Special ORDER
ADAM CLEARY BUILT HIS Slammed ’57 BUICK SPECIAL BY REMOTE CONTROL FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD – AND HE HAS NO REGRETS
MANY of the feature-car yarns you read here in Street
Machine tend to fall into one of two categories: cars built wholly or partially in the shed at home, or those built by one or more workshops at the behest of paying clients. Skirting around the periphery are the cars built by workshops for self-promotion; projects imported in their completed form from overseas; or vehicles found half-completed in the classifieds and taken the last few miles to the finish line.
However, there are always more ways to skin the proverbial cat. Sydneysider Adam Cleary found another way to get the job done. The 45-year-old commissioned a workshop on the other side of the world to build his dream Buick.
Back in 2011-12, Adam was spending a lot of his time in the USA for work, and he got to know a few people. One gent to fall within his circle was Chad Canerday from Chad’s Auto Glass. It’s a friendship that would prove extremely beneficial and the catalyst for the car you see here.
“I’ve always loved the 1957 Buick, due to the lines on the car and the unique design with the three-piece rear window, big front bumper/ grille and the Ventiports on the sides,” Adam says. “By coincidence, Chad Canerday was selling one, so I bought it immediately.”
The Buick wasn’t the first car Adam had bought from Chad; the pair first met in LA in 2010 when Adam bought Chad’s custom ’61 Caddy. Adam shipped that car back to Australia and has been cruising it ever since. The friendship that formed over the ensuing years gave Adam the confidence not only to buy the Buick from Chad, but to entrust him with the project management of its rebuild, too – no small thing given that Adam would be relegated to little more than a spectator some 12,000km away.
“I initially only planned to build a nice street car for some cruising,” Adam says. “But like a lot of car builds, the further we got into it, the more things got out of control and we ultimately made the decision to build a full custom and take it to the SEMA Show in 2012.”
Adam’s main objective in terms of an aesthetic direction was that the car sit slammed on the ground and have big wheels like a DUB City scale-model car. We reckon he nailed it on that one.
With a clean, solid vehicle already in place, it’s only slightly less of a surprise that the crew was able to get the initial build finished in just 12 months, just in time for the SEMA Show. And anyone who knows anything about the annual Vegas automotive trade show knows that you don’t show up with anything half-arsed.
“A lot of time was spent mocking up in the car before deciding on the final set-up,” Adam says. “Plenty had to change under the car to fit the 24x9in Raceline billet wheels, including custom inner front guards and rear mini-tubs, narrowing the diff, custom rear suspension, and a Fatman front clip with Choppin’ Block tubular control arms.
“We basically had to ensure that nothing on the undercarriage hung below the chassis level, so that when the Air Ride suspension was dropped the Buick sat right on the ground.”
As Adam stresses, the Buick was built as a street car, so the undercarriage is not to elite standards, although it has all been coated in matching PPG black and all the lines have been run neatly from front to back.
‘On its arse’ is probably the correct turn of phrase for Adam’s Buick. When he hits the Accuair e-level controller that’s mounted into the custom steel centre console, those massive Sniper 5 rims tuck right up under the restored original Sweepspear brightwork and the sills hit the dirt. It makes for an impressive sight from any angle.
Just as impressive is the bright red interior that was a group effort between The Choppin’ Block and Looney Tunez Car Audio in California and Krist Kustoms in Texas. Back in 1957, Buick offered its line-up in over 47 trim choices, but