Light Painting a 1960 Buick Invicta Custom
I recently had the pleasure of light painting a stunning Midnight Blue 1960 Buick Invicta Custom in Blaine, Minnesota. This beautiful automobile, owned by newlyweds Conner & Rebekah, was selected as the 2025 MSRA Collector of the Year!
The Buick worked out really well for great wedding day photos!
This was the second MSRA winner that we’ve light-painted! In 2023, I had the honor of light-painting Terry & Lori’s Copo Blue 1955 Chevrolet 3100 Stepside Shortbox. That incredible truck was selected as the 2023 MSRA Custom Car of the Year!
That cool 55 Chevy 3100 was part of a 5-vehicle light-painting project under an enormous oak tree. Also featured front-and-center in the image was a 1948 Pontiac Silver Streak. In the background were a 1959 Cadillac Coupe Deville, a 1939 Packard Coupe 110 Series, and a 1959 Chevy El Camino!
A close-up of Terry and Lori’s amazing 1955 Chevrolet 3100 Stepside Shortbox. This stunning pickup truck was the 2023 MSRA Custom Car of the Year.
A Diamond in the Rough
Conner discovered the Buick looking through his grandfather’s kitchen window in Plankinton, South Dakota. A neighbor had it just sitting out behind a storage shed.
The 1960 Buick Invicta Custom is just waiting to be rescued by Conner!
Conner’s first impression was “Four headlights staring back at me with some angry eyebrows!” That haunting image would not leave his mind, and so two years later, he returned and bought the car!
A Lot Whole Lot of Elbow Grease!
An attempt was made to have a local high school use the Pontiac as a senior restoration project, but it was deemed to be just a wee bit too much to bite off! So Conner convinced his father to help him fund what they estimated would be a $20,000 project, taking a year or two.
Ready to come to its new home to be restored.
As these types of projects usually do, both of those estimates were not exactly accurate. The Invicta’s restoration actually took eight-years! I’m just guessing that the monetary amount was probably off by a few dollars, too.
To keep the daunting task under control, Conner broke the project up into dozens and dozens of smaller tasks. And, along the way, he certainly gained an entirely new skill-set!
The local high school did indeed end up playing a part in the project. They helped to design and then 3D print all-new lenses for the warning lights in the dashboard!
While I do like patina, I like Midnight Blue WAY more!
After receiving a $9,000 estimate to repair and restore all of the stainless trim, Conner decided to take it on by himself. He spent over 300 hours bringing the stainless back to perfection.
Here’s Conner with the Buick on the trailer about to come home for its amazing restoration.
Frame- Off
The first three years of the frame-off portion were done in a friend’s garage. Then the Invicta came home to finish up. Conner’s mom has fond memories of watching him dream about what he hoped the car would turn out like – all the while, with him sitting on a bucket inside the gutted Pontiac interior.
This is what a “frame-off” really looks like!
One of the many unique features of the car is the retracting triple gauge cluster, which Conner designed using a CAD program! It’s definitely pretty cool!
Sean Henderson, at Top Stitch Upholstery, was a big help to Conner in restoring the interior. They used stock blue materials to give the retro two-tone blue-and-white interior a real touch of class!
This is quite the before and after! Simply amazing!
After the incredible interior facelift, the other most noticeable part of this amazing vehicle has to be its paint job! Conner selected a stunning, Midnight Blue base clear coat, along with Buick true wire wheels, as the finishing touches. She’s a totally sweet ride!
The Inaugural Collector Car of the Year Award
The Buick and its MSRA hardware are on display at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.
Motorhead Madness
Here’s the front-end view of the 1960 Buick Invicta Custom at Motorhead Madness. You can see our orange and blue light-painting tent in the background.
This stunning Pontiac’s perfect both inside and out!
Features of the “X60”
- Engine/Transmission: Powered by an upgraded original numbers-matching 401 cubic-inch Buick Nailhead V8 engine with a Dynaflow transmission. The ProCharger supercharger produces around 325 horsepower.
The engine bay is pretty sweet, too!
- Engine Modifications: Edelbrock carb, painted engine black instead of the Buick green, chrome accents to make the engine pop, and dual exhaust.
- Body Modifications: Features a lengthened hood, a two-inch chop in the front, moved front wheel openings, and relocated windshield wiper towers.
- Wheels: Complex nine-layer custom-machined billet wheels that simulate classic whitewall tires while wrapping around modern low-profile rubber.
- Paint & Interior: Midnight Blue base coat-clear coat with a retro two-tone blue-and-white interior.
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Here’s our base image for the light painting. Once it got dark, Conner assisted me with the light painting.
- Front Suspension: stock
- Rear Suspension: dual adjustable QA1
- Brakes: 4-wheel drum brakes with original drums
- Wheels: Buick true wire spoke rims
- Tires: Custom 2″ whitewall with 1″ space between the rim. BF Goodrich Diamondback
- Other Special Features: A custom-designed triple gauge cluster concealed behind the passenger side footwell dash panel. With a push of a button in the center console, the triple gauge cluster slides down and reveals the information needed. Another push of the button and the car returns to its original showroom appearance, with custom-designed 6 × 9 package tray speaker grills that complement the original interior design.
- More cool tweaks: An ‘Invicta Custom’ fender badge. A Bluetooth converted original radio with surround sound audio, electric power antenna. And Conner removed the wheel well trim that came standard with the car.
Here is the final one-of-a-kind artwork!
1960 Pontiac Invicta Custom – The Movie
As always, we’ve put together a short “Build Video” of the light painting process on our YouTube channel. The link to view it is down below.
All told, we took 308 images that night. Well over half of them were of the rapidly changing sky as the sun was setting! In post-production, I ended up using 44 of those images, in 78 unique layers, to complete the artwork of this beautiful Pontiac.
There’s a Whole Lot More Where That Came From!
If you enjoyed reading about this cool light painting project, please take some time to check out our dedicated Light Painting Photography Website at www.MichaelAndersonLightPainting.com
The site is filled with light-painted photographs of other cars (including tons of Corvettes), trucks, rare aircraft, cool motorcycles, buildings, and a whole lot more! Joannie and I thank you for taking the time out of your day to read our story! – M&J