Wildcat GS sighting in salvage yard

[rocketraider]

Found today, in rough and rusty condition- a 1965(?) Wildcat GS 2dHT, bench/column, with a few salvageable parts including the Wildcat 465 engine/THM 400. Aluminum valve covers and chrome airfilter are intact as are the GS emblems on trunk and dash.

Yard also has a 1963 Wildcat 4dHT with decent aluminum, 1962 LeSabre 4dHT with plenty parts left, 1958 Special 2dHT with some good stainless.

Yard shows signs of closing- the guy said he'd sold off or crushed a bunch of older stuff in the last year or so, and there is a for sale sign at the gate.

Travis Auto Parts

1304 Dabney Rd

Henderson NC 27537

252-492-5859

Yard is near Oxford NC, which is right off I-85 about 25 miles north of Durham, and is not hard to find.

[DualQwad]

I don't think the GS option was available on Wildcats in 1965.

That one you saw was probably a 1966.

I wish I wasn't 2500 miles away from that yard so I could go look at it.

[BUICK RACER]

Your are correct, '66 Wildcat GS was it! Any chance of getting some pictures?

[DugsSin]

Glenn what was the condition of the air cleaner? I would love to get my hands on this if it was presentable. Would that be the quadrajet sitting under it? I'd love to save the whole driveline but........

Doug Updike

[rocketraider]

We didn't think to take a camera Wednesday and no telling when, if ever, we'll get back to this yard before it closes- it was right at 100 miles from the house. We were looking for mid 60s f/s Olds and Pontiac stuff, of which there wasn't any except a rough 64 Olds 88 which had nothing for my Starfires.

I told my Pontiac bud that a bench/column was strange to find in a performance-oriented car like a GS, but then I remembered we were looking at a performance Buick. And I admit I've always had a little trouble distinguishing between 65 and 66 Buick (and Cadillac) <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />. Never saw that many up close.

The aircleaner had some rust stain on it but I believe it would have polished off- maybe leaving some small pits. Would need replating for a showcar. The hood was difficult to open more than a couple feet or so, so we couldn't really see everything under there. The pieplate and Wildcat 465 decal were still in place. I didn't look close at the carb but GM was using the new Q-Jet pretty much across the board in 66. Possibly an AFB?

One mind told me to grab the stuff and speculate. Better sense prevailed and decided it was best left intact for a Buick person to save.

It was a rough piece and probably beyond resurrection, no doubt. But imagining what it once was... I've always been an Olds/Pontiac guy, but I believe I could get used to a mid 60s B-body Buick.

Doug, I can send you directions if you want to make a blast down to NC. The yard isn't far off I-85 at all- 20 miles at most on some nice Carolina 2-lane roads.

[DugsSin]

Glenn Thanks for the heads up on this stuff. Should you find yourself back up in that area the Air Cleaner, Valve covers and if the carb is a Quadrajet or Dual Quad set-up grab them and the intake. Hate to see any of it go to waste but traveling 850 miles is not in the cards for me right now.

I'm looking for someone who is more local who could check it out and get it for me on the other boards.

I have family in Durham area but they are way too educated to go picking around a parts yard, if you know what I mean.

[rocketraider]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> I have family in Durham area but they are way too educated to go picking around a parts yard, if you know what I mean. </div></div>

All too well, Doug- all too well. I work with several Durhamites, all of whom are educated beyond their common sense. A while back, one of them went out into the plant where the maintenance crew was rebuilding a coal pulveriser. He saw welding rods and their metal can at the jobsite and went squalling back to the maintenance supervisor and safety officer that people had FIREWORKS AND A GAS CAN in a combustible materials area! The idiot thought they were sparklers.

He was promoted to a plant manager position several months afterward. Thankfully not at the Roxboro Steam Station...

[Don McClair]

Thanks for posting the information about the Wildcat GS in the bone yard. I called the owner of the yard and inquired about this car and he is willing to sell the whole car for $1500 or $1000 for the engine and transmission. He did say that the car is very rough and is not willing to sell parts off of it. He did verify that the finned aluminium valve covers and chrome air cleaner where still there. Sure was hoping to buy the valve covers and air cleaner. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

[rocketraider]

$1500 for this car is optimistic to say the least. For that money it should run and be reasonably restorable, or have a lot of salvageable parts, and it doesn't and isn't. This is someone who has laid eyes and hands on it speaking. One would have to want a Wildcat GS badly to attempt this resurrection.

A guy we work with who is from that area told us that the original yard owner died and one of his long-time staff is running what's left of it. Since there was nothing of real interest for us to pull, we never talked price on any of the cars, but sounds like stuff may be gold-plated. You see it all the time. Richard's near Asheboro NC is world renowned for gold plated rust, and we usually bypass that yard and scour thru Bingham's 5 miles down the road. There's more and better quality stuff to choose from and way better prices.

And then his game may be trying to move whole cars just to get them out as it seemed to us the yard was becoming a general scrapyard. Aluminum siding, old textile machinery, industrial parts- yard was full of that stuff. Sometimes better to part cars and then crush any non-salvageable remains.

It would still be great if a Buick enthusiast could save some of these parts. It would be criminal to let them be destroyed without an attempt to recover them.

[Guest]

This whole issue of salvage yards/price/availability on parts is an ongoing curiosity for me. I posted a message about 3 weeks ago about an ebayer yard near Chicago selling 1000 cars. He's turning out to be a good guy but virtually all of his cars are too far gone to be restored. I'm talking wheels half buried int he Illinois mud, full rust outs, etc. Yet he has so many of these rare cars like a mid 50's Jaguar XK150, a 54 Skylark convertible, 54 Century convertible, Cadillac convertibles and so on. Now - did he not want to sell parts or whole cars for years? And now they are gone...for good. This guy in SC with the Wildcat GS, probably not worth saving, especially since it's a bench seat car and non dual quad optioned but man alive, $1500!!! And won't part it out?

What are we looking at in the next 20 years? Are these yards that won't sell parts reasonable, many off four door sedans, going to become bitter at us restorers that won't pay high prices? Will these cars be crushed (see it all the time)?

What a quandry! We want the parts, we want to pay a fair price, and in a typical market, demand sets price. We don't like the price, we walk away.

I don't have an answer. Like I said, it's a major curiosity.

Wildcatr