I'm happy to see you have an interest in the Buick. You should know
that this was a survivor car when we found it. All original with no
missing parts.
My Father Steve and I took the front of the car apart from the
firewall forward, left the engine bolted to the chassis, and
repainted the entire car with 1955 Buick Special colors.
We re-chromed every piece of chrome (with the exception of the rear
bumper; done from a company in California),
with Pauls Chrome in Pennsylvania which comes with a lifetime
guarantee, and I think you'll agree that it's all flawless.
We also replaced all the door and body moulding hardware during
reassembly, as well as every piece of rubber we could purchase from
the weather stripping in the trunk all the way to rubber washers on
the front inner fender.
The tires are all new, including a 5th as a spare in the trunk,
which includes the original jack.
All in all we spent about $60,000, and are hoping to get $30,000,
based on the quality and rarity of the vehicle.
F.A.Q.s
1 - Did you paint the car or was it done by a shop?
-- Painted @ a shop on Suffolk Ave in
Islandia, NY. I believe the name was Islandia Fleet Service. The
guy there does classic cars and really has a passion for
restoration, so we went with him. The final cost was about
$10,000.
2 - Is the repaint done with the same factory colors on the data
tag? Acrylic Lacquer?
-- The Tag had the car with the roof:
Temple Gray. Side/Bottom: Windsor Gray
We painted the Top/Bottom: Cascade Blue and the Middle-Side: Temple
Gray.
Not sure about the type of Laquer, but I'll find out
3 - What is the mileage?
-- 68,500 roughly
4 - What works and what doesn't?
-- The horn stopped working
-- the rubber hoses for the washer fluid
are disconned, but will squirt fluid if connected. This was done on
purpose, as we did not want washer fluid to get on the paint!
-- everything else is 100%
5 - You said the rear bumper was not done by "Paul's
Chrome".Why?
-- I believe we found an ad for the
Chromer online, with an already chromed rear bumper and his price
was slightly more competitive than Paul's Chrome.
6 - It was done by a California company, please tell me it was not
"Bumper Boys".
--- It was not 'Bumper Boys'.
I remember when we found it, I looked up the company and found many
happy customers, so we decided to make the purchase. We had the
option to send it back if we didn't like it, and it turned out to
be too big. It was for a Buick Roadmaster. They agreed to then
rechrome our rear bumper for the same price and we think it looks
great! I have over 100+ papers and receipts that have the all
of exact information.
7 - Has the frame been painted or have you applied POR 15 to
it?
-- We layed on our backs and covered the
entire bottom plus whatever we could reach inside the frame rails
with POR 15.
8 - Are the paint colors Gulf Turquoise and Dover White? (hard to
tell from pictures)
-- See question #2
9 - Is this a matching numbers Engine and Dynaflow?
-- Yes. The engine and Dynaflow are
original. We also have the 1955 brochure about the Dynaflow that
was left in the glove box. It's really something.
(We also put a new Radiator in the car, 100% Copper recore
certified, cost was $625)
10 - Has the interior upholstery and head liner been restored?
-- As far as the interior, we replaced the
carpet with the original factory style black carpet.
Otherwise, the interior is all original, and all there. We
just cleaned it as best we could and it looks great.
My Father is retired, and we both live on Long Island, so we'd be
happy to show you the car at any time really.
Rick D'Alessandro
(516) 590 -5005
