Buicks: Those that got away

[old-tank]

The summer of 1977, I was having some service work done on my Olds, when the service manager mentioned that he was selling his fathers 1955 Century 66R. A few days later I looked at the car: 21,000 miles, factory air and power everything. I agreed to buy it and went to get money. In the meantime other relatives got involved and the sale was canceled.

It was the summer of 1990 and I was outside tinkering on one of my 55's when a very pleasant older gentleman drove up and of course we started talking Buick. He told me he had just brought 2 of his Buicks to his house a few blocks from me and asked if I could help him get them running. It turns out they had been sitting in a driveway in another city for the past 20 years (vague story about an ex wife --- I suspected that he may have been incarcerated). One car was a 1956 Special 43 4-dr ht with factory air and 3-speed manual column shift, black and white and had 24,000 original miles. The other was a 1970 Wildcat 4-dr ht, black roof, red body, cooked tan vinyl interior and also with 3-speed column shift and had 2,000 original miles. There was one perforation into the trunk from around the rear window that I noticed. We got the Wildcat running and driving, installed new tires since the original bias-belted were square. It idled well and WOT performance was spectacular (2nd gear rubber was not just a chirp, but a prolonged squall with smoke), but intermediate driveability was lacking. We got the Special running, but not drivable due to brakes. The winter of 1991 had me hospitalized for a few weeks and I was just starting to tear apart my 55 CVT, when he announced that he had cancer and needed to sell the Buicks. We agreed on a price and while I was arranging storage I found that he had died. His current 'wife' it turned out was not 'legally' so heirs got involved and the sale was canceled and the Buicks went away. A few months later 3 of the 'heirs' (could have been named Jethro, Festus and Billy Bob with about a dozen teeth between the three) showed up and asked if I would sell the back glass from one of my parts cars --- the story was that the Special was in a bad neighborhood in North Texas and vandals broke the glass out. I got the cash money in my pocket and they started the removal after I showed them how to get the trim off. A few comments led me to believe that the trim on the 56 was not in good shape.

That was the last I heard of those cars.

Now when I go to look at a car, I have the cash I am willing to spend in my pocket, a working pen to sign the title over and a tow truck on standby!

Dang! Three nearly new cars...poof! In 1980 I bought the Blue/White 55 63 4dr-ht that I drive all over the country and it probably had nearly a million miles on it since every component was worn out. At least I learned a lot restoring it.

Willie

[JohnD1956]

That 70 wildcat is Petes new car? Smallworld that Texas place.

[old-tank]

Other than disappointment, the only thing I got out of the '56 and the '70 was the original sales papers (minus the title) that the owner had given me...the 'heirs' were not interested.

Willie

[Guest Skyking]

That was the last I heard of those cars.

Now when I go to look at a car, I have the cash I am willing to spend in my pocket, a working pen to sign the title over and a tow truck on standby!

Willie

Agreed! That's the best advice for anyone seeking to buy a car.

[RivNut]

The one that got away from me that I remember most was a '65 Wildcat with the Super Wildcat engine and four speed. I took it for a test drive, thought it was the neatest thing since sliced bread. Drove it to my finance's house so she could drive it. "The clutch is too stiff. I can't hold it in. Is this all you could find?" Settled for a '64 Wildcat Spt. Cpe. Nice car but it wasn't the Super Wildcat with a four speed stick. We got divorced a long time ago. Lesson learned - should have gone with the car.

[60FlatTop]

Only one got away....... It wasn't a Buick but I owned the damned thing!

Check the quarter panel line. It was an H&E, not the factory one.

Bernie

[JohnD1956]

This topic , with all due respect, sucks. It is dragging up things I'd rather forget. Like that complete, running, and driveable, $30.00 57 Special convertible I had for a short while in 1972 and sold for $100.00 and thought at the time I was doing good. ( where's that head smack smilely? can't repeat it enough for this blunder)

[Mr. Anderson]

Reminds me of a few reattas that I was literally one day away from getting ahold of. I found a '89 black coupe with low miles that came with a parts car for next to nothing, and sold the week before I went down for it. I also found a rare '91 convertible with low miles that was fairly low priced that sold the day before I was scheduled to go down and buy it. Still looking around for a '91, but the '90 that I have now is very wonderful!

[Larry Schramm]

Not a Buick, but my wife would not let me forget that I did not buy her a Chevelle SS 40 years ago. She wanted a blue SS convertible and we ended up getting a Corvette. That is why we (she) now owns a synergy green Camaro. I just got the Buick trucks.

[dei]

The two cars that 'GOT AWAY FROM ME' were both 1958 Buick Limited Convertibles!

The first convertible was one I saw sitting nicely on top of a pile of cars at a metal recycling yard here with beautiful condition chromed rear quarter panels and from that distance with not bad black body panels either! With having been given a Limited 2 door from my Dad and my quarter panels in poor condition I did almost everything in my power as a young kid to get those parts (let alone knowing what a 'complete' Limited convert was worth back then).

This metal recycle yard (even back then - 1973) was bringing cars into Canada as scrap metal and because they were Bonded (registered for scrap only) they could not sell any parts at all!

It just about KILLED me to drive by that car sitting there for about four weeks and then.... it disappeared.

Today knowing that there were only 839 of those made it still brings a tear to my eyes.:mad:

I wish I had today's digital capability then to have captured that image.

The second convertible was shortly after seeing that first one. I had seen an ad in Cars & Parts listing a 1958 Buick convertible for sale and called to find out it was indeed a Limited convertible but had not been on the road for quite some time. It was about 4 hrs away and after some talking with Dad, it was decided to take a road trip and see.

Turned out it was not bad but..... they wanted $2,000.00 for it. Being just in College and only earning part time minimum wage I just could not swing it.

The kick here is that I attended the National in Flint 2003 and what did I see? I believe after talking to the son, in was that same convert (but fully restored).

At least this one was saved!

I have to find the shots of that same car with my Special when they came here on an organized tour before that National.....

[dei]

Found some pictures and here is the second Limited convert.

This shot wasn't at the National and didn't realize it at that time that it was the car I had looked at as a kid.The McLaughlin Club were on a tour here and I caught up with them with my Special.

That 2,000 dollar asking price then seems like 50,000 does today to me.....

Edited June 25, 2014 by dei (see edit history)