When i found this poor old girl sitting in the garage of one of my mother's elderly charges (she does home health care)



Inquiring lead me to find out she actually belonged to a nephew who was storing her there. 1978 Buick Park Avenue, Purchased from it's original owner in Nevada roughly a decade ago, suffered a theft and was found partially stripped on the east side of town. He had hoped to restore her to her former glory but only managed to replace the exhaust. My mother made further inquiries and purchased her for me at the tidy sum of $700. She needs a lot of TLC but she had the makings of a beautiful cruising car.



Molding is in the trunk, as is the missing rear fin. I may have found a bumper in a junkyard in Ashtabula, OH (I'm located in Toledo for the time being). All visible damage aside... she purrs like a dream when she runs (That new $500 exhaust may play a small part in that..). Still, gonna take some elbow grease to make her look the part, especially inside..



Quite a laundry list of repairs and replacements to be made, but I couldn't stand to watch her rot away in a garage. First scrapyard trips begin this coming weekend, I'm going to start stripping the fabric off of the header and steam cleaning the interior this week. The sunroof is one of the few things I don't know about. It's severely rusted around the edges and the previous owner put a bead of silicone around the edge to minimize the leaking. I don't even know where to begin with that... all internet searches have led me to "take it to a professional" but I was hoping I could get off slightly cheaper doing the work myself. The whole window may not need to be replaced, it may just be the motor, in which case.. what's the best procedure to go about fixing the rusting, leaking edge?



I'll update as things progress, namely when I get the bumper/tail lights and steering column. Till then!

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Hey not to bad nice find. Reminds me of the time when i found my 76 nova and got it off of a elderly lady for 500 bucks cept it was in almost perfect condition =)

Yea, but I'll take what I can get If it's two things I love, it's old cars, and a challenge, and I got two for the price of one She's never gonna be a racer, but if I can't go for speed, I'm going to make sure she's the most comfortable ride I could wish for. It's strange, I never feel like my parents '08 Grand Prix is going fast enough but just doing 35 in her almost feels too fast.

Once she's up to snuff then the real fun starts, but who knows when that will be. I actually have everything I need to drop a computer in her, but that's down the road.

good of you to save her like that!

Keep us updated. I'm always fascinated by auto restoration projects. I can't do much more than swap out a fuel pump, myself, but I love watching other folks do good things.

-J