The Story of our 1941 Buick Roadmaster sedan from North Carolina By Earl D. Beauchamp, Jr.

If I had to go back to the very beginning, it would be 1952 when I was 14 years old. That is when I first became virally interested in old cars. Now old cars, to me, were the years I remembered during my short lifetime, which was the 1930s and 1940s. Most of the books and magazines of the time, specifically MOTOR TREND, dealt with cars specified as “Classic Cars”, as defined by the fledgling Classic Car Club of America (CCCA). I religiously read Robert Gottlieb’s monthly column called “Classic Comments”. Around 1953 Mr. Gottlieb wrote and published a book called “Classic Cars”. I believe it was in that book where he made the statement that “no Buick was ever a “Classic Car” or something to that effect. Well, my family was a Buick family, or had been until hard times caused my parents to trade their 1939 Buick in on a 1951 Plymouth (in 1958 they went back to Buick for the rest of their lives). That statement by Mr. Gottlieb stuck in my young craw, and I never got over it. In 1955 I was allowed to get my first car, and it was a 1939 Buick Special sedan optionalized with dual sidemount fenders and a full pleated leather interior. It had belonged to a family friend. Now, I was convinced this car had to be a “Full Classic” and I wrote to Mr. Gottlieb and asked him. Then, in 1956 he wrote a second book called “Classics and Special Interest Cars.” Although he never answered my letter; in that book he mentioned a car like mine and said it was not a “Classic” but would be considered a “Special Interest Car”. In the end, his idea and term never became accepted in the hobby. It did become the name of a Hemmings magazine year's later. In 1962 I found AACA and joined at age 23. I bought a 1934 Pontiac but it didn’t satisfy me. I had to have a 1939 Buick; so I bought one. I rode that horse all the way to a Grand National Senior in 2000, after eventually making it an exact duplicate of my first car. Along the way I wrote a National Prize winning article for Antique Automobile magazine in 1971 on the history of the Buick straight 8 cars built from 1931‐1942. It was then I found out what a wonderful car the 1941 Buick Series 90 Limited was. It was the year that Buick’s hard charging General Manager, Harlow C. “Red” Curtice, decided to take on Cadillac. Buick had almost bit the dust in 1933 when General Motors went to AC Sparkplug to pick Curtice to lead Buick out of the wilderness. Long story short, he was hugely successful. Eventually, in 1953 he became President of General Motors. Curtice even contracted with Brunn body to build custom 1941 Buick Limited’s, but Cadillac complained so loudly that GM called a stop to the program. Now, my interest centered in on owning a 1941 Buick Limited. In 1973 I bought two of them, a good one and what should have been a parts car. I joined CCCA. I petitioned both AACA and CCCA to give “Classic Status” to these cars. To my surprise both clubs accepted. I fixed up one car, sold it and restored the good one to an AACA Senior before selling it. In 1974 another endeavor that I’d worked hard at for years happened. My beloved 1939 Buick was accepted for AACA National Meets when the club moved to the 25 year old rule. I sold my Limited in 1981 to take advantage of President Reagan's “All Savors Certificate” which eventually allowed me to pay off my house. Years went by while I concentrated on my duties as a member of the AACA National Board for 15 years. In 1992 I had seen a green 1941 Buick Roadmaster convertible sedan at the North Wilkesboro, NC restoration facility operated by the late Lewis Jenkins. I really liked that car, and over a number of years I kept thinking about it. Lewis offered to sell it to me once back during the gas shortage, at a good price, but I had too many other responsibilities with AACA travel, etc. I didn’t buy it, but later AACA judge Bob Safrit of Raleigh, NC bought the car. He had it for some years, and during the time we became friendly. He asked me several times if I wouldn’t like to buy it. Finally, I did buy the car from him. I improved it quite a bit, got a lot of money into it, and rejoined CCCA. I petitioned them to finally declare the Series 70 and 80 Buick Roadmaster’s “Full Classic”. I won the battle and lost the war. They accepted the Series 80, but not the new bodied 1940‐41 Series 70! I got angry, quit the CCCA for the second time and became worried about all the money I had sitting in the garage and sold the car to a man in Texas (in retrospect that was a dumb move). Then, one night, out of the blue I received a phone call from Douglas Seybold, who has become recognized as the national leader in great Buick restorations since Lewis Jenkins’ passing. Doug said, “Earl, are you still in CCCA?” “No”, I said. Doug replied, “Will you rejoin and help us. We’ve got them considering the 1940 and 1941 Buick Series 70 Roadmaster again.” So, I rejoined CCCA and the fray. I provided all sorts of manufacturing and production information, and then, CCCA put off a decision; as I recall twice. Then, early in 2017 they turned the Roadmaster’s down again. I had every intention of quitting that club for the third time, and permanently. I had joined the So. Florida Region of CCCA, and found it a good club. I looked at Packard’s and Cadillac’s, but they just didn’t fit me. I heard rumors from two or three of their Directors that it really “wasn’t over until it was over”, as Yogi Berra famously said. I wasn’t convinced. Then, out of the blue one night I got a call from Doug Seybold and he said, “The CCCA Board voted to declare the 1940 and 1941 Buick Roadmasters “Full Classics”. I was energized. George McNeil, who had been Lewis Jenkins’ head mechanic, had told me about a 1941 Buick Roadmaster sedan in Boone, NC. George told me he’d tried to buy it, as had Lewis Jenkins, but the man wouldn’t sell it. He’d had the car 35 years and drove it once in a while to work. I called George and he was pretty seriously ill, but said if he could he would talk to the man for me. Meanwhile, I had met Anderson Pearson of Charlotte, NC when I judged his 1941 Roadmaster convertible at the previous Charlotte AACA National Spring Meet. In the course of conversation he had said he knew about the man in Boone. Too energized to wait for George to get well enough to go to Boone, I called Anderson one night and asked him if he could tell me who the man in Boone was. “Why, are you interested in the car?” I replied, “Yes, I want a 1941 Buick Roadmaster, and my wife wants a sedan for touring.” Anderson replied quietly, “I bought the car two weeks ago.” Excitedly I said, “Do you want to sell it?” He replied, “Yes, but I had to pay a lot for it. It had something I wanted, but I would consider selling it now.” We set up a date for me to come see the car. As it turned out, Anderson’s car was in the Jenkins’ facility being restored when Lewis passed away. George McNeil and his son had taken the car home and finished the restoration. They were friends, and Anderson had the sedan at George’s place. I had a Virginia summer home at the time, and I met Anderson at George’s place and looked over the car. It was a supreme HPOF car with only 59,000 miles, but I couldn’t abide the paint and chrome condition. I like my stuff too nice. I decided not to buy the car because I had experienced awful recent experience with having cars painted, and had one holed up in a painter’s home garage at the time that took another year to get back, but that’s another story. I corresponded with Anderson several times, and one day he wrote offering me the car along with all sorts of parts, mostly NOS, with the car. I couldn’t resist any longer and bought the car. And it was nice; just look at the picture. It was just not nice enough for me. I began collecting good chrome to re‐plate. That’s what I do. I get all of the chrome I want to have re‐ plated together, so I can keep my car together. The chrome on the car was good enough to re‐plate. I figured I would sell the chrome from the car afterward, and that is still my plan. I had used Hoyt’s Auto Upholstery in Sarasota, FL to do the upholstery and top on my 1939 Buick Special convertible coupe. That car went on to win the first Buick Heritage Alliance AACA National Award in Philadelphia. I sold it when I had a bought with bladder cancer. So, I called Don Summerlin, owner of Hoyt’s to ask him about a set of clear plastic seat covers to protect the absolutely mint cloth seats in the car. It was then I found out that Don had moved out the people renting the body shop part of his building and taken it over, hiring a crew of accomplished body men and painters. A retired body man friend of mine in Montross, VA, who I consider the best, had visited and told me what a paint job should cost. Don agreed to do the job in four weeks for that price! Now those 4 weeks got my attention, because the last three had been 8 years, 7 years and 3 years (simple paint job) and I was approaching 80 years old. I visited and liked the work I saw. We made a deal that the paint job would be one cost, and I would cost out and add each additional phase and proceed as I could. It all worked, and I added a lot of phases. First came detailing the engine, second detailing the chassis, third rewiring from firewall forward, fourth painting sand striping the wheels, fifth painting door jams, sixth installing a new clutch and flushing the engine, seventh removing the radio and giving it to a local AACA advertiser to restore while installing a new windshield wiper motor, The clutch and rewiring took some time, but all and all the car was delivered to me in four months, with all of the estimates staying in concrete. So, in closing, I can recommend Hoyt’s Auto Upholstery to anybody with full confidence. Owner Don Summerlin went to work for Mr. Hoyt when Don was 17 years old. The business had started in 1954. The team members I know best are Benny and Chris in the body shop, Don’s brother Larry on the upholstery side, Ron, the mechanic, who grew up with Don, Tim who answers the phone and handles a lot of the management, and now the new bookkeeper, Linda, in the office. There are others I don’t know well. They are located at 4017 Sawyer Ct., Sarasota, FL, ph. 941‐924‐2604 and cars can be shipped to and from the facility from anywhere.