Doing a Little Old Car Math-Mosting Buicks

60FlatTop · February 23, 2014

I was in the garage today for about an hour wiping off dust and spritzing detail spray here and there, getting ready for another northern season of old car hobby.

It is interesting to recognize dates and specific events, how they relate, and how quickly time has passed.

My initiation into the hobby came during the summer of 1959. The first car magazine I bought was the September 1959 Rod & Custom, the one with the yellow Ford coupes on the cover. I turned 11 that September and had been working at my Grandfather’s tire shop since spring. Mowing my Grandparent’s lawn was the original mission. My Father also worked there part time so I had to wait for a ride home. It wasn’t long before I was recruited to the more adult work of painting freshly regrooved tires. In 2014 that will be 55 years ago.

At 12 I got my first car, a 1949 Plymouth. I was 18 when I joined the Navy in 1967 and in the previous 6 years I had owned a LOT of cars. The Navy lasted 4 years. The only real old car I had during that time was my other Grandmothers pretty well clapped out 1936 Chevy. It didn’t run, the back seat was gone to make room for carrying milk cans, and the doors were tied closed with stockings.

In my mind, officially becoming a hobby/owner came in the fall of 1974 when I bought a 1939 Buick Series 40 and licensed it with genuine J. C. Taylor insurance, a true sign of a certified hobbyist. In the fall of 2014 that will be 40 years ago. I was 25.

Today I dusted off the car I have owned the longest, the 1964 Riviera. I bought it in the spring of 1978 when I was 29. In the spring of 2014 that will be 36 years.

Three other cars got a dusting today, as well; the 1960 Electra has been mine for 12 years now. The 1986 Electra convertible has been mine since the spring of 2011. Although not a long time it is surprising that this car is already 28 years old.

The 1994 Chevy Impala SS came along in the summer of 2011. It will be 20 years old in 2014. That time sure went by fast!

So it is nice to have some quiet time with a polishing cloth and your own random thoughts. Fifty-five years in the hobby coming up. I’m shooting for another 50. Fifty-five might be just a hair beyond the limits. I’ll keep in touch.

Bernie

Edited February 24, 2014 by 60FlatTop (see edit history)

Mark Shaw · February 24, 2014

Nice post Bernie...

February 25, 2014

Like, too.

I was 19 when I bought my Buick. I have now officially had it way too long.

michel88 · February 25, 2014

Nice post Bernie. Time passes very quickly and I just realized that I have had my 63 Riviera for 25 years.

MrEarl · February 25, 2014

Like!!

Restorer32 · February 25, 2014

I walk out to my home garage and look at my '55 XK140 that I bought as a cheap used car and drove in college. Last licensed in 1969, last ran the same year. Memories from 45 years ago come flooding back. Wife can't understand my attachment to that car. Maybe my Son will eventually restore it.

PONTIAC1953 · February 25, 2014

I was 17 in January of 1973, my dad a few months before had given me a 1962 chevy impala sports sedan (four door hardtop) he bought for me to drive only because it had the 235 chevy six engine and not a V8. it lasted six months and 10,000 miles before the head gasket failed, dad sold it before I could save up enough money to get it repaired. in may or june of 1973, I spotted on a bulletin board, a 1953 Pontiac for sale with a local phone number, my maternal grandfather had bought a 1947 Pontiac new, so I thought that I might like an old Pontiac as well, my dad approved of the car as it had a straight 8, and not a V8. we called and went to see the car, wow, a chieftain custom catalina with a guide spotlight, olds fiesta spinner hubcaps, illuminated hood ornament, fender skirts, and a original continental kit. paid $150.00 for the catalina, and 41 years later, I still have it. Charles Coker, 1953 Pontiac tech advisor.

Restorer32 · February 25, 2014

We always remember our first.

TexasJohn55 · February 25, 2014

Bernie, You remember your first magazine! What a blessing to have such a good memory. In the end, all we have is our memories. Cherish the good ones.

avgwarhawk · February 25, 2014

So it is nice to have some quiet time with a polishing cloth and your own random thoughts.
Bernie

Some folks will not understand. It truly is a car guy thing. My dad would remember things from what restaurant the ate at at the time. My mother would remember things with who she was pregnant with at the time. Car guys remember things with what car they had at the time. Enjoy your vehicles and fond memories, Bernie. Another 50 years will bring you many more.

60FlatTop · February 25, 2014

Some of you whom have been entertained by my comments might enjoy this "work in progress": http://brockportinternational.com/xjs/Dir5/Cars/BernieCars.xlsx

I plan to fill in some details and link to some pictures, time remitting.

Bernie

Fr. Buick · February 25, 2014

So based on this reflection, I went out last night for a cigar and a rub down of my girls in the garage: '54 Buick and my budy's Packard that I am keeping while he is in Okinawa as a chaplain for the Marines.

My first '54 was a Special 2dr sedan, a little-old-lady car with low miles. I could talk my Mom into letting me buy it, and I had been begging her over a lot of other cars before that, all mid-50s GM. I spotted it nearby, Easter Sunday afternoon on a post-dinner drive with my sister. When I pulled it into the Senior Class parking lot at school, even with a lowly Special, I felt like a king! Dances and graduation parties, college, summer jobs, an infant niece came home for the first time in it, road trips to visit buddies, salvage yards and car shows, cruising Angelos Burgers in Anaheim, family and friends with me for various events in life.

That Buick is parked and somewhat apart, and come retirement I'll do something with it. In the meantime is a '54 Super hardtop I've had and driven for five years. They are comfortably familiar: "I know them, and they know me..."

Dandy Dave · February 25, 2014

Like! Speaking of reflections, I still have a one lung farm engine that was given to me by my grandfather, Bill Lee, in 1971. It was bought new by a close friend of his in 1908. Bill Wakeman was the old fellows name. (Everyone called him Willy Wake). My granddad helped saw the winter wood supply with it in the 20's, 30's and 40's. The engine was given to him when the old fellow passed in the mid 1950's. That means I have had this engine for 43 years myself. Times sure do go by. Dandy Dave!

Terry Wiegand · March 6, 2014

Reading what you guys have written down here has really jogged my memory also. I turned 66 a couple of months ago. In early Summer of 1963 my Dad bought the 1916 D-45 that I have now. I was 15 years old and was between my Freshman and Sophomore years in high school. My cousin and I learned to drive his granddad's 1933 Plymouth truck in a meadow behind the barn in Woods County, Oklahoma. We were both 9 years old. He just about ran it through the back end of the barn and that ended our driving for a whole year. I was 14 years old when I got my first 'old' car. It was a 1931 Hudson Essex Super Six Sedan. The first Buick that I remember much about was our neighbors 1954 Super 2-Door Hardtop. It was Robin's Egg Blue with a White top. Mr. McBride kept that car spotless all the time. That was one beautiful Buick to my thinking. The first Buick that I owned was a 1959 LeSabre 2-Door Hardtop. It was that Rose color with a White top and that car was special ordered when new because it had the 401 cubic inch engine in it. I just gotta pass this on to you guys out there. In 2003 when we were in Flint for the BIG meet, there was a 1959 LeSabre there that was exactly like the one I had. I waited around until the lady who owned the car came back. I wanted to talk to her about the car and I asked her if I could please get in and set behind the wheel for a bit to relive some old memories. Absolutely, she told me, be my guest. I closed my eyes and it was 1967 all over again. We stood there for a while talking about the car and this older than me guy came up and was looking at the car. He asked which one of us owned the car and the lady said that she did. I was getting ready to walk away and the guy told her that there was nothing like the back seat in one of those Buicks with a big titted woman underneath a guy on a hot Summer night. If I'm lyin' I'm dyin', I almost soiled myself from laughing so hard. If the ground had opened up that lady would have fallen in. She was speechless. And the guy just walked off. Talk about some memories. It sure has been a fun ride all these years.

Terry Wiegand

Doo Dah America

60FlatTop · March 6, 2014

Since the 1960's I have been a true supporter of diversity; big cars, small women.

In '03 we stayed in a hotel around the loop on the other side of town from the event location. My wife went down to the car to get something from the trunk and came back empty handed. She said the trunk wouldn't unlock. I went back down to the car and put the key into the white '60 Electra 4 door flattop with the 8.20 X 15's instead of the correct 8.00's.

I parked next to that car at the meet, backed right up to the library.

Bernie

JohnD1956 · March 7, 2014

Oh Terry...LMAO...That poor lady may have gone right home and vowed never to go to another Buick Meet. Or...she could have done something else:rolleyes:

Larry Schramm · March 9, 2014

AAAAAhhhhhh 2003. What a good memory. Between Dandy Dave, Mark Shaw & Terry & Barb, it was a great time.

Doing a Little Old Car Math-Mosting Buicks

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