Old "barn" find

Started by Speed_Racer, April 15, 2020, 05:15:05 PM

Speed_Racer

My GF works in real estate, and I tag along with her on walk-throughs of recently closed or mid-renovation properties mainly for safety reasons. The perk is that I get to call dibs on some pretty cool leftover stuff - mainly tools. Of course I'm always hoping to run into a leftover "barn-find" car or motorcycle. On our most recent walk through a former hoarder's house currently mid-renovation, I found this 1965 (?) Buick Wildcat convertible in their garage:





Not in the best shape, but not that rusty either. I shared it with my Dad to see if he knew anything about them. He didn't, but I learned some stuff about my grandfather's choice of rides. My dad's side has a deep history with American cars: they were raised near Detroit, my grandfather worked for the Big 3 (all 3), uncle restored muscle cars. Lots of cool stories.

My dad:
Quote"This one while not valuable actually spurred a related memory: I rode in a new/newish Wildcat when [his dad, my Grandpa] test drove one! If memory serves, it would have been 1968 or 1969 so it may have been the same generation as this one or the one right after it. We also rode in a Plymouth Satellite, which he said felt very sporty (for those days) but too small for a family car. These were my first rides in convertibles, which hooked me for life.

He ended up buying a new 1969 Plymouth Fury III, which was not surprising because he was working at Chrysler by then. After that, he was racking up commuter miles so he bought new: 1971 Plymouth Fury station wagon (every family had a station wagon at least once back then); 1973 Chrysler Newport; 1975 Chrysler Cordoba; 1977 Dodge Ramcharger. I can't remember any after that, because by then I had my own cars (starting with the 1970 Dodge Challenger, bought used in 1976)."

Cool stuff.

FoMoJo

Nice old boat.  Convertible 2 door, which engine, the 401 or the 425?

Buick was one of my favourites in the '50s and '60s.
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." ~ Albert Einstein
"As the saying goes, when you mix science and politics, you get politics."

shp4man

Interesting find. Be kind of fun to see if it will run.  :ohyeah:

Speed_Racer

Unfortunately I couldn't get a peek under the hood. If I had a larger garage or workshop I might have taken it just to see if I could get it running.