Here in Havana, Oregon, curbside classics have to earn their keep. None of that sissy sit-in-the-garage-until-a-nice-sunny-Sunday-morning stuff. Who needs a Toyota pickup when the Buick’s big trunk will handily swallow wheelbarrows?
Through The Windshield Outtake: 1955 Buick Loadmaster
– Posted on January 8, 2013
I do believe with those tail lights that this is a 1955 Buick. 56 Buicks had smooth tail lights as opposed to those eyeball lights of the 1955 model year.
This is a ’55. And I’m pretty sure it’s not a Roadmaster, it appears there are three ventiports, not four, and I believe the Roadmaster name did not appear on the rear quarter panel, unlike the lesser model names. Also the Roadmaster had a rear deck script with a pair of assist handles, instead of the elongated Buick insignia. My cousin’s grandparents had a 2-door Riviera hardtop Roadmaster, black roof over white body. I can still remember it parked in front of our house back in the day. In any case, a true Leviathan.
Yep my old classic now wears a towbar and has proved it can pull a trailer packed solid with binboards @90 kmh firewood season is here and my Minx is up to the task.
I actually meant to write ’55, (having confirmed it with a picture at oldcarbrochures), but somehow it came out “’56”. Fixed.
Paul, I absolutely LOVE the Curbside Classic site and have enjoyed many of the gems that have been posted. While I am tickled to have my ’55 Buick Special show up on CC in a wonderful candid moment, I wish you could have gotten a shot of it just cruising or parked!
Dave B.
Eugene, OR
Thanks. If I find it parked, I will get some more shots of it. What part of town?
I’m out here in West Eugene… what about you? I’d be happy to cruise it over to you any time it’s not pouring rain (my front windshield and rear window seals are old and porous, so when it rains, the water comes trickling right into the car). As long as I own it, this old Buick will not live its life in a garage. It’s a driver, and I put it on the road as often as I can.
btw, “Havana” and “Loadmaster” are both hilarious, and spot on! LOL, I just love that photo you took.
I have to image those ’56 Oregon tags have been with the car since the ’56 issue (yes, I know it’s a ’55 Buick, and, like California, Oregon issued new plates for ’56). It appears that this is a Special (three portholes, “B” body profile and single exhaust). Nailheads are pretty rugged . . . .
I agree, those are almost certainly the original plates from new. The 6D prefix indicated an April expiration, so the plates would have been issued in April 1955 to expire in 1956. The fact that the back plate looks that good after half a century or so is a nice indication that the car’s always been cared for.
The red wheels were also a hallmark of Buicks of the day.
Absolutely! Recently hauled a roto-tiller in the trunk of my Crown Vic. Great feeling!
(Closed the trunk, too).
I miss decent sized trunks. Like 86er, I used to haul a lot in the three Crown Vic’s I have owned. Once I hauled off three rooms and a hallways worth of carpet and pad to the landfill – all in the trunk.
Okay, this inspires me. If a ’55 Buick is hauling a wheelbarrow, I now know what my next CC write-up is. How often do you see a ?? XXXXXXX with a trailer hitch that is well used?
Ahhh – the seldom remembered Buick Loadmaster.
Thank you for coming up with the proper title!
I love this photo! I saw a beautiful ’67 Fleetwood sedan in town the other day leaving a lumber yard with a load of 2x4s lashed to the roof. The car looked like it just came out of the showroom and it was awesome seeing it do what it was intended to do: Not carry lumber per se but to cater to its owner’s every wish. That day the owner wished to carry some wood. I gave them (literally) two thumbs up as they drove by!
…a perfect reason NOT to loan your vehicle out!
I love stuff like this. So many people think old cars are so fragile.
I’ll never forget the look I got when I pulled up to Sears to load up a new stove in my ’64 VW Bus.
Great photo! Who needs an SUV? Now if only I can convince my wife that our next car will be a mid-1950s Buick or Oldsmobile (or Packard or Cadillac) instead of a new CR-V or Escape.
My Dad owned a ’67 New Yorker 4 door hardtop for a little while when I was 18. He got a little side job pouring a concrete parking pad (approx 10×30); we had to dig it out about 4 inches deep before the pour, he arranged to haul the spoil away in his friend’s ’65 Niedermeyer-Special. Well, the friend fell through, as friends tend to do. Dad was furious, concrete truck will be here in a couple hours and we can’t leave this dirt here. “Boy! Back the %#*ing Chrysler up! Now!” So we loaded that trunk up 3 or 4 times with dirt. Mission accomplished.
Let’s file this under “Vintage Curbside Classic.” My first ’55 Buick Special, “George,” parked in front of the Renquist Second Hand Store, ca. 1983. The old Renquist building, long since shuttered, is on 19th and Main in Springfield, Ore., just around the corner from Welby’s Collision Center where Mark Worman brings MOPAR muscle back to life on Graveyard Carz. That first ’55 Special of mine, a survivor when I owned it, is now a beautiful bright red hot rod owned by my good friend Jim Lowen of Salem, Ore. Pic is extremely grainy because this is a digital shot of an enlarged 110 mm film print.
… and that “same” car as it looks today, parked in front of the former Renquist bldg.
my late father’s Buick,USA army jeep and Holden ute circa 1958.