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New member of the Buick family


Guest Tom

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Santa came a little early this year and am pretty excited as I was able to pick up a really nice '63 Electra Sport Coupe back in November. Car is very much original and currently has less than 17,000 miles on it. Paint is about 60% original with touch ups done on the sides. Interior and trunk are totally original and still has the original unused spare. Under hood could use some cleanup, but still has the original spark plug wires and fuel pump. Chrome is almost flawless.

Car was well optioned with Factory A/C, tilt steering wheel, AM Radio with rear speaker and power antenna, cornering lights, Twilight Sentinel, tinted glass, power windows, six way power seat, positraction, rear defroster, remote mirror, vacuum trunk release, front seat belts, carpet savers, vanity group, protection group and whitewall tires.

Here are some pictures along with a shot of the original sales invoice from an unusual combination Buick-Rambler dealer in Lincoln Nebraska.

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Got it home and had to stick it in the garage for the winter, so haven't had a chance to enjoy it yet. Looking forward to spring.

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Guest imported_MrEarl

Unbelievable Tom. THAT'S the kind of cars I like. That interior, man, I could almost smell it from here. And it's a 2 door SPORT COUPE with ALL those options. Unbelievable!! I'm sure there's a story behind this car. Can't wait to hear it. Tom you did good!!! smile.gif Unbelievable!!

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So the engine compartment could "use some clean up". I have seen photos on e-bay of "restored" cars that do not have engines that look that good. What a find. For those that have raised the question - where do you get these? - I guess the rest of us just have to keep looking, and hoping.

John

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Guest imported_MrEarl

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Tom! Buickful. Just Buickful!!! You're gonna love that car for sure.

JD </div></div>

OK JohnD I like the word, but let's not over do it wink.gif

Tom...NOVEMBER!!! and you're just now gettin around to tellin us about it. grin.gif

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Guest imported_Thriller

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Tom...NOVEMBER!!! and you're just now gettin around to tellin us about it. grin.gif </div></div>

Maybe he was waiting for some jerk to play a Christmas Fool's Joke grin.gif

Sweet ride Tom...now the decisions start, like how much to drive a low mileage car like that. I hope I might get a chance to get down in May and see it at the Spring Extravaganza.

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Guys, thanks for all of your kind words. Finding this one was easy. It was advertised in the Bugle. I'm trying to piece together the history behind the car. As you can see by the invoice, the original owner was a Mrs D.L. (Lydia) Redfern of Lincoln Nebraska. Attached is a picture of the original owners house I found on the internet. I was unable to get it to show up in the body of this post. Can't imagine trying to fit this thing in that garage. The rest of the history of the car is missing up until '97 when it was owned by a guy in CA. He sold it to a dealer that took it to Hershey in '04. The gentlemen I bought it from, another BCA member who owns numerous other Buicks, bought it from the dealer. There is also a BCA judging form in the paperwork I got which shows the car was owned prior to '97 by another BCA member from Iowa. There is no date on the form and I am now in the process of trying to get ahold of him to see if he can fill in the blanks. So the car has been around a little. I'm still looking for that elusive one owner, hidden away in the garage for 50 years gem that seem to pop up every once in a while.

Derek, I fully intend to have the car at the Spring Spectacular in May and in Rochester in July. Not sure how much it will get driven, but probably about the same as our Invicta which is roughly about a 1,000 miles a year maybe.

The car isn't perfect. Has some paint blemishes hear and there, a few minor dings and such and I just sent the clock out for repair and fixed the rear defroster. But for now, about all I can do is look at it.

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Just found something interesting on this car last weekend. Even before I picked it up, I spotted an NOS litter basket on Ebay which I thought would be neat since it already had the tissue dispenser. I was able to purchase it, but when I got it, the instructions for mounting it said you needed to drill a couple holes in the lower part of the front seat frame to attach the mounting bracket. Since the interior is almost pristine, I wasn't sure I was going to want to do that. While looking at it this weekend, I took a look and lo and behold there are 2 screw holes already there and you can see an impression in the vinyl from where the bracket was attached. Took the bracket I have and held it in place and it matches up perfectly. Must be fate.

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Guest imported_MrEarl

Tom,

Thats cool...that's the fun of these old originals. When I got Buttercup home from Bayone NY, I look her over good and find a set of curb feelers that had been bent back and "stored" into the fender well for safe keeping. I pulled them loose of their confines and wondered how many time the previous owner had eased along the curbs of Stanton Islan or New Jersey until she heard them scrape along the old curb letting her know she was close enough.

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Brian, thanks and that is a good question. I can't say for positive, but I believe it was a '56 Packard. Under the "Make" section I think it says "Pack". It's pretty hard to read the writing, but if you compare those letters to the letters in known words in other parts of the form, I think you can figure it out. The first letter is definitely a "P" as it is almost identical to the "P" in Power, positraction, plastic and protection. The second letter looks like it could be an "a" as it is similar to the "a" in seat. The last letter which I think is a "K" is almost exactly the same as the "K" in Buick and Trunk. The only other options would either be Pontiac or Plymouth and I just don't see that you could get either of those out of whats writen on the form.

As you probably know, if it was in fact a '56 Packard 2 dr hardtop, it would have been a pretty rare bird and one I wouldn't mind getting my hands on too.

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Guest imported_Thriller

Tom - I got my Porthole earlier this week...if I understand correctly from the minutes, you made room for this with the '62? I recall how well liked that white car was...if that's the case, how long are you in the dog house for? smirk.gifgrin.gif

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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Tom - I got my Porthole earlier this week...if I understand correctly from the minutes, you made room for this with the '62? I recall how well liked that white car was...if that's the case, how long are you in the dog house for? smirk.gifgrin.gif </div></div>

Derek, I haven't really left the doghouse yet. I took a chance with the '62 at an auction here in the Twin Cities last fall. I did it more just to see what it was like than to really sell the car. The consignment fee was pretty reasonable and I put what I thought was an unrealistic reserve on it. Bidding had stalled quite a bit below my "Buy it Now" price and auctioneer kept asking me if I would lower it. Kept telling him it was too nice of a car to sell below what I was willing to accept once the fees were taken out. He had a bidder on the phone and the car had pretty much been driven away from in front of the podium when he suddenly anounced the car was for sale and the reserve was off. Needless to say, I was pretty shocked.

Anyway, got what I wanted out of it, but have mixed feelings about whether I really should have sold it. It was an awfully nice car. Guess you really need to make sure you want to sell something before you take it to one of these auctions.

Started looking to replace it right away. Sal just shakes her head and keeps telling me I'm obsessed, but when I showed her pictures of this '63 Electra, she thought it looked nice. She really likes it now, especially the color, now that we've got it home.

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