From Tae Bo to the Macarena, fads are fun, harmless ways to feel a sense of camaraderie in a sometimes isolated world. However, at some point, that Los Del Rio CD is just sitting on the shelf, and if you’ve fallen for a fad that takes up a whole garage, that bag you’re holding just got a whole lot heavier. Thus, coral/salmon paint came and went, and I can’t help feeling that it was a liability when trading in a car in 1958 or so. But time has given coral (Tahiti Coral and Dover White, in this case) the last laugh, as it’s now a midcentury period piece (come to think of it, Midcentury modern may be a fad), and this ’56 Buick Roadmaster would definitely look great parked in Palm Springs or in the driveway of a Frank Lloyd Wright house. If you wish Coral had never left, this Buick is for sale on eBay in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, with a high bid of $8,100 (and the seller says that he’ll add a Buy It Now option for serious parties).
As any Buick fan already knows, the Roadmaster was the top of the Buick line, riding on the big C-body General Motors platform. Buick had watered down the Roadmaster’s porthole count (always four) by inexplicably giving the Super and the Century four portholes per side, but the Roadmaster was still the boss. The four-barrel 322 Nailhead made 255 horsepower in 1956 (in all models but the Special – talk about watering down your flagship), which was enough for a top speed of over 110 miles per hour. Standard equipment was generous: power steering and brakes, Variable Pitch Dynaflow, electric clock, and power windows and seat in convertibles and Rivieras such as our featured car (“Riviera” was Buick’s name for their hardtop models). The seller says that this car has 85,788 miles on the odometer and that the engine is original (but has a replacement carburetor, the original comes with the car). It “runs good.”
The interior is “really nice,” and the upholstery pattern is at least similar to the original shown in the brochure. The seller says that everything works as it should except the dome light and a slow passenger window. If you’ve never driven a ’50s Buick, you’ll need to get used to the accelerator pedal starting mechanism (it uses a microswitch on the carburetor) and the Dynaflow gear selector pattern (PNDLR).
The Roadmaster has a new set of tires and “no leaks that are noticed.” You’ve probably noticed that the white paint on the roof and driver’s side has deteriorated, and the seller suggests that “he would just have the roof painted and touch up some of the coral and drive it the way it is,” and if the car doesn’t sell, he may do just that. After all, it’s a “super solid” car that has “no undercoating to hide anything.” Considering that he’s only driven the Buick 100 miles in six years, maybe it’s best that someone else gets this one-time fad back on the road where it belongs.
Broderick Crawford’s personal car!
10-4,10-4, 10-4!
21-50 by!
Be on the lookout for a 1956 pink and white sedan.
Yes ! I remember enjoying that show as a kid. Time to hit You Tube and watch some more !
Do you know what Brodericks birthday was
It’s 10-4
I’ve bought a couple of houses on that day
We always laughed
Not much to do but drive and have fun!
Re Aaron’s comment above “coral/salmon paint came and went, and I can’t help feeling that it was a liability when trading in”.
I had a Cadillac dealer client years ago and he was joking one day about selling “Executive Gray” cars and taking them in on trade as “Funeral Gray”.
The car business was and still is a very interesting and frustrating business.
True that. I had a small car lot in the mid ‘80s- early ‘90s. I could sell anything, in any condition, as long as it was red. Green? Forget about it. Couldn’t give ‘em away.
As far as “coral in ‘58”, my folks were shopping for a late model Caddy in ‘61. They were hoping to find a ’57 or ‘58 in Rose, with a Buckskin top. Had to settle for off white. Love for Coral faded, but not in 2 years.
Neat old Buford, Coral and all.
YES, Get out of the way ’56 Chevies…coming by!
We are talking about proper motor cars here, i.e. BUICK’S not ’56 Chevie’s. Ha, ha.
Yes ! I remember enjoying that show as a kid. Time to hit You Tube and watch some more !
Accelerating in neutral and slamming the shift lever down quickly would probably not be the best way to win a race with this car after the light changes to green.
The small gearshift indicator atop the steering column
had “P N D L R”…….so mashing the accelerator down
at the stop light, then slamming the shift lever down quickly
would set this Buick behemoth into reverse and into the car behind it.
The ’56 Chev.’s won a few stoplight drag races this way.
What I don’t understand is why the gear positions. Later cars used “PRNDL”. Early cars with automatic gearbox used “PNDLR”, some don’t even have the “P”. Any reason why that is?
On the early Hydramatics, Reverse was the parking gear.
Bob C. It’s a hardtop, not a sedan.
I broke out driving my mom’s 56 road master in 1970 on the back roads of R.I. No one could keep up when driving on the dirt roads with 6 friends in the car laughing and enjoying the thrill. And in the winter no amount of snow would slow us down.
Beautiful car. My favourite year for Buick until the 1960 model year.
PNDLR is a Pindler, which I’ve always preferred over today’s PRNDL, Prindle
Buick made a huge mistake with putting the year, 1956 on the grill emblem. Yes, it was great driving the car IN 1956 but everyone knew you were driving an old car after that.
Unk had a ’56 Roadmaster Riviera in the late 60s early 70s. Don’t know what color it originally was but he painted it a baby blue.
AT LAST, someone realized that the starter switch was on the carb and not “under the gas pedal”. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard or read that.
Correct, and I found that out the hard way on my ’51 Super when mine disintegrated, it being part Bakelite I think it was. Fortunately the previous owner had also fitted a starter button on the dashboard.
Had one of these for a short time in ’74. Mine was a 4-door hardtop paint baby blue and White. I got it from a fellow I knew in a roundabout kind of way. Seems the car left him stranded by the side of the road so he signed the title and left it sitting where it quit! He showed up at my house after he did that and he was so angry with the car that he said I could have it if I could get it running again. Okay fine! Game on!
So we piled into my ’59 sport fury, went down to Reliable Auto Parts where I bought a set of points, a new rotor, and a
condenser, and went out to bring the Buick back to my house.
Once there, I realized I had no feeler gauge to set the points.
No problem, just pop the top off a beer can and presto! instant feeler gauge! A pull tab from a can back then was .015 when you beat it out flat. About a half hour later, we had the car back at my house where I finished tuning it up and then I handed him back his keys and told him to bring it to me
when it needed work or if I was touring, to take to my future BIL for help with it. That’s what I meant by owning it a short time. I owned it maybe a grand total of 30 minutes at the most. And, he was a slow learner and he really didn’t think things through. Do I regret not taking the car from him? Sometimes I do, but fixing it for him was the right thing to do.
He later married a nice girl and together they rode into the sunset with that Buick. Really like this car a lot. Hey Angel,
did you see the ’64 Electra 225? Awesome car that had you
written all over it.
Kenneth- Style wise, the ’59 Sport Fury is my favorite Plymouth. What did you most like about it ?
my first car was a 56 4 door hardtop special two tone green.same motor and you could not hear it run and to this day I say that that car was the best I ever owned.
Beautiful looking car. I’d drive a 1956 Buick if I knew someone who owned one. I’d prefer either a 4 door sedan or a station wagon. 🙂
You are a good man Kenneth IMHO. Good karma takes care of people like yourself.
Thanks Dan, appreciate it very much. Because he was a slow
learner, I’d look after him when I could to take sure no one could take advantage of him. It was the right thing to do then
and I still do it with the young managers that I work with at my McDonalds today. The guys in Upper Management don’t
teach these kids enough and set ’em up to fail. So, I step in when I can to help them along. Why just this past Saturday
night, one of my boys told me that he had an offer to go to
electrician’s school starting at $18 an hour for beginners. I shook his hand and said good luck to him after we closed the store that night. He’s on his way to making at least $100K a
year once he graduates. And Chris, for the most part, I liked
most everything about my Sport Fury. But mostly, I guess, I liked that 305 HP 361 under the hood. Not much in the way of go-fast goodies for that engine, but she still held her own
with later model cars on the street. And mostly, it was my Mom who drove it to work many times when her new Caprice
wouldn’t start after I sold my ’50 Packard 8-passenger limo.
And when I wasn’t touring, I wanted nothing more than to get
a good night’s sleep and to Putt-Putt around our garage working on the next big thing.
This car looks almost exactly like the one I drove for two years in high school in the late 60’s. A friend of mine owned the car and drove it to school every day. I had a set of keys that just happened to fit his car, unbeknownst to him. We had different lunch periods and I used to take his car a couple times every week to go out for lunch. I usually got the same parking spot when I brought it back but not always. He never figured it out.
Other than the starter, driving a mid fifties Buick is a unique experience. The steering, ride and general feel is kind of unique to Buicks.
Sorry Ed!
Ended at $11,611.
Reserve Not Met.