I was recently digging through eBay when I came across a seller that appears to be the owner of a rather large salvage yard in Great Bend, Kansas and they are in the process of liquidating cars. They currently have 18 cars listed, with the majority being Buicks, but there are several Pontiacs as well. My personal favorites are the ’69 Buick Sport Wagon, the ’65 Buick Riviera and the 1949 Pontiac Coupe. Being salvage cars, they aren’t asking much, most are under $1,000.
Here is the Buick Sport Wagon, it’s a Skylark glass top with the 400 cui V8. It has clearly been in an accident, but doesn’t look to have been picked over. Fixing the damage will be a major undertaking, but you don’t see too many of these glass top Sport Wagons around. This is one of the seller’s more expensive cars, with a BIN of $1,550.
If you want a V8 powered wagon, but don’t want to spend quite so much, they also have this ’65 Buick Special Wagon with the 300 cui Nailhead V8. It’s missing some parts, but doesn’t appear to have ever suffered any major collisions. This one will set you back just $550! You can find it here.
This seller actually has quite a few cars worth looking into. Getting titles could be problematic, but it isn’t impossible to get them if you are willing to do the work. It will be interesting to see what else is hiding in this yard, the seller claims to have 220 cars and is going to be slowly listing them all. You can view all of the cars and parts that they have available here on eBay. So which cars would you like to have?
Boy lots of two,two many door cars . But might find a few keepers.
I can hear them rusting. SAD!
The top of the Buick is called a vista cruiser. I believe it became it was first available in 68′, but I’m far from being an expert on any make or model.
The Vista Cruiser was the Olds version. I owned a 65 Buick Sport Wagon glass roof. My dad liked it so much he bought a 68 for my mom while he drove his AMX 4 speed. Still miss my 65. Mom stopped driving so my brother got the 68 and daily drove it into the ground.. so sad…
Sharing its bodystyle with the Buick Sport Wagon, the Vista Cruiser was introduced on February 4, 1964, as a 1964 model, based on the Oldsmobile Cutlass/F-85 model. Prior to the 1973 model year the Vista Cruiser utilized a wheelbase which was 5 inches (127 mm) longer than that of the Cutlass/F-85 sedan.
Thank you Sparkster!
That sport wagon is cool!! Its been sitting a long time though. Lots of work to put this back on the road again. Hope its saved, just wont be me doing it.
I had a Olds vista cruiser and 65 Buick, glass roof and loved them.
Hate to be the “wet blanket” here, but most of you know, as well as I do, what will happen to these cars. Obviously, the good parts have been taken over the years, and sadly, this is what’s left. Unless this stuff is taken apart, and categorized somehow, this will all go to the crusher. It’s fun to dream and talk about it, but few, me included, have the nerve to actually buy a car from a salvage yard, and as BF’s has shown us, many of these kinds of cars come through here, some that are driveable. Collections like these, with maybe a few exceptions, are usually too far gone.
Two things about that Sport Wagon strike me as odd: one is that the engine looks so complete, it would lead me to think that it ran just fine when it was parked there. So why didn’t the yard pull the engine for re-sale? Second is that it wouldn’t appear as if any parts were pulled off that car….again, the engine looks complete, and most of the other parts are still on the car. Weird.
Hi Rex, I’ve often wondered that myself. Years ago, these weren’t classics, just old cars, and when something we cant see let go, nobody wanted them, and a replacement was easy, so they junked it. And I’m sorry, years ago, most yard operators did’t do anything to the cars that came in ( unlike today, where the car is literally taken apart) Where it came in, is where it sat. You want something, have at it, was their motto.
You’re pretty optimistic about ‘nowadays’ junk yard operators.
They do even less than in the past, except the self serve yards where people usually pick the cars apart and hardly buy anything
The yards around here, greater Vancouver Victoria B.C. are a parts business. They are stripped to basically scrap by the operators. Once they get that far gone then the customer can wander and find odd parts like interior knobs and minor trim then they are crushed.
Sorry, No Bow Ties……..No Interest!
I would like to know how to contact these folks. We have a 65′ LeMans and need several body parts.
In 2004 I junked a 1994 Saab 900 (later called a 9-3) which was really an Opel underneath. I had 230,000 miles, original clutch, valve covers never off the V6, ran like a top, no rust, BUT it was time for an engine belt, one front spring had broken, so needed two, needed tires, cat had had it, and muffler was shot, so needed a whole new exhaust from manifold to tailpipe, and clutch was just barely holding, total cost to fix a wonderful car, was over $5000, blue book was about $1000 IF IT NEEDED no repairs, so junked. Got $500 for it.
So, even today, we junk cars that perfectly good, except for things like this, since we can buy a much newer, less worn, car for a lot less money than it costs to fix what we have.
So, if was done in the ’60’s do not be amazed.
There you have it, right there, Charlie. I suppose today, if you spend $15-20K on a rusty classic,( or 10 THOUSAND Hot Wheel cars,,,sorry, got to pick at that) what’s another $5g’s in parts? Again, people that have a lot of money, don’t think about those things, they just want it. I guess the theme here, is I don’t have a lot of money.
they are in the junk yard for a reason.. They’re junk!
And, on thinking about it, I have junked maybe a dozen cars over the years, that did not need a lot of work, but, the cost of repair far exceeded the cost of a used car with far fewer miles on it. ’68 Chevelle with about 134,000, fire burned the interior, front tires, and everything flammable under the hood, ’67 Poncho wagon, 400 cu, frame rusted at about 200,000, ’69 Ford wagon, no reverse ,at about 200,000, ’83 Pontiac X car, small dent, broken distributor shaft and steering rack going for the 3rd time at about 130,000, 81 Cimarron, 280,000, yes, 280,000 miles, power windows stuck down, running rough but running, all fixable and except for Cimarron, with engines in excellent condition. (Change the oil and the filter every time.)
To change the subject a little. A comment was made here about procuring a title.
In my state (Nevada) it is almost impossible. There are a few to get around it. If you kind of bend the rules a bit. It cost MONEY and a lot of time to do it. (enough time where some of the original enthusiasm is lost in the process)
Can we have a discussion on the best ways to obtain a title for a lost one that does not involve trying to locate the previous owner? Maybe a group of us can work together to help each other in this endeavor. I don’t know how many interesting vehicles that I have passed up. Either to resurrect or to procure for parts because of title issues.
Any help would be appreciated.
In MA & RI when we needed to replace missing titles, we would contact someone in ME to get us ppw. Only do this w/ someone you trust not to take off w/ your money or ppw. Pay them for their time & ppw costs. They would send us the new titles once they came in. But you would be paying the title fee & taxes again. The less expensive option is paying for dealer ppw from a hole in the wall type of place. they got extra money for a vehicle that they never saw.
That’s what we used to do. We’ve even bought vehicles from the j/y that hadn’t been processed yet (not processed means the j/y never had it). Not sure how it play out w/ j/y ppw.
The last vehicle that I did that w/ was an ’89 s-blazer (no rot, just peeling paint) from Oregon, bought it from a j/y in RI the day it came in. They gave the Oregon ppw & I went around the corner to the car lot & got notarized dealer ppw & off to the registry.
I did a tune up & put 4 tires on it & drove it for 4yrs.
I’ve seen plenty on vehicles junked that were perfectly fine. Either someone died & nobody wanted it. Dealer didn’t want it as a trade in due to age & or mileage. Then there were those that donated it to places like Special Olympics or Kars4Kids, figuring that they would get more as a tax writeoff than trading it in or selling it on the street.
The Buick “sport wagon” was originally introduced at the 1964 NY World’s Fair as a Skylark wagon. It sported fake spinner hubcaps and a wildcat engine.
I do no know what PPP or j/y is. Help.
Thanks
j/y = junk yard
ppw = paperwork