The seller of this 1953 Buick Special is the son of the late owner. It’s striking in vibrant yellow paint with a green roof and was obviously cherished at some point. The car is listed for sale here on eBay where the buy it now price is $6,000 although lower offers are welcomed. The car is currently sheltered in Vansant, Virginia although it looks like the location has a dirt floor and is open on one end. Let’s delve into this car a little further, shall we?
Although the photographs in this listing aren’t the best from an analysis point of view, I find them very attractive (Scotty G, I’m sure you could do better). The slightly faded yellow paint and accumulated dirt mask how spectacular this car must have looked at one point. I have no idea if the striking color combination is original or not, but to quote the original 1953 Buick brochure the Special was available with “Gorgeous colors” and “rich fabrics and trim.”
It might surprise you that the Buick “Special” was actually the lowest-cost Buick in the line. It was Buick’s Golden Anniversary (50th) in 1953 and there was a major effort put into the celebration — and the Special was not left out. This particular car is a 48D Special, also known as a six-passenger “Tourback” sedan. You can see one in the upper left corner of this 1953 Buick brochure. The Special was the only Buick passenger car that still used the Fireball 130 horsepower straight-eight engine; the rest had moved on to a V-8 configuration.
The buyer of this car will have an expensive decision to make — whether or not to re-chrome the huge grille and bumpers or live with the patina. I’d like to see what a good polish would do to this brightwork!
The interior looks completely stock and original, unfortunately with the addition of some mildew. It will be difficult to get the smell out without replacing all the soft goods. Don’t you love that steering wheel design! I like the chrome on the dash too. Without a third pedal, this car must have the famed Dynaflow transmission. The Dynaflow was designed for smoothness above all else, with a 1953 redesign that in “normal” operation only used two turbines and a planetary gearset to avoid shifting. The shift lever was used to manually select a lower set of gears for greater acceleration if desired.
Here is that straight-eight. Sure, it looks dingy at the moment, but it also looks pretty original. I’m wondering if someone tried to use WD-40 as starting fluid? The seller does tell us that the engine is free and that the gear selector does work but that they are not sure if it runs or not. Do you think it really could have less than 1,000 miles per year of use?
Tijuana dance, Tijuana Taxi?
Packers fan?
Beautiful Dash & steering wheel.
I believe this was the last year for the straight eight. The Super and Roadmaster got the new V8 in ’53 but the Special kept the straight 8.
If I remember they also went to the 12 volt electrical system in 53.
Only on the V8 cars
A ’53 2 door is the first car we had when I was growing up.
It was originally that medium blue (like in the above brochure).My
Dad painted it VW orange,& put a set of air horns on the sides of
the hood.
Our family took a trip to Arizona in it.That was before we
had a car with A/C.I also remember we had a Desert Bag in front
of the grille to help cool the engine.
There’s a pass on Oregon Mountain on highway 299,just
before Weaverville,Ca.On the third try,we finally made it over the
pass,& were excited when we did.
Aah….the “good old days”.
The ’53s had an emblem in the front bumper,
commerating Buick’s 50th year.
My dad had a ’53 with power windows … we lived in southeast Louisiana … it had no AC and the PW went out – reliability wasn’t back then as it is now … my mom had a “hissy fit” and told him NEVER to buy a car with PW again … he did on a ’64 Galaxie XL – and the PW went out, on a trip to the Grand Canyon, in July, towing a travel trailer (the 390 did a great job pulling) … we had to turn off the AC because the car was over-heating … my right rear window managed to go down about an inch, as did the driver window, but that was it … and you know my mom let him have it again – that Georgia temper never let down …
Ditzler lists an “Osage Cream” available in 1953, and I saw some references indicating it was available as a 2-tone with one of the greens—but it isn’t this very un-Buick color. Maybe this one did school bus duty at some point in it’s long life?
Looks “Straight outta Cuba!”
Terrific looking car. Although, I’d repaint to the original, if I could find it. Probably would have to use a more modern type of paint, too. Replace the interior with original looking, NEW stuff No mold for me, please. Rebuild the engine and transmission, upgrade the brakes, add a/c (love my creature comforts), add p/s (again, creature comforts). And then, we are pretty close to driving this beauty. Oh yeah. My dream base is still pretty good. Next.
On my 1951 Buick Super I’m pretty sure that the brightwork was mostly stainless steel, apart from the front and rear bumpers, so if that’s the case with this ’53 it shouldn’t be too expensive to have the brightwork looking like new.
I have a “53 Super as well. The ‘teeth’ in the grille are stainless and polish up nicely. Everything else is chrome and the upper grille surround is pot metal and fairly easy to break if it’s not handled gently. My chrome guy spent a lot of time on those items, and it wasn’t inexpensive. All the door and window trim is stainless. One cool thing about those days, it’s not stainless plated. It’s all the way through. You can polish the back side as nicely as the side that shows, one of the reasons the stuff lasted so long. I didn’t have to replace a single piece of trim. And has been noted, the Super did indeed get a V-8 and 12 volts that year.
Looking at the firewall, it’s easy to see the overpainted items like the wiring harness, so the firewall was not stripped before painting. Where the yellow has peeled on the firewall, it appears the original body color was brown.
53 was a good year for my family. My uncle bought a Buick like this. My grandfather bought a Pontiac Catalina 8 cylinder. But the one I liked was my dad’s Studebaker Starliner.
I think it was all green, like the top. The firewall and peeling in the pictures look like a repaint, and not high dollar. The front grill almost looks like it was painted with aluminum paint.