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Buicks and the Great Outdoors - Camping and Trailering


MrEarl

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6 hours ago, MrEarl said:

What I wouldn't give to be able to go back in time and ask some of these drivers "So how's the Buick handling the trailer on all these hills you must have just come through? Or "What road did you take? Or "How much does that trailer weigh?

 

IMG_6078.JPG

 

While you could try to look up some of them there is no doubt that most of the people who were old enough to drive in 1955 or 1956 are pushing up daisies...  Small pool to with with...

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7 hours ago, MrEarl said:

Thanks Doug! Nice piece. Don't know if it's a $160.00 piece though. :o:)

 

I agree with you there! That's why it isn't sitting on my shelf.

But it is indeed nice condition for a tin toy.

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Here's my contribution.  This was my Dad's 1965 Sportwagon which he named the Golden Streak. He bought it new in 1965.  This picture is how we were typically loaded for camping.  Inside the wagon was everything we needed for 2 weeks of camping, 6 kids, my Mom and Dad, and an Irish Setter named Kelly.  This was taken in Mount Rainier National Park probably around 1966.  This was in the days before reservations for camping.  I can remember my Dad passing campers and trailers on the way to the campground to be ahead of them so we would get a campsite.  The bag on the luggage rack was a Buick accessory and had the tri shield emblem on the zippered flap.  The old Sportwagon soldiered on until 1976 when my Dad passed away.  It had around 180,000 miles on it but it was on its third motor and second transmission.  It was pretty beat and tired when we sold it to a guy who said he was going to use it in a demolition derby.

Golden Streak.jpg

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This is a picture of my 1966 Skylark Convertible at a campground near the Grand Canyon going to my first BCA National meet in Phoenix, AZ in 1993. I had joined the club in 1992 and happened to be in the area of the previous year's meet in Overland, KS in 1992, but just stopped in for a one-day visit.  That convinced me to go to a National Meet the next year. 

 

Some thoughts on that trip....We went to Carlsbad Caverns and the Grand Canyon.  As you can see by the picture, the campground was nothing exciting.  We felt like we were camping in a desert.  Although, we had to go buy blankets because it got so cold at night up there in that high altitude.  Who would have thought that we needed blankets in Arizona in July?  Also, we discovered on the first morning, that we were camped immediately across from a helicopter sight-seeing company.  Yep, right across the fence, about 50 feet away, helicopters would take off and land, starting early morning.  Constant noise and sand blowing. Yeah, that was fun.  After a few days there we headed to Phoenix.  I remember coming down a pass.  It was a straight drive, and we could feel the temperatures rising constantly.  When we got to the bottom of the pass it was probably 110 degrees.  But the wind chill made it feel more like 120.  It was that hot the entire show.  We stayed at a campground near Phoenix.  Thank goodness they had a pool.  It was 100 degrees even after the sun went down.  I made the mistake of parking the Skylark with the top down once.  Grabbing the metal door handle was enough to burn my hand, but I can't tell you how burned my legs got from seating on those vinyl seats!  And I couldn't touch the steering wheel, either.  It was my first time judging.  The judging was held in the parking garage, where the lighting was terrible. But, it was my first BCA National Meet, and we made it there and back safely with no mechanical issues, so that was good.

 

More on the 1966 Skylark Convertible.....So, after the first National Meet I was excited to go to the 1994 meet in Atlanta.  Now, on the Phoenix trip, I did nothing special to the car, just jumped in it and drove.  I decided to go through it a bit before heading out to Atlanta.  I had relatives near by so I know I wasn't going to pull a camper this time, I could stay with them.  So, I changed the points, cap, plugs, alternator, hoses, belts, and cleaned and painted the engine.  it looked good, if I must say so myself.  100 miles from home the new alternator went out.  OK, a minor setback.  The next day somewhere around Memphis, I sprung a water leak.  It appears that one of the new hoses was too close to one of the new belts and it ribbed a hole in the hose.  I took a screw and screwed it in the hole, held in in place with a hose clamp, and made it to town where I could change the hose.  However, the water leak sprayed everywhere under the hood.  There went the new paint and cleaning of the engine bay. The next day, we were going to stay in Chattanooga, TN.  When we got there and checked into our hotel, we went to town to eat.  After eating and a little sight-seeing, we were headed up Lookout Mountain to our hotel and the car starting running real bad.  Sputtering, no power, etc.  It finally died and wouldn't start.  I was able to coast into a housing neighborhood out of the main road.  I had the hood open, trying to determine the cause, when a car drove up.  A young guy (probably early 20s) got out and came over.  He worked locally as a mechanic, and diagnosed the problem was probably the new points I installed just a week ago.  But this was late on July 3, so he helped me push it into a nearby driveway.  We contacted the owners of the house and explained the situation to them.  We would come back tomorrow, July 4 and fix it.  The young man took us to the hotel for the night, came and picked us up the next day, took us to his shop, got the points, went back to the car, installed the points, and it fired right up.  And he wouldn't accept any money for his time and effort.  I'll never forget that.  So, we spent July 4th in Chattanooga. The next day was planned to go through the Smoky Mountains north of Georgia.  That day presented a new problem. It started overheating.  I had to drive, pull over, drive, pull over, etc.  That night I pulled out the thermostat and that didn't fix the problem, so I had to find a radiator shop the next day.  Oh, one other thing.  My wife, being an organized person, had made reservations in advance for every night.  So, each day we were delayed, but had to drive as long as it took to arrive at our reserved destination.  This meant driving very late some days.

 

Well, I finally made it to the show.  I didn't score high enough to win any award, but it was fun anyway.  The car was running good all the way back home.  I-20 west all the way home. We were almost home, just east of Dallas, when we hit a big Texas rain storm.  Rain coming down so hard you could hardly see anything.  Driving on the interstate highway, he rain would hit the windshield and come through the gap at the top of the windshield and the convertible top.  Water was pouring into the car like a waterfall.  I guess I had never driven in a rain storm with this car before. I stopped under a bridge but by that time we were already soaked.  Water had filled he floor pan. The windshield started fogging up so I took off my shirt and my wife tried to keep the glass clear, wiping it down every few moments.  Finally, we made it home, after a full day of driving.  Once we got to bed, Michelle told me she will never take another trip in that car again, and I believed her.  I sold it soon after that.

1966 Skylark With Camper.jpg

1966 Skylark.jpg

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I am rather surprised that my dad never took any photos of the family car.  You have to remember that he grew up in the depression.  By the time he bought his first new car the depression was over, WWII was over and we had entered into the 1950s.  He came to the conclusion that when you bought a used car you were buying someone else's headache.. The first new car was a 1951 F*rd.  He drove it until 1956 when he traded it in for a 1956 Buick Special.  He received as much for the used car as he paid for it but the Buick was far superior.

 

I remember going with him to pick up the new car.  We didn't have it long when he took 6 kids and 2 adults from Lansing, Michigan to Yellowstone.  We took the Milwaukee Clipper across Lake Michigan but on the return home we crossed at the Straits of Mackinac.  The "Big Mac Bridge" was under construction.  The pictures he took from the clipper ship didn't even show the road deck and yet, the following year, 1 November, 1957, the bridge opened to traffic.  What a wonderful day it was when we crossed for the first time.  Just look at those beautiful clouds.  You can see the hood of the Buick and I can tell you two things from this photo alone.  This Buick was built in the spring and the hood ornament did not have holes in it.  How do I know that from this photo.  It was shot on Kodachrome film and the colors are still fantastic after 60 years.  That is a bittersweet hood.  Bittersweet was a spring color.  The hood ornament had holes in it early in the production cycle but someone was concerned about debris going through the holes and getting into the engine so it was replaced with a flat plate painted to look like it had the rectangular holes in it.

 

I wish I had better pictures of that car.  It took us far, but after 4 years he sold it to his alcoholic brother who drove it up a tree.  It is only because of that car that I own mine today.  We have enjoyed it for 22 years now.  What a car it is. It may not show is camping or pulling a trailer but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless...

 

 

1956 west103.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

and by the way, I'd just like to say thanks to all who took the time and dug through old photo albums, boxes of pictures or other places where we all keep such life's pictures and then going to the trouble of downloading them here for us to see. As elpad said earlier "To Remember is to Live Again".  Thanks!!

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  • 4 months later...
On 19/09/2017 at 9:50 PM, MrEarl said:

 

Pardon my memory if some of these have been posted previously.

 

s-l1600 70.jpg426082267_02c1e66d67.jpgvintage-camper-trailer-bw-400x290.jpg

BUICK_TRAILER__image.jpeg.25ef090a55dfce41e1d98ad7f012d773.jpg.447c0f6412e1bace35d5d2bb7fe8f6c3.jpgBUICK_TRAILER__12932952_10207665870059644_1070174249049718901_n.jpg.ae86061187c6afef8ee4530944e31ac7.jpgMiramar Trailer Park 1935.jpgs-l160058.jpg

Can’t believe the size of caravan in one of the black and white photos above must be 40/50 ft long , how does that mother tow round corners!! And bet that super or roadmaster needed some welly going up hills. ?

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