Have station wagons had their moment as the pick of the day in the collector car world? One brave soul, who might become the buyer of this long-neglected 1965 Buick Skylark Sport Wagon, will have to hope so, because there’s no way he or she is getting away cheap on this car. Check it out for yourself here on craigslist, and ask whether $8000 for this heap isn’t the most absurd thing you’ve heard in a while, especially if someone pays up. The car, in case you’re looking for a road trip, is in Conneautville, PA.
What’s whacky aside from the price? There’s no title. That, apparently, is being remedied by a trip to court which the seller is awaiting a date for. What that tells you is everything. The scenario probably went like this: Someone finally wised up and realized that the junk in the shed has to go. Decades ago, they parked an old car back there. They then threw the title on a pile of mail and assumed it would be there in six months, when they would be pulling the car out for restoration. Well, six months turned into forty years, and that pile of mail no longer has the pink slip sitting at the bottom. Do you want to be the sucker who puts a deposit on this car and hopes the court date happens, and then that the judge sides with the petitioner? He can’t even get the year of the car right in the ad, where the car is listed as a 1965 at one point, a 1985 at another.
“Buyer will need to pull the car from the barn and trailer it out.” I’m all for romance, and this is Barn Finds after all, but wouldn’t things be better if you could substantiate the (rather slight) claims first, including that the car has a “solid body.” One assumes that the image of behind the rear wheel, where salty-roads cars often show rot, or did back in the day, is meant to assure buyers that this car has no rust, but the appearance of that body panel could just as well be due to filler, painted over.
The engine is not pictured, but is said to be complete except for a radiator and air cleaner. It is a V8, but no notion of which one, or what condition, even if nearly complete, is given. In short, you’re on your own here. What you’ll have when you’ve done practically, nearly everything to this relic is a nice model—the Skylark-based wagon with the Sky (partial glass roof) option. But can you sleep at night knowing you paid multiples of what the starting point for this old Buick should be?
Brian, you are, as they say, Spot On! And I say I have seen enough here.
Thanks, I appreciate that!
Well…… This IS Barnfinds after all……. There must be a quota somewhere on how many vehicles are actually located physically inside a barn to be on Barnfinds. Some more pictures preferably out in the light of day would be very helpful before someone wants to delve into a rather large project whos title may or may not be with a pile of mail
$8k and all the PPE gear you need to exhume this wagon. Cannot imagine the smell of this interior…probably worse than whatever the seller is smoking.
Oh my just think of all the critters that have called it home. That’s a crazy steep asking price. These are good looking cars. Buddy of mine many years ago came across one, with a blown engine. We dropped a Buick 350 in it and it was his family grocery getter for .ore than a couple of years.
I got a chuckle out of this ad (and Brian’s spot-on write-up). When I see a listing like this, perhaps one or more of these scenarios might fit the situation:
— My buddy said to me, “you have one of them there Sky Wagons? They are worth a fortune! Don’t give it away!”
— I saw a super nice restomodded 60’s GM wagon on Mecum which went for $80k, surely mine is worth at least 10% of that number.
— Doesn’t hurt to ask! (but it actually does hurt, it damages credibility)
— It’s barely even rusty. Just a little. Here and there. Sort-of.
— And it’s been sitting in a barn, out of the elements.
— Just think, you can do all the work yourself and save a bunch of money.
— I’m not good at math, maybe it should have been $800 not $8000.
It is sometimes hilarious when you have your teenager write up your for sale ad. “Here’s $20 Tyler, put Pop Pop’s car up on the interwebs”
I think they put one to many zeros on this ad I’m sure by mistake.
We’ve seen a few of these lately, Great Uncle Henry rolled it up in the shed, pulled the radiator, then croaked before getting it back together. Aunt Jane didn’t want to do anything with hubby’s car, so it sat till she died 30 years later. Now, great nephew Walter is stuck cleaning up the place because the city/county and the realtor are after him and he thinks because it’s an old car, it’s worth a pile. How close am I? Oh yeah, being a pile and being worth a pile are two different things.
These all had 300ci V8s, 2 or 4 barrel.
Now $4500. Still far more than it’s worth. Maybe it would be a good parts car.
I wouldn’t give $450 for this without credible paperwork and only after the paperwork I’d bump up to $500, these are very cool but this one needs 20k just to be presentable. Still looks cool setting in the barn though.
asking # bit too high for what’s here and what it’s going to take to move it. need to show up with cash and try and deal. needs to be seen in person to know for sure what the real story and condition is of it