Vehicle Description
1969 Buick GS400 Convertible
While Buick did not exactly dominate the market in the late 1960s
and early 1970s, it did bless the automotive world with some
well-known classic cars. During the golden era of muscle greatness,
with the presence of icons such as the Chevrolet Chevelle SS and
the Dodge Charger, many praise-worthy cars didn't receive the
attention they truly deserved. A perfect example of muscle cars
that were relatively overlooked because of their iconic rivals is
the Buick Gran Sport. A mighty and muscular performance-oriented
machine with an interesting history that is rarely appreciated.
*Thx to Yavar Nekounam Hotcoars.com.
For consignment, a 1969 Buick GS, (Grand Sport), 400...Buick's
answer to high performance. This consignment comes from a
collection of a Mighty Ducks NHL player, Teemu Selanne, who
collected mostly Ferraris, however owned this as well. It was sold
to a dealer in North Dakota where our consignor had it shipped to
NY having lived in a garage, driven only 5 months of the year, and
then stored for the winter while the consignor lived in Florida. It
has been restored, is looking great and runs like a champ. The
current odometer reading is 78,798 and these are purportedly
original miles.
Exterior
For this year the exterior takes on an Olds 442 look with dual
headlights flanking a v shaped grille trimmed in chrome with thin
strips on top and sides, and a corresponding bumper below. The hood
has a functional bump up which I'll get to under the Drivetrain
section of this description. Meanwhile, a peppering of more
stainless polished to chrome shine trims the wheel wells that frame
15-inch Buick Rally wheels wrapped in BFG raised white letter
rubber from the 36th week of 2019 in 225/70R15 form. Our
consignment is a snazzy convertible which presents in clean white
canvas, and is power operated. When down, the side view of this
piece of Detroit iron muscle looks like a bullet. Much of this look
can be attributed to the gently sloping rear trunk lid deck which
melts into the rear bumper which forms a V shape to the rear
quarters and also houses the horizontal tail lighting within it.
All this nicely gapped steel is bathed in Verde Green which has
been applied with professionalism. Perfect contrasting GS 400
badging is on rear quarters, and the central trunk lid. Dual
exhaust peek out the bottom of the rear bumper and a small
descending gracefully metal bump-put in the body on the front
quarters, dives through the doors to add just a bit of motion while
standing still.
Interior
Plenty of factory coverings in Pearl vinyl, starting with the door
panels. This leads us into the passenger chairs, which are sleek
low back buckets, nice and wide with tuck and roll inserts and
smooth bolsters, along with some integrated and adjustable
headrests. These are also in the Pearl vinyl, and present very
clean as does the rear bench, with side flanking armrests with ash
receptacles. A black center console sweeps from front to back
through the buckets, and contains a glovebox and an airplane
throttle 2 post shift lever. Upfront, a purely GM dash with a
horizontal speedo, black padded dash top, and a strip of aluminum
below which houses various knobs and pulls along with vertically
mounted dial temp controls. A trio of aftermarket gauges is hanging
below the dash to help keep your eyes on the pulse of the 400 cubes
below the hood. In the center is a factory AM radio. All this
menagerie floats on clean dark green carpeting. The tri-shield
Buick badging is noted throughout the interior.
Drivetrain
That bump in the hood I mentioned is functional and we can verify
this when popping the hood. Here we see a 400ci V8, (this cannot be
verified as the original as the stamping code and partial VIN were
removed when the engine was rebuilt in the past), which has twin
foam muffs which extend from the air cleaner as snorkels for the
Ram Air system, feed the 400 cubes through a single 4 barrel
carburetor. We can call this an "air induction system". A non
numbers matching TH400 3 speed automatic, (circa 1973), is on back,
and the rear axle codes out to be a 69 Chevelle 12 bolt, 3.07
conventional version. Overall, this bay is very clean as are all
the bolt ons highly polished and supple hoses and wiring snakes its
way throughout.
Undercarriage
A bit of patina and slight wear off of the undercoating but no rust
is noted, surface or otherwise. Independent coil springs are on
front and in back, a 4 link with coil springs is on. Power disc
braking is in front, and power drums are on back. Dual Flowmaster
exhaust help with the exhale, and these end in back with a flared
chromed tip on either side.
Drive-Ability
Late 60's and early 70's muscle is always a hoot to drive, and this
car was no exception to this rule! It fired right up, the interior
was nice and comfy, and it ran like it was on fire, (a
colloquialism). Plenty of power, solid braking, and smooth shifting
as well as easy power steering. The clock does not work, the AC
blows but not cold, and the radio was not able to belt out my top
hits, as it was also inoperable. A nice experience was had by
myself and my cohort, who couldn't get his lollipop out of his
mouth long enough to comment, but he liked it, especially when he
was behind the controls, as he tends to have a heavy foot, and this
car graciously obliged.
Buicks answer to the muscle car threats that were coming in late
60's form from all fronts. This example fully restored, runs great,
and it's only rated at 350hp when in actuality it most likely is
closer to 395 potent ponies, but Buick was calming the insurance
premiums by underrating it for underwriting! Come on in and take a
look, and while you're here peruse our Hallowed Halls. Or go online
towww.classicautomall.comand look at all our top hits which
definitely belt out to you!
446679Y102233
4-Buick
46-GS400
67-Convertible
9-1969
Y-Wilmington, DE Assy Plant
102233-Sequential Unit Number
Classic Auto Mall is a 336,000-square foot classic and special
interest automobile showroom, featuring over 600 vehicles for sale
with showroom space for up to 1,000 vehicles. Also, a 400 vehicle
barn find collection is on display.
This vehicle is located in our showroom in Morgantown,
Pennsylvania, conveniently located just 1-hour west of Philadelphia
on the I-76 Pennsylvania Turnpike. The website is
www.classicautomall.com and our phone number is (888) 227-0914.
Please contact us anytime for more information or to come see the
vehicle in person.
