Column-shift Free Spirit Century?

Friday Aug 10th 2007

I have traded e-mails with a few ‘75 Free Spirit Buick Century owners, and since the my launch of BuickFreeSpirit.com I’ve already received a few more.

The latest one was from a gentleman by the name of Scott who bought a near-mint ‘75 from eBay. I have that eBay auction archived as a PDF and I will post it when I get the opportunity.

I received an e-mail from Scott and he wanted to ask a few questions about the car. He provided me his phone number so I called him up. We spoke for about an hour.

His ‘75 has two things that would be considered “odd”.

1. A column-shifted automatic transmission.

Even though it is a true-blue real-deal pace car, she has a column shift on the steering column. It’s the first and only I’ve seen with that configuration. In place of the floor console is nothing but carpet, and between the bucket seats is a very nicely detailed console glove box. Later on I’ll post a photo of it.

2. A hood ornament.

The ‘75 did not have a hood ornament - period. But this one does. My suspicion is that it was a dealer-installed option.

. . .

Scott asked me many questions and I also gave back as much information as I knew. Here’s a quick breakdown.

The mystery of the 2nd 455-powered pace car - solved.

There were two 455-powered pace cars made. One is in the Indy museum. The other? Sloan has it in Flint Michigan. So now I can confirm with certainty that both original pace cars exist, as in the ones that actually paced Indy in 1975.

Placard replacement

Scott’s car has the “BuICK” logos but no stripes or hawks. I told him that yes, I have an image of the hawk. Here it is:

I will be posting this to BuickFreeSpirit.com later on.

1975 Manuals

Scott’s car came provided with original owner’s manuals, including “Free Spirit” specific ones. Hopefully some scans will be made so I can post to BuickFreeSpirit.com later.

Hurst Hatch Recall

This is something else I have to update on the BuickFreeSpirit.com web site:

Yes, there was a recall on the original Hurst Hatches because they did leak. To the best of my knowledge, the fix had mainly to do with the latches (either they didn’t pull the hatches down tightly enough or something to that effect). My father’s original ‘75 did have this problem but he chose to have the tops glued shut because the repair center was over two hours away and he simply didn’t have the time back then to have the work done.

The hatches on the ‘75 I have now are in proper working order - and no I don’t intend on gluing them shut. :)

Tips for repainting

I explained that I don’t intend on going with original ‘75 Buick colors when I get to the point of painting my ‘75. The standard white for ‘75 to my eyes doesn’t look like white. Looks more like off-white to me. So the replacement base is going to be what’s called an “Arctic” white circa 1997 from Chevrolet. The 35th Anniversary Camaro had this color and it was a gorgeous white with just a hint of metallic flake. Very striking color. This white will make the red/blue stripes (which will be flat) stand out all the more.

The red stripes are best matched to the color called “firebrick”, the blue matched to “navy”. “Firebrick” is in between “fire engine” red and maroon. “Navy” is essentially the same blue you see on any American flag.

Bumper Guards

My ‘75 does not have bumper guards and to be honest I don’t know if I’ll seek them out. Several other pace cards didn’t have them. These are vertical bumper add-ons which were popular in the 70’s and 80’s. If I can locate them, cool. If not, I don’t consider it a big deal.

Flag holders

Something custom only to the real pace cars are flag holders mounted under the rear bumper. I do intend on having a set fabricated. It’s a relatively low-cost thing to do. Mine, however, will have the ability to swing so I can swing them under the bumper when not in use.

. . .

It’s safe to say that Scott will have his car ready before mine. He’s got a huge head start because his car is in much better condition. I recommended he keep the hood ornament just for the fact it looks cool. And as far as the column-shift, I explained it might have been a custom order.. who knows? Either way it still looks great.

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