Want to own a beautiful old car that drives like a new one? Look no further than this 1951 Buick Roadmaster Riviera. It’s a state-of-the-art restomod with $52,000 invested—not including the thousands of hours the owner spent building and painting it. The bidding here on eBay in Columbus, Montana is at $37,757, with the reserve not met and no Buy It Now. It doesn’t appear that recouping all that money and time is guaranteed.
The owner is heartbroken to have to sell his baby, but age and developing double vision have made it necessary. “It is a beautiful car that has given me and my wife great pleasure and life-long memories,” said the owner, who did everything except upholstery and some bodywork. “But it is too unique and too special to sit in my garage.” His loss will be someone else’s lucky gain. The 9,864 miles indicated is presumably since the frame-off rebuild, which started in 1995 and finished up in 2000.
The owner is a master craftsman who has been building Buick engines for 60 years. That was the fun part. He built the motor on a rolling chassis and showed it that way—the work was worth seeing. Once finished, it made the show circuit, where it won numerous awards, including at the Good Guys Show in Spokane, and the Cruise by the Bay in Montana. It was on the “My Classic Car” show. Buy it and you get a Dell laptop “and all the cables to tune the Electromotive GT management system.”
The powder-coated frame and suspension boast all-Jaguar suspension, front and rear. That includes posi-traction. It has Air Ride.
The 320-cubic-inch Fireball 8 engine (presumably the original) was rebuilt and presumably strengthened with NASCAR pistons. It was balanced with twin turbos and a Buick Grand National intercooler. Turn down the boost and you can run it on low-octane gas. The engine runs port injection, with a 700 R-4 automatic transmission. It features a polished brass custom-made radiator and a manifold custom-made by the owner. Horsepower is not specified, but it’s likely quite impressive.
Inside is Vintage air conditioning and front and rear seats via a Jaguar, upholstered in Connolly leather. The Alpine stereo run CDs and cassettes. Stewart Warner provided the gauges, and Ron Francis the wiring. All rubber and weather stripping got new Steele replacements. All the chrome was redone, and the stainless polished. The power windows have Jaguar activation.
The owner wants bidders to know that the wire wheels in some of the pictures are long gone. “I could never get them balanced,” he says.
Wow! And I thought I’d built some pretty slick cars over the years, but let me introduce you to the King. Beautiful.
Forgot, as a kid I helped a friend put a straight 8 Buick engine into a Willys coupe hot rod. Only mistake we made was bolting the engine to the frame so we could clear the firewall. He dumped it on it’s side one night in a stoplight drag because of all the torque. didn’t hurt the car much but he put in rubber mounts after that. It also tells you that there was no limited slip diff in the rear.
I’ve never seen anything so I’m unnatural as that rubber burning picture!
I am more into sixties to early seventies muscle but this is a BA Buick. The current owner, and builder, seems like the kind of guy you’d want to buy a car from. The listing write up lends me to believe that a lot of time and pride went into crafting this car and the end result shows that. Anyone that can do all of that work and fabrication themselves has my admiration. Job well done.
For an ‘interior view’ all we get is the top portion of the rear seat backs, and the lower edge of an inner door panel?! Seller was better off not even showing that. SMH
SMH. Had to look that one up.
aahhhww, not enough eye candy for ya ?!
if your seriously interested, contact the seller and request the pic or pics you must see in order to buy this epic machine ;)
im sure its a deal breaker to not see the front seat, the rest of the car is not enough to substanciate the cost.
Must be WFs first car buy (eyes roll)
Im a legit critique of this car and its posting: this is not a ‘Barn Find’, at all.
On another note:
this might be the finest muscle machine ive ever seen .. with a master built, correct straight 8 !!
Built for himself, and noting the little yet critical things like whether the wheels balance out correct, so refeshing.
if the seller is reading this, Sir, your a man amoungst men, the real deal, and have supurb taste.
Someone out theres about to get lucky
Skilled craftsman 🛠 cool 😎 ride.
Love the GN intercooler and the tire roasting pic 🙌
I’d sure would like to hear the roar of that straight eight , nice to see it stay buick powered fantastic looking car
I am impressed. Perfect balance of an “Old School Sled” with an appropriate mix of 1980’s new school (if you can still call it new). The creator of this Buick really “hit a homerun”. Thanks for sharing.
One can’t help but wonder why does someone go to herculean efforts to build a car, then decide to sell it?
forgive him Jim, clearly he doent read..
Maybe because he is 80 years old, (give or take a few)? “The owner is a master craftsman who has been building Buick engines for 60 years.”
Gotta do something with the rare bits made obsolete by more efficient smaller engines. Old guys into big gun panty equipment love stuff like this. It helps them to keep pretending nobody knows. Too late obviously but Roy Cohn’s Bottom Boy outed many female repellent habits.
WOW! What a build! This is as good as it gets, I would love to talk to the builder. I don’t know why the bid is so low on e-bay, I am sure that will change.
when i was a kid we never seen a big .Buick straight roll that kind out of the rear tires. WONDREFUL JOB.
Saw this one at Bonneville.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5SUlg14yu8&t=1s
Now at $49,000. That’s a little more like it. Being absolutely “one of a kind” I’m thinking it still has a ways to go.
Truly a fantastic build. Especially the engine. I aways thought a “Hot Rodded” straight 8 would be very cool. This is way beyond just cool.
My heart goes out to the owner. It must have been a terribly difficult decision.
Couldn’t get the wire wheels to balance, interesting. Speaking of balance, must take some skill to balance a long inline 8 crankshaft. Smooth ride.