There’s hardly a car I don’t like, but if I had to give myself a label, I’d call myself a Buick guy. I don’t know what it is about the Tri-Shield, but they built handsome, conservative cars, yet they had their own way of doing things. For years, they were iconoclasts, with torque tubes, accelerator pedal starting, Nailheads, and Dynaflows. By the ’60s, their engineering grew more traditional, but their reputation for reliability remained. I have owned a ’65 Skylark Sport Coupe, the slightly more upscale linemate to this Special, for over 20 years, and it’s been the most reliable old car I own by far. If you’re looking for a good driver that you can depend on, it’s hard to beat a Buick A-Body. This one is brought to us by Barn Finds reader Zappenduster, who found it on craigslist in Southern California.

The nicest thing about western cars is their dryness, but there’s always a place for rust to form through leaking window channels or rock-hard weatherstripping. Luckily, this Special seems to have escaped rust for the most part, although it could use a good cleaning. The current owner bought the car as a runner in 2017, but it sounds like it’s been sitting around ever since.

The Special’s standard engine was Buick’s novel 225 cast-iron V6, but this one has the optional 300 cubic-inch V8. By the way, it is NOT a Nailhead; Buick designed the valve covers to resemble their famous big block, but the valve gear in this case is traditional. The 300 was released in 1964 as a replacement for the aluminum 215, and for that one year, it had aluminum cylinder heads and intake manifold. For the next three model years, however, it was all cast iron. Buick’s engine-naming system has been confusing people for years: you can’t see it on this air cleaner, but the sticker on top would have said “Wildcat 310.” It is not a 310 cubic-inch engine as so many believe; it does have 310 lb.-ft. of torque.

You may have noticed the long switch beneath the air cleaner; that is a microswitch that triggers a “Switch-Pitch” stator in the torque converter. Fundamentally, it offers low or high stall depending on input from the accelerator. I’ve had to disassemble that switch on my car to clean the contacts (it also controls the downshift). It was not intended to be disassembled, but I got it done, and nobody expected this car to be around 60 years from when it was built. The transmission itself is a Super Turbine 300 (not a Powerglide, although both were two-speeds).

The interior itself is fairly sun-drenched, with a ripped and sagging headliner and cracked dash pad. Interior parts aren’t easy to find for these cars, so a new buyer will be forced to make some compromises, and let’s face it, this is not a restoration project. It’s a fun “get-it-running” project.

And that brings us to the price: $5,000. That’s clearly too high where I live (California prices are always higher), but the seller included in the ad that they’re “accepting best offer” because their daily driver was damaged in an accident, and they need some money for a new car. It’s been on the market for a week, so what do you think this basic sedan is worth? Being a Buick, there’s a good chance that some tune-up parts will get it going again, and it may run forever after that.