Its not just you. Also Rick's has a "2" & "4" on the top of his cowl, the rivets arent damaged, and also his doesnt have anything on the bottom line except "09C."
How about the BF where the build plant should be???AND.... what does 45 designate??? How about tha exrtremely lowbody number as well???
You guys are getting wayyy too paranoid here:laugh: It's hard to tell if that's a 6 or a 5....looks more like a 6 after you posted the close-up.
Let the buyer beware. Someone may have some problems registering this car. Furthermore if it is deemed questionable by DMV it may be discovered that it was a stolen car that was re-tagged. Which would mean the buyer is S.O.L. as they would not only lose the car but also the money they paid for it. Only good part would be the original owner (if it was stolen) would get their car back). Or the car is just a fake and the guy is trying to get more cash out of it. I went back and re-read the story. The old man died back in '03? Yeah, OK it sounds like the car that the little old lady from Quebec drove only on Sundays to and from church :laugh: Just a little fishy here. Again this car does have serious issues and without getting any serious answers I would not touch it. Unless I it can be bought for cheap and with no intentions on registering it, used as a racecar or doner car. Hope I'm wrong but it does not look good.
The "BF" Stands for "Buick Fremont" Plant, just like the "G" on Larry's stands for Framiningham. My '68 GS has a "BW" =Buick Wilmington. Cowl tags from plant to plant will have some text variations as you can see from the above example, why did'nt the Framingham plant use a "BG" like Fremont and Wilmington? All cowl tags did not have the additional #'s along the bottom either. I think the same text stamping variations could apply to the vin tag letters. The low body number could mean that the car was held back for a special order or something so there could be some merfit to the story. A quick check of the VIN through Sloan would answer that question. There is no model 4537 so even if it is a 5 it could have been a factory stamping error. I think as others have said that something happend to this car at one time (fire,flood,stripped o No: ) and it was cobbled together with Skylark parts. I would have to look this car over very closely and get the Sloan info before throwing any $ at it.
It does look like a 5.... but if you look closely at the normal pic, you can see that the #5 in the sequence below are styled totally different( the 5 is squared in the upper right of the number... the questionable number is rounded like a 6 would be)... in reality, it looks more like the #6 above it with an imperfection. :Smarty: Who knows... I am raising the BS flag on the GS hood Delete option ou: Anything to make a buck :spank:
update On Oct-23-05 at 17:19:12 PDT, seller added the following information: Information regarding this GS: Thanks to the ebay readers I have made the following determination regarding the GS. #1 The non-cowl Skylark hood does not belong on this car it appears that the original Ram-Air type hood was either stolen or damaged and replaced with the incorrect hood. The original information that was given to me was I believe incorrect. THE CAR IS A GS455 and the VIN and Vehicle ID plate verify this. This car does have the sway bars front and rear. I located the build sheet under the back seat but cannot decifer if other then it is for the 1607 production car as on the vin and the transmission has a code 40 making it a Turbo 400. So for this car to be correct the hood should be changed and the fiberglass adapters that hold the foam and set on each of the twin snorkels have to be replaced. Any questions please call Paul 559 431-1520 or email me pduran1860@sbcglobal.net
44637 vs 44537 According to the standard Catalog of Buicks there is no Buick model with a 44537 code. It looks like a 6 to me and I would not doubt for a moment that different plants had different stampings. 1970 was right in the era where most people ordered their car and lots of dealers would change things for those desires the factory would not meet. But that does not mean I think the car is okay. For all the other reasons mentioned here I would not bid on the car. JD
Maybe, since he's doing some explaining, he could also tell us about these recent purchases and why we feel his emblems are not in the correct position ? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=34204&item=4580483947 http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=34204&item=4580905005 This all looks to coincidental to me !!! TUFBUICK
I think he is finding out that Buick people are going to question any thing that does not sound right and is starting to change his story uzzled: I would still want to check the numbers on this car to see if they match....Can't take his word for it. ou:
Quebec !! Where ? did I missed something o No: :laugh: ... According to VIN , the car was built in Freemont,Ca (Z plant) Mine , like many many Buicks here , were built in Oshawa (I plant) (read 12 bolts) :grin: . IMO maybe the seller try to push the limit a little , thinking that no one will "investigate" his car since it's "only" a Buick .... hope i'm wrong
Just throwing some humor into it, no offense to little old ladies in Quebec :grin: . Bottom line, like I said the car is nice but deserves a real close inspection to see if it all lines up as a real GS455. It has some issues hopefully who ever buys it finds out the real story behind it. I would venture to say an actual physical inspection would be recommended to the buyer before sealing the deal. Oh I e-mailed Mr numbers guru, Duane Heckman to check out this thread regarding the numbers and different fonts, possible mistypes on the VIN and Body tag. If anyone can give a definate answer Duane can.
Guys, Rick asked me to comment about this car so here goes. I think both the Vin and Fisher ID plates look correct for a Fremont car. I just parted out a totally rotted/rusty 71 Stage 1 coupe from Fremont and the vin # looked like the one on this car with a space in the "4 4637". The fisher ID plate is also the correct size/shape for that plant. (Flint plates are different) I also have seen production plants use different fonts, so that doesn't surprise me. As to the rest of the car, the seats have been re-done with the incorrect vinyl, which is very common on a used car. The car is advertised as being a re-paint, so the emblem placement is not un-anticipated, nor is the artful body side molding, or the bodywork on the filler panel. (I mean come on guys this is a 35 year old car.) To me it looks like a 70 GS 455 that had pieces from a skylark, doorpanels, hood, etc, used to improve the condition of the car, and then it was repainted. If someone like me looked at it, and checked out the date codes, it would probably tell an interesting story. Duane
The body number of Freemont cars corresponds to the sequential number built for that model, which means that this is the 55th model 4637 built at the 'BF' plant. This pattern holds true for all Fremont cars I've seen. SCO cars came from Flint and have a body number 9999 or below...
Your question and his reply is shown on the auction site, and if he ends the auction based on an outside offer, isn't that an e-bay violation o No: .Plus it is a NR auction so unless he "withdraws" the auction if the bids stay where they are, HTF does he expect $10,500 firm ou: ?
Duane! Your da man!! :TU: Thank you so much adding much needed info to this thread. I felt if anyone would set things straight you would be the one. Thanks
