Worth Fixing? 1955 Buick Special
The Special was a Buick staple in 1936 and on and off throughout the rest of the 20th Century. Its role usually was to serve as the GM division’s entry-level car, so in 1954 it would be the gateway to the Super, Century, Roadmaster, and the limited production Skylark convertible. The seller’s 1954 Special (by the badging on the car, not the title in the listing) looks like it has been sitting forever. It and the house behind it have an abandoned look to them. From Yonkers, New York, the seller provides minimal details here on Facebook Marketplace and is looking to get $5,000 out of the automobile. Our thanks to barn finder “connbackroads” for ferreting this tip out for us.
There was a lot of good news at Buick in 1954. The cars were treated to a new design and chassis which made the cars wider and lower (and heavier, too). To propel these bigger machines, all Buicks were now powered by new “Fireball” V8 engines. After an abbreviated sales year in 1954 (just January to November), Buick went all out to promote the cars using the new medium of television. They began sponsoring the antics of both Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason (The Honeymooners). The Special was offered as 2 and 4-door sedans, a station wagon, a convertible, and the “Riveria” 2-door hardtop like the seller’s car.
The seller’s forlorn vehicle should be one of the 71,000 Riveria Specials built in 1954. There is no storyline provided about this auto, but it doesn’t look like the kind of car that’s sat in the front driveway of a lived-in house. Look at all the leaves around it. If the property itself is unoccupied, the deteriorating condition of the Buick would make more sense. We’re told it has 45,000 miles and we assume there’s a 263 cubic inch OHV V8 under the hood, but no mechanical pictures are offered.
Is this car rusty? The safe assumption is that it is (and plenty of it) and in more ways than you can see. And there’s no explanation as to why both ends of the Special seem to be sitting higher off the ground than you would expect. The chrome is as weathered as the paint, but the interior might be cleaned up well enough before a complete restoration. But is the car solid enough for that to be a viable goal? With so little information provided by the seller, you’d have to find out where it is and go see for yourself.
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Comments
Nah, maybe 30 years ago, $100 bucks, fix ‘er up, not today. This was actually a very important car. I bet there were GIs coming home from that miserable quagmire in Korea, that heard of the new Buick V8, and couldn’t wait to order one. This was kind of the “Rocket 88” for Buick, and a nicer car, save for the Caddy, you couldn’t find. I see quite a few of these “derelict” examples of our past, in similar condition, kept by someone long gone now, and no interest, and that’s a shame. Oh, nice, um,,bumper guards.
It would be quite nice fixed up. Lots of work there tho.
I’ve had four used Buicks.
61′ Special. 62′ Skylark Conv. 64′ Skylark 2dr HT. 93′ Skylark 4dr.
Some cars are just begging you to crush them and get it over with
That is a 55 Buick I had 3 of them
The Buick is a 1955 model, not `54. Sorry.
I’m surprised they got this one wrong, especially when the ’55 was Buicks best year ever!!! They sold more than 3/4 of a million ’55’s.
you beat me to it, Will. Was going to say the same thing, yup, it’s a ’55.
You both are correct that is definitely a 55 but in Russ’s defense it is listed as a 54 in the Facebook ad so apparently the seller doesn’t know what it is and that leads to the question is it a scam or does the seller not have the title
And Merle Berle too? C’mon man, get your info straight.
Save it someone save it , so much class if I had the money to buy and fix it right I would buy it in a heart beat !!!!!
Yes! You are right Will ! Soon as I saw the photo I new it was a 55′. My friend’s father had one just like it. My uncle bought a 1956 Special which was a little different, in the front and back of the car.
you are right the tail lights where different in 55 54 had two round lights same as the 1953
al: This pic of rear taillights are a 1958 Bel Air Impala…Not Buick taillights of any year…
chanz I was referring to the post of the 1954 Buick the Impala pic is my email pic of my 1958 Impala 348 it’s on all my emails
That’s what I thought
Agree with Fox…’55
Russ, the car seems to be sitting on blocks, which is good if one intends to store it for a long period of time. Only problem is they forgot to pull it inside before doing so!
The house and the car compliment each other. But I’d love to hear the back story.
Gosh, after looking at the marketplace posting and pictures realize this must be a set-up for next halloween. Especially like the leaves under the front suspension and the open windows on the house. One ghastly, ghostly Buick.
They knocked Plymouth out of third place in ’55. It was Buick’s best sales year ever.
March 1992 on lic plate.
March 1992 on lic plate
I am going to try really hard in 2024 to avoid BF clickbait. This is a prime example.
New York plate on the front , CT. antique plate on the rear
(clutches pearls)
Another piece of 500.00 junk that some dreamer thinks they have hit the lotto. Remove 3 feet of rear of car for mancave couch, maybe a few pieces for other Buicks and scrap it.
Cars like this one, just pisses me off to no end, it’s the I am going to fix it up one day story. People who usually can’t afford to, or don’t have the mechanical ability, truly believe that they can bring the car back to life. Year after year as the tires deflate and it sinks into the ground, leaves and junk find thei niche, as do various rodents who find a cozy home for the winter, it continues to deteriorate. I used to drive for Uber in Tucson, and customers would say, yeah it’s my Dad’s or Grandpa’s and he won’t sell it. This car should be saved because in 10 years it will be gone and less people who love these cars won’t be around. Let the car go so someone can cherish and enjoy it before it’s too late. Sorry for the sermon it just drives me freaking crazy.
No need to apologize, maybe we all need a good sermon now and then. I agree, except for one thing, you are dealing with peoples stubborn pride. “I’ll fix it someday” keeps them hopeful, while their bodies deteriorate and they know full well they never will. It’s not until they eventually die, and it becomes someones problem, and you’re right, by then, it’s usually too far gone.
I’ve seen it time and time again. Farm in N.Wis. I lived on had “Uncle Bills” ’58 Olds, 4 door, I remember it was purple, and sat for years. Had it been taken care of, could have been nice, but deteriorated, and was junked after “Bill” died.
Be thankful for that very same mindset of fixing it some day! If not, the car would no longer exist and would not be viable for someone to actually restore the car! We are actually very lucky ..let that perspective take a few turns around the old mind neurons for awhile
Vance and Howard totally agree I have stopped at many houses to check on cars sitting only to hear “ I know what I got and I’m gonna get it restored one of these day”
There is an old gas station in downtown Easley that has a 69 el Camino and a 70 firebird formula 400 sitting under blue tarps in back. They have been there for at least since 2006 when I moved to the area always – not for sale. You would like people to think rationally but you can’t fix stupid
I am one of those I might get to it someday guys. I drive many, play with some but others haven’t seen a road for decades. Selling any type of project is a bust running or not. Some I bought were worthless when I acquired them, cheap used cars. It didn’t matter the top folded or you had to shift it. It was a 10 to 15 year old car that was at the end of the road. I stacked thousands as high as a three story building and then watched them go through a machine that made them into boards. Yup I plucked some goodies that needed little or nothing and I kept them. I kept not for the money but because I liked them. Many are easier now to restore than in years past but unless it is a solid number 3 you do better just selling the high end goodies from it and shredding the rest. I won’t even go into how many clowns still think they can buy an ” old” car from some guy on a parking lot and 300.00 actually means something and you get entertained about how its barely usable and wonder how I even drove it 35 years. Whether it bothers anyone or not. Cars all have a story as to why they stopped, in some cases their owners hang on to a happier time. Once gone they are gone. It is there’s to do what they want and I respect that, many do not. Many only want these items now because of worth. Decades back they would call code enforcement, the cops and whoever and think nothing of it.
I messaged the guy and the car came with the house he bought. I was thinking how many dead rodents all in the car. The rust, every mechanical bit rubber, wires everything got to come out and redo. It would cost $20,000 and up to get it nice again.
If the car came with the house then it means he has $0 in it and probably doesn’t have the title either. He should take whatever cash offer somebody shows up with and be happy with what he gets for it. $5,000 laughable
Put $20k into a and you have an $18,000 car so it’s $7k overpriced. Ten bucks says he ends up paying someone $200 to haul it away.
I would have to agree that people hold on to a dream, of what a car would have looked like in their hay-day, when I have the time and the money, (on and on…)only to realize too late that time and money and ability has passed them by.
sad, but then they are looking for the big payday, which is a pipedream, but they are to old or not in their right mind to know the reality of the worth of the situation.
I have a ’55 Buick too, I am just starting on the old girl, but in the following months, I hope to get it on the road again. I just sent the master cylinder off to get re-sleeved. One step at a time I guess. Cheers.
and another one…
Good looking car, enjoy the heck out of it!
Thanks! Hopefully this year, I will get it back on the road, lots of jobs to do yet though, but no doubt the jobs will be easier than the car listed for sale in the post. Cheers.
I never thought that was a good looking Buick model even in good shape so to me, this one just needs scrapped. I would equate those models of Buick as equally desirable as a Pacer or a Gremlin.
Sometimes just because a car can be restored does not mean you should!
Hey Herbert, “to each is own”. All 3 cars you just mentioned are desirable historical vehicles that many people can and do appreciate. I’m one of them!
I agree always like 1955 buicks my uncle had a new one was 3 tone tan red and black three tone was just getting popular in 1955 mostly in buicks and dodge I was 10 years old in 1955 remember it well
Good thing you don’t have to buy it. Plenty of red Bel Air clones for “car guys” like you.
Maybe you should buy some glasses! Those were beautiful cars and still are!
Rust in peace, or pieces. If it was a rag top my opinion would be different.
Clean it up and see what’s there.
Car looks complete, too bad about that one window. Rockers look bad but the rest looks fairly solid.
Someone save it please.
$5000? The seller is dreaming.P
All the lister had to do was look at the date on it’s tail light to see it’s a ’55. Good grief!
I always wonder why North American people (except the French Canadians) have so much trouble writing the Riviera name. Even in this short article it’s spelled as “Riveria”, twice……
What I see is a lot of good parts. Of course the price needs to come waaaaay
down but this could help a lot of other cars.
Another Pro Street candidate! Get a Pro Street chassis and put that body right on it after some tin work and leave the patina with a blown and injected Engine and walla 😝
Is Merle Berle Milton Berle’s brother? Asking for a friend. I’ll wait for a Skylark to come along.
Do I have to be the one to say it?
Put an LS in it!
You’ll be upside down and never get your money back!
Nobody has to say it but someone always does.
1955 definitely. 55 had the bar in the grille. 54 didn’t
Close, but no cigar! It’s a 55, not a 54. By the looks of it, restoration appears to be an impossibility, since we don’t know if it even runs. The body is rusted, and even if you tried to fix the body, you need a ton of sheet metal to weld in, and some of the parts are gonna need work, a lot! To pay to restore it, would probably cost more than the end value. My first car was a 55 Buick Special Riviera, and I still miss that car. It drove well and was super quick for a Buick with Dynaflow. Thus I still love these cars. I would still pass on it. Sell it to someone that may be able to use the parts that are salvageable. $5 grand is way too much money for a rusted questionable car.
I like the Pro-street idea, it’s a shame it will never be restored, just the cost of triple chrome would total this old girl.
Make sure you get a dumpster big enough for the car and the house.
Looks like the one Freiberger and Finnegan cut out of a shrub on an episode of Roadkill…
My dad always drove Buicks….and yes, it’s a ’55. I know because he died in his. Head on collision with another ’55 Buick! The steering column is what did him in. In later years someone came up with the recessed steering column…which was a life saver.
262 not 263. Or a 322 if it got the beefier engine. Lots of incorrect info this time around. 5k is a pipe dream price. My 55 Special 2 door was far less and it RAN. Ten years later I now have a really solid 54 Special four door, and it was under 2500. And in much better shape.
Hi, I thought the engine was 264 cubic inch… I may be wrong. Cheers.
Absolutely correct this is the ever-beloved 1955 Buick model year which my parents & I owned in the 4-door Special Hardtop version with the horrible tired out Dynaflow slush transmission with the MOST horrible reverse-gear *bang-clang-clunk-crash-bang* closed torque-tube rearend-engagement-BACKLASH to drive you unbearably eternally insane!!!! But at over 100,000 miles the motor still ran smooth sweet clean & quiet however overall “lifeless” or peppy-less!
If it was a Skylark, yes. For this model, no. Not in this condition. The rust in the north-east makes this an absolute hard, “no.”
A lot of comments on it being overpriced. Who pays the asking price? Make an offer you can live with, what’s the worst that can happen? And who does this for profit? Not me, it’s a hobby. I see rot at the lower extremities, but it just takes time to fabricate patches and even the entire rockers. The floor is another story, idk if a Chevy floor would work, or even if they’re available. Chuck the running gear and come up with a solution for the chassis. Restoration is out of the question for me, the stainless is ok, but the chrome would have to be painted. It would have to be a resto mod
So I guess the 1954 in the headline will remain for infinity. SMDH
I have a 1954 Century that ia a body off restomod the 54 Body is sitting on a mid 80’schevt frame cut to exrtend12 inches to match the body, Who ever nilt this did a super job . but did a lousy job puttint i back to geter IT HAS NO INSUTING. BUT the interior is superb black and white rolled and pleated. Power disk al way around but the front wnd need work as do the door etc.. The engine and the 322 railhead engine and 3 speed dynaflow are said to be completely rebuilt. May need a couple grand to make it match the body and interior wish me luck.
I believe the order of models from lowest to highest was Special, Century, Super, Roadmaster.