HOW DID YOU BECAME A BUICK LOVER.......

[smithbrother]

This has probably already been discussed through a thread, but I have often wondered how OTHERS became Buick fans?

It was EASY for me, Dad started out as a grease monkey for a Buick dealer in South Bend, In, during the late 20's. Then was given small repair jobs at the dealership, then more and more as he learned. He loved it, and worked his way up to shop foreman, then general manager, and then as dealer, so since I was born in 1937 I never knew anything but BUICK'S.

We moved to Bloomington , Il in 37 right after I was born, so I was a natural.

Dad would kid and say, "IF YOU DON'T DRIVE A BUICK, YOU ARE THE SCUM OF THE EARTH", well, MAYBE he believe it, lol.

HOW DID YOU BECOME A BUICK LOVER/FAN?

Dale Smith in Indy

[Rob McDonald]

DALE, I don't remember any Buicks in my extended family. I guess we were more Chevy, Plymouth, Ford people. An uncle had a Volvo 544 and an aunt bought an MGB-GT in the late '60s, while her husband got a new Cadillac convertible every couple of years, but that's it for interesting cars in the family tree.

Still, every boy of my post-war vintage was (is) crazy about cars. From the time I was about 12, my friends and I would ride all over the city on our bikes, most often along the back alleys. I've always found alleys more interesting than streets. People live in their back yards, while the fronts are kept nice - and boring - for the neighbours' sake.

In a neighbourhood not far from mine, we'd always stop at a certain cast-off Buick, stashed in the weeds behind a garage. Even though in 1967 it was only ten years old, tall rounded cars like this weren't common on the roads anymore. This one was typical - dented, rusty, and much shabbier than most 2002 cars are today. Even the model name, Roadmaster, had been gone from the scene long enough to be unknown to me. But I liked the sound of it and I really, really liked the look of the car.

This was a 4-door Riviera Model 73, the one with the dual chrome streaks that run up the trunk lid, across the back window, and right over the roof. The rear edge of the back doors sweep up into the roof. Very cool. The badly weathered two-tone paint was Garnet Red over Antique Ivory, with a bizarre pinkish-orange and bone white cloth and vinyl interior.

Most fascinating to me, peering through the smeary windows, this car seemed to have every option imaginable - power windows and antenna, Wonder Bar radio with a rear speaker, and even factory air conditioning. At the time, this comfort was still rare in Alberta cars but the dealer script on the back showed it had originated in Oklahoma. In-car cooling in a '57 Buick is completely integrated into the dashboard, with multi-function knobs and sliders, and three very neat adjustable vents. Awesome gadgetry.

I was captivated by this Buick but eventually my buddies and I would jump back on our Mustang bikes, to go check out a Sunbeam Alpine or '55 Belair that rested elsewhere in our booming prairie town.

I did eventually own that Buick of my affections (cost: $75) and even drove it for a while. It gave up its good parts, though, for my very similar life-long project car. I still love many kinds of cars but have held onto a special fondness for big Buicks.

[4 bufords]

my first car was a 55 spesial 2 door ht,bought in 62 wrecked in 64.my grandfather had a 57 super model 53 which i got in 75.parked in in 77 after i hit a sign post.started working on it in 06(still at it) i now have a 62 invicta vert and a 63 lesabre model 4439 and a 07 lacrosse i love buicks,4 bufords from ct

[sconnors]

My dad owned Buick's over the years, but I have to say that until I bought my 1950, started working on her, researching the car, the company, the history I never really had a real affinity for them. Once I joined this forum and began to get to know other Buick owners and become part of the community of fellow Buick lovers I was hooked. The biggest thing that made me a Buick fan was getting behind the wheel of that big 1950 Buick and cruising down the highway. It brought back memories of a simpler, more relaxed time and made me love the car all the more!

[Mark Simmons]

My granddad bought a 34-35 series 40 model 41 new and held on to it til sometime in the 50's. I got to ride in that car one time as a child and I think that hooked me. My dad bought my mom a '41 Roadmaster 4dr sedan in the 50's followed buy a 50 Roadmaster 4dr sedan which became my first car. I dread the day that I sold it, what a great car she was. Buicks came back to me when I bought my wife a new 2003 Buick Regal which she still loves and drives. I found my Buick project car a '34 series 40 model 41 about 2 years ago so I'm right back to where I was when I took my first ride in a Buick. LOL Mark BCA 45145

[First Born]

1948. I am 11 years old. Dad has a '34 Chevy. One night we all [six kids at the time] pile into the Chevy and make the long 15 mile trip to Joplin. We pull up in front of the most beautiful house I had, to my memory, ever seen. Dad knocked on the door, and in a couple minutes motioned us in. While he tried out this car, the GRACIOUS Lady, served hot coco to Mom and us kids. Dad bought the car, and what a car. A 1932 Buick that made the '34 Chevy look like a poor second. I guess that is where my love affair with Buicks started. Dad died in 1995 and the only thing he ever owned beside Buicks was an Olds and a Caddy. I have owned more Buicks than all others put together. The others were poor detours.

Ben

[Buicknutty]

My grandfather bought a new '56 Roadmaster 4 dr. hardtop, that he drove till his death in late 1968. It was a great car, he loved it and drove fast and often. The Roadmaster model was a bit of a rarity here in Canada, as they weren't built here in the post-war years, so it got a fair bit of attention, even as a relatively new car.
It was a wonderful car, fast, reliable, and very comfortable.
Unfortunately, it had many miles on it, and here in Ontario road salt did a number on the body, so by '68 it needed a fair bit of work. Some other cousins got the car after his passing (in '68 I was still too young to drive) and though their intentions were good, it never did see the road again, and was scraped around 1980.
I have my '56 Roadmaster, 2 dr. hardtop in the memory of my grandfather's, and have slowly become enamored of the many other fine cars built by Buick!
Keith

[gunjeep444]

My dad bought a 53 two door hardtop brand new in Augusta, GA. We used it to tow our 33' house trailer to Washington state. Later, we had a 56, then that was it for Buicks in the family till I got mine a couple of years ago.

[JohnD1956]

My dad was a Buick guy for most of his young family years, I remember a succession of Buicks starting with a 50 2 Dr jetback which caught on fire in Upstate NY with me in the back seat. Eventually there was the 55 Special 4 dr with stick shift which I learned to drive on before I was of legal driving age. That 55 was special to me because my older and younger brothers hated it. I did learn to drive on it before I had my learners permit. Meanwhile my older brother did all he could to kill that car. He and his friends ridiculed that 55 to no end but they couldn't break it. Me, I felt like it needed a friend and I was looking forward to driving that car when I got my license. But Dad had other plans.

Just before I turned 16 Dad abruptly sold the 55. At this point it was a second car to the 60 Oldsmobile 98. My brothers loved that Olds. It was spunky. But I always said you couldn't tell the smoke from the tires from the smoke from the tailpipes. And in 1966 Dad bought a 65 Electra 4 Dr hardtop Custom. Maroon w/ Black Interior and black vinyl top. The day he brought it home was the day I got my license and I was the first of the 3 driving aged kids to drive it. That car was mine!

Well not really mine. It was still Dad's car, but no one else would even drive it unless they asked me first. I took great pride in that car, and drove it through High School and into college before getting my first in a series of Buicks.

The 60 Olds? A few weeks after getting the Electra, Dad traded it in on a 66 Dynamic 88 with the 425 Cu in beast engine and 2 bl carb. My brothers were gaga over that thing. Rust bucket! Gone in 4 years. Replaced with a 69 Cutlass convertible which was used to lure me into selling my 57 Special convertible. The Cutlass was nice, although not at all responsive, and later Dad traded the Electra for a 69 Olds 98. By this time I was into my own Buicks and lovin everyone of em! But I still recall the pride I felt when he and Mom went with friends to a dinner dance, and dad's friend asked him when he got the new car. This was just before he traded it in on that Olds 98 and when we could no longer keep track of the cars original milage. It was surely in the 100K plus range. Please don't ask how I know. LOL...

[jackofalltrades70]

We never had any Buicks............Dad had a 53 Pontiac Chieftain that he took in a swap for a riding mower he was selling. Motor had a "noise" when driving down the road sometimes, but not always. I found the problem when I was 14. Pulled the oil pan and removed the "old" oil pan bolts from the oil pan. Someone left them in there and replaced with new ones. I've always loved the in the grill of the 40's Buicks, so I finally am fulfilling my desires with my convertible. Matt

[Fr. Buick]

I had alwasy loved mid-50's GM. In high school, I begged and pleaded with my Mom to let me buy whatever was for sale in the neighborhood - chevies galore, a '56 Olds, Pontiacs, etc.

One day - Easter Day of my senior year, a local cop had a '54 Special 48D with new paint and low miles for sale - a little old lady church car - and I could talk Mom into letting me buy it.

It was a great car, and pulling into the senior parking lot, I had arrived!!

Stuck on Buicks ever since.

[progoofoff]

My first new car was a 1955 66R.

Here`s it`s clone.

[First Born]

Bit far from home weren't you, Robert??

Ben

[avgwarhawk]

My first car was a 78 Buick Regal. I was about 17 when I got the family Buick. My mom would not let me get a rusty old 59 Invicta that was for sale in a yard. She did say that she was done with her Regal and would sell it to me for $500.00. She would not give cars to me or my siblings as she felt we would not take care of it or respect having a car if we did not spend some of our own cash on it. She was right. From there I got a 73 Buick Estate Wagon. We had one when I was a kid in 73. I enjoyed owning one of my own.

[smithbrother]

Isn't it amazing how MOM'S often had the FINAL word...... Got to LOVE DIM DARE MOM'S.

Another reason I stuck with Buick's was in 1955 Buick sponsored a car for local racer, 'LES, (TIGER) SNOW' He ran the ARCA circuit, and was GOOD. Dad had introduced me and my brothers to him a few years earlier when he was running HUDSON'S on area dirt tracks, so when he got his Buick, I was thrilled.

Anyone with the book, 'THE BUICK, a complete history' will find a picture of 'TIGER'S #45 Buick Century while running at the Wisconsin state fair on page 265. The book carries the ISBN # 0-915038-64-1. The book covers Buick's from 1905 - 1987.

Yep, ole Tiger inspired me to continue with Buick's.

Thanks to all for some good stories,

Dale Smith in Indy

1941 Custom Limited, rides on all 1996 Vette LT-1 engine and suspensions.
1946 Roadmaster, stock, AND WILL REMAIN SO, see I can be a purists tooooooo. lol
1979 Vette custom, 600 hp. 11.02 122 mph. purchased new. True 14-1 compression
1947 Whizzer motor bike
1957 German motor scooter
1940's Rexner front wheel drive rail/tether car.
#98 Agajanian Indy car, 24" hand made by John Snowberger.

[BigDogDaddy]

I have always liked every make of automobile there is. I just like some more than others. So I knew what Buicks were. My dad bought a 1967 Buick Special that was trimmed to look like a Skylark. It was about a year old when he bought it.

I was working at a collector car repair shop when one day the boss came into the shop and said the owner of the '53 Buick that has been sitting in the lot for a few years signed over the car to me. It needs a lot of work, but does anyone want to buy it ? Make me an offer. I called a friend, ( this was before cell phones ) and told him about the car. He said he would check with a friend of ours who was a local mechanic and knew a lot about old cars. I said the car is a '53 Buick 2 door hardtop. I don't know what model it is, but it has four portholes on each side. I don't know how many portholes they could have, but I know the more portholes it has, the better the model it is and this one has eight of them so it must be a pretty good one. I was going to offer $ 500 for it. He called back later on and said if it has four portholes on each side and you can get it for $ 500...BUY IT ! So I did. But I made sure it ran and drove first. The boss was even kind enough to take $ 100 a week from my pay so that I still had some money to take home.
So then I tried to learn everything I could about that car and about Buick too.

Because of that car, I joined the local B C A chapter and made lots of Buick friends. One of those friends had my '40 Limited, and when he was ready to sell it, I bought it from him.

[tenugent]

my grandmother always drove buicks-when i was very young she would take me and my brother riding around in her 56.i remember one time her racing teenagers.she drove that same buick to arizona in the 60s by herself for cancer treatments.the return trip to central il.nonstop at age 64.sounded old at the time.her daughter my aunt with the same heavy foot told the story of coming home from california in a 65gs crossing the desert being stoped by a cop and asking her how fast she was going.her playing dumb he told he was going over 100 and she was pulling him.i saw that car custom painted champaing pearl by her brother and said i would have one one day.so in the early 70s i bought a 64-blew it up.fast forward 30+years now i have 2-63s-64&65.ill never be without one again.-long live the riviera......

[Peter Bird]

I was browsing the internet looking for a project to get interested in and for some reason I started looking at old American cars on ebay. Found an interesting looking thing called a sedanette with the most amazing grille I have ever seen on a car (1950). From then on, I just wanted one. I tried for months to buy this sedanette but the seller and I couldnt come to an amicable agreement. Then I saw a 50 convertible on ebay. Bought it, and had plans to ship it to Australia but the govt here wouldnt approve of its import. Then I found an old 52 super riviera on the gold coast in a magazine for sale. Bought it the next day. That was one year ago...still working on getting it up and running. still loving it.

[Caribou]

I was given my car by a friend that couldn't do anything with it, the beast needed a home. I didn't mean to spend much time or money on it... but I finished a garage around it, bought the books, bought the tools, and started to work. Now I'm thinking the pad looks awfully empty without two of them.

[bhclark]

My papaw had a '65 Wildcat. We went everywhere together in that car when I would visit him in the summers. I learned to drive in that car (at the age of 12!).

I inherited it a little after I turned 16 when he passed. I drove her hard to and from school and you can see the results in the enclosed pic. Shortly after, the engine blew up, and IIRC, there was actually a hole in the block as a result.

It was around 1990 when we finally decided that we weren't going to find a replacement engine, and the local salt had done a number to the poor paint job my papaw had put on it while it was sitting under a cover for a few years. She was towed away, but I kept the bucket seats and ironing board console to make a "couch" out of for my first apartment. After moving into a house and getting married, that couch ended up on the curb.

I'm still kicking myself about how I lost that car due to youthful ignorance! (and for not knowing about the BCA and the national being held in 1990 10 miles from home!)

[Pete Phillips]

I have told this story before, so skip it if you have heard it. When I was a child, my parents would buy the cheapest, least equipped, totally stripped, bottom of the line, new Chevrolet station wagon known to man, for our family car. They would replace it every 4 to 6 years with a similar el-strippo model. Six cylinders, standard shift on the column, radio delete, tiny hub caps, no chrome, blackwall tires, cheap, ugly, unadorned, and I hated all of them with a passion. I felt so deprived as a child, while the parents of my friends all seemed to have Pontiacs, Buicks, Chryslers, Oldsmobiles, etc. with fabulous, unobtainable things like courtesy lights that go on automatically when you opened the door!! Automatic transmissions! Radios, even! Color me green with envy.

When I was in junior high school, there was an abandoned 1957 Cadillac 4-dr. hardtop at the municipal airport's parking lot, which was a few blocks away and within easy bicycling distance. I would ride my bike and check on that car every week, drooling over its fabulous chrome, beautiful dashboard, power conveniences, etc. I would memorize the details on that car and make drawings of it when I got home. I told my mother about it (my Dad had virtually no interest in anything automotive) but she always said that I couldn't have an old car until I was finished with college.

When I finally graduated from college, the first thing I went and bought was the biggest, longest, most chrome-adorned Buick I could find for $995 (the '57 Cadillac at the airport was gone, but what I bought was pretty close to that). It was a 1958 Limited 4-dr hardtop that I found in a small Kansas town through Old Cars newspaper. I talked my brother into riding up there to look at it, bought it, and drove it home! It has been old Buicks ever since, and I have owned just about every year of them from 1948 through 1979. I have 6 or 7 of them at this time.

Pete Phillips, BCA #7338
Leonard, Texas

[Classic Lesabre]

The first car I remember my dad buying was a new 57 Buick Special. I remember as a 5 year old being in the showroom looking at all of the cars and all of the promo models they had on display. I remember all of the summer vacations with the 5 of us driving 18 hours from Miami to Mississippi in the summer heat. No a/c in the car and never missed it. We kept that car until 1964 when he purchased a 64 Impala. When we were older I remember my dad telling stories of the 39 Buick he had after the war and running from the highway patrol in their V8 Ford and leaving them in the dust. They finally caught him when his engine gave out and he was on the side of the road waiting on them. My mother wanted to kill him when she had to go bail him out. That story was very useful when we would be stoped for speeding, we were just a chip of the old block. My brother was stoped at over 100 in a 55 zone and he never said a word. My first Buick was a 2004 Century which has been the best car I have ever owned. Later purchased a 96 Lesabre to drive to work. Just sold it with 210000 miles. My son got hooked on the 1960 Buicks and at on time had 10 or more of them. He is now down to 3, two Flxible hearse's and one ambulance. At this time I have a 48000 mile1960 Lesabre flat top in the garage waint on a restoration.

[dei]

I've posted this before when I first joined the Forum but.....

Got my license in the summer of 1971 and wanted a car badly.
Dad, having to add me to the Insurance Policy said, you are not going to be driving some hot rod like those friends of yours! See, he had a black 1958 Limited 2 door he had been driving for over the past two years (back then just a used car) and had blown the rear universal and (get this) was sitting on the lawn in front of our house so... told me if I helped him change the U Joint and pay for the new exhuast system (duals with 6 mufflers total) I could have his car! COOL, I'M THERE! Besides, looking back, how better to bring back that father & son relationship during those teenage years?!?
Drove that car for over a year and........
Dad was already an antique car guy owning a 1920 Willys Overland touring and a member of the local Car Club. Doesn't a member say to Dad that he has a 1958 Buick Special convertible and wonders, since I have the Limited, would I be interested? OK, what self respecting 17 year old would NOT want a red convertible let alone a second 58 Buick?
Being only in high school, stupid kid that I was, said yes (after sitting behind the wheel with the top down) to the asking price of 500 bucks with only 110 bucks in the bank. Dad & Mom were livid with me! Thanks to my Grandmother, I borrowed 400 bucks and shazam the car was mine and now owned two 58 BUICKS!
Drove both for three more years and see an ad for a 1958 Buick Roadmaster convert in Old Cars magazine. Back then you wrote a letter (when you thought a phone call - rotary dial no less - was too expensive) and the response was, REDUCED TO 90 BUCKS! A road trip was organized to Ohio and I cleared Canada Customs with my THIRD '58. This one however, was not a roadworthy car (especially for that price) but I had a cheap place to store it and was by now FULLY HOOKED on 58's!

Flash to 1982, once again Old Cars has an ad for a 58 Buick. This time a phone call give the information that it is a black Limited 2 door with a rebuilt transmission just put in and only 57,000 miles on it! Another road trip and home it came.
By now you get that I’m an addicted (or committable) Buick lover right?
Worse yet, still have all four today!

Old picture (1990) but at one of several storage places showing the Special, Limited (2nd one) and Roadmaster.

[retirednow]

My earliest car memories were my Dads' '52 Henry J (Maroon, 4 cyl, std. shift) and my Uncles' '51 (or '52 I'm not sure) glen green Super Convertible. Which one do you think I loved more? Hint-I'm not into gassers lol-Dave BCA#46470 1952 56C

[page2171]

I grew up loving Pontiacs. I lived and slept Pontiacs, and my dad always drove Pontiacs. My grandfather always drove Oldsmobiles...a new one every two years from the early 50's to the 80's. I always kept a look out for affordable old cars (back in the days before Craiglist) and stumbled across a 1962 Buick Electra for something like $2500. I went to look at it and after taking it for a test drive I fell in love with it. After going back to look at it again with my dad I bought it for $2000. That was 1995. Shortly after buying it I enlisted in the Marine Corps. Seventeen years later I still have it, despite thinking long and hard more than a few times about selling it.