Archive for the 'buick' Category
5/17/2008
If you’re a car guy, you have a hat displaying the logo of your favorite manufacturer.
One of mine happens to be Buick.
My sister found these (Pop has a black one, I took the navy blue one) on eBay.
These were not easy to find, but I’m glad she was able to locate them.
Buick does not sell caps that show the tri-shield logo prominently like this cap does, nor does it show the old-style Buick font (the current is wider.)
They should. :-)
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4/20/2008
Well I haven’t written anything about the Free Spirit in a while, so here’s an update. Some of it is pleasant and some isn’t. Consider yourself warned. :-)
Parts
I have some parts on order for the ‘75 Century Free Spirit in my possession. Some. Not all. Some. One of the problems restoring a ‘75 is that whenever you talk to anyone about it, they always think you’re referring to the ‘76..
No jackass, I’m not talking about the square-headlight silver/orange/black thing. I’m talking about the red/white/blue car the year previous to that.
Classic response: “Oh. Never seen it.”
Right.
Well anyway, I’m attempting to acquire bumper guards first (front and rear sets) and a rear bumper. In addition I’m trying to locate a driver’s side headlight bezel. For whatever strange reason, my car doesn’t have one so I need that.
The parts acquisition is a slow-going process. In fact I haven’t even received the first part yet. Further bulletins will be posted as events warrant.
Web site stuff
I’ve (finally) started on a whole new design for BuickFreeSpirit.com. Being that it’s not exactly on the top of my priority list, it’ll take a while. However I think people will like it once done. I think it’s pretty cool if I do say so m’self. :-)
Future plans
I do have some major future plans for the car. While other classic car owners are content to have their cars sit in a garage and never be seen by the public (more or less), my Buick is going to be out and about quite a bit.
I have stuff planned that I can’t speak of at the moment, but I can say this: What I have planned no one has ever done for a pace car - or for Indy for that matter. :-)
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4/10/2008
Above: The reason why I wanted a 1975 Free Spirit Buick Century Custom Series.
The car? No. My father. It was his car. He owned one. And now he does again.
I suppose it’s one of those father-son things where the son wants to bring back that car his father owned years ago.
I was lucky enough to get her back. She’ll look good again (as the one I have is in need of repair), but make no mistake, it will happen. :-)
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2/25/2008
Has a ‘75 Buick Century Custom Series ever been in a movie?
Yep.
It was in Clerks.
I love this flick, and this is yet another reason to love it since I’m quite fond of the pace car version (as most people know).
I know I win the award for “most useless trivia” concerning that movie for spotting this. No question. I am probably the only guy on the face of the planet who recognized the car.
And yes it is the four-door sedan version.
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2/20/2008
There are times I receive contact about the Buick Free Spirit that completely floors me, and today was one of those days.
I received contact from the shop (hi Bill) that applied the graphics package to the Free Spirit car from back in ‘75. They operate under a different business name today but still do the vast majority of graphic work for speciality General Motors vehicles - and they’re still in Michigan. You can check them out at www.GraphikConcepts.com.
So anyway - it just so happened the GM curator wants a ‘75 Buick Free Spirit in the fleet of cars under their wing.
Graphik Concepts found one and they’re currently working on restoring it. Like with all other from-1975 originals, the placards are “gator” cracked in the front.
Here’s the photos I received from their shop. They are so LUCKY because they have the tri-shield Buick-logo center caps for the rims - something I still need to locate! :-)
Yeah, she needs work. But then again so do more or less all ‘75 Free Spirit Buicks (with the exception of Scott’s car which is in pristine shape).
Graphik Concepts runs a very clean shop and takes what they do seriously. I’m sure when completed the car will look better than when it was new in ‘75.
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1/18/2008
As I’ve indicated before, fellow pace car owner Scott in Texas has the best ‘75 Free Spirit replica I know of, save for the one in the Sloan Museum.
Part of the reason for this is that he’s “got the goods”, so to speak. And by that I mean he has an original invoice. The original press kit. The original Hurst Hatch instruction sheets. The guy’s got all the historical goodies that speak volumes about this particular car. Stuff that was tossed in the trash years ago by other pace car owners. But Scott has all of it in extremely good condition.
A while back he scanned and sent me the stuff he has. It’s all awesome. Truly.
I have posted all the photos here.
Later on I’ll write more about the significant points of the documentation and photos.
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1/8/2008
Okay.. after a really long wait I finally have some information on the stripe package in vinyl decal form for the Buick Free Spirit Century.
Here’s the scoop:
There is a company I’ve been trading e-mails with that does have a replica kit available. A while back they e-mailed me and informed me of it.
I was pleased but at the same time concerned. Would this kit look true to the original? I e-mailed back and said I wanted to see this kit applied before making any decisions to buy it - much less recommend it on the BuickFreeSpirit.com site.
After what seemed like forever I finally got photos of the kit applied to a Free Spirit car:
Looks great, but there’s only one problem: The blue is wrong; it’s about three shades too bright. The original blue is a darker navy color.
From my memory years ago I can distinctly remember the blue being dark navy colored as shown in the promo shot above.
I told the company with the replica kit that the blue was wrong.
They said that’s what the customer ordered (seen in the cars above) and that there are different blues available including darker ones.
I asked if there was any way to send me the color chips in e-mail to check out what was available.
So they did. I received a chart.
I then informed I had to run this by my father to see what he thought of the colors available.
They said they’d send me a miniature version of the kit in snail mail so I could see it on paper just to be on the safe side.
I told them to send it to my father’s address (that’s where the car is currently).
So.. my father and I will be waiting on the kit and check it out.
. . .
Here’s how the stripe kit is constructed (in a nutshell):
This kit is 35 feet of vinyl. It’s a big kit because the car isn’t exactly small by today’s standards. The colors are by 3M.
It does have the hawk/eagle cutouts.
It does not have the Indy 500 wings logo. That I will have to get done separately.
All the kit pieces can be seen here in a previous article I wrote.
. . .
I know there are more than a few car owners that really want this kit, saying to themselves “Hey, I want that! It sounds too good to be true!”
Yes, it does sound too good to be true and that’s the whole point.
I absolutely will not recommend the stripe kit until I see it for myself to ensure best possible quality. If it’s up to spec I will be buying this kit myself, and passing on the information on how to get it at BuickFreeSpirit.com.
Until that happens, just hold tight. Good things come to those who wait.
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1/4/2008
It’s been a while since I posted any Buick news, so here’s the scoop as to what’s going on.
BuickFreeSpirit.com
Scott sent me a ton of very useful stuff. Photos, info and so on - even an original invoice. I have yet to post this on the site. This is due to two things.
First, the site needs a redesign. Needs something a bit more spruced up.
Second, I need to organize the content better.
It’s the second point I’m going to speak on for a bit.
It turns out that my little Buick site is considered to be a very good source of information on the Free Spirit car(s). This is basically because I’m the only guy on the internet (that I know of) who actually took the time to collect and organize the available info in the first place. And why do I do it? Because I have a passion for the car. If I didn’t, the site wouldn’t exist.
The content I have, while decent and factually accurate as far as I’m aware, needs to be organized better. The site redesign is going to heavily reflect that.
I don’t know exactly when the redesign will be launched because it is a spare-time thing I do. But I’m pretty sure people will like it. :-)
One final note concerning the site:
The one question that will never be addressed is how much the car is worth. I’ve received communication here and there asking me how much money they could get for one.
My answer: Piss off. If you’re into Free Spirit Buicks just to make a quick buck, that’s the worst reason to own the car because you’re a money whore; you have absolutely no understanding of what the car is or represents. Go away.
Don’t ask me the “What’s it worth?” question. Bad move.
Restoration possibly begins this month
My immediate concern on my ‘75 is to tackle the mechanical issues first.
She starts okay and runs. The problem is that once the engine is off a massive gas smell happens. Really pungent and definitely not safe.
Either this month or next month I’m going to have her towed to a shop so they can inspect the fuel delivery system front-to-back, find out what’s wrong and replace whatever needs to be replaced - properly.
Once that’s taken care of, suspension and brakes will be next.
After that, an engine rebuild and transmission rebuild.
The engine when running actually sounds very good. It’s a standard GM 350 small-block with a 4-barrel carb.
Speaking of which, I’m 99% sure it’s a Rochester Quadra-Jet; a carb GM used in many of their cars. I don’t believe she needs replacement as there’s no sputtering, stalling or any of that. The carb will definitely be tuned, but not replaced as it doesn’t need to be.
In the interest of keeping matching numbers, I’m keeping the original block under the hood even though there’s a crapload of miles on it. No, I don’t plan on doing the balance/blueprint thing because she’s a cruiser and not a racer.
Concerning the transmission, the THM350 is, admittedly, not the best tranny offering from GM. It was created as a “light duty” version of the THM400. Basically speaking, you can’t romp on a THM350. If you do, it will break. This is why so many prefer the THM400. In the Buick’s application the THM350 is not a problem because I don’t plan on roasting the tires or performing any mad maneuvers with her.
The rest of the mechanicals on the car is fairly simple. It’s all standard “G” body GM stuff. But if there’s anything Buick-specific under there (which I doubt) I’ll make my best effort to keep it authentic.
Speaking of authenticity, there are a few things I’m going to do that will not follow original 1975 spec, one of which is the paint.
Let me tell you a small story:
I have a friend in Connecticut that builds and restores Dodge A-100’s. He was painting a CampWagon version of one and decided to go with the original green-white-green that was offered in the 60’s.
Using expensive PPG paint, he got exact replicas of the green and white.
The green was fine.
The white, sorry to say, just didn’t look white. Now I know the paint was mixed to exact 60’s specs, but white back then looked like “cream” color. That’s just the way it was.
The Buick’s 1975 hue for its white has the same issue. It’s white but not exactly white and I’m not exactly keen on it. So I’m not going to use the original 1975 white.
Instead I have another GM white I’m going to use from the late 90’s. Much whiter, much brighter and definitely better.
The car deserves the best striking white I can get as far as I’m concerned - and that’s what she’s going to get. :-)
So anyway, that’s my plans. More updates as they happen will be posted here.
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12/11/2007
I received an e-mail from a Free Spirit owner containing a crapload of very good photos that I have to post on my Buick site. All of them are really, really good and I’m sure once I get them posted all will enjoy them.
. . .
A few words on why I hardly ever say anything about the 1976 Free Spirit. Some people have asked and this is my response.
First, I don’t care for the boxy style of the ‘76. This was a time when Buick cars (as well as most other GM vehicles) deemed that “round is bad”. What you’re left with is square, or to say it nicely, “angular”.
Second, the consumer edition of the ‘76 is watered down (a lot) compared to the real pace car.
Let’s compare.
The real pace car
The consumer version (from indypacecars.com)
Several things are immediately noticeable from the real pace car compared to the consumer version:
- No hood bulge
- Missing front-quarter graphics
- Chromed front bumper instead of painted with stripes
- Hood ornament added (pace car had none)
- “Buick V6″ missing on either side of hood
With the ‘75, the only time things were missing looks-wise (assuming she still had her stripes) were the chrome accents on the grille and the Indy “wings” logo behind the opera window. Some had them and others didn’t.
With the ‘76 there were huge differences; enough to take away any “wow” factor the Century had in true pace car trim.
The consumer ‘76 pace car replica may be a Free Spirit but in-title-only as far as I’m concerned. She is very far removed from what actually paced the track.
If someone actually took the time to “re-do” a consumer edition ‘76 into what the pace car truly looks like, that would impress me.
But as far as the delivered version goes, nope. Looks like 70’s cheese to me; that’s why I hardly ever mention the ‘76. The ‘75 was a triumph in my eyes, but the ‘76 is what happens when you water down what would have otherwise been a great car.
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10/17/2007
I got some more photos of Steve’s Free Spirit Buick.
This is one of the best examples of the car in mint condition. I can only hope one day my ‘75 will look as good as this one does.
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