The Beauty of a ’67 Buick Skylark

It may not be English or even European but it certainly does classify as special
interest, especially considering Buick is one of the oldest automobile brands in the world and the oldest in America. Buick was founded in 1899 by David Dunbar Buick in Jackson, Michigan.  It was founded as the Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company and was an internal combustion engine manufacturer.  Buick continued to steadily make vehicles DSC_0154from the year 1899 and continues to this day. The first two “Buick” vehicles that were produced were made in 1899 and 1900 by Buick chief engineer Walter Marr. However, David Buick was reluctant to start making vehicles having been satisfied with stationary and marine engine production.  In March of 1904, the company was purchased by Benjamin Briscoe, who in return sold it to James H. Whiting who was the owner of Flint Wagon Works, in Flint, Michigan. Whiting moved Buick to Flint that summer with the idea of adding Buick’s engines to his wagons. David Buick stayed on as a manager and re-hired Walter Marr as chief engineer, and the rest is automotive history.

The Buick Skylark first hit the scene in 1953 and was revered alongside the 1953-Buick-Ad-04-for-postOldsmobile 98 and Cadillac Series 62 Eldorado as a top of the line limited-production specialty convertible. As the years progressed it gained more and more momentum and quickly became four-door as well as one of the best and finest cars you could buy.   By the time 1967 came around the Skylark was offered as a four-door with the option of a soft or hard top and the option of a 300 or 340 V8 engine.  The 400-401 V8 engine was only stock with the ’66-’69 Gran Sport 400.

Mike purchased his 1967 Skylark in North Carolina in the mid DSC_014590’s while he was in the 82nd Airborne Infantry. The car came with a 455 Buick Big Block, as opposed to the 340 V8 that more than likely came stock with this model, and was a sea foam green with rally wheels.  He looks back fondly reminiscing about how they would race cars behind the base during their lunch break, and can you blame him? Who wouldn’t love to be able to race around in a Skylark fitted with 455 Big Block?

DSC_0150After the Army, Mike made his way back home to New Hampshire and decided it may be best to get a better vehicle for winter time, so he sold it to his father. They then further decided that it need a new paint job among a few other things. Luckily Mike was employed at a good auto shop and was able to get the paint mixed to his specifications, he settled on the super rare Ford blue that you see on it now, the paint actually changes tones based on the light and time of the day.  They painted every DSC_0146inch of the car, under the hood, trunk, door jambs, everything! They then installed a carpet kit, re-upholstered the back seat, installed a new custom dual exhaust and last but not least put all new rims and wheels on it. The end result is breathtaking and truly shows that American cars can certainly have the potential if you have the vision and put the time into it.

 

 

 

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

Up ↑

%d bloggers like this: