ol' yeller

I was wondering why my ebay item all of a sudden jumped in the number of views. I am the seller of the wheel and airbag. I also have a complete tilt steering column listed as well. If you all have any questions, just ask. Greg

I have an opportunity to right a wrong. 3 years ago I sold my Reatta. It is now available again after 2 owners and I am considering buying it back. I have been off this list since selling my Reatta but I seem to remember someone a couple of years ago was either producing or thinking of producing replacement leather seat kits for the Reatta. Does anyone have any information about that? I figure with a paint job and new seats it'll be something that will make me smile when I drive it. I haven't taken a close look at it lately although a friend bought it from the person I sold it to. I suspect it now has around 110-120K on her but it was well maintained. I have to sell my restored '69 Riviera first but I may let it go cheap (relatively) to get my Reatta back. I really enjoyed her when I owned her and I also really respect the knowledge I gained here from all of you. Let's hope this works out. Greg

I also belong to the ROA (Riviera Owners Assn.) which publishes their magazine bi-monthly. Except that lately they are anywhere from 2-4 months behind in getting it out to the members. It is a fine magazine but not getting it out on time is inexcusable. Let's don't go down the slippery slope and keep it a monthly. As an aside, my BCA chapter didn't have a newsletter for about 6 months due to no one stepping up as editor and we saw our membership decline by about 80%. As soon as we went back to a monthly edition our membership has grown past what it was before we eliminated the newsletter.

Just a quick update on Puget Sound Chapter's Donation for Katrina Victims. On Tuesday we held our monthly meeting and kicked off a fund raiser at which our chapter members donated over $970 to charities for Katrina victims. Our chapter matched the first $500 of that for a grand total of $1,470. As director, I am very proud of the generousity of our chapter.

The Puget Sound Chapter board had an emergency meeting last night to figure out how we could help. We decided that rather than "just" writing a check we could compound the donation by encouraging chapter members to donate as well. We decided to match individual chapter member's donations (to a maximum of $500). We hope this will allow us to generate an additional $500 for the cause. We will be soliciting donations at our regular chapter meeting on next Tuesday. All a chapter member has to do is write a check (or cash) to the charity of their desire and give it to our Treasurer. The Treasurer will then cut our chapter check to the corresponding charity and send both in. I volunteered to bring a list of suggested charities but we will match any donation for Katrina victims. We will continue this offer for the remainder of the month or until the $500 has been spent to make sure that those chapter members who can't make the meeting have to opportunity to contribute. My hope is that our members will challenge the chapter and give beyond the $500. Please feel free to steal this idea for your chapter. Those folks need all the help they can get! I will post the results here when they are known. Greg Powers Director Puget Sound Chapter

I have restored several old cars, most were ground-up frame-off restorations. I am not a concours builder but my cars are very nice drivers that you would not be afraid to take on a long trip or ashamed of them at the local cruise-in. The problem with overpaying for the car in the first place is that you are already upside down before you spend any money on the restoration. Restoration is expensive even if you do a lot of the work yourself. Regarding the Electra it is a nice old car and there may be someone out there who has to have one of these and is willing to overpay to get it. It is not reality to expect that is what is going to happen. This owner is quite elderly and I expect she couldn't handle having people coming to her home, test driving her car and negotiating the sale. In fact she has an unlisted phone number and didn't want to put it on the sign she placed in the windshield. In her case she is probably best suited to send it to a classic car dealer on consignment but she needs to realistic in her expectation. The dealer will need to make some on the sale so there needs to be room in her pricing for that. I suspect that if her starting price is too high, a reputable dealer won't even take the consignment as he isn't there to store cars, but to sell them. My suggestion to her would be to place the car at the dealer with a price of $5,000 to start but be prepared to accept closer to what the car is actually worth. I don't know if the classic car dealers would agree to work this way. I am pretty certain no one would accept her car at $12,000.

Thanks everyone for your input. I have handled this one by leaving her a message with a $2,000 -$4,000 price range with my belief that her car is worth closer to the lower number. Brian, you are correct in your assumption and thanks for straightening out what the car was. I agree that she is a very nice person. She said that someone left their number on her car at the show but they won't return her calls. What I was looking for here was maybe a more graceful way of handling these types of requests in the future. I just hate breaking the hearts of the little old ladies. I had one once that had a '69 Skylark 2 door hardtop. It had body damage in every panel and major rust (for the Northwest) in the front fenders, rear quarters, trunk and floorboards. It did run very well. The car belonged to the seller's recently departed mother. The seller didn't drive. She handed me the keys to back the car out of the tiny garage so I could inspect it. When I looked for her, she ran into the house with tears streaming down her face becuase she couldn't handle the memories. Someone told her that her car was worth $10,000. I injected reality gently again by first stressing that I personally had no interest in the car but it was at best a $1,000 car. It took a couple of months but she eventually did sell the car for around $600 and did email me and thank me for my help. It makes it difficult when people who don't know anything about car values feed these sellers with unrealistic expectations which are usually further fueled by their emotional attachment to the car. To a person, every time this happens, I don't think it is greed on the sellers part, just a strong desire not to get taken and sell it too cheap. I appreciate everyone's views on this subject.

Being the director of our local chapter has some perks. Having my name, number and email address listed in the national newsletter is one of them. That means I usually get contacted first when someone is wanting to sell a car and is looking for some help or advice. When it happened the first time, I started thinking how nice it would be if someone contacted me and asked for help unloading old Great Aunt Marge's Buick and discovering it was a '53 Skylark. Of course that doesn't happen. More typical is that old Great Aunt Marge drove a mid 60's or 70's 4 door version of a larger old Buick, usually a pretty stripped down model at that. It has happened to me about 5 times over the last 2 years of my reign of terror and the last one happened today. It came from a chapter member who has a very nice 1961 Invicta (?) 4 door sedan. It may have been a LeSabre. It is all original, well taken care of, but very tired with around a 100K on it. She said someone once offered her $8,000 for it. Now that she wants to sell it she believes it is now worth $12,000. I can't find a 4 door Invicta sedan in any price guide books but a 4 door hardtop in the condition of hers is worth between $2-3,000. Maybe $4,000 if she finds the right buyer who has to have a car like hers. I just left her that message with an offer to help her list it in the Bugle if she wants. I have tried in the past suggesting ebay as an alternative where they may get more money than the typical market price but then they expect me to list it for them, handle the calls and arrange the transfer. They just don't understand all that internet stuff. That is a little more than I signed up for when I volunteered to lead my chapter. Am I being heartless trying to interject some reality into their pricing? It has been suggested that I just go along with what they say, but in my opinion that is just ducking the issue and not helping them at all. I know that the elderly (especially women) are frequently taken advantage of in these kind of negotiations but it seems the tide has turned to expecting unreal prices just so they don't get taken. What do you think and do you have a better way of handling it?

I don't think that they are "out there". I have been looking for 4 years and haven't seen one yet, even on ebay. There is someone who advertises in the Review and his ad states he includes '69 but when I called him and questioned him, he said he didn't have them for the '69s. I am not familiar with the '69 Skylarks but I think the problem with the Rivi is that the light shines behind and through the woodgrain to illuminate the labels for the switches. That makes reproduction difficult especially for an item with limited demand. Once again we are shunned for falling in love with the less popular girl.

I have the opportunity to pick up a '66 Wildcat 4 door for almost nothing. It needs paint, an engine rebuild (rings)and has a couple of minor rust issues. Seattle rust issues, not Chicago rust issues. It currently runs & drives, probably needs brakes and has sat under a tarp for 10 years. It is fairly straight and the interior is OK. the glass is all intact except for a cracked windshield. Every Buick I have bought started out as a car just to bomb around in and turned out to be frame off restorations. This one I hope to do differently. The only problem is that it is a 4 door, so I know that it won't be worth a lot when finished. My plan would be to avoid the expensive restorations my '69 Riviera and '65 Skylark underwent and just make this one pretty. I can do the body work myself and could get a cheapie paint job at Maaco. The engine could be replaced with a good runner or I could even do a quickie rebuild myself. I know I will probably get myself upside down on this one as well as the others, but I think I can keep the cost down. Is this car worth saving? Can I get parts for it like weatherstripping and interior upholstery? I would appreciate hearing your opinions. It seems like too nice a car to crush or part out, especially when you consider the price. Maybe I really can save all the Buicks myself.....

It is very close to being done. Now is your chance to get it on the cheap!

I have been working on this project for 4 years and have grown tired of it. All the hard work has been done including mechanicals, body and paint, interior, chrome and stainless. Options include power windows, power seat, cold AC, nice ralleys with nice center caps, rear defroster, cornering lamps, bucket seat with console and floor shift, vacuum trunk release, and AM/FM radio with rear speaker. Car is dark blue with the vinyl top removed. the interior is parchment. I have a short list of what remains to be done. It is mostly time related not parts related. A few concentrated days of work and you will have a show car ready for the season. I am currently working the list and the price will go up as items are completed. I expect to list the car for $15,000 at the summer shows when it is complete. I will sell it today for $13,000. I currently have well over $20,000 into the frame-off restoration. This is not a cheap quickie refurbishment. The floors and trunk floor are excellent. The quarters were repaired using metal. The car is gorgeous and gets looks everytime I take it out. It drives like a Riviera should, strong smooth and powerful. New items are rebuilt/balanced 430 V8, rebuilt TH400, new exhaust, brakes, suspension, tires, driveline and includes many NOS parts in the restoration. Interesting trades considered, special consideration given for '65 Skylark convertible. The car is located just South of Seattle. For questions/pictures, email me at powersfam@qwest.net or phone is 253-874-6390. Greg Powers

Greg Powers Director Puget Sound Chapter BCA #33211 Riviera Owners Assn. ROA #8393 Over 50 ROF Planet Earth

If you have a tilt wheel I may have an easier solution. The actual switch is at the base (near the firewall) on top of the steering column. It is spring loaded to compensate for the change in angle when the tilt is deployed. It is possible that the switch is hung up and not moving when the wheel is tilted. Usually a little WD40 and some small persuasion with a screwdriver will loosen up the slide. To test if the problem is in the switch or in the adjustment, remove the wire going up the column to the wheel from the switch, and move the raised button on the switch by hand to different positions. If your brake lights work, then the problem is in the adjustment of the slide of the switch. If you still have no lamp, the switch itself can be carefully taken apart, cleaned, and the contacts slightly rebent to make a connection. Be very careful not to break the bakelite switch housing in prying it apart. There are 3 contacts for each turnsignal. one contact for the flashing turn signal, one for the steady lamp while braking and one to light the dash indicators. Be sure to regrease the inside of the switch with a dielectric grease to keep it functional in the future. I suspect that one of them is dirty or not making contact. I have seen this switch (repro) for sale occasinally on ebay for around $40. I have no idea how good the repro is. It is not difficult but it can be a little tedious. Just take your time and use a light touch and you can fix this.

Barney, I too will be at the Natl. Board mtg. so I look forward to finally meeting you. I sold my Reatta to a person up north who in turn resold it to a fellow club member and friend in the Puget Sound Chapter. I am the current director of the Puget Sound Chapter. There is much to see here in the great Northwet (SIC). I will be happy to give you several suggestions depending upon how much time you will have to sightsee.

One of these Star Wars air cleaners sold a few days ago on ebay for over $500. It was in very good condition apparently but that's a lotta bucks for one of those.

Jerry, Got the part on Saturday. It will work. I have never seen a black one and all the '69's I have seen have 10 ports not 9. As some of the ports are for options I don't have, one fewer is not a problem. I will get a money order to you, including shipping, today. Just out of curiosity, do you know what car it came from? Thanks for your help! Greg

Jerry, Greg Powers 1067 SW 325th Court Federal Way, WA 98023 Thanks!

71 centurion, did you forget to add picture or link as I don't see it.

Sorry I don't have a picture. It is not the round one, it is rectangular,about 6" by 1" with 2 rows of various size nipples, aproximately 10 nipples total. It is located on the firewall just behind the left exhaust manifold which is why many are broken. It may also be on the 1968 but the 70 didn't have the vacuum headlamps.

c'mon, somebody's got one of these somewhere.

I need the plastic vacuum manifold that goes on the firewall. Mine has broken off several of the ports. If you want to email me my address is powersfam@qwest.net.

PSCBCA wants to extend a sincere thanks for the Northwest Buick lovers support of our event on Saturday. Despite the rain in the afternoon we again had about 150 cars show up for this event. The quality was beyond compare as each year this event gets better and better. Thank you all who attended. For those who didn't, there is always next year. We will be back with the Northwest's premier Buick event for the 11th straight year.

Highway 167 is the best way to get there from the North. From I-5 South of Tacoma you can take Highway 512 (Mount Rainier)exit from I-5. Take the Puyallup Meridian street exit (at the fairgrounds) from 512. At the light turn left and go past the fairgrounds. Meridian becomes a 1 way street coming at you so it bends off to the right and becomes a one way street northbound, Pioneer. Go about 4-5 blocks and turn left on 2nd Avenue. There will be folding signs directing you to the Car Show. If you come on 167, take Highway 512 south (again Mount Rainier)just before 167 ends and then take the Meridian Street exit (Fairgounds). Turn right at the light and then follow the directions above from the fairgounds. These 2 ways will help you avoid all the closed streets for the street fair. Our preregistrations are running ahead of last year so we expect over 150 Buicks. Don't miss it!

The event is held in downtown Puyallup, not at the fairgrounds. It is at the old location of the Buick dealer 115 2nd Ave. SE. We begin parking cars at 8AM and the show begins at 10AM. Awards will be handed out promptly at 4PM. Email me at powersfam@qwest.net and I'll send you a registration form via snailmail. Last year we had over 150 registrations and this year is ahead of last. If you love Buicks, live in the great Northwest, this is the event to attend! Greg