When I was a little tyke, my grandpa drove a 1963 Electra 225. I don't remember it much, but I do remember when he bought a 1976 Limited. With over 250k on the original motor, it still goes for rides in the evening with him and grandma along for the ride. When I was in highschool, my brother bought a 1973 Riviera. He's still got it too. I remember the first time I drove it--it did a stop-watch time of 6 seconds from 0-60. When it came time for me to buy a car, I actually found myself searching used car dealers for an older Firebird or Camaro. o No: What caught my eye was a 1963 Riviera. It was beautiful. After taking it for a drive and feeling the stump-pulling 425 push me into the seat, I gave the man the money and took it home. I was sold on Buicks! Since then, I've had a 1971 Skylark convertible with a transplanted Stage 1 400. Future plans include another convertible with a nicely-built 455 and SP400 and 12-bolt. I'd also break my back for a 1965 Riviera GS. So why are YOU "buick?"
Why would you want to be anything less than BUICK?!! Actually, I've been into Buicks since I was sixteen, first Buick was a 69 GS 400, little old ladies car, 60,ooo miles, boy was that a fun ride in high school, and have enjoyed many others since, I think for me the enjoyment is that not everyone in the neighborhood has one, which leads to the attraction and uniqueness of these cars, and the lines are a big factor,styling and oh yeah! THE POWER!!:laugh: Bruce
Just built that way! I used to ask my daugter why she asked so many questions she said she was just built that way. Thats my answer I'm just built that way it gets in your blood!:laugh:
My mom's first car was a '62 Skylark convertible, 215 V8, 4bbl, 4spd car... she still has it. During summers growing up, she'd take us to the beach in it. We'd sit in the back seat holding onto our innertubes as we drove down the back roads. My first car was supposed to be a 71 Chevelle SS396 (402), but my dad had an opportunity to turn it around for some quick cash... I missed out (or did I???). As a result I started looking into the body style and found out that the Skylarks (and Gran Sports) were very similar. Somehow I made the mental link to mom's car. So my first car ended up being a '66 Skylark hardtop. I thought it was a '67 since that's all I'd really seen pictures of at the time. I really wanted a GS, but I took what I could get. My second car came within the year - a 1972 GS350. Then as I got towards college, I needed better mileage and a better daily driver through Seattle's awful rush hour traffic. I ended up getting the first of two 5.0 ex-WSP patrol cars. Mileage in the mid 20's and low 14 second 1/4 miles. They were great through those years. Then as I got older and could afford a "2nd" car, I found my GS. I've had it for 4 1/2 years now, along with a few other driver vehicles.
My first car was a mopar, 77 Dodge Aspen slant six... darn good car, and for only $20, couldn't go wrong. Did some work to it, but it was rough around the edges. I drove it for about 2 1/2 years until I found the Skylark. I actually went to this guy's place to look at a dodge that me and my buddy were gonna get for parts. When we pulled into the place I saw the skylark with $1100 written on the window. We looked at the dodge, and decided it didn't have enough parts to be worth taking, even for the price of $0. But I asked him about the skylark. I love my dodge, but I looked back and forth between the dodge, and the skylark... well I took it for a test drive, bought it the next day. I still have the dodge in storage and one of theese days it's gonna shine again... but this time around with a bigblock.... Anyway, I've had the buick for 2 yrs now... it's a great car, I don't ever plan on getting rid of it, and I love the motor, but I'd still have to say I'm a mopar guy at heart....
My initiation into Buicks was an interesting one. my dad had one when i was like 7 years old. an old 4 door hardtop something(can't remember). anyways I VERY DESTINCTLY remember one trip we were taking and i was sitting in the back seat on the pass. side. well my mom forgot something in the house and had to run in and get it before we left,which left my dad less than impressed thus causing his left arm to go out the window,arm up, and a well remembered finger tapping started on the roof of the car as a sign of his impatience. well being that i was as kool as dad i tried to reach with my arm to the top of the window too only to find my young arm wouldnt make it. so i did the next best thing... i grabbed the door frame on the front of the rear door and did my best "dad impression" for my sisters who were less than impressed. anyways, out of the house comes mom with whatever she couldnt live with out and she is in the car and BANG !!! she slams the front door shut, in the meantime slamming my fingers in the door between the pillars,leaving me panic strickin and speechless. HEY .... it hurt !!!! for all you guys out there that lived in a strict household,try and paint a similiar picture in your head and read on........after what seemed like an eternity(about a half a block) trying to muster up ANY words, i shouted as loud as i could "MOM,OPEN THE DAMN DOOR". as soon as i got them out i was cryin', 1- because my fingers were in pain and 2- because i knew the back of dads hand was on its way to the side of my head. but i didnt care this time. the next thing i remember was the ole Buick brakes squeelin and my sister laughin'(they found it quite ammusing). dad was yellin and bailin out to get around the car. as luck would have it the door seals in the car were in very good shape and none of my fingers broke. they did though have really kool looking flat spots on them for a long time after,i remember that. the doctor said that somehow the bones in my fingers were just the right size to fit in the gap. the same couldnt be said for the skin around them. i got some good ole "mom sympathy" outa that one for about....oh...20 minutes till i through a cookie or something at one of my sisters. then it was the back of dads hand and i was sent back to the back seat where my "initiation" started. not quite the story of what got me "into" Buicks(i'll relive that here in a bit),but i think its a more of a how NOT to get into Buicks story. later................................
My first car was a 65 Lesabre that my mom and dad bought new. I took it over in 1976 when I got my license. It had the high compression 300 4 barrel w/ aluminum heads and ST400. I always called it the "old heap" even though it was only 11 years old. I was happy to give it up in '77 when I bought a 67 Mustang. Now I wish I could see it again as I didn't appreciate it then. It is amazing how your view of things change over the years! My mom has almost always had a Lesabre, and tosay she drives a 2002 Century. Brian
When I was a kid my Grandfather bought a brand new 79 Buick Century Wagon for my Grandmother who he lost only a few months later. The car being somewhat of a sore spot he gave it on extended loan to a family friend who managed the local golf course. The car was used to haul tools around the greens over the summers and sat in a shed for the winters. When I was 16 I did a lot of computer repair work to pay for school and drove my borrwed truck out to pay a service call on the same family friend. While I patched up this little electrical issue he happens to mention that he's having my grandfathers old car junked since it's being replaced with a new F-150. Joking, I offer him a dollar for it. "If you can get it running its yours". Well a free car is gold to a 16 year old kid. I dragged the battery out of my borrwed truck, plopped it into the wagon, and she took just a single key turn to get goin. The interior was beat up pretty bad but it had less than 40k miles and had never seen a winter! I dragged that car through high school, university, 3 jobs and 300k miles. My first job involved a year in Inuvik (that's about as far north as you can go on this continent) where it ran damn near constantly to keep from siezing in the -60C. I practically lived out of it for 8 months contracting at various jobs all over the US and Canada. It pulled trailers for 16 moves and has a host of Wagon stories... I patched damn near every part to keep that Buick running but I never towed it once. Lots of great "limp home" stories. Same beat up interior with seat covers but no major mechanical work. Like every other kid I toyed with rebuilding it using an Olds 455 or Chev. In 99 it was relegated to hauling and weekends as I was working in a stable downtown job. She started throwing black smoke and refused to start without a lot of hacking. When it finally blew I couldn't bring myself to sell `er. After a little research I decided to go "All Buick" and bought a 76 455 off a local Buick nut for $200 and dropped it in over 2 weeks at a buddy's shop. First time at the light bringing it home she lit the tires and laid a neat little one-legged track across the intersection. Next year I bought a 71 455, SPTH400, and 8.5 rear for it. Year after that I bought my 67 `lark. I've got designs on a new buildup for the 76 and am looking into a GN for daily use... I'm owned by the Buicks now and I think they know it.
My first car was a bondo buggy 70 Skylark Custom. Rear bumper was shot, as was the interior. Hey, I was 16-what did I know. This was around 1985 and I was hooked on the new-on-the-stands Musclecar mags. For some reason those pics of the GS Stage 1's always caught my eye. I swapped just about everything-fenders, doors, trunklid, rear bumper. I scored a rotted-framed 70 GS 350 (no motor/trans) and used the hood and emblems as well as the grille for my cloner GS. I found a rebuilt 350 for a song, as well as a good trans. I wrecked dads driveway with trans fluid and gasoline... My best score was a MINT black interior-doorpanels, seats, dash etc for $150! I'll try to add an after and before photo: Todd
Why am I buick????? My 73 ford ranchero with a ton of race parts couldnt out run a stock 70 GS 455 pulling a lawn mower trailor...........with a lawn mower on it!!...........:af: Really !!!! Thats the truth I have witnesses!!ou:
Ouch!! Dave, you had me rolling as to the hand slammining incodence, I was with my stepbrother at the time, and we had no local drive inns, I.E. McDonalds etc...we went to a place 20 miles away and in a flurry we jumpedout of the car and went to shut the door and slamedd it on my thumb, have the scare to prove it to this day, the door was totally shut and yes it hurt like hell!! A few stiches later, I was home. Bruce:laugh:
My dad had a white 65 Skylark 4 dr that had the underdash A/C and light blue interior...He had that until he totaled it in 1974(?), I think it was...Also, he bought a 1973 Century 2 dr w/350 that ended up being my first car...In 1990, I was driving around and went past a used car lot at about midnight and slammed on the brakes, did a quick u-turn and went back to look at a beautiful 66 Skylark 2 dr that I went back to buy within the next week for $2800...I still have it but it now has a 455 in it...I also now have my 85 GN and an 87 Turbo T...Also in the works is a Buick 350 powered 86 Toyota 4x4 pu :Brow:
Price !!!! My late Uncle Tom had a 65 I wanna say it was a Wildcat 4 dr, I thought that car was so neat I liked just looking at it . A good friend of my mothers had a 63 Riviera that I also found fascinating, But in all honesty what has brought me to this board today was price . In the summer of 2000 my friend Tony got into an accident with his 85 Cadillac . I was riding him back & forth to work when he says one day " I found this Buick, guy wants $500 for it and it seems pretty solid so I think Im going to pick it up . Can you drop me off tomorrow after work ? " I take him up to this empty house , he goes to the house next door comes back with a set of keys opens the garage door and out comes the 77 Buick thats now in my signature. The owner had passed away and the next door neighbors were handling the estate . They had no clue about the value of old cars and sold the Buick for what they thought was a good price. So for the next 2 months Tony & I are taking turns driving to work . the more Im in this Buick the more I like it , you can tell the cars all original and had been pampered from the day it left the showroom. Judy , Tonys wife, doesnt like it its too big , and she dearly missed her Cadillac which was still sitting at Tonys house . Finally one day we are talking about the Caddy when Tony says if you help me fix the Caddy Ill sell you the Buick real cheap. My help consisted of hauling a Caddy front clip in my pickup , a week later the Buick was mine for the amount of $700. I love this car and wouldnt think of selling it to anyone else . Dan
Bruce, its "kinda?" funny now i guess but as far as i can remember thats the first time i cursed at my mom(i did get that lecture later in the evening too from dad).i dont have any scars or anything but i remember it well as you can imagine. my 1rst Buick was an odd event too. i spent a few years in the service and after a nice vacation(?) in the Persian Gulf, I was out and had saved a lot of money for a toy when i got home. my pop was an avid chevelle fan as his and moms 1rst new car was a 67' 396" 4-spd SS. so i guess i was looking for a chevelle. off in the distance we see these two "chevelles" that had just been brought in our local "yard". as we got closer,on the first car i saw an "S" but only one. they turned out to be a pair of 66' Buicks. a g.s. and a lark'. the g.s. was complete with a broke 401" in it. the lark was a roller for parts.I didnt know a thing about Buicks so we passed and i went home and grabbed up the faithful Chiltons manual.when i came to a h.p. chart that said 510 ft/lbs factory(455"), i had a plan. back to the yard the next morning bright and early. we made a deal for the two and i hauled away the lark first with the intention of stripping it for the good parts, bringing back the carcass, and getting the g.s. BAD PLAN !!! you see the owner had a crusher coming. and although I took the paint can myself and marked the glass on the car "SAVE".......well........ you can get the idea. i owned my 1rst real g.s. for a grand total of 2 days before it was a cube. in the meantime i drug the carcass of a 66' lark back home and started putting it together. mainly out of spite for being ripped off of my g.s. fast forward to today.........that same 66' is now quietly resting in a friends shop awaiting a backhalf/ladder bar treatment. it has set for too long and i have ignored it for too long. i recently decided its time to get back to the way i was, and back to what mattered. i have 3 66's total and 2 67's including the g.s. that i just brought a few months ago. of the 5, 66' # 1 is by far in the worst condition,and i have no doubt that out of 10 people chosen at random, 10 would crush it. i know better than to be sentimental,especially in the world we live in today, but i am. this is "the car" that started it for me........ so. over the winter, 1 more time, and maybe outa "spite" 1 more time, 66 # 1 will be at the top of my heap. it will end its days driving a little over 1/2 mile at a time(down and back). it wont be a show car, and it wont be a perfect looking racecar. it was 48 hours away from being a toyota or a paint can when i got it, so if it comes outa the paint booth and it wants to keep a couple of its original dents that i missed, so be it. about 13 years ago i saved a Buick that should have been crushed, then, and maybe now(?). it was the one that started me into Buicks and hopefully ............. its the one that'll keep me racing one for a bit longer. thats my story. later........................
I have had my first ever Buick for only10 months now, but i can say with a lot of certainty that I'll NEVER have any other kind of car. As to why I got this first buick, it was originally a case of mistaken identity. I was at my local cruise night back home in St. Pete Florida (Biff Burger on 49th street, if anyones curious). I was there with my dads car, a 64 Chrysler 300 with teh dual quad 413 cross ram max wedge (NICE car, lemme tell you). Well, i see screaming down the street this black beast, which from the glimpse I see appears to be a black 67 chevelle, one of my favorite styled cars. Well, a few minutes later, i ehar that car pull around and park in back, so i go to take a look at it. Huh? Whats that? that chevelle sure has a funky looking front end, but I like it. And that hood, that was never on a chevelle. And whats this GS, shouldnt that be SS?? Well, as you can tell, I was pretty clueless about Buicks at the time, I've al;ways been kind of a mopar guy. Well, I see this car, and I fall in love. When I find out its for sale, for a song, and that it has a damn 455 in it, i have no choice, I have to buy it. Since then, everything I have learned has made me fall in love with the car even more, and if this car ever bites the big one, I can assure you ther will be another buick taking tis place. Oh, and in case anyones wondering, my car turned out to be a 67 buick special, the guy selling it had swapped on the hood and grille from a GS, but the fact that its a post car tends to give it away as a fake. It doesnt matter though, shes fast, fun to drive, and gets me quite a few ladies, so I'm happy. Plus, theres just something almost erotic about chirping the tires going into 3rd gear.... when you have 2.80 or so rear gears, try that with any non-455:grin:
I was 17 and had just crashed my 79 cutlass with 72 olds 455 in it for the 3rd time and was looking for an old car to fix up. My mom worked with a guy that delt with old cars and he told her he had a 71 skylark that he needed to get rid of even had a fresh 350 for it all i had to do was drive to michigan and get the motor and give him 700.00 for all of it. I had never seen a buick skylark before and must have asked 50 people what it looked like and all I got for a responce was kind like a Chevell. Then I found a picture of a GSX and fell in love. Got the car that week drove it till I graduated once I got it together. After graduation I bought a 70 gs hood, two gm rear quarters, 1 fender, several other parts, and built the 350, got it painted and it has gone on from there. Now I have a 85 Ttype and the 71 . The best thing about it is you dont see many around.
Power, Power, Power My Dad bought a `68 Special Deluxe 2dr Sedan in 1980, for a work car, he was a carpenter. In 1986 when I was ready to drive it was the first car for me. all rotted out, but still strong in all the important places. It had zero options, but the 350-2 engine and would out perform most cars that kids were driving in the mid to late 80's. I soon bought a 1971 Centurion 4dr hardtop and planned on putting the 455 in the Special, but the Centurion was in too good of condition to canabilize it. Plus that Centurion beat EVERYTHING that I raced, including Chevelles and 442's. It would bake the tires like John Force, and would hit 130+ MPH with 6 people in it! (in hindsight, not recommended). In 1990 I bought a nice `78 Lesabre Sport with the 231-4 Turbo with only 15k miles. Then I bought a `69 Skylark 4dr sedan in California in the late 1990's with only 32K miles and that car was nice and tight, no wind noise, excellent ride and the good old 350-2. Now I have 3 `69 Rivieras (which have been a love hate relationship), a `65 Electra Coupe (my first Nailhead). And most recently a `66 Skylark GS, which has been much easier to work on than the Rivieras (parts wise that is). Dave
Hey GKMoz: Thanks for the heads-up on the GS Riv on Ebay. It's always tempting to see stuff like that. It's a good thing I'm broke!
When I was a kid, my Dad bought a brand new '64 Riviera. He sold his '62 Impala SS for it. I thought this was a stupid move until he came driving up the driveway in the Rivvy. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen. (I still think the Riv is one of the coolest cars ever made) A few years later he traded it in on a '69 Electra. I drove that car when I first got my drivers license. I thought it was a huge worthless land barge until I drove it. Man that big old car would run! Later my Dad traded it in for an '85 Regal. So Buidk is in my blood, like a lot of otheres on this board. I will always have a Buick in my garage.
