This rare Buick is said to not be a barn find, but rather a garage find. Well, it looks like it was parked in a barn to me! The seller purchased it from the original owner, who parked it a number of years ago. It has some issues, it suffered some damage when the original owner tried to back it out one day. The seller believes it would cost about $3k to fix the damage, so they have adjusted their asking price accordingly. You can find this rare Skylark here on eBay in Marlborough, Connecticut with an asking of $17,500 and the option to make an offer.
So what makes this Buick so rare? Well, it’s a special edition Sun Coupe. The good people over at ASC were charged with cutting holes in the roofs of about 2k Skylark Sport Coupes as a special sales promotion. They covered the hole with a manually operated vinyl top so that you could enjoy the sun on nice days. This one’s top retracts as it’s supposed too, but there’s no word on how well it seals. Being 45 years old, you might just want to avoid rain all together if you want to stay dry. And I don’t imagine replacement tops and new seals are that easy to find for one of these.
Outside of the retractable roof insert, there really wasn’t much difference between a Sun Coupe and a standard 350 Sport Coupe. You could option one with all the same features, ranging from the base 2 barrel 350 V8 to bucket seats and a 4-speed. This car is packing the 4 barrel 350 with 180 horsepower and is paired to an automatic. It was also equipped with a bench seat and air conditioning, so it would be a pleasant driver in the summer months. Roll the top back, crank up the AC and enjoy the exhaust note and the wind in your hair!
The seller claims this car is a nice driver and I believe it. The odometer is showing 61k miles, but there’s no way of proving that, but it looks like a fairly low mileage car. It was repainted about 12 years ago, so it isn’t exactly a survivor, but chances are it will need paint work to fix the dings anyways. Valuing one of these open roof Sport Coupes is a bit challenging, as there just aren’t that many out there. I would guess the seller isn’t too far off market though, so hopefully one of you can work a deal on this cool Buick!
That first picture is staged. Fake, he didn’t find it sitting right there. No way!
But, but, but………Barn find! (Sarcasm, off). Yep. 100% staged.
Agree. Note to self: Stick with “finds”, rather than “barns”…..
Probably rare,but 17k and needs body work.Never saw a sun coupe. Good luck to the new owner!
I saw one in a restaurant parking lot in Prince Edward Island last summer. The owner let me take a good look at it. Really nice car.
Grew up in Flint MI. .Dad worked at Buick, so I got a chance to see many of the roll by. They were a great trend setter before T-tops came around. Definitely more class.
Love the car! but yes the first picture is staged but who cars. and the price is a little high…
Eh who cares…slow Buford…with an ugly roof…..rare does not mean pricey….
This is the adjusted price after getting a $3k quote for repair? Pfffft. Please, nobody get suckered into buying this “$20k car.” I love me a nice Skylark but I bet this one suffers from lack of rigidity after they cut the roof open. The pull back vinyl looks ragged in places where it folds. The body damage is not highly detailed and shows filler cracked where it hit. C’mon! The Buick rallye wheel in the trunk is not correct for a Skylark (larger Riviera style) and has no tire mounted on it anyway.
Who smashed up the right side? The orig owner? More likely it’s the handiwork of the current owner. Why? Well its a pattern. 17K for a smashed Bufford that has hole in the roof covered with flaky looking vinyl. Looks like current owner had too many brewskis.
These Sun Coupes are indeed rare, but I believe that the asking price of 17K is overpriced, especially considering the body work that will be needed. I have seen these before driving around. I would not place them too high on the scale of desirability for classic musclecar availability. You can buy a pretty nice GS for the kind of money the seller is asking for if you are searching for a Buick, and I have owned several throughout the years.
in Tampa they had this model further done up to promote Tampa. I think it had a band of stainless steal across the roof i think it had a band behind the cloth roof and in front of the back window, minds kinda foggy since I have only seen that one and it was in dk green with road wheels like this one. might be rare but might not be valuable? I would love to have one!
I’m putting my Sun Coupe on the market pretty soon in Jacksonville.
To do this right will require a total repaint – a lot more than 3K unless you go Maaco.
I agree rare, but you have to be in the market for it. I was offered a GS from a retiree at a car show for less.
“Roll the top back, crank up the AC and enjoy the exhaust note and the wind in your hair!”
Nobody at this site needs to worry about wind in their hair. More concern about getting slapped by all the loose skin.
A case where rare doesn’t equal desirable. At least at this price point, where I’d expect to see a GS 455 in this shape.
GLWS though. I’ve thought a lot of cars aren’t worth what they’ve sold for.
My brother picked up a 1973 Sun Coupe for $1500.00 needed paint and a few things here and there. He spent about $3500.00 on paint and another $1000.00 on other parts, it’s really a nice car but having the sun roof doesn’t make it a money maker, maybe in the future it will be. This car looks like a rather nice car to drive and enjoy.
They did Sun Coupes with the new colonnade GM intermediates in 1973? I thought this was a one-year only option?
The Sun Coupe was offered in 1972 only. The Skylark name was not even used in 1973, it was now the Apollo X body car. In 1975 the Skylark/Apollo came back, various models. The A body Regal and Century were available as sedan and coupes as the Colonnade.
I have a friend in LA with a ’72 Sun Coupe, a nice original driver. I prefer my ’65 Skylark and the GS model up till ’67. The later years just did not work well for me.
Interesting car but not 17,5k interesting. Buncha cars of that era had the fabric folding sunroof treatment from ASC.
Won’t be any A/C cranking in the immediate future for this one since the compressor drive belt is not present.
My BIG concern is, well ….nice photos BUT why not one of the inside headliner to show this rare sun roof? Being ASC there is probably a trim ring inside and if that is missing or in poor shape, good luck.
To FRED W’s comment = right on. With the right quarter damage the entire back half of the car will need to be repainted. If the RF fender is rotted out my guess the LF has issues and probably the doors. Tough color to match and blend. Better add about $15K to that work. Why “macco” it …..do it right or drive it with the damage. With painting the back half and at least one fender, probably both, you would have to blend the doors, you are left with the hood and trunk. = paint it all. $15K is having an excellent paint and body guy do it if you can’t do it yourself. Going that far will open Pandora’s Restoration Box and you will be chroming, replacing moldings, emblems…with the exterior that nice you will get in under hood, undercarriage and interior…..50K later you will have a car worth half your investment. Just sayin.
Not saying it is not worth restoring but again this is one of those labor of love…always wanted one…. don’t care how much money I put into type of cars. And I don’t necessarily disagree with that.
Tom, you are right. That was THE worst color to match. I worked in a Buick dealership BodyShop from1970 to 2016. This color was the absolute worst. It would lose it’s pigment over a short period of time. No amount of buffing could bring it back. When you removed moundings you would see 2 different colors. Had to add lots of low strength white to the formula to get it anywhere close. Hated it.
A/c parts are easy to get for this. I liked those cars when they came out and like them now. The cloth sunroof was also an option on 72 Novas.
I noticed the seller has no selling record, zero rating. Be careful if buying. Maybe drop a Buick 455 in it and create a GS tribute. Might add some novelty value.
When the top goes down the price goes up! Why not one picture with the top open?
Don’t forget to add in the 3.95 for the rattle can of orange paint someone sprayed all over the engine bay.
It’s a nice looking car for the most part, nice Sunday cruiser, but it’s no GS455, not even close.
afraid not my brother has a colonade sun coupe with the sun decal on the rear opera windpws
Plymouth did something similar with their Sebring line in the 70’s, called the Sundance. All you got was dealer-installed graphics (a decal on the front of the hood, sail panel, trunklid) a partial vinyl top and wildly striped upholstery. Not even a moonroof, sunroof, nada. So much for the catching some rays!
Check it out on the Plymouth Satellite from 1974: https://jalopnik.com/272181/1974-plymouth-satellite-sebring-sundance-edition
Not even a top that opened!
The “sun coupe” was available in 1972 Chevy Nova also. I had a white one, bought new, with the 350 and automatic. It was a fun car, but overheated from day one and finally it got that I needed to switch the thermosat every year (someone told me to do it). These days, there would be a huge recall because all the Novas seemed to do that. I got a deal on it since the dealer was sure they’d never sell it here in snow country
The roof was great fun, never leaked but there was a rattle on the passenger side, on and off that could be stopped by folding a piece of newspaper and sticking it in the channel.
I had it five years and traded it for a 1978 T-Bird. That was a mistake.
In junior high school I had a young, cute science teacher who drove one just like this. Kinda cool but he is asking convertible money.
Looks like some PDR would take care of the dents. Also, no photographs of the only unique feature of the car?
No way paintless dent removal would work Chebby…the dent is near the fender arch with multiple compound curves. And the other area photographed has no metal to bring back to shape…only failing body filler from a previous repair.