Here is a little history about
the 1994-1996 GM B-Body cars.
What is a 1994-1996 GM B-Body?
It's a Chevrolet Caprice or Impala...
...or a Buick Roadmaster.
(The Cadillac Fleetwood, although similar,
is actually a D-Body.)
All of the 1994-1996 B-Bodies
were made at the GM Assembly Plant...
...in Arlington Texas
Built here in the good 'ol USA!
That's right.
Built in Texas by Texans!
Here it is, the "Holy Land" for B-Body Owners.
The Arlington Texas GM Assembly Plant.
Look at that brand-new chassis!
Don't you just wish you could go back in time?
You can't get any more minty-fresh
than this pic of a Fleetwood
and a Roadmaster
on the assembly line...
Loaded up and ready to go to the dealerships!
When GM ceased production of the B-Body in 1996
the Arlington Plant switched to making full size SUVs.
My GMC Denali was made in Arlington too!
My particular Roadmaster was completed on January 27, 1994.
I have the original window sticker, build sheet,
and all original paperwork that came with the car.
I am the second owner.
She was shipped from Arlington, Texas
to a dealership in Lebanon, Oregon
named Primasing Motors.
Primasing has been selling Buicks since 1969.
I bought her from the original owners on August 3, 2003.
She was a "one-driver" car, in excellent condision,
with all service records and low miles.
I found her in the local Auto Trader.
We started referring to the car as "The RoadMonster"
after visiting a local glass shop with the car.
The guys at the shop liked the car, and told us that they
referred to Buick Roadmasters as "RoadMonsters".
The name seemed appropriate, and well, the name stuck...
1994 Buick brochure shows the entire lineup
for the 1994 model year.
This is what the dealers handed out in the showroom.
Current interior on the Left ......... Original interior on the Right
Current engine photo on Left......Original engine photo on Right
Here she is after the complete chassis rebuild / upgrade:
Look at that perfect stance!
The Corvette derived LT1 was introduced in 1994 to the B-Body cars,
not for performance, but for emissions.
The old engine could not meet the upcoming federal emissions standards.
That's right, the prior 180 HP TBI motors could not
meet the upcoming federal emissions standards,
so the B-Body was upgraded to the L99 / LT1.
That gave Jon Moss the opportunity to reintroduce the Impala SS,
as the B-Body would finally have the muscle to back up the name.
The Middle East got a Caprice SS.
The US did not.
The Caprice SS was an "export only" model.
Some of the features of the export models
were T84 glass headlight assemblies,
lack of catalytic converters,
& of course "Caprice SS" badges.
Caprice SS in service in the Kuwait State Army.
October 1993 Car & Driver Magazine
Introducing the 1994 Buick Roadmaster
"Holy Stewed Prunes!"
"Buick's Hot Rod Roadmaster!"
I really like the Car & Driver article done on the '94 Roadmaster.
The C&D staff were very surprised at the performance.
Also, dressing up the driver as a little old lady and taking
the car to a quarter mile race track was pretty funny!
Motor Trend article
Time Machines
April 1995
Car Smart
Large Rear-Drive Sedans
May 1996
Muscle Cars. 1996. No 46
Shows the evolution of the '94 Impala SS
Gives specifications for
the Caprice & Roadmaster too
1992 Roadmaster
Motor Trend
November 1991
This was the reintroduction
of the Roadmaster Sedan
Motor Trend
American Wide Bodies
April 1993
Classic American
(UK Magazine)
October 2007
Car Craft Magazine
September 1991
Exclusive introduction
of the "new" LT1.
Chevy's Hottest Small Block Ever!!!
Why did I bother building a Buick Roadmaster?
I already had the car, as it was my wife's daily driver.
I was between project cars, as I didn't think I could
afford the time or money to properly build another one.
I was waiting until our kids were out
of the house to start another project.
I inherited the car from my wife, who didn't want it.
She wanted a truck instead.
I grew to really like the car.
Growing up driving full size GM products,
I was accustomed to the size of the car.
What I was not used to was how civil the car was.
She had power everything, and yet was powerful,
and comfortable. Even in stock form,
she surprised many a "performance car".
I did some searching on line &
found the Impala SS Forums.
Once on the Forums, I found that this car was
essentially an Impala SS with a Buick body.
That explained the power, and the handling.
I soon found guys who had modded their Roadmasters,
and I learned a lot about the 1994-1996 B-Bodies.
After my first modification
(a Fernco rubber boot and S&B filter)
I was hooked.
I grew to love this big old car.
I soon became addicted to both the Forums,
CarDomain, and modifying my Roadmaster.
So... Why the Buick?
Well..
I have always preferred cars that were a bit different.
At a show,
I will automatically head toward the unusal cars.
My wife will always go find the 1970 Chevelles...
They are nice and all, but I have seen TONS
of nice 60's & 70's Chevelles, Camaros, etc...
I love Buick Regal Grand Nationals too,
but if you are keeping it stock, once you've seen one,
well, honestly, you pretty much have seen them all.
So, I just wanted to build something
that no one has seen before.
Since the RM Sedan is pretty much the
"red-headed-step-child" of the Impala Forums,
I decided to build the RoadMonster as nicely as I could.
I want to build a car that can hold it's
own against the nicest Impala SS's.
I like going to shows and seeing peoples reaction to the car.
My personal favorite is what usually happens:
Someone will say out loud "What is this car doing here?"
This happened at a show I attended in July 2009.
He came up from behind, and saw the trunk first.
When he got to the engine bay, his jaw dropped,
looked at me and said
"Oh, wow!" "Now I see why." "Nice!"...
To me, that pretty much sums it up.
Well that and the fact that I can take my whole family,
and a friend, and all our stuff, which consists of:
a large canopy, four 10# weights for the canopy,
five chairs, the show sign and stand,
fifteen pound weight for the sign stand,
two trunk bags, one large detail bag,
all of my car detail products, a tool kit, a first aid kit,
spare parts such as an extra Meziere water pump,
and all the other stuff, like the fire extinguisher,
flashlight, and all the stuff tucked away
in the side trunk storage boxes.
Even loaded down with all that stuff, and people,
she is still quick enough to hold her own.
I love that!
I love this big old sedan!!!
Some of the best performance
cars were made by Buick.
A few legendary Buicks:
1970 Buick GS and GSX
1985-87 Buick Regal Grand National
1987 Buick Regal GNX
The 1992 Buick Roadmaster
was the Official Pace Car of
the 1991 Great American Race.
This was a coast to coast
antique auto race,
co-sponsored by Buick
and Interstate Batteries.
Did you know that the
1958 Buick Roadmaster Sedan
was the last RM sedan made,
until the Roadmaster Sedan
was re-introduced in 1992?
That is a long dry spell!
This is a 1958 Roadmaster
Beautiful!
Here is the Official Advertising Planner
for the 1994 Buick model year.
This was the kit the Sales Manager
used to plan all of the
marketing & advertising for their dealership.
It even includes a CD
of all the radio commercials.
Pretty neat kit.
It comes in a nice sleeved box.
Full of booklets, with info, a book of logos,
a book of advertising banners,
promotional handouts, etc.
It even has the original box
that the display box was shipped in.
I love stuff like this.
Opti Spark Distributor Decal
An interesting bit of LT1 History.
I had never seen one before.
Found it on eBay...
Here is a model kit I purchased.
It is a resin kit of a '92 Roadmaster Sedan.
See Page 13 for complete details of the build...
Exterior wise,
the 1992 and 1994 RM is the same.
I'll be using a 1994 Impala SS kit
to "borrow" parts from as well,
as the RM kit was missing the side mirrors.
CALENDARS
2008 Impala SS Forum Calendar make by Mike aka Scoob8000.
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My car's photo was used for the month of September.
Here are pics of the whole calendar.
Roadmasters
in the Movies:
"The Departed" starring Jack Nicholson
In this movie, Jack has a Roadmaster...
Nobody is cooler than Jack!
Unfortunately, the Roadmaster does not have a happy ending...
The Roadmaster...
"Departed" :(
Here's a bit more history on my RoadMonster...
She was selected as CarDomain's
"Showoff of the Week"
on January 7, 2008
Thanks to everyone who nominated my car
& thanks to CarDomain!
The RoadMonster was blogged twice on CarDomain.
On July 20, 2007 & again on January 7, 2008.
The funny thing is that I didn't even know the car
was blogged in July 2007 until December of that year.
I found about it when I did a Google search on Roadmasters....
How odd, to be looking for information on other Roadmasters,
and to find yourself!
Thanks for the props John!
The Third BLOG!
The RoadMonster appeared in ANOTHER Blog on September 30, 2009.
This time the blog is about Vexel Images & Photoshop Images.
September 30, 2009 CarDomain Blog LINK
(Vexel Art by Nes)
The RoadMonster visits
Jay Leno's Garage
1/23/08
Jay Leno is just about every car guys hero.
He has a really cool website documenting
his amazing vehicles, with videos and short stories.
I submitted my car in the "Your Garage" section,
and it was posted on the site on January 23, 2008'
Buick Modified Division - "Buicks Our Way"
Buick CLub of America
Ninth Issue, Spring 2008
The RoadMonster was featured in the
Buick Modified Division's Newsletter...
"Buicks Our Way"
In the Spring 2008 issue.
I received my copy on March 6, 2008.
What a surprise!
First to be in it, but to be the centerfold article.
Wow!
Now she is a
"calendar girl" and a "centerfold girl!"
It's Official!
The RoadMonster won
the 1990's Decade
in Texaco's Virtual Car Show!!!
Thanks for helping "the under-dog" win!!!
At the beginning of the contest...
Official Winners posted on the
Texaxo Site on October 16, 2008
1990's Decade Winner!!!!
My Friend Aydar's Smart Car
won the 2000's Decade!
The panel of judges for the
Editor's Choice Grand Prize.
On the Editor's Choice Award,
My RoadMonster came in Fourth Place
in the Points Standings. Not too bad!
Here are the points totals for each car:
#1 535 points 1904 Oldsmobile
#2 501 points 1958 Olds Wagon
#3 467 points 1947 Ford Convertible
#4 462 points 1994 Buick Roadmaster
#5 455 points 1988 Pontiac Fiero
#6 448 points 2008 Smart Car
#7 429 points 1932 Ford Hi-Boy Roadster
#8 418 points 1963 Nova SS
#9 392 points 1923 Model T
#10 383 points 1972 Ford Mustang
#11 355 points 1918 Dodge Roadster
Ranking 4th in this group makes me very happy.
Especially considering that the judges
consisted of Editors from Automobile ,
Hot Rod , & Car Craft Magazines ,
& drivers Mario Andretti & Juan Pablo Montoya !
I received the Dwayne Vance sketch on April 27, 2009.
The sketch arrived framed & matted w/ glass.
The artwork measures approx 18" x 23",
& the total size framed measures approx 28" x 33".
I love how Mr. Vance envisioned my RoadMonster.
This sketch is amazing, IMHO.
The frame, matting, and metal
plaque are all top-notch work.
Thanks Dwayne Vance and Texaco!
(See link above for Texaco's Contest Site)
In honor of this win, there will be a new video game
for the XBOX 360 coming out to get the younger
crowd into the Buick Roadmaster scene:
(Thanks Richard for convincing MicroSoft to do this!)
Other websites where you can
see my RoadMonster:
Outerwears
Outerwears.com user pics page 1
Outerwears.com user pics page 2
There are two pics on page 1,
and one pic on page 2.
Impalaperformance.com
Maker of the RAISS ram air intake
impalaperformance.com media page
There are nine (9) pics of my car here.
A little history on my
Ride Page...
I started this Ride Page on Nov 20, 2004.
I originally started it to host pictures so
I could post pics on the Impala & Buick Forums.
There were under seventy Roadmasters
on this site when I started my page.
My RM was number sixty-something.
This page reached 100,000 hits in August 2007.
On December 14, 2008 it reached 200,000 hits!
The 250,000 mark was reached on August 27, 2009!
Lately, this page has been averaging about 7K hits per month.
I plan to continually build this page as I do more with this car.
Hopefully, this page will provide some needed info to other B-Body owners.
If this page is helpful to you on your build, please let me know...
My very own website:
Bought the domain name.
Building the site.
Stay tuned...
LINK to roadmonster.org
ModifiedCars.com is a fun site to browse.
Mostly european rides.
My RM doesn't really fit in.
Then again, when does it?!?! ;)
Check it out!
LINK to my car
See the RoadMonster on
Hans Tore Tangerud's web magazine
Hans lives in Norway
and has put together
an excellent web magazine!
LINK to Hans' Web Magazine
LINK to my car on his web magazine
Take a look at his site!!!
Chevy Impala SS Forums
The Chevy Impala SS Forum covers
ALL years of Impalas AND includes
Roadmasters, Fleetwoods, Caprices, etc...
It's a really nice forum, with a great bunch of people.
One nice thing is the "Garage" feature.
I built my garage:
My "Garage" on Impalaforums.com
Take a few minutes and check it out!
See you there!
page 1....................Introduction
page 2....................Gran Sport Theme
page 3....................Interior & Trunk
page 4....................Under The Hood
page 5....................Transmission
page 6....................Wheels, Tires & Suspension
page 7....................Headers & Exhaust
page 8....................Recommended Vendors
page 9....................Modifications
page 10..................History You Are Here
page 11..................Restoration & Help
page 12..................Part Numbers
page 13..................Art & 1:25 Scale Model
page 14..................Future Plans
page 15..................200 MPH Speedometer
page 16..................Shows 2006
page 17..................Shows 2007
page 18..................Shows 2008
page 19..................Shows 2009
page 20..................4th Annual Salem Roadster Show
page 21..................Upcoming Shows 2010
page 22..................Attended Shows 2010
page 23..................roadmonster.org
page 24..................page under construction
