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Was this Century wagon built?


Barney Eaton

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I recently picked up some automotive stuff from a former Delco employee. Among them was some literature. The picture below of the 1978 Century sport wagon is interesting as I have never seen that paint job. A little hard to tell from the picture... is that burgundy paint or fake wood grain? Notice how the paint goes up and around the rear window. Is this one of those prerelease pictures that never make it to production?

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There's a picture of a similar one on the IMCDb (Internet Movie Car Data base) but it's a solid color. Same wheels and the 'hawk' on the front fender. A Google Images search couldn't turn up another one, nor did it turn up anything with the same two-tone paint scheme. Other cars with the 'hawk' on the front fender and those wheels were turbo coupes. ??????

Edited by RivNut (see edit history)
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From the photo I believe that to be solid paint rather than wood grain. The Standard Catalog of Buick show production of 9586 Century Special wagons and 24014 Century Custom wagons. The Century Sport model lists just the coupe. There is a photo of a Custom wagon with Sport package in woodgrain. The Century Custom Sport Wagon package is listed as a $430 option (factory shipping price of $5276 for v6 and $5426 for v8). I also see body side stripes and vinyl woodgrain appliqué as options.

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The Sport Wagon is a Century wagon with option code W01, that's probably why there isn't a production number given. Also, the picture in the Standard Catalog of the wagon with the woodgrain is listed only as a Century station wagon, not a Sport Wagon. The 1978 Buick Color/Trim and Selling Manual I have specifically lists the woodgrain vinyl applique as not available on the Sport Wagon.

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Edited by sean1997 (see edit history)
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As mentioned, the A-platform wagons DID exist, just not in the same numbers as Cutlass or Malibu wagons. Many years ago, one of our (late) members ended up with a Century wagon. It was solid white with chrome road wheels and whitewall tires. It had a bad 231 V-6, so he worked a deal with an engine repair shop (he was landlord for) to get him a rebuilt 231 installed. After that, it ran well and looked fantastic.

I know many Cutlasses were built with woodgrain on the sides, probably more than Buicks, but then there were (at least in this locale) many more Oldsmobiles than Buicks (of any kind) back then. The "two-tone"? I suspect that was a proposal as I don't recall ever seeing any new wagons (back then) with anything other than ONE solid paint color on them. OR it might have been proposed, put in the order guides, then deleted from "lack of interest" or "too much production complexity on the assembly line"?

ONE thing was that, if you knew how to work the Order Guide, rather than using "Quik Spec" ordering, you could build what many might consider (now) as "Pretty neat/spiffy cars" . . . IF anybody might have been so bold back then. PLUS, it would have taken somebody who was "car enthusiast oriented" to really pull that off AND then a motivated and engaged sales force to realize what they had and then sell them. Unfortunately, by observation, those situations tended to be mutually exclusive of each other.

Just some thoughts,

NTX5467

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The Sloan Museum (http://www.sloanlongway.org/buick-gallery/research/automotive-research) has Buick production information by model and option code. If someone is really interested it should be relatively easy for Sloan to find out how many Century wagons were built in 1978, 1979, and 1980 with option code W01.

Edited by sean1997 (see edit history)
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Guest buickkuhn

My uncle had a skyhawk in the early 80's with that hawk on the side of it . Even as a kid I thought that powerful bird logo on the side of THAT car . The body style was also the pontiac phoenix . Wow when you go back and look at some of the vehicles ???

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In the same brochure (5.5 X 9) there are two more car pictures that I do not remember seeing.

The Old Omega two tone treatment....was that ever produced? post-30596-143142793473_thumb.jpg

Is that wood grain on the Riviera or paint and did it ever make it to production?post-30596-143142793471_thumb.jpg

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That's paint Barney, and that was a fairly popular two toning motive. Don't know about the Omega

I purchased a new Olds Omega in 1983 that was tu-tone burgundy and beige along with rally wheels, buckets, console and sport steering wheel, a really sharp looking car.

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  • 3 years later...

I have a 79 Century Sport Wagon up in Canada..  Has a 4.9 V8 in it

Acquired through a couple trades.   Cool little car, its for sale..

Buick Wagon 1.jpg

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  • 1 year later...
On 10/19/2014 at 10:47 PM, sean1997 said:

The Sloan Museum (http://www.sloanlongway.org/buick-gallery/research/automotive-research) has Buick production information by model and option code. If someone is really interested it should be relatively easy for Sloan to find out how many Century wagons were built in 1978, 1979, and 1980 with option code W01.

 

I contacted Sloanlongway to try & verify a letter that was give to me by the original owner of my 79 Century Turbo Coupe. They said they could not help me.

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2009bcsregional.jpg

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