Can you imagine the pride the original owner felt when the local Buick dealer handed over the keys to this 1946 Super? After four years of anxiety and privation, it was time for a new car, and not just any new car, a new Buick. Over 74,000 people shared that same emotion in 1946 as they drove home in their new Super Sedans. You too could feel that same excitement today in this well-sorted ’46, as the current owner has taken care of all the little things that we car people have to do when returning a long-dormant new project to the road. If you’re a fan of the “patina” look and are looking for your next fun summer driver, this one needs little to nothing. Our friend T.J. found it on the Baltimore craigslist for $11,000, a great deal considering how much work has been done.
Let’s face it, Buicks have been nondescript for decades, regardless of how nice and well-built they might be. Back in the 1940s and ’50s, however, they were the recipients of chief stylist Harley Earl’s most forward-thinking ideas, such as the fender sweep on the ’46, waterfall grills, grand piano hoods, portholes, and more. They did their own thing under the hood, too. All Buicks had valve-in-head engines right from the start, and their smooth straight-eights carried on through the 1953 Special. This one is a 248-cubic-inch example, with a Stromberg “Aerotype” two-barrel carburetor and 110 horsepower. The current owner has completely rebuilt the fuel system back to the tank, in addition to the cooling system (including a recored radiator). Perhaps most importantly, the Buick has a new clutch. Why is this something you don’t really want to do yourself? Buicks had torque tubes through 1960, and changing the clutch requires pulling the whole assembly back with a come-along (or removing it entirely) so you can remove the transmission. It’s a heavy job; be glad it’s already been done.
The interior has a custom console and seat belts for a little more safety and convenience behind the wheel (safety is relative in this case, of course). It also has new upholstery, carpet, and headliner. As you certainly gathered by my reference to the clutch, this Buick has a manual transmission; the Dynaflow wasn’t introduced until 1948, and then it was only available on the Roadmaster. The brakes and rear shocks have been completely rebuilt.
Owners of classic cars know that it’s unlikely that you’ll ever recoup your investment, and the owner of this Buick certainly has sunk more than eleven grand into its refurbishment. That means that the new owner will be able to buy and enjoy a practical postwar vintage car for a fraction of what it would cost to “do it yourself.” It may not be quite the same joy and fulfillment felt by its beaming original owner, but it’s not a bad counterpart.
*The seller includes a list of work that’s been done on the car and a few things that still need doing. I’ve attached those images below.
Beauty, they are giving it away!
Indeed, seems well worth it. But like the current owner the new owner will lose money if they try to flip it with re-chromed bumpers and paint. Buy it to drive and improve it with love.
As a car painter nearing retirement, this golden girl would look sweet in many options! 🤔
Yet another drive and have fun car!
WOW! In the last few years I’ve really become a Buick fan.(age?) What a time to have to pay my taxes. $11,000 is about what I owe!
WOW what a fine,fine Buick, and rare not being a fast back. I was 14 years old when this jewel was made , now at 93 I lust for it.In recent weeks several nice Buick have been shown .My O my what a Delima
It feels displacing to see this car looking so old and faded, and to realise that its kind is GONE from our roadways. 75 years ago, these were everywhere riding over our roads and looked perfectly mundane and “normal”. I still reside in that 1950 normalcy, and it is the newer cars and music which are jarring. Wish the owner hadn’t installed seat belts.
Sixties and seventies are normal for me but I get where you’re coming from. These are underappreciated beauties. Would be a glorious car to roll ’round town or maybe take the scenic tour in.
Yeah, n” drop in a Chevy crate engine and a Muncie —&-
OOPs, 🤫
Maybe not!
Those nail head in line 8’s we’re just about perfect, and the Dynaflows that came along were NOT an inprovement over the manual tranny this ‘un has . And those that recognize the series 1:6:2:5:8:3:7:4 comprise a small and vanishing group of afficianados whose early wrenching includes, as did mine, some time timing a straight 8 Buick:
, tho mine was a 53 RoadMaster.
Nostalgia nostalgia..
Seatbelts are a must, especially when one’s head has cracked a windshield.
Try it, you won’t like it.
I sympathize with you, HR. Our technology-flogged culture changes at a dizzying pace. I certainly can’t keep up with it. Nor, at 75, do I want to.
My summer ride around town is a 1946 GMC pickup. It’s not user-friendly: it steers hard and requires double-clutching. It has neither seat belts nor a radio. Hell, it doesn’t even have sun visors.
My truck has plenty of power, though. I once used first gear (the low-low of a four-speed transmission) to yank a tree with a 4″ trunk diameter from the ground. Yet the 45 mph top-end would render it a death trap on limited-access highways.
Despite it’s slowness, I love this old truck. Indeed, I love it precisely because it is so slow, so demanding of a my driving skills, so much the antithesis of a modern vehicle. For it reminds me of my youth, of a time when efficiency wasn’t tantamount to religion, when life proceeded at a less frenzied pace, when people weren’t so addled, so responsive to electronic stimuli. I have no idea of who my truck’s original owner was. Yet I suspect he’d scoff at the suggestion that his truck should be faster.
Had a black ‘47 Super back in Hawaii, 1960. Paid $100 at Aloha motors. Drove it two years, sold it for $100. It had an in-car operated windshield visor.
The 1946 Buick was essentially a warmed-over 1942; however, the ’42, in many ways, was “futuristic” for its time, and the ’46, losing some of its 1942 “art deco” touches, seemed as one of the more modern early postwar cars. 1947 and 1948 Buicks finished the job of smoothing away any remaining “art deco” aspects in the car’s appearance. I remember all too well when rust began to eat away at these Buicks, particularly in the rear fender area, causing the fender-skirt to fall off, and then attacking the very structure of the fender itself: by 1964, it was becoming uncommon to see a 1946 Buick that was not rotted away in the rear quarters area. That the car listed and featured here is still whole, is in itself an amazing thing. Where I live, we have winter nearly six months out of every year, and summers are very short. And earlier cars commonly rusted away and fell apart — in 1954, a 1941 Dodge with its rear fender almost entirely rusted away from the body of the car and flapping in the breeze, seemingly ready to fall off. And yet, a Model A held up solidly: go figure… Come to think of it, so did our 1951 Packard.
The 1946 Buick was essentially a warmed-over 1942; however, the ’42, in many ways, was “futuristic” for its time, and the ’46, losing some of its 1942 “art deco” touches, seemed as one of the more modern early postwar cars. 1947 and 1948 Buicks finished the job of smoothing away any remaining “art deco” aspects in the car’s appearance. I remember all too well when rust began to eat away at these Buicks, particularly in the rear fender area, causing the fender-skirt to fall off, and then attacking the very structure of the fender itself: by 1964, it was becoming uncommon to see a 1946 Buick that was not rotted away in the rear quarters area. That the car listed and featured here is still whole, is in itself an amazing thing. Where I live, we have winter nearly six months out of every year, and summers are very short. And earlier cars commonly rusted away and fell apart — in 1954, a 1941 Dodge with its rear fender almost entirely rusted away from the body of the car and flapping in the breeze, seemingly ready to fall off. And yet, a Model A held up solidly: go figure… Come to think of it, so did our 1951 Packard.
Nice Buick. They ride really nice too. Alot better car hear==the any new piece of junk–they call cars now and it is worth the money too.
Fameous for vapor lock, and, starter bind when very hot. Back in the ’60’s these were common on “tours”, reliable, solid, and comfortable, plenty of torque so shifting was less often than you would think if you are used to a current 4 or 5 speed Subaru. But looking at the photos of those tours, at many stops, the Buicks have their hoods up, to cool the engine off, while everyone else did not have to bother. My ’67 Pontiac with the 400 engine had the starter bind issue, something GM never wanted to solve. Body on this shared with the entry level Caddy and the big Olds. The elongated fender an “add on”, looked cool but when you opened the doors, looked tacky, at least to me.
Yeah, n” drop in a Chevy crate engine and a Muncie —&-
OOPs, 🤫
Maybe not!
Those nail head in line 8’s we’re just about perfect, and the Dynaflows that came along were NOT an inprovement over the manual tranny this ‘un has . And those that recognize the series 1:6:2:5:8:3:7:4 comprise a small and vanishing group of afficianados whose early wrenching includes, as did mine, some time timing a straight 8 Buick:
, tho mine was a 53 RoadMaster.
Nostalgia nostalgia..
I’d like to think the original owner had returned from WW2, and this was a reward for him.
A brand new car, and a Buick at that was something to write home about in that era.