No, this a rare Buick. Just as there was the GS California in the Skylark line, in the big car lineup there was the little known Buick "Wild CA."
If you go to the trouble of re-doing the upholstery, why not do it in the correct pattern with the correct buttons? Big turn off there.
There were a few corners cut on that car, like most big Buick restorations I've seen. It's very rare to find one that is 100% "correct", as most big car owners soon determine the total value of the car will never come close to or exceed the cost of a proper restoration, or they start to run out of money, and then corners get cut. So this goes to show that the best investment is still paying for an incredibly low mile time capsule. And they're getting rarer by the day... I don't care for the rattlecan rebuild on the motor, (especially that shade of blue which looks stupid on a 430, IMHO) and the fact that the A/C compressor is MIA. The faux distressed leather look, while a fresh re-upholstery job, is serviceable but would irritate me to no end as well, but I'm a bit anal and would want it to look like what the car had as it left the showroom floor. Still, to the non-perfectionists in the crowd, this is still a very pretty car, love the colour.
I think your ‘67 was a steal, especially compared to this. I also agree with ‘67’s post. I bet he bought it cheap and thought ‘this will be easy like that Chevy I did last year!’ before discovering the parts price and availability. He may get another lesson-Buick folks are picky! Patrick
Yeah, I gave that car away, and I hope the new owner is happy with it. I was also brutally honest about that car with him, he knew what he was getting into. This guy is trying to dump a flip or as stated above, the car went too long and cost too much and he's "done with it". That's another typical path with big cars; - a guy goes out and looks at a serviceable original, has a buddy with him who knows enough to blow smoke up his @ss about how easy it would be to flip it, and then when he goes and does it he's shocked it cost 2 times as much because there's virtually no support for these things, unlike there is on a Chevelle.
I came very close to buying this car. I honestly think the price is fair. The guy was extremely honest about the car when I spoke with him. This is an extremely rare car. I sent my uncle to go take a look and it’s not a bad car. I just really have my heat set on a convertible Electra of the same period. I just sold my 67 skylark convertible and plan on doing a complete a restoration. Looking for a Electra but will consider wildcat.
Hmmmm...Well now...how much are you prepared to spend? I might have just what you're looking for...if you can live with a 1966 Electra 225 convertible... Though not as rare as the 67 or the 68 Cat, there weren't many of these made either. I haven't assembled the console and buckets yet, so the car still has the original interior. It has an older amateur paint job, (good driver quality, not much more) and mechanically it's been rebuilt from the rad cap back. This one has a 401 Nailhead with a Turbo 400 and a posi 3.07 in it. About 20,000 miles since rebuild. Stock right down to the points. It's not perfect by any means, it needs some work to get some of the accessories sorted out right, (cruise isn't working, AM/FM radio intermittent at times, and the top motor just stopped pumping but still makes noise, that happened last week) Top is 5 years old, garage stored since then. It just did another 100 miles last weekend. It was too hot for the top to be down anyway, but that the top motor issue cropped up is a bit of a p--s off. I'd consider parting with it for the equivalent of $20,000 CDN, or about $16,000 US, another giveaway considering what these things fetch in the US.
It's hydraulic. The pump makes the right noises, but doesn't move. So it's likely a fluid issue, it either coagulated or disappeared. I haven't had the time to check it out yet. One of the reasons why I might be interested in getting rid of it is that with this stupid job I have I really don't have any time to work on cars anymore. I already have a spare pump that I liberated from the wreck that I got the buckets and console out of. So between the two I should be able to get it all working again, and it might be a good time to purge the entire system and put in new fluid.
