Thanks to the rising tide of ’60s muscle car values, it takes bruisers like this to remind us that hot rodding’s still alive and well in the dirty narrow garages of middle America. Only two more doors and a tissue box on the package tray could make this tan 1975 Buick Skylark look more like a gutless mobile chicane, and that makes modifying it even more patriotic than wrenching on an earlier power-coupe. We got a reader tip on this 21st Century street bruiser in Paw Paw Illinois listed here on Chicago craigslist, and once I saw “396 BBC” and “Posi 3.73,” I found the courage to overlook the blurry pictures taken two years ago. For $5500 you can bring this scruffy but lovable mutt home and let it mark its territory all over the place.
If there’s a story behind the apparently floppy disconnected clutch pedal, it’s not in the 52-word listing. The ubiquitous Turbo-Hydramatic 350 three-speed automatic transmission comes with the nifty race shifter seen here, guaranteed to confound Grandma when she borrows this Skylark to fetch a quart of berries.
Nothing says “Yo; I ain’t playin” like a shift light and giant tachometer. Normally these items represent the only modifications made to a Honda by the teenage child of its former owner, but this sleeper can actually make use of them.
Did I mention this ride has a Big Block Chevrolet 396 cubic inch Big Block engine, and that it’s a Big Block? Several hundred of our readers will be quick to (accurately) point out that the phrase “Big Block” seemingly only applies to Chevrolet’s Mark IV, so I wanted to be sure and jam it in once or twice. Even if this 396 began life in a school bus, it looks great in this light-weight Skylark, and might even distort the unibody if equipped with solid motor mounts, which makes a great story you can tell over and over at the local Shot-and-a-Beer bar. After concluding a tire-shredding test drive I’d call this $3500 worth of fun all day long. However, my wife says I formed my opinion of what things should cost in the ’70s. Who’s itching to trade $5500 for the scruffiest mutt in town?
Install a 250 shot on that ugly mutt and go make some money all night.
Sleep mode engaged. So much potential, yet so gramma. Definitely need a stock fake tail pipe behind rear tire, as well slide gates to open the headers to make the next lane poop their pants.
I love the idea love trick sleepers but I agree with you. This guy is too high on his price. That car looks like a rat for that price. Better off finding a stock one for 2500 and drop your own motor in and do it right
I agree with Ron, do your own build and do it right.
Good luck finding a stock one in this shape for $2500. The price of entry will be between $3500 and $5000 for a rust free stock example with a 6 banger.
I grew up on sleepers like this. A guy near Toronto has a 500 cubic inch Caddy in his and it looks factory stock. Lifts the hood and tells suckers that it is the 350 Buick engine!
Sleepers are great but not this one. Poorly put together I would be scared that this was driven hard and not taken care of. Potential costs to get it in shape could be huge. Probably better building one.
I wonder why he is saving the cam in the trunk. It is now garbage as it isn’t protected and will be banged up. Goes to show the care this person has.
Did anyone notice this car has clutch pedal, I wonder what happened to the original manual tranny!
There are three distributors in the trunk, do they come with the deal?
It’s not quite a sleeper with those wheels. It’s also dated, late-80’s to early-90’s would be a good guess. Nobody has used those tires since the M/T’s came out and the intake is horrible. Same goes with the 396, anything built after the 454’s srarted cycling through the yards wouldn’t have used a 396. Still, it’s a good foundation for a sleeper build. It appears to be a straight and a very bland looking car. If the body is as suggested, once you factor in the headers, motor mounts, cooling, and posi it’s not a bad price. Rust free bodies aren’t growing on trees and won’t be free.
Do some updates, throw on a set of body colored steel wheels and some dog dish hubcaps, a quiet exhaust, ditch the tach but not the shift light and you are good to go.
Steve R
The slicks and the big tach are kind of a giveaway that this thing just might actually be for real, but the guy in the other lane has no idea this contraption is rat powered. A legitimate q-ship, maybe it is, plain looking wheels would keep it more unassuming, if that was the point of his build in the first place.
Gotta keep em guessing, right? Never win by more than a fender all night long. Like it.
I don’t know why people put down 396’s they were hood enough for 65 Corrvette, and because it was in a vette, chevy rated h.p. higher than any other 396. But all other specs same as 375 horse. Yes a 427 or 454 will produce more torque, but my 67 Chevelle 396. was a very fast car. Drove a 454 equiped p.u. ,very disappointing, took too long to windup.
There was a reason they only put the 396 in Corvettes for one year, the 66 427/425 was a better engine.
Don’t get me wrong, the 396 was great engine. When I was a teenager, 2 of the fastest cars around here were a pair of 396/375 Nova’s. Not much could touch them, including the Hemi’s. That all changed when a friend returned from Vietnam, and bought a new 70 LS-6 Chevelle.
CL picture takers never disappoint.
Remove that Chevy engine and install Buick 455!
The 396 350 and 376 horse engines are excellent workhorses, and the only reason I am pulling the 350 horse 396 from my 55 Chev Cameo, is because it is a complete, original engine for a 67 SS Chevelle. The 454 I am replacing it with, is not special to anything, and so it will have lots of modifications that I would have felt terrible doing to the 396.
It isn’t so much the engine that wins the races on the street, but how the car is set up. That 396 could have surprised a lot of guys driving mommies car.
Bob
I used to live about 20 miles from Paw Paw Illinois, my son dated a girl from there, that is a very small farm town and my kid along with a bunch others would buy up beater cars and cut the exhaust off then rig up the washers to spray water to the rear tires and have burn out contests on the country black top roads, that is until they got the bright idea to video tape them doing it and when the cops caught the one with the camera the cops had them all on tape. They got a fine and a good scolding from the judge and that was that. I better not tell the kid about this one as he still lives close by.
455 nuff said!!
How do I list my ride?
Hi Greg,
You can find more info on listing it here: https://barnfinds.com/sell/
Thanks!
Lots of memories building cars like this. Had a lot less brains then. But it was Fun. Thank You Jesus.
455, 5 spd, and a good cleanup. All Buick with lots of torque.
Sorry a 455 is a boat anchor compared to any Rat.
Hardly a boat anchor @ 370 hp / 510 tq while weighing about the same as a sbc.
P.O.S. Bye Bye
For $5500; I’d expect a matching set of custom plug wires with a little more thought behind the installation.
A person buying this car will need to double check all the custom work. Being slack in the details makes me suspicious of work done.
That being said…I love the concept of doing something unusual like this.