“You’ve got to take one piece, get it right, and then move on,” is the philosophy of Paul Girard, of Wareham, Massachusetts. It’s applicable to any restoration attempt, but especially when the beginnings are as alternately humble and ambitious as this 1947 Buick Roadmaster 76-C Convertible Sedan.
“Back in 2008, my wife, Donna, and I went up there,” to upstate New York, near the Adirondack Mountains, where the car was for sale in the Buick Club of America’s Buick Bugle, “and found it completely disassembled right down to the bare frame. The guy had collected parts for about 20 years but just couldn’t get started. It took me two trips with a truck and trailer to get it home.”
He stepped in because half a lifetime’s experience rebuilding machines for reuse had taught him that what man had wrought, man could repair.
Paul moved forward methodically, starting with the frame. It was sandblasted, and then Paul sprayed it in PPG epoxy primer followed by single-stage PPG black, mimicking Flint’s simple black finish in durable modern materials. He
