I finally took out the time to register on this forum, although ive been reading it as a guest for years, and wanted to share my car. Its a 1976 Buick Electra Limited Park Avenue that my father bought in 1994 and we've had in ever since. He actually bought it in the mid 80s, had it for a year, sold it and bought it back! Its the last (for now) in a long line of Buicks in our family. The family's Buick history is as follows; Granddad had a couple of early to mid 50s Roadmasters - a coupe and a conv both were black. (i think '51 & '56) Dad's baby was a two owner '65 Wildcat conv with the rare dealer dual carb option (car had 3 carbs and two intake manifolds). two tone blue (picture attached). They also had a blue on blue '73 Electra Limited with the high output 455. A '74 Buick Electra Limited (copper brown/maroon with black leather) - picture attached, came home from the hospital in that car when i was born. A '75 Riviera (red on white with white top) - car was restored fully in the early 90s but tragically caught fire a week or so later and burnt entirely, was never really used. Finally our '76 Electra (silver over red velour) - pictures attached - dint have a good picture of the interior so uploaded the Buick add that has exactly the same one. A few months ago my father and i completed a cross country tour (about 2000miles total) in the Buick as part of the Vintage and Classic Car Club of Pakistan. Was an amazing experience and the car performed beautifully. Most recently the tranny was rebuilt using JW parts with the addition of a JW shift kit and a torque converter. She's all stock except for the removal of the smog equipment. Future plans include stage1 heads and higher comp pistons with a bigger cam and lower rear gears, but im likely to wait and do this to another 455 in another Buick, time will tell. Thought i would share this here and look forward to soaking up all the info in these pages. Hope everyone enjoys it. Regards, Taimur (or Timmy) PS: the dream - get a wildcat just like the one dad had + '70 GSX clone in Appolo white w/ a built up 455 (ideally stage II, FI, NA and 5 speed manual)
There are a few (left); a few from the 30s, one known Buick 8 from the late 20s. A bunch from the 50s, various Centurys and Roadmasters, Very few from the 60s.. a 62 Special conv (not in use, wont be ever), a 64 Wildcat conv (hasnt been seen in years), the 65 Wildcat conv left, a 65 Wildcat coupe belonged to an ex Prime Minister (probably still with the family hidden away somewhere). There is one known 64 Riv and one '69 Riv in Peshawar (no one in our group has seen the car in person just a picture of it). There was a '69 Skylark 4 door 6 banger that my grandparents had and there used to be a '68-'72 Skylark coupe that no ones seen in years. The 70s were good for Buicks in Pak because the Saudi Arabian govt gifted a bunch of them to us for use during the '75 Islamic Summit, this was early '75 so '74 cars came in... a few LeSabres and a few Electra Limiteds. Other Electras: There was the blue '73 and the brown '74 i mentioned above. My '76 and another black '76 in Peshawar. And '75 Electra in gold that was scrapped. There was our '75 Riv that burnt and there is a '73 Riv in Karachi. There are handful of '77 up Electras and Regals, but nothing special like a GN. Think that sums it up.
That's not just an Electra, it's an Electra Limited with the Park Avenue option package :TU: Does it have the optional centre console?
hahahah i know it is unfortunately no.. aside from having the package itself the car has very few options, frankly i dont think it has any in addition to the package. The only interesting thing is that its a Jan '76 car and a few parts have '75 stampings, don't remember which exactly but will check again.
I don't remember what was included in the Park Avenue package but, I see lots of options on your car. Power antenna Cornering lights Monitor lights Road wheels Outside thermometer on the drivers mirror I know these were all options on Limited's but not sure if any were included with the P.A. package. Nice car BTW!
This is what the 1976 brochure says about the Park Avenue package: Post a photo of the Body Number Plate, it tells you the actual week of the month and year that the car was built in. From an old post about the 1975-1976 Park Avenues:
Thanks for all the info guys! The body tag is as follows; ST 76 4CX39 E 44297 BDY TR 74E AM6 13L 13T PNT 018 DF3 888 CA9 Her vin is; 4CX39Y6E114787 And the door sticker with the weight says 01/76. I just remembered that the rear lights have a '75' as part of their stamped codes, i dont think thats of much significance. The cars got the following options off the top of my head; -Power drivers seat (ONLY) -Power antenna -Power windows -Central door locking -Rear defog (once you out it on you cant shut it off, it goes off itself) -AM/FM tuner with cartridge (according to dad's memory - he says he swapped it with the '74s which had cassette) -60/40 Front seats -The thick carpets and plush velour seats -speed limiter -normal 100mph speedo - NO economy gauge -standard open diff (8.875" 12 bolt w/ 10 bolt cover @ 2.53:1) - have not checked the stamping on it to confirm the ratio but doubt its got the optional 3.23. -Aircon & Heat with the standard A-B-C-E series controls w/ blower speed control -Its got the limited signs on the front and the rear quarters with the park avenue signatures in the opera windows -Its got the larger side indicator/side marker lights up front -Its got the rear quarter rear side marker lights (red) -Cigar lighters in the rear doors and the one up front -chrome road wheels -interior dome light with the side map lights -electric trunk release -drivers side outside temp indicator Thats pretty much it! ---------- Post added at 03:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:39 PM ---------- Guys, some advice please.. My engine is good, pulls strong, no smoke, no eating oil, nothing of the sort it was rebuilt very carefully with a 0.010 over bore and pistons in the mid 90s. What i have noticed though is that there is a little miss that you notice if you hold it at 2k rpm in drive or neutral. All the ignition components aside from the wires and plugs are as old as the car, so do you think it'll go away with a full HEI rebuild kit, i bought one from Pertronix havent put it in yet. Also from experience would you recommend me adjusting the timing to bring in full advance quicker? Also my exhaust manifolds are terribly pitted, they seem to be warped at the flanges and one has been filled and repaired before, i changed the gaskets and they worked well for about 1500 miles but after that its just as bad as before. Would it be best to just swap to some TA shorty headers and not have to worry about this? (Lighter than the cast manifolds so easier to carry back home from the States too!) Finally the carb is a piece of crap from a '78 Olds Cali 350 with a non functioning choke which makes for VERY ANNOYING mornings! I spoke to Cliff Ruggles and he built me up a complete kit with a load of new parts specific to my 455 and told me to keep running the Olds carb. I mention this because do you think the weak carb could also be causing that little miss?
The 1976 VIN should have 13 digits, your VIN has 14 digits.... o No: And this VIN reads like this: 4 = Buick C = Skylark S/R X = Electra Limited 39 = 4 drs hardtop Y = Unknown engine code 6 = Model year 1976 E = Built in Linden, New Jersey 114787 = Model year 1976 production number If you copied the VIN from the car registration, have a look at the VIN at the windscreen. It should only have 13 digits :TU: I think that they copied the code from the BNP: 4CX39 C = the GM body series for the Electra models X = Electra Limited
There's no C in it sorry, i wrote down 4CX39 cause of the option code that i had in mind. Also yes im glad you reminded me about the unknown engine code! This was a mystery to me a while back and then i forgot about it.. it should be a "T"! ---------- Post added at 04:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:08 PM ---------- Just some more info.. The car arrived in Karachi from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 1978.
I remember something about a strike, and that some 1976 Electras left the factory with a 350 engine instead of a 455.... o No: Board member "75Riv" (Rob) knows more about this, I will aks him to chime in :TU: But when I look at your fourth photo, that is a Buick big block engine. Was the car built in Iran, Switzerland, Belgium or North America ? Edit: (Swiss and Belgian built cars had the H for the Flint, Michigan factory in their VIN, so that already answers a part of my question) Remove the lower part of the rear seat, maybe you will find the build sheet between the springs :Smarty:
Well the vin says the Linden plant, there are no markings of it being made else where AND the car had a NA dealer plate thrown in the trunk, its lying around somewhere pretty sure it was Chicago or some other Illinois city. As far as the motor goes its original as far back as '78 and all the papers show the same engine number and i dont think the strike resulting in the 350s happened in Jan of '76. ---------- Post added at 04:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:24 PM ---------- Do you know what the engine codes for the '75 model year were? Does the Y correspond to a 455 there? NOPE that seems to be T aswell! ---------- Post added at 04:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:27 PM ---------- According to this GM list... Y does stand for V8 - 455 205hp, T stands for V8 - 455 190hp, http://service.gm.com/dealerworld/vincards/pdf/vincard76.pdf So its not an issue.. But whats interesting is that the '76 Service manual itself only lists a T. In '75 however 'T' stood for both variants of the 455. This is a good year by year resource for vin information for GM products across the board so the Buick only information hasnt been extracted from its source.
Yes, for the 455 engines: 1975 = AF 1976 = SA and SB (SB = 455 for the Californian market) That PDF is for ALL 1976 GM cars, Buick wasn't the only GM brand with a 455 engine for model year 1976.
Yup i forgot about that too. Olds and Pontiac still had their's. But according to that V8, 455 and 205hp seems to fit the bill. Its weird though. Would be good to know if anyone else has that. Did you end up buying that blue '76?
By the way just studied that pdf again... Code 'S' was a 455 with 215hp with division code '3' thats Olds. Code 'T' was a 455 with 190hp with division code '3' thats Olds. Code 'W' was a 455 with 200hp with division code '2' thats Pontiac. Code 'Y' was a 455 with 205hp with division code '4' thats Buick. ---------- Post added at 04:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:54 PM ---------- hahahahhaha i just said the same thing! good timing ---------- Post added at 04:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:55 PM ---------- But that does mean that all '76 455 Buicks should read Y not T!
