Two-doors-too-many fans, here you go! There’s a lot to like about this 1963 Buick Special located in Arlington, Texas, home of both the International Bowling Museum and International Bowling Hall of Fame. I don’t know what that has to do with this Buick but now you’ll have some indispensable trivia tucked away in your noggins. This two-door Special can be found listed here on eBay with a $2,950 buy it now price or you can make an offer. $2,950?!
The 1963 Buick Special was a one-year body style so if you’re looking for a nice, rare, and inexpensive project car, here ya go. The Special was made in several spurts with sometimes a decade between redesigns, but the 1961 to 1963 Specials were really nicely-styled cars, in my opinion. Hagerty is at $4,000 for a #4 fair condition car and $7,800 for a #3 good condition car.
The two-door-sedan body style looks fantastic here and the seller talks about the crunched right quarter panel at the tail light and there is a piece of trim missing there. It sounds like the car was repainted years ago but they don’t say if it had any bodywork done at that time. There is some fairly severe rust in the trunk and also rust shows up on the edges of the doors and trunk lid.
The interior could use some work but the seats were recovered at the same time that it was painted and they look perfect. The dash has cracks in it but it doesn’t look like an overwhelming project to bring it back to looking like new again. I couldn’t live with the different seat color, I’d have to redo those to match the rest of the interior, but that’s just me.
There was also a Skylark model that was a fancier version but this is a base Special, if that isn’t an oxymoron. This car doesn’t have the 215 V8, it has Buick’s Fireball 198 cubic-inch V6 which would have had 135 hp. This car starts, runs and drives great and it has excellent brakes, but it does have a slight exhaust leak. For $2,950 or offer, this car won’t be for sale too long!
too bad it’s not in bowling…green.
Here’s an oddball Chip Foos should work on. I can see a Chevy 327/4-speed conversion; slick paint job and lay it low in the weeds. Most street rodders would scratch their heads wondering what he started with!
I’d lay it in the weeds and DD it to the office and back. Cool car, fair price.
But for some reason, the Tomb of the Unknown Bowler is in Pittsburgh.
This same engine was used with a supercharger or turbocharger. Seems like a great design for an engine, all cast iron.
Seems like a lot of car for the money and what rust can be seen in the pictures doesn’t seem really bad. I would want to check out the floors, though. The interior needs to be freshened up but you can drive it and chip away at the cosmetics as time and finances allow. For the money asked, this seems like a bargain.
I saw this car for sale in late April at the Pate Swap Meet near Ft. Worth. It was $3500 at that time, which I felt was too high with the body damage. I see they have come down in the price now. It runs well and the only rust is in the corner of the trunk below the dented tail light where the water leaks in. At the swap meet, the owner claimed the 37,000 miles was actual, and that could be the case, but the car has sat outdoors for a long time, which is why it had to be repainted and reupholstered. The original upholstery on these Specials was pretty flimsy. It ran so well and showed so little wear on the foot pedals that I am inclined to believe the mileage claim. Rare car, and would be a good daily driver if you don’t require air conditioning.
This vintage Buick Special model was a very nice driver as I had one back in 1970. It was the same year model in a convertible, paid a whopping $400 for it. Factory color was Baby blue on light blue interior with white top and no frills, small V6 auto. with am radio and heater. A throw up top was very easy to work and maintain. Nice car then I really enjoyed driving.
Would like to have this post car but just to far away and to many other projects now.
That described my Skylark to a “T”. The one I had was an oddball, 215 V8, automatic (2 speed), and power windows. That was the extent of it’s options. Great little car, had high miles but ran strong.
My sister had a four door version of this in college(1968/69 or so). Bullet proof, and boring. It’s as close to being the “generic car” as you can get. The two speed automatic (basically a powerglide) was about as exciting as watching grass grow. But, it really was bullet-proof. It survived my sister.
Seems like an odd way to repair the damage to the rear fender…looks like two domed carriage bolts driven right through the metal…and for what purpose? To me this one year only design was a design oddball compared to what came before and after. I’m a Buick intermediate guy, but this one seems a big yawn unless you give it the Foose treatment. Old man tan.
Too bad it’s missing 2 doors. I’d buy it if it had 2 more doors
Someone isn’t paying attention at Ebay. The listing says this car is blue. But, the pics tell me that is the beigeist blue I’ve ever seen. LOL that’s ok. If it were closer, I could sure use it as a daily driver. My truck just cost me a boat load of green for repairs, need motorcycle repaired, too…ICHY!! So, this is just going to have to wait.
@PatrickM. What does Ebay have to do with the color being listed incorrectly? Listings are created by the seller! Why would anyone at ebay pick up on a color mistake? With very few exceptions, they love finding shipping and auction fee mistakes, however. :) Anybody who thinks ebay is capable of making car buying easier by enforcement and monitoring shill bids and deadbeat bidders is living in the clouds. Ask me how I know.
What a deal for this old girl!!
I would imagine the hardest part of owning this car (or any one year only body style) would be finding the right trim parts to redo it – that quarter panel trim on this car must be 6 feet long ; a lot of places wouldn’t ship out a part like that due to potential damage during shipment . That being said, I think it would be a nice entry level antique car for someone
Looking for 1963 Buick special convertible found in a garage in Kentucky a couple of years ago. I believe this was my car. The exterior is white, interior and top are baby blue. Aluminum 6 cyl automatic