1930 Buick Series 60 7 Passenger Sedan
Usually when you know 40+ years of history behind a car, you know nearly everything, when a car is almost 100 years old .. that's not even half.
The current owner bought the car from a collector back in 1993, the owner before that had the car for almost 20 years and was midway through a restoration but seemingly got involved in other cars and this one languished. He put the car up for sale in the Hartford Courant classifieds. That's a newspaper for those too young to remember those days.
Upon reading the ad, the current owner reached out, went to see the car and bought it. The car had been painted, the engine rebuilt and the seats, doors and headliner had been reupholstered. Lots of trim bits still needed refurbishing, and other little things to bring the car up to the full restoration level. The current owner handled most of those and took the car out to shows, enjoyed it. He figures he put several hundred miles on the car, maybe over a thousand. The odometer reads almost 2500 miles, true mileage is unknown. When a car maxes out at 50 mph and has rod brakes, running on tires that are about 4 inches wide, you tend not to travel long distances.
The car has unfortunately sat over the last 15 years, being started regularly and moved about but not driven all that much out on the road.
This time sitting shows on nearly every surface. The paint is still in very good condition but could use a cut and buff. Many of the trim pieces still look good but could look better with some intricate detailing.There are some missing window trim pieces.
BUT
Everything works.
Flip the ignition lever to on (there is no key, the car didn't have one when the current owner bought the car), pull the choke, hit the starter button on the floor and the car fires right up. If the car has been sitting for an extended period of time, flip the toggle switch to on to activate the electric fuel pump. The battery was upgraded to an 8V battery to give slightly more ooomph to the starter and lights.
The gauges work, the horn works, the heater fan, all the lights work and the wiper works, but is sort of fragile.
The clutch grabs firmly and the car goes down the road solidly. The rod brakes stop the big, heavy car securely. I didn't check the fuel gauge before heading out down the road and nearly ran out of gas, hence the stumbling in the video as I headed back to the shop.
The interior is in great condition, again, some attention to detail, a light shampoo on the horizontal surfaces and a vacuum, would bring things up a notch.
The materials are high end for the 30's when this was built. A velvetine fabric on the seats and door cards and a felt-like fabric on the headliner. Carpets are a more modern style plush pile.
The windows all roll up and down smoothly and the rear curtains all go up and down, one needs to manually rolled back up.
This is a 7 passenger sedan, so it has jump seats that fold up from the floor and provide the extra capacity. All these surfaces are in great condition.
The underside of the car is in an equally good state. It shows some wear but again, with time and patience, the frame and other bits can be detailed up into full show car mode.
As she sits, the car is turn key ready to drive and enjoy, needing nothing mechanically to go out and hit the road.
If one wants to bring the car up to a more show winning point, several days doing some deep cleaning, buffing and detailing will bring it back. Some areas could use a little more such as the door handles. These appear to be silver plated and using tarnish remover and polishing them should bring them around.
Under the hood is no different. Looks great, could look a little better.
These old Pre-War cars are still cool and now a days, not seen out at cruise nights, cars and coffee events or local shows. Bring this one out and you'll be surrounded by people who don't know what it is.
The mechanics are as basic as a lawn tractor and a car like this is a great entry point for a family looking for something fun to tool around town in.
The asking price is just $17,500.
Any questions, to see several hundred additional photos and several videos, to schedule a time to see her in person, or simply to make an offer,
please don't hesitate to contact me.
Thanks for the interest!
