversion to R134. It took several days of screwing around to get it working correctly but I finally got it right.

I also added a remote solenoid to the starter. Last week the alternator seized up so I fixed that too. But these are the only problems so far. I drove it 12k miles last year in about 9 months.

I havent posted pictures here yet but ill try shortly

Byron

This will be a couple shots of the Buick and the el Camino. I’ll get better pictures of the Buick when we get rid of the snow.

An interesting thing happened a week ago, I got to drive all of my fleet back to back in one day. Radically different driving experiences!

Byron

Yeah, it’s surprising that you can get along just fine on a quarter of the pre retirement income. I now have two Streetrods, a one ton dually, giant scale rc Warbird., Australian Shepherd dog...really created in America, played my final 5 years of baseball, train dogs, and still work at a fun job.....and no race cars or boats. LOL

It takes a whole life time to learn to retire. I always thought only old people retired. Well, here I am....an old people....even have an old people car. LOL

Today’s humor.

Neighbor in next stall in our underground garage just called my wagon a land yacht......she asked what cruises I had available....should I key her Pro charger Challenger or just super glue her locks? my Australian Shepherd says she would love to “mark” those black wheels. ( I talk dog too...) LOL

Maybe I’ll just tie up the wash stall washing and waxing both the wagon and my el Camino. It could take all day if I detail each one.

The Big Buick got 19 mpg on its first tank that I recorded. Not bad at all.


byron