WQ59B

^ Agree wholeheartedly with Brian.

I'm @ 95K with zero engine issues.

All the mid-60s horns GM horns I have checked were marked 'L' for low and 'H' for high. A '72 Riv parts car I had had 4-note horns; there the 3rd seashell was marked 'M' and the 4th was a trumpet like the lower one in RivNut's pic. System sounded fantastic, BTW.

I think you did 'the right thing' by paying asking price here- car is in great shape. IIRC, (not sure if your car wears them) '59 Olds had a 'turbine-ringed' trim ring that went with those caps (optional?) - I saw a set of the 'poverty caps' with these trim rings maybe 15 years ago in a 'yard and haven't forgotten them- thought they were pretty cool. Good luck with it! > They're shown here : Directory Index: Oldsmobile/1959 Oldsmobile/album When shined up- the vanes reflect in the hub caps- simple but flashy, esp with a colored rim.

RE: post #238 - those models to the right are '48 Series 75s- they retained the '47 bodies thru '49 and did not get the new bodies until '50. I know; weird. You can check 'em out in the original '48 & '49 illustrated Cadillac brochures here : Classic car brochures and owners manuals - The Old Car Manual Project RE: post #109 - anyone happen to know where exactly this was? Great looking dealership! Lou- fantastic job, hope you intend to keep it up at least another 10 pages!

^ That's the prototype 'Tin Goose' (note the non-suicide doors, among other differences)- taken at the Tucker plant in Chicago when the car was completed.

Horn ring is also a notably wider diameter than production. Really like the prototype wheel vs. stock! And the lack of pedal trim was a shame- Pontiac did not skimp here!

Reproduction of first Olds, 1887, R. E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing, Michigan: GM still owns Pontiac #1.

It's not a '65 Impala; I don't think there are many '64 hearses 'sitting in junkyards' in 2010. But the 'proof' thing is an interesting point.

Actually, in checking & to my surprise; in '57 the 2x4 induction was optional on the Eldorados... at least according to factory brochures & the Standard Catalog.

When the most recent Catalog of Buick came out circa '04, Krause featured it in their color mailer with a readable page from the book. Not only were there numerous typographical/layout issues (numbers not under their column headings; instead 'tabbed' back to the 1st column), but very inconsistent photo captions and yes; the wrong year Buick shown. Having been in publishing in a prior millennium, I can empathize with the vastness of these volumes... and absolutely can forgive occasional mistakes getting into print. But when 1 random page is this rough.... well... Krause surely can step up their proofreading. While I'd prefer impeccable quality, I don't overly mind correcting my own copy. But I hate the idea that others who are actively learning info from these otherwise excellent books are getting misled. I would gladly proofread a pre-print copy for a few free post-print volumes to round out my library.

6B1, correct? : '1'= Flint plant. So with a G8795 body number and a VIN, it seems logical it was a RPO assembled car, then modified after-the-fact. No SO# tag, or holes where one was mounted then?

Lightweight fiberglas, extra gas tank... anyone thinking 'ringer'; when did the MobilGas Economy runs start? The fiberglas evaluation sounds possible (thusly my mention of it), but again- 3 years of Corvette production, plus dozens of fiberglas concepts should have answered most of those questions. Only logical thing coming to mind here is an evaluation of a more conventional pieced body on a RPO frame. Hopefully more info will be forthcoming.

Well, it's not a concept car per say, obviously. Factory engineering mule is a legitimate possibility... tho frankly -even tho fiberglas was flying around hot-n-heavy in the '50s at GM- I cannot imagine the intent of creating this car.... unless merely to test the feasibility of production fiberglas bodies.... but GM had already done that with the Corvette. Strange. Bob- you might also ask him if there's a "SO#" tag on the cowl right near the data plate. If so, that should neatly legitimize it as factory.

I could wholeheartedly agree were the car a fiberglas buck with nothing operational... but just the time & engineering that went into those wild, unique brakes makes me feel otherwise. Just my 2 cents, and I would still pay money to be in the presence of the LaSalle II.

Chuck~ as a long-time fan of this car (and the hardtop sedan)- I must admit I'm a bit torn here. Somehow it seems... amiss that the car was re-powered differently than the hardware dictated. Look- I understand the non-structural/non-operational condition of the motor, and that to custom build one to be operational would be prohibitively expensive & time-intensive; I completely get that. And while electrification certainly may have been discussed in '55 (I wasn't there), the fact remains the car was not presented that way. This is a one-off Motorama Dream Car from a dead Pre-War Division - the public presentation by a parent Corporation of a 'return' like this is unique by itself. Add to it the Las II was so packed with 'future think', and it seems a minor disservice to history to change anything on it. I guess I look upon them as sacred. I have this unrealistic ideal that these near-priceless one-offs should be taken out onto a closed superhighway and wrung out... because they are so incredible. That they should, upon restoration, breathe operational life into the vision they presented originally, even if that vision was partially an illusion (as with the LaS II). On the other hand --returning to reality here-- I also realize this may be a case of 'either electric power & 30 MPH or nothing & 0 MPH', and there I have to be on the side of electrification. Don't mind me; the Dream Cars make me dream very vividly. I am loving these LaS II vids, Chuck- wish there were series for all the other dream cars, too. Keep up the great work. Will be keeping special watch for vids re-debuting XP-38 and XP-75...

The above numbers definitely exclude the Riviera, because verified production records via the ROA show 2122 '64 Rivs with the DQ/ Super Wildcat option (and 3808 for '65).

For years now, surfing various car forums, I have jotted down seemingly reliable production data for unknowns or special interest postwar American cars, esp GM. No, I cannot verify these figures personally, but sometimes you see a random number and other times there's knowledgable discussion and numerous figures. Better to take note in hopes of eventually seeing 'confirmation' rather than letting it slip away forever. I didn't record the source, but it was 85% likely to have been either from here, or V8buick.com. Here's what I recorded for '64, reportedly from Buick Motor Division daily production records: 4-dr / 4-spds : 56 2-dr / 4-spds : 354 conv / 4-spds : 199 4-dr / dual quads : 94 2-dr / dual quads : 366 conv / dual quads : 178 dual quad / 4-spd coupes : 114 dual quad / 4-spd convts : 53 Obviously, there can be overlap, ie; SOME of the conv 4-spds are DQ/ some are 4bbl, SOME of the conv DQ cars are automatics, etc.. Now... the 4-spd was a factory option on the Special, Skylark, LeSabre & Wildcat... but the DQ was only optional on the Wildcat, Riv & Electra. The only overlap there is the Wildcat. I have another sourced figure that claimed 356 Wildcat 4-spd coupes were built, nice & close to '366' and potentially allowing for 10 LeSabre 4-spd coupes. This LOOKS like a Wildcat-only list, IMO. If all this still makes sense and 366 Wildcat DQ coupes were built, an Electra dual-quad coupe has to be a SMALL percentage of that. Taking the Electra's positioning into account... 10% of 366 (or less) originally built would not surprise me. Great friggin' score, BTW.

'64 Buick dual-quad coupe production is supposedly 366 units.

I have the 1st & 3rd editions. 1st had what I thought was very good- a illustrated 'dictionary' of body style names & where they came from. Too many folk get this all twisted, esp as the manufacturers play it fast-n-loose with the names, like "4-door coupe". By rights, there's only 1 '4-dr coupe' and it's a body like this: http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q91/autodoc/Mvc-010f.jpg

Understood, Dave. To be accurate- the Corvette shown is the Motorama unit, also.

Thanks Angelo- you made my day with that news. By rights, via page count- '46-75 should be around $40... guess we'll see.

Of course, by "Buick Riviera" you meant "Buick Skylark". To be clear here, the Parisienne, as a Motorama car, is the 'sibling' of the Olds Starfire, Buick Wildcat I and the Cadillac LeMans- all of these were Motorama cars. The Fiesta, Eldorado & Skylark were production models.

^ Wow this sucks. Lemmee guess: still fraught with errors. My worn 2nd edition must be worth at least $50 now.

1805-1942 has 1600 pages and is $75, 1946-1975 has 975 pages and $259. Highway robbery on both counts. What I don't understand is how these volumes are suddenly 'investment grade' even tho brand new. F+W is obviously limiting printing...