I owned owned of these for about 7 days back in the early 1980s. I was doing fieldwork at the time and spent a lot of time on rural back roads, which gives you the ability to see a lot of old cars sitting in barns and sheds that would otherwise be totally unknown to the general population.
Out by Terre Haute, IN, I used to drive by an old farm that had a 54 Buick sedan just like this one, only it had a blue with white side scallop paint job. The car was tucked into an open shed on the side of the barn and appeared to be moved from time to time. After seeing this several times over a period of about 3-4 months, I stopped at the farmhouse and knocked on the door. An older woman answered the door and invited me in. I told her I was interested in the car and would like to purchase it if she ever sold it. She seemed interested, but expressed concerns about the car being “hot rodded”. I went to great lengths to explain that I was a purist and would never want to change the car’s condition. That seemed to placate her in this respect. Long story short, her husband bought the car new and had driven it for years. He had passed several years ago, after which she used the car to go into town a couple times a month for groceries and errands. Due to failing eyesight she hadn’t driven it for about a year, but her son came to the farm regularly and would take it out for the occasional drive. I probably spent an hour and a half with her, listening to her stories and getting a tour of the farmhouse. By the time I finally had to excuse myself she seemed pretty satisfied that I was OK, I guess. She said she would talk to her son and that she would have him call me. I emphasized my intention to maintain the car as built and would offer a fair price. Got a call from the son a week or two later, and he was pretty nice. I asked him what he thought it was worth and he said $800. We made a deal on the spot and I arranged to come out the next weekend and pick it up. Drove out with a buddy the next Saturday and met the son. Mom was there, too, and she made me promise I would take very good care of the car. I assured her I would. Drove the car home and gave it the major Martha treatment. Only thing I had to do was fix a leaky hose to the rear heater (this car had a rear heater core under the back seat for the rear passengers!) It also had this cool arrangement where there was no start position on the ignition switch - you pressed the accelerator all the way to the floor, which depressed a switch like a high beam switch to engage the starter. It also had the “Wonderbar” (tube) radio, too. Cool. And 5,000 pounds of chrome, or so it seemed. Damned front bumper must have taken me a day to polish, as I recall. We had a weekly “cars and hotdogs” sort of thing at the local Dog 'n Suds every Saturday night. I drove it down there the next Saturday, where a guy offered me $2000 cash for it on the spot. I caught a ride home with a buddy. Dan > On Jan 24, 2017, at 10:36 AM, Andrew Strasfogel via Mercedes > <[email protected]> wrote: > > 1954 Buick sedan with a time-capsule worthy dash. Currently under $1K. > Runs when jumped! Stop me from giving in to my impulses. > > http://bringatrailer.com/listing/1954-buick-40/ > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
