1996 Buick Roadmaster

Wagon

5.7L 350Cu. In. V8 GAS OHV Naturally Aspirated

Automatic

1G4BR82P9TR419385

Clear

GAS

1996 Buick Roadmaster Estate wagon- fully customized- "Frankenfatty" PLEASE read all of this description before asking questions; chances are, it’s in here. I’ve taken a lot of time & effort to write this so that I could give a complete description of this car. Please note, this car is also listed for sale locally, and may be removed at any time. I am willing to do a "Buy it Now"; I didn't set the auction up that way as the last two cars I've tried to sell in the last few years both had fraudulent buyers execute on a "Buy it Now", and I had to fight with eBay to get the seller's fees back. So, please send me a message & we can talk about it. This car has been one of the favorite automobiles I've ever owned. I've owned it for over eight years now. I've tried to replace it twice, and both times I opted to keep it, as I still liked this car better (I tried a BMW 528i wagon & a '05 Dodge Magnum). I've spent countless hours on this car during the build of it several years ago, and since it has required almost nothing except routine maintenance. I'm not even sure I can remember all of the things that have been changed, altered, modified or improved on this car, but I'll try. I get tons of compliments on the car. Most don't notice how custom it is, and it’s fun to see how surprised people are once you start pointing out all of the changes. I tried to be as classy as possible in making the car my own, and keep all of the mods as stock-appearing as possible. I've been thrilled with the results. It's compiled of so many different parts from so many different cars that my wife took my nickname for the car- the "Fatty" wagon, and started calling it "Frankenfatty". Loved it so much I put it on the back! This car handles like a Camaro… it’s really amazing for such a long, heavy car to handle so well. This is just flat out a cool car. I'm not desperate to sell, so I'm not interested in bargain basement offers. I'm interested doing a new project, and I simply don't have the room for more cars, so that's the only reason I'm selling this car. As such, I am also not interested in a trade **UNLESS** you happen to have a '67 Pontiac GTO or '65 Chevy Impala in need of restoration & preferably non-numbers matching so that I don't feel bad about making a resto-mod! I'd also be open to trades of drivetrains, too- I'm looking to do either the Impala or the GTO with another LS motor, as my experience in this wagon has been so positive. I'm interested in a LS2/LS3/LSA/LS7 w/ manual transmission. Obviously, if you're motor/tranny/accessory combo is worth more than my asking price here, we can still talk. I have lots of photos of the car when I purchased it (as a half-assed attempt at an Impala SS wagon clone), during the body work & stereo work, the engine work & what it is now. I tried to do my best to not cut corners, and built this car as if I were keeping it. There’s still odds or ends it could use, but for the most part, the car has been rock-solid and very reliable. I’m not going to email a ton of photos around; however if you’re out of town, I’ll consider putting photos up on a share site or something to make it more convenient. I also don't mind some reasonable, specific photo requests. I did upload a video of the motorized amp rack operating to youtube… you can view it here: http://youtu.be/Syf0qzNiXW4 Car started as a white with woodgrain 1996 Buick Estate Wagon Limited. It was (as are all of the Roadmasters) a LT1 car. The car had just under 100,000 miles on it when I bought it. I had intended to do some work and improvements on the car, as I liked the idea of an impala SS wagon concept; I just wasn’t fond of the execution. At any rate, it was my daily driver for a while. As such, I started having transmission problems, and it started burning through fluid & slipping. So, I decided that if I was going to have to pull the transmission, I’d rather update the motor. I’m not a fan of the LT1, so I decided to dive into doing a swap of an LS1 into the car. This was pretty much RIGHT at the start of when the LS started exploding in popularity as a swap, and parts were either form Street & Performance in Mena, Arkansas (which many are from), or you fabricated them. At any rate, that swap pretty much drove me to get waaaaaay out of hand, and soon this car was completely torn down… no turning back at that point!! So, as I mentioned above, below is a partial list of what’s been done to the car… I say a partial list because I don’t think I’m capable of doing a complete list, as I’m sure there are things I’ll forget. Here's the main highlights: - 5.7 liter/350 ci LS1 engine and 4L60E pulled from a wrecked ’98 Trans Am WS6 with around 45k miles. Didn’t do much to the short block except flipped it over, and check the main & rod bearings (all OK), and swapped in ARP bolts, as I had read the bolts were the weakest link in a LS1. Degreased the bottom half of the block with Deep Creep the inside of the block & put it back together with a modified oil pan from Street & Performance that allow clearance of the wagon’s crossmember & steering rack. - Engine Mounts from Street & Performance - Headers are GM G body headers from Street & Performance. Exhaust is 2.5” dual, there are 2.5” catalytics installed, and Flowmaster mufflers. - Tranny mount is stock F body mount; modified the stock Buick crossmember to hold the F bod tailpiece, which was different than the Buick’s 4L60E. - Shortened and balanced the driveshaft & installed new U joints. - Two years ago I got rid of the 2.83:1 highway gears and installed new axels (still stock style) and a detroit tru-trac posi carrier with 3.73 gears. WAAAAAAY better all around. - Completely stripped the underside of the car; did some small rust repair (this was unfortunately and east coast car), and re-coated most surfaces with POR-15. All suspension components were sandblasted & coated with POR-15 - All new body bushings from PST - All new suspension bushings from PST - 1 5/8” front sway bar & PST bushings (with fabbed spacer) and 1” rear sway from Impala SSpeed Shop in Washington state (no longer in business) - Vogtland progressive springs; dropped the car about 1.75” - Axel centering rear link arms from Impala SSpeed Shop - I can’t remember what the shocks are- I believe they’re Bilstien, but I don’t remember the exact one. - LS1 front bracket setup was originally a Street and Performance kit, but I had a ton of issues with it, so I ended up going with a less flashy but much more sturdy setup from a company in Springfield, Missouri (again- I can’t remember their name…). It’s been rock solid. - AC compressor is a newer unit, and works fantastic. Heat works great and climate control is great. Extra used climate control unit included. - Custom aluminum coolant surge tank. This is one of the items that could still use touching up; I never got around to fabricating a mounting bracket for it, so it’s basically strapped in. - ABS brake system was removed & car was plumbed to regular power brakes. They feel WONDERFUL… and I think the car actually stops better; you get a much better feel for the brakes. - Power windows all work and have all been changed out to the nylon bushings that are round & don’t break. - Custom installed power sunroof is originally from a ’00 Toyota Sienna minivan. Worked for MONTHS to make the custom fiberglass headliner. Covered in OEM style headliner material & all still fully adhered (no sags or anything). Sunroof deflector is a Toyota factory unit I bought new. I have photos of this whole process too; cutting out the roof, patching this unit in & fabricating part of the roof that used to be the Buick “Vista” fixed-glass roof over the rear seats. - Sunroof controls & dome lights and courtesy lights behind sunroof are from the same Sienna & work great. - Front of the hood & fenders were trimmed back and rolled, and a custom grille was fabricated to fit E39 BMW 5 series headlights. These REALLY set the car apart & look fantastic! I also have a set of aftermarket “angel eye” Xenon headlights I had always intended to install, but never got around to that will be included. - 18” DIP chrome wheels & Toyo Proxies ST 255-45-R18 tires all around. Originally had 235-40-20s on 20” Boss rims, but the car was too rough. Tires only have about 8,000 miles on them, and still look virtually new. The wheels are in great physical shape- i.e. have not been curbed, but the chrome has gone to hell and has pitted pretty badly to the inside. Very irritating since I took pretty good care of these wheels. - Body colored mirrors & door handles from an Impala SS. Painted to match this car. - Paint is a 2007 Mazda Miata color; it’s a super-dark purple that my body guy & I really liked better than the Impala SS black cherry color. Also, since it's not a custom color, it's easy to touch up or get additional paint. Paint is in decent shape. Is it perfect? No, but it could easily be buffed & touched up where it isn’t. There’s just the typical swirls & chips from being my daily driver for years. - Car was painted in 2007 and all body work done by a fantastic (and locally very well known) body shop called Goat’s Custom Auto Body. - Goat’s took some cheap eBay fiberglass bumper covers & totally beefed them up & modified them to fit way better. The front spoiler lip is in perfect shape still!! The rear rollpan style bumper cover has a slight spider web from someone bumping it; the front has a couple of scrapes, too. - Interior is treated to countless pounds of B-Quiet ultimate sound deadening on the floors, back area, roof, inner quarters, and doors. - New carpet installed in 2008. - Floor mats were new, but the driver’s one got lost somehow. I still have the passenger & rear, and they are as-new. I had been keeping them new by purchasing a second set that is black. Those are currently in the car, but the tan ones are included. You could probably just buy another set of front mats. - Custom cargo area carpet with “Wagon SS” embroidered. Would have been Frankenfatty, but we hadn’t come up with that at the time! - Got rid of the 60/40 split & modified a secondary passenger seat to make two “bucket” seats. These Buick seats are VERY comfortable! Probably one of the things I like best on the car. Both seats are power, heated & work great. - Center console is from ’98 Olds Bravada. Woodgrain & color matches perfectly. I removed the column shift handle, however the collar still turns. Floor shift works perfectly. There was a guy in our Impala SS club that made these nifty custom brackets that allowed the column & floor to work simultaneously (more important if you’re using the stock cluster with the PRNDL indicator, which I’m not) - Custom trimmed gauge cluster is from a ’96 Camaro Z28. All gauges work except oil pressure; I never took the time to finish hooking it up, though I have the stuff to do it. Temp/fuel/speedo/tach all work perfect. The only bad thing is that I hooked up the "low oil" light in the cluster; this was a mistake, as the low oil sensor is slightly impeded by the modified oil pan, so the light turns on erratically. - Door panel woodgrain pieces were all cut off (or at least what was still attached) and were all ground & expoxied back on. Most wagons are missing these; mine are complete & solid. - Includes factory retractable rear cargo area cover. - Totally custom & stealth stereo; included Pioneer AVIC-120bt in-dash DVD/navigation unit with AVIC-130 firmware installed. This unit also has the mod to allow video while moving, and there’s a switch to easily re-enable the video motion cut-out (see www.avic411.com for more info than you’ll ever care to know about this unit). Unit has Bluetooth for audio and phone, as well as an iPod hookup cable (30 pin cable, but you can use an adapter & it still works, just may not charge). You can also use the microphone for navigation. There is an XM Radio tuner as well. I installed a stock roof antenna from an Escalade that I spliced on to for tuning XM & for navigation. That way there weren’t those crummy aftermarket magnetic antennas. Stereo also uses a very collectible, limited edition made-in-the-USA Phoenix Gold Reactor special edition amplifier that came out in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. Google this unit- it’s worth $1,000 by itself. Used Phoenix Gold Ti6 Titanium Elite front components and Ti5 rear components in custom speaker adapters. These use fantastic tweeters & mids that were actually built by Morel. There’s also a Phoenix Gold Titanium power distribution/stiffening capacitor. All of this is installed in a custom amp rack that is flush in the rear floor where the rear-facing seat used to be. It’s a motorized amp rack, and is very easily service, and even has room for jumper cables & other sundries. The subs are Funkin Audio 10” SX10 8 ohm. I had JL Audio 10W6V2 units that sounded a bit better (though the new ones sound better as they break in), but their surrounds rotted. The enclosure is hidden & built into the left quarter where the spare tire was. So with the back all closed, the cargo area is completely unaffected. - DEI two-way security system/keyless entry with remote start & hatch release. - I have all of my wiring diagrams including the full Buick Wiring, LS1 PCM wiring & LT1 PCM wiring. I also created a custom guide for merging the LS1 PCM with the LT1’s wiring & the Buick’s BCM (body control module). - Lots of extra spare parts to go with this car, too… On Nov-17-13 at 13:38:08 PST, seller added the following information: I have added several new photos, as well as a video of the car running, the instrument cluster, the sunroof & more to help give people a better idea of the car. NOTE- all of the photos were taken TODAY- 11/17/13. Video is at: http://youtu.be/Bx4i3HGShJU Thanks!!