Not sure if I am in the right spot but does anyone know this car?

Hard to answer that with photos but typically a west coast car should be pretty dry and void of serious rust. Surface rust is common but the Frame and suspension pcs should look pretty good overall if what he says is true.

When you sand blast the frame it should look like this if it's truly a Dry Climate car . . .

 

I was looking into purchasing a mustang where the owner decided to put an aftermarket stereo/cd player in the car since the only factory location for a speaker was center base of the windshield the guy mounted put two round speakers in the side panels in the back seat. When enquiring about replacement panels for the Mustang they only came in two colors and had to be sprayed with a vinyl paint to match the interior. It's confusing and frustrating the you can order exact colors for seat shins but items such as armrests and side panels only come in very limited colors requiring the vehicle owner/restorer to locate an exact paint/dye in order to match the rest of the car's interior. Again in the picture supplied of the armrest does it look normal and if no what would have happened to expose from what I can tell from the picture a wood looking material where the armrest meets the door panel?

 

There is a shiny chromed plastic "pan" between the armrest and the door panel. The armrest base looked like it is crazed by sunshine. This seems normal for a car that saw a lot of sunlight,

The brake line rust looks excessive to me. My cars are basically "beaters" in terms of there condition, and they have been in Seattle for over 30 years without ever seeing the inside of a garage. Yet the brake lines that are original, do not look that rusty. FYI.

 

If you reside in Seattle how far from Lynnwood Washington are you. If it isn't too great of a distance I would be willing to pay an experienced Buick owner who knows GSs well and knows exactly what is right and wrong about the car as well as overall condition to go take a look at it. I have already had a mechanic look at it but his report is a very vague report with notations such as "requires immediate attention" where there are four different things next to the box. If the mechanic at least put a circle around what needed immediate attention his report would have been much clearer. An example on this report is Windshield washer spray/wiper operation/wiper blades/windshield condition so out of these 4 what needs immediate attention, 1 of the 4 or all 4. I also had the Lemon Squad do an inspection however they are all mechanics with knowledge on multiple cars and not specific Buick experts. I am hoping you own a GS yourself. On another note have you ever driven East of Seattle as I am wondering if the U.S. interstate made the highway low and straight through or are twisting and turning going up and down steep grades when passing through the mountains?

 

With regard to going East from Seattle, Yes, Mountains. Cascades, Bitterroots, Rockies. In that a order. Cascade pass on I-90 (Snoqualmie) is not bad, Still, a mountain pass unlike anything I had ever seen when I moved out here. I drove my GS through there in the winter. I did put chains on the rear (a first for me).

If your thinking of flying out and driving home, That sounds excellent.

I did PM you on July 27th offering to go look at the car in person if that is helpful... I am out of town through next week, but then I could go take a look. Lynwood is about 20 minutes from my home. Probably the 9th would be best for me...


Maybe try to figure out the private messaging thing again?

 

Still trying to figure out how to navigate this system, seems the only way at this point to communicate if using Forums. Sorry I missed your offer to go look at the car on July 27 as that would be great. August 9 would be good just as long as Re Tired Klassics hasn't sold the car. I did send them an e mail asking to discuss some issues that were brought to my attention by the mechanical inspection and/or the Lemon Squad inspection and haven't received a reply as yet. One of two things could be the result of them not responding to date are with the owner tied up with family matters he hasn't had the chance to respond or they figured to hell with it I will sell the car to someone else who won't bother researching the car.

 

Just checked my inbox and all it says is no recent conversations and have never seen an indicator if there is a message in my inbox like the indicators I see under Alerts.

 

Try again and at the bottom of the drop down menu that appears when you click on "inbox" there is an option that says "show all".

 

Hi Chris. Finding someone to go look over the Buick won't be necessary as when the seller read over the contract which included my adjustments he left a message on my answering machine the next morning saying he no longer wanted to continue with the sale of this car to me and would be refunding my deposit. The following day (Today) someone identifying themselves as working in the company's finance department left another message on my answering machine stating that in the State of Washington it is illegal to alter a contract as these contracts are issued to them by the Washington DMV. I contacted both the Washington DMV as well as the Washington State Attorney General's office and neither had ever heard of this as well the Washington DMV does not issue blank standardized contracts to used vehicle seller businesses.

 

Sorry to hear it didn't work out. Hopefully it was for the best (everything happens for a reason) & you'll continue to pursue a GS.

 

I was pretty pumped about getting the car however something just didn't seem right, from the beginning of me winning the auction on eBay the seller/owner of the car and business was nice as pie however once he read my adjustments to the contract the seller did a complete 180. Not sure if he was upset that I may of caught him trying to pull a fast one on me or not. Prior to getting too far into negotiations on the car I called at least 4 Washington State government offices to see if there were any complaints registered against the business and non had any record of complaints so went ahead thinking this place was legit.

 

Yes. One of the guys on V8 Buicks had made a comment about the possibility of the gas gauge not being properly grounded and stated once corrected that needle in the 3 O'clock position would probably return to it's correct place within the fuel gauge. The fuel gauge wouldn't be an expensive fix however the important thing is the body being straight with minimal bondo in a few places (maybe only about 1/16th of an inch), the motor running strong, tranny shifting smoothly, the front end being tight and the car handling well.

 

Even though Lemon Squad should have picked up on the gas gauge needle I don't think you are going to find any vehicle inspection company who will be 100% spot on.

 

It's just trying to find another GS 455 convertible standard floor shift that has the same appeal as the one I was dealing on.

 

By same appeal I was referring to the contrast between the Black Exterior and the Dark Saddle interior, curb appeal and although a 3 speed on the floor it did make the car unique (an article by Barn Finds on the net written back in November, 2021 as well as the seller's description of the car being a 1 of 16 called the car rare). If I owned this car I wouldn't be walking around saying it's a rare car but would use the term unique with the reason being the original owner was too cheap to pull another $20 out of is pocket and upgrade to a 4 speed. The original owner did spring for A/C, the sport steering wheel and of course the car being a convertible but fell short on the tranny. There is nothing in Canada and the only adds. I have come across in the U.S. have dirt cheap prices so are most likely old/expired adds. so not so much down south either.

 

The video made by the car salesman did point out one major fail by Lemon Squad with reference to missing the Transmission however he did speak positively about the thoroughness on the rest of the vehicle. Not trying to say Lemon Squad is the best since they don't stand behind their inspections however if you were to take a car to a mechanic and he gave the car a clean bill of health and something went wrong shortly after buying the car would the service station/mechanic stand behind their inspection and offer to compensate you for what they may have missed. I think you would have a fight with possible legal action to get compensated.

 

One sold on here a couple years ago that would've been perfect. Great deal too IMHO (before the market went nuts).

http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/1970-gs-455-convertible-4-speed.354881/

 

Looks like a nice car however hard to be totally sure as the video was only a walk around with nothing of the interior or motor. I know the car is long gone however the seller mentioned it was 30 thou overbore and not sure how much meat you can take off the cylinders before running into heating problems. I know that Buick made their 455s by boring the cylinders as opposed to Oldsmobile stoking their motors to come to 455 CI. With that car being priced at $52,900 2 years back isn't much more of a better price than this current GS I had negotiated to $54K. If the Canadian dollar was stronger 2 years ago than it is today that car may have been a great buy.

 

I didn't realize you were getting the other one for $54k. This ine was "offer" & the thing with this car is it was a well-known board member's and very likely a much more sorted out car.

I wouldn't worry much about a .030" over 455 although Buick did have thinner walls.

 

The initial purchase price through eBay Motors was $57K however the car was advertised as having PDB which I and am sure most people would interpret that as Power Disc Brakes where it turned out to be Power Drums. Also advertised as having a Posi diff. where upon Lemon Squads inspection the car did not have Posi. One thing that was extremely confusing is in the description it stated the car had 31,000 miles however in one of the pictures the seller posted on his listing the odometer read 39,000. When I brought this up with the seller he immediately told me he would drop the price to $54K which did raise some suspicion with the seller dropping $3K so quickly. If the GS that sold a few years back for $52,900 (maybe less if the buyer negotiated him down a bit) and the seller had a good rep. in the GS community that would go a long ways with regard to comfort level. With all that said the Buick that sold a few years back is long gone and I have no interest in dealing with owner of the business selling the Black convertible I guess my search goes on although there doesn't seem to be to much out there right now.