First Car!1978 - I'm a 14-year old paperboy, which is work I did far too long. Already a veteran car nut and longtime subscriber to Car Craft Magazine, I was on the lookout for that special car. You know the kind: Free or Near Free. I wasn't afraid to get dirty or work on something that wasn't running. Turns out that something had been sitting for the better part of seven years, in the front of house 5 blocks from my own.
This car had been purchased as a parts car for another Buick restoration. The restoration was never done and the car simply sat. Fifty dollars later it was mine. My dad insisted that I pay for it myself; to this day I'm glad he did, because it gave me a true sense of value. We hauled it home on the end of a rope tied to our station wagon; two hours later it was coughing to life. Now the real work started.
The car needed a number of things (hey, it was $50...what DIDN'T it need?). The muffler was blown out, the intake manifold had a huge leak, the tires were bald, and the interior looked like threadbare turmoil. But the doggone thing ran, and it ran pretty well. It had a space-age dash with a speedometer that was adjustable for driver's height with a big dial. The trunk - like other cars of the era - was enormous. My memory says the car only had about 100,000 miles on it. The bumpers were straight and the trim, with the exception of the driver's side spear, was also decent.
Within a couple of months, my measly paperboy income was getting the Buick closer to being a dependable car. I was still to young to drive, even on a Washington Learner's Permit, so my Dad was happy enough to drive it to work. I think he liked the car more than I did. Together, we discovered in many ways that this was an unusual car. Originally it had a starter button on the floor, underneath the gas pedal, which would fire up the car when you pressed the gas to the floor. Fortunate as I am, I always flooded it; so we wired the car for a starter button under the dash instead. We also installed a pair of buckets seats (nice ones by the way) from a 1966 GTO. Since the original bench seat was trashed, this was a welcome change. But in whatever wisdom I carried at the time, I upholstered the car with free carpet sample squares...yes, all colors in shag. Yuck. In 1978, unless you were looking for tune-up parts, replacement stuff for `60 Buicks was near impossible to find. I can't imagine restoring one of these today; it would have to be an expensive devotion.
Once I got my driver's license, I was in heaven. All the time and effort I had put into repairing things, tracking down parts, and bartering goods & services had finally shown its value. I put a bunch of miles on the car and it really was dependable. The engine always purred and its road manners were wonderful. It just cruised! It also leaked transmission fluid out of the front seal.
This car had a transmission called a Twin Turbine Dynaflow; it had two forward gears but used only one in regular driving. The torque converter had two stall speeds, and used them depending on how much throttle was applied. Essentially it was a 4-speed automatic if you put the right mix of throttle and shifter together. Pretty slick, but also pretty old, pretty heavy, and pretty wet from a dried up front seal.
Add to the dilemma the fact that the driveline was encased in a Safety Tube from the back of the trans to the differential. My Dad and I had neither the ability or the place to remove a 600-pound transmission plus encased driveline. So I sold it in 1981 for $225 to get a car that I could work on - a `65 Chevy. I saw the Buick a few times over the years, and it still looked okay considering what it was. That Chevy ended up needing more repairs than the Buick ever did. Oh well; you live and learn.
I should have kept and fixed the Buick. Check out a slideshow HERE.
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