WQ59B

I've worn out 2 copies of the "S.C. of American Cars '46-75". I bought the 2nd one (3rd edition, 1992) in the late '90s. Back cover is marked '$27.95' and I know I paid exactly that. In thinking I would treat myself to a 3rd copy that was not hemorrhaging pages, I check Amazon. 3 new from $259.95 4 used from $90.00. KNOWing there was some sort of mistake :confused: I checked Barnes&Noble. Used starting at $145.99. What in the blue blazes is going on here?? 3rd edition had 864 pages, current one has 975... so the book gains 13% more pages and the price increases by 89%. This, and my copy is splattered with hand-written corrections. Anyone know what happened here ??? Is Krause on crack?

GM prolly installed belts as standard equipment the same year for each division (maybe Cadillac, excepted). They weren't required by the Fed (front outer) until Jan '66, and my '64 GP does not have them.... but IIRC, GM installed factory mounting provisions in the floor for front belts starting in '61 or '62. >>"I have very distinct memories of seeing entire car seats being ripped from the floors of vehicles in both the 1950s and 1960s... If an accident occurs at fifty miles per hour or more the force from the seat being ripped out could easily amount to 3,000 foot pounds and more depending upon the seat. No human body is going to fare well with 3,000 foot pounds of force. No seat belt will keep a seat from being at minimum partially ripped out of the floor of an older vehicle, momentum will see to that."<< Just about every accident is different due to so many factors, and while I'm not doubting your recollection, IMO your post reads that the reason why is sheer momentum. I have not encountered mass seat ejection as being typical of the period. I can tell you this- I had a heckuva time getting the back seat out of my '59 Buick- there the method of attachment was quite formidable.

^ Agreed, but 'over the grille & over the headlights'.

Number seems to place it in 1966, but in looking at some pics, I'm not placing it. -375 & -377 are '66 Newport front end pieces, but -376 doesn't come up (mymopar.com). Have another pic from another angle?

Bugle, Sept '09, pg 20 shows smaller pic of beautiful red '42 Buick truck, owner Paul Meyer (state unknown). -- -- -- -- -- Found the pic I referfenced in post #147- wasn't in the Bugle, but in Car & Parts from '00. Lil pic showed factory 3-piece backlight moved up to make a tight coupe roofline, white roof over blue body, sidemount behind pass door, boom looks like it folds down under bed doors. Has stock RR bumper & rear fenders, with a bed 'slid' in between. Caption reads "Converted for use as a tow truck, this 1950 Roadmaster sedan was a real novelty, attracting tons of attention. Note side-mounted spare. Seller was hoping for offer close to $12K. It needed a lot of work." Was clearly spotted at a show, is wearing a yellow on blue plate, but I don't know where this car or show was. The car I mentioned seeing above in the PA junkyard in '08 was very similar to this one. It definitely was '46-52, tho I'm leaning toward '46-48. Super unique piece, very intriguing.

Bugle, Oct '08, Pg 29 shows 2 smaller pics of a "built by Buick" experimental truck; black 1940 Roadmaster, coupe foofline, EXC condition.

Back & inside cover of the July '07 Bugle features a '47 Roadmaster 'Fire Hose Wagon', NY car, red (duh!), roofless, exc condition, nice 'truck'.

At one point, the Bugle ran a feature on a late '40s Buick converted into a tow truck. It was med blue, unrestored, I seem to remember a side-mount spare (behind the greenhouse), and it was fascinating. There was another one in a junkyard in PA, red this time, rough but restorable (ain't anything restorable? ), had the boom & was very similar to the Bugle one. Bunch of compartment doors in the back (bed). Was a '46-48 (disremember). Didn't get a pic, but it was there in the early '08. I need to get back there...........

>>"...the GM "show van" is what sold for over $1 million at B-J a couple years ago."<< If $4M is what you meant by 'over $1M', you are correct.

^ But one needs to be careful in generalizing here, IMO. Greenhouses often interchanged (glass, roof skin), but the body shells were primarily different. >>"1959 is a unique year. They decided to go even farther and make all GM cars off one body except for Corvette. Chev, Pontiac, Olds Buick and Cadillac all started from the same body shell, suitably modified. This was to allow them to have a new body every 2 years by getting the maximum use out of one body."<< In '59, pushed by the crash mid-stride styling redesign, the shells had more in common than previously... but in actuality (the usual greenhouse sharing aside) the '59 shells shared firewalls, front floor pans & front inner door structures. This still leaves the entire front clips, the rear floors & doors, and the entire rear clips as unique. And you still got some variances in the 'shared' surfaces- like the roof section of the '58 Impala, and the olds/Buick 3-piece rear windows on the '57s.

I would have to believe- had GM intended this car to run, it would have (as so many of the '50s concepts did), but a totally unique FI, DOHC V6 without internal parts was cast/machined merely to look like a functional engine, withOUT the proper strength/machining/engineering to be converted into an operational engine. If it was a -say- V-8 based on a Cadillac block, one would assume a production block was used, internal parts or no. But there were NO V-6s in 1955, and this time, GM apparently did not 'OK' designing & building 2 unprecedented engines for some soon-obsolete dream cars.

'XP-' numbers are General Motors 'eXperimental Production' codes given to special projects, pre-production engineering programs, and the concept cars built over the decades. For example, the Motorama concept car; the 1955 LaSalle II Roadster was XP-34 and SO# 2220. To my knowledge, there is no comprehensive XP list, even at GM... tho I have a pretty good list going after some years of research. Some well-known concept cars I have been unable to document the XP# for... others seemingly cannot escape theirs. Also, I believe some SO# cars did NOT get an XP number.... which is why I inquired about your vehicle. Tho some sources define 'SO' as 'special order'... your car's plate spells it out 'Shop Order' tho, causing me to wonder if that's meaningful or not. I've seen references to other cars with a stamped SO plate, tho to date I've never heard tell of any XP stampings. To coincide with 1950s numbers, which were in the 19xx - 2xxx range in mid-decade, I wonder if your SO# --if consistent with the other known SO #s-- is '2572', and the 'CW 6' is a prefix with other meaning. Either it is... or a 'Shop Order' & 'Special Order' are 2 different things. Good luck with your project, Bob!

As a life-long hardcore fan of concept cars, color me insanely jealous.

Great find! Would you mind posting the SO # ? And do you have any info on there being an XP # assigned to the car? Thanks!

My source shows an 'F' code for '73 : 2bbl, 8.5:1 130HP 307 V8. Maybe a leftover engine from '73 in an early '74 car ??

I have a '58 Cadillac speedo that reads to '200'. Have seen pics of 2 different DeSoto speedos to '200' also. I would agree that this is KPH, but now am wondering : if this is a real Fury, it 'should' have the KPH equivalent to 150 MPH... but maybe that just wouldn't fit the dial (it would be 240 KPH).

Don't have figures for '55, but one book I have that frequently lists option installation percentages states only 1.1% of '56s had A/C. Based on that, I think it would be safe to say less than 1% of '55s had it.

I didn't find it difficult to remove the windshield on my B-59 (tho I haven't put a new one in yet). At the very least- I would hope bringing a car to a pro with the old WS already out would save a few bucks on the install.

You've got a tough sell here: mechanical stuff (esp of this vintage) always seems to come from defunct brands with no ID as to what the water pump/ valve/ tube/ brake shoe, etc., correctly fits- making offering it as a lot a very big gamble for those looking to sell it off. No doubt you already realize that. Any chance you would be willing to provide a more detailed account and a few pics to 'get the juices flowing'?

Any sheetmetal?

One of the few times I got my wife to go to a junkyard with me: we were following the old dude thru paths in the field behind his tarpaper shack when she was attacked by a guard rooster. Nipped her ankles a few times, I don't believe she ever went back again to ANY yard.

I thought of the Safety Buzzer, but there's no lil' speed window like my '59 has; no indicator of what speed you'd be setting it to. Interesting RE: your 'dummy knob' comment- I'm more familiar with '59-64 and that sort of thing has not been my experience in those years....

There's a dash knob on the left side of the speedo on the '66 full-size (the car in question is an Electra). Anyone have the car, owner's manual or knowledge of what it is, as in this case, it seemingly does nothing. I'm asking for a buddy who's car I haven't seen in person. He reports it does not turn, push or pull, but the car was sitting for some time-- gremlins could've been hard at work in the meantime. Thanks. Picture here, with knob circled: http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/8417/bvcnbvnkv0.jpg

Crestline's <span style="font-style: italic">Seventy Years of Buick</span> has a picture at the end of the '59 section of an Opel being offloaded from a cargo ship, the car-length banner on the side reading "1,000,000 OPEL EXPORT". Photo caption reads "The <span style="font-weight: bold">1-millionth</span> Opel imported into the US arrived in May, less than 2 years after the first Opel arrived". Since getting this book about 2 years ago, this claim has thoroughly flummoxed me. How could SO MANY Opels have been sold here yet I have seen maybe <span style="font-weight: bold">1</span> late '50s Opel in 25 years of car shows & junyardin'????????? Neve even see them in classified ads. Automobile Quaterly's <span style="font-style: italic">The Buick a Complete History</span> has a tiny Opel-concerned paragraph in the back, reading "Opel models... were imported by Buick from 1957 to 1960 and again from 1964 to 1976. Starting in 1976, the Opel was manufactured in the U.S. by Izusu.... Between 1957 and 1979 {when discontinued}, <span style="font-weight: bold">852,559</span> were sold in the U.S." Uhhh, slight discrepancy there! In retrospect, the 1,000,000 number must've been the 1-millionth <span style="font-style: italic">exported from Germany</span>, not the 1-millionth <span style="font-style: italic">imported into the U.S.</span>! Without disparagging Crestline & author George Dammann, the AQ book <span style="font-style: italic">The Buick</span> seems a bit more thorough and I am leaning towards that account, supported by my experience. Just wanted to point this out in case anyone was putting stock in the Crestline claim.

Oops; I should have been more thorough. This is a Buick front drum, 12".