There still their and I'm trying to get them bought, but the guy is a tough dude to deal with. Larry.
I got the brown Stage I car on the trailer in front of my house right now. I got home last night at midnight after about a 17 hour day starting out by driving to Gresham, waiting an hour for the owner to show up [he moved to Kansas] freeing the car up from the ground, replacing 3 of the 4 tires so I could tow it out of the backyard, then loading the car on the trailer and making my way back home. Man, it made for a long day on Easter Sunday but I'm glad I did it!! Now I have to go back next week to pick up the blue car. Larry.
X2. I have to keep reminding myself that I promised to only keep the 3 that I have left and to stop trying to buy every 73 GS I hear of. It has been nice to finally buy some different cars to drive and enjoy! Good luck with the cars, Larry.
Larry, ask the owner when you go back for the other car if that stage was around Fremont Nebraska, in the mid 80's. It was a running car, 4 speed white interior, with an replacement block. After that I lost track of the car and never seen it again. It was at our BPO show one summer.
Here's the story on the Stage car. It was a special ordered car by the first owner from a Rochester, Minnesota Buick dealer, I'm not sure what time of the year it was. He ordered it with power steering, tilt wheel, bucket seats, small dish hubcaps, and not much else from what I can see. He worked for Hormel Packing and took a transfer to move to Nebraska after owning the car for only 4 months, this was his only car so he loaded his stuff in it and drove to Lincoln Neb. The second owner [who was a co-worker] bought it from the original owner within a few months. The second owner was a lead-footed hell-raising kind of guy who was always in trouble with the Buick [speeding, drinking, eluding police, etc.] It sat for extended periods of time during his ownership according to Howard. He drove the car up to 41k miles and then Howard [who also worked with these guys] bought it in Nov. 1998. The car now has 48k showing. Howard put on new brakes, shocks, mufflers, exhaust pipes and a new Heavy-Duty Clutch assembly and the 14 inch chrome road wheels from a junkyard. It appears during this whole time nobody bothered to park this rare car in a garage either the owners just didn't care, or didn't have access to a garage or what? Who knows? I bet when this Stage car was new it was a sinister looking machine with the small hubcaps, all brown paint [no vinyl top] and low option load, it could have been a real eye-opener for some brand-X owners at the stoplights. Anyway, the car is well seasoned from about 48 years of Nebraska's weather, and the 1/4 panels bear evidence of the harsh mid-west winters. It's amazing that the doors, front fenders, and floor-pans still appear to be pretty solid though. I'll try to get some pictures of it in the next few days when I unload the car. I'm wondering what everybody thinks 'I should do with this car.' Should I get it running, straighten out all the mechanicals, Indian blanket the seats, wet sand the body with 1500 grit and clearcoat. and then drive it as a beater with the patina as-is, OR spend years trying to find correct original parts and doing a frame off restoration and make it into a show piece that I'll never be able to use? I really want to hear your comments. Thanks, Larry.
Hard to say w/o pics, but seemingly to get it running & driving would be good & then try to accumulate the parts to restore (to what level?). Glad to see it didn't get parted & is in good hands finally. 2nd interesting story/history posted on here in 2 days regarding a '73-4 Stage 1.
So cool this thread FINALLY has a happy ending. New beginning for you Larry, you are a bold man... I am mostly a fix the mechanicals and roll it guy. but that car would be awesome as a restoration too. Your call!
