I am looking for a complete rear bumper and left rear tail light for a 1957 Buick Roadmaster.

[Guest Spiceguy]

My wifes uncle bought a 1957 Buick Roadmaster in 1979 and drove it once. While parked on the street the first day of ownership someone ran into the left tail light and smashed it and I am not sure at what point the bumper disappeared. My poor uncle in law put the car into a storage facility with the intent to eventually repair it. He never did and sadly has recently passed away making the car my responsibility now.

Creative solutions/suggestions welcomed as well as leads to the parts. I am in Chicago but will travel to pick up any available pieces.

[g-g-g0]

Give Frank Lyle a call @ 719 659 9308. Leave a message and he will call you back. He is located in Colorado Springs, CO. I saw and talked with him in Charlotte and he had a couple of tail lamp assemblies for a Super/Roadmaster. The Special/Century assemblies are different. He also had some bumper ends. I am not sure about the bumper center section. The bumper ends are sort of the Holy Grail of '57 parts as most of them are rotted out beyond repair. Also the center bumper section for a Super/Roadmaster is wider than one for a Special/Century

Gary

[Guest Spiceguy]

Thanks for responding Gary, and thanks for the info! I will give Mr. Lyle a call right away.

Do all of the '57 Buicks have the same bumper ends?

[1957buickjim]

Yes they do.

[Guest 4 bufords]

some of ends are made for cars with single exhaust and some are made for dual exhaust,jim check how the ends are on your bessie,4 bufords from ct

[1957buickjim]

Don, All ends are the same. The single exhaust cars have a block off plate attached to the opening in the left bumper, which mine has. That kept the commonality of the ends throughout the all the models in 1957.

[Guest 4 bufords]

iim,ididn't know that block off plate was removeable from duals or singles exhaust bumpers,thanks for correcting me. a friend and myself are lookiing for gas tanks for our 57 buicks,do you have any idea where we can find them,4 bufords from ct

[Guest Rob McDonald]

SPICEGUY (that wouldn't be Old Spice Guy, would it, with the backwards horse?), these bumper ends can be found but the price has everything to do with condition. They are almost always rusted through somewhere. Even if there are obvious holes, as long as the edges are intact and they haven't been crumpled, a competent welder can rebuild the metal to a replate-able condition. Of course the chroming bill will be high ($800 maybe?), based on acreage alone.

The centre section of the rear bumper includes a flip-up door for the fuel filler. These doors are pot metal and are usually pitted. Happily, our friend here on the Forum, TG57Roadmaster (Tom Gibson) has reproduced this part (it's the same for 1958 Buicks) and still has some for sale, I think.

[TG57Roadmaster]

Hey Rob,

A little clarification...the fuel doors for '57's are quite different from '58 in composition and shape.

The '57 is a convex/concave pot metal cast piece and the '58 is convex stamped metal. Too bad

they're not interchangable, and yes, we still have the '57 fuel doors.

It was great seeing BuickJim's gorgeous '57 Special at the BCA Nat'l, and the "loaded" Caballero, too!

With my driver RM, there were only three '57's there, which was kind of surprising.

TG

[Guest Rob McDonald]

TOM, I don't know where I got the thought that these fuel doors would interchange. Of course, the rear bumpers are completely different shapes, '57 to '58.

Funny, I recently had a photo of that same fabulous Caballero as my desktop background at work. Another possibly imagined factoid that came to mind regarding these wagons is that, when one ordered the roof rack from the factory, the chrome strips over the roof were deleted. It seems unlikely but has anyone else read that, in any original Buick literature?

SPICEGUY, sorry, this is off-topic for you but that's how these Forum threads go - stream-of-consciousness conversations.

[gearhead]

I have 2 extra gas tanks I would gladly sell. I am near St Louis and have no idea how to get them to you. If you can work that out I'll work with you.

[Guest 4 bufords]

what kind of shape are the tanks in and how much do you want for them?good chance i will take them both.good chance i might be able to pick them up, call me at 860-745-3682,4 bufords from ct