No Expense Spared! 1975 Buick Skyhawk
“No expense spared” rarely describes a GM H-body like this 1975 Buick Skyhawk. Sharing a platform with Chevrolet’s compact Vega, the Skyhawk and companions (Pontiac Sunbird, Oldsmobile Starfire and Chevy Monza) offered sporty styling for folks wanting something more efficient and affordable than the pony cars and mid-sized models of the day. This specimen in Beaumont, California boasts a gorgeous leather interior! Mechanical upgrades include aftermarket fuel injection. The $31,500 Buy It Now price here on eBay sets a high bar for H-body followers. A single $15,000 bid tests the waters as we go to press, failing to trip the seller’s Reserve.
I logged over 100,000 miles behind this view, in a 1976 Skyhawk with the same engine, though mine had the Borg-Warner five-speed manual gearbox with overdrive instead of this car’s four-speed. The low-slung chassis cornered well with some body roll, and the hatchback swallowed plenty of cargo with the folding rear seats. My Florida-based ride came with air conditioning. The lack of icy cold air marks at least one expense spared on this classic’s return to “new or better.”
The like-new ride height suggests replacement springs as most of these barely clear a manhole covers after a decade or two. The odometer reads about 70,000 miles, though the seller hints it’s rolled over at least once without stating so plainly.
Buick stuffed its 3.8L (231 cid) V6 into everything from H-bodies to full-sized LeSabres in these days, and its 111 HP did fairly well in the nimble Skyhawk during a time when a heavier V8 Camaro made 140. What might be an aftermarket intake manifold could have this 3.8 thumping out 115 ponies… or more! That’s mock excitement by the way. Joking aside, dreamers could flip through the Kenne-Bell catalog in the ’70s and ’80s and order enough parts to build the 3.8 to 250 HP or more with no turbo or blower.
That luscious leather renders this interior better than ever… literally. Two rear seats offered minimal leg room, but I jammed hundreds of teenage passengers back there (most of them conscious) with few complaints. Similarly, I rarely groused about my Skyhawk’s handling, though brake fade afflicted prolonged corner carving. I’ll never forget one harrowing stop after a lengthy descent. In the late ’80s I got my first real job and contemplated building the world’s fastest RWD Skyhawk. Those brakes and its era-typical numb power steering tipped the scales toward buying a new 1989 Mustang LX 5.0, which I never regretted. That said, let’s see this little Buick find someone who appreciates and drives it! Bank on the tidy classic drawing a car show crowd from a sea of pony and muscle cars. Can you picture this fuel-injected leather-lined Skyhawk in your driveway?
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Comments
My girlfriend and my 1976 Buick Skyhawk. The car is long gone, but I still have the girl — 38 years later.
Like most of us, looks like you got the better end of the deal.
My last brand-new car was a 1976 Olds Starfire GT – bright orange with black stripes. Started dating a beautiful girl when I still had that car. Despite the car she married me anyway. 43 years this July.
I thought the Oldsmobile was the omega & the Buick was THE Starfire (all names reminiscent of the early 60’s models.) A friend of mine went out of town one weekend in 1976 and left his Oldsmobile Omega WITH me to use over the wkend…Well, the OF v6 & 5 spd Borg-Warner hookup made FOR SOME VERY SPIRITED PERFORMERS OF THE end of the 80’s…!!!!
This is for WT1998ZX2. The Oldsmobile Omega was a Nova clone. The 5-speed was only matched with the Oldsmobile 260 V8! The Oldsmobile Starfire was a clone of this Buick!
Only 38? – ROOKIE! We’ll have 46 this year,if she doesn’t
get smart.
Only 46—-ROOKIE—50 years next month
Had the same red Buick Skyhawk……..great car for someone starting a new family……and still have the same great girl.
Have a great weekend
I’m sorry for the loss of of your restoration funds. I don’t think you’re getting your $30k back
The ad reads like a previous owner restored it.
You are right, no way should this get anywhere close to the BIN price. I think he’s lucky someone made an opening bid. The interest in a car like this is more as an oddity that somehow survived, rather than passion which tends to drive high prices/values. I have friends that do restoration work that have dealt with customers with a sentimental attachment that far outweighs the value of the car. Before the get too involved they sit the customer down and have a discussion about cost versus value, they don’t want things to get ugly if the owner comes to the realization they spent $50k on a car that has a market value of $12k.
The seller has some other interesting items listed.
Steve R
Some people restore a car because they want one, not for profit.
TimS, I assume if you we’re remodeling a house or having an addition done, you would sit down with the contractor to make sure the two of you were on the same page as to expectation’s, time frame, costs, fit and finish, etc,. It would be foolish not to. Any large, expensive, time consuming project no matter what’s involved should be clearly defined before it starts. That is especially so for something that will be financially upside down even under the best of circumstances. The worst possible outcome is for the cars owner to get cold feet in the middle of the project, then blame the shop by claiming they were taking advantage of them. I’ve seen this happen, it’s can get really ugly very quickly. That’s a headache a smart shop owner doesn’t want to be involved with. A short meeting prior to beginning can help avoid that, it has nothing to do with restoring a car with the hope of selling it for a profit.
Steve R
I’ll stick with my White 1986 Ford Escort hatchback 4 speed, radio delete.
Haven’t seen you post anything about your Escort in quite awhile. Does it hold strong sentimental value to you?
Record = Broken.
Still have the Escort. Why don’t you at least tell some details instead of posting those same words over and over. Mix it up a little.
$30k? Whew! Memories of the Malaise Era are getting more and more expensive.
Where are you gonna find a nicer one?!?
How does that make it worth $31,500?
Steve R
I’m not looking for a nicer one. In fact, I’m not looking for one at all. Lol
You missed the Pontiac Astre. Or, maybe that was mercifully deliberate.
I certainly don’t miss my underwhelming Monza.
You could squeeze 250hp from these 3.8s ? How 🤔 ?
so… the seller states only original parts were used on this car as there’s no aftermarket pieces available , then says the seats were redone in leather instead of the original vinyl, and it now has fuel injection ? There’s no way anyone is going to pay anywhere near what this guys asking , and Id bet the first bid is a shill
I had a 1978 Buick Skyhawk, 3.8 V6 5speed, Had alot of with that car, it was fast little car man, used to burn some long ass rubber with that thing, race a coworker after work, top speed was 142 miles mph going down freeway, never done that again, BUT the bad thing was when that car broke down on me, it was a b@#$h to fix, and expensive too, had fun with that car.
The only way that car went 142? Was if your speedometer was in Kilometers.
Sometimes referred to as “SKYDOGS” in the day. Sometimes.
I had a 77 monza with a V8 4 speed. Same color but more giddy-up go than this one. The girl I got it from launched it into the air over a set of train tracks and bottomed out and put a hole in the oil pan. Liquid steel temporarily fixed that. Wish I would’ve kept it. My brother had a 77 monza mirage with a transplant 400 small block and a 400 trans. 4 lug crager style wheels 10″ deepset with BFG’s and a posi. That car was a rocket ship. Idiot traded it for an 81 Celica. Nice looking car but couldn’t even get out of its own way. I was very angry he didn’t give me the opportunity to buy that one. Would love to find one of those. As nice as it is, they will never get 30K out of this one.
I had a 76 Starfire, I went thru 2 sets of doors and it was only 8 years old (1984)
you could actually see it rusting LOL
Doubtful the $15K “bid” is real…nobody will start so high on a cheap car with no A/C !
Sometimes it’s just worth KEEPING your investment. Nice car though. Good luck! Great article.
Some kind of ride there. Nice looking car in red on both sides. Hotted up V6, PS PB and 4-speed. That leather upholstery is the show stopper. I’d have to have more money than brains but like said elsewhere; Where do you find another.
I use to own a 1978 Buick Skyhawk with the same color, tan interior, and 5 spd. trans. If I’m not mistaking the 1975 models had the odd firing 3.8 carburated V6 which had a rough idle, by 1978 GM changed to the even firing order with a much smoother idle. This Skyhawk is in great condition but the asking price is way way too high. These were throw away cars for the average person to own and afford like the chevy vega. These cars didn’t last and fell apart after about five to seven years of average use. This Skyhawk is worth no more than 5k to 7k max only because you don’t see them anymore. Also it looks like that one 15k bid is a shill bid…. Just saying.
Before we had jellybeans, we had eggs, these were the original egg. But, they were a step up from the Vega. A very small step. Can’t imagine this thing will sell for this kind of money, old guys know better, and young guys don’t know what it is.
I always thought that these would look great if they were
the same size as a Camaro.
These were the cars with the rear diffs that would lose axle shafts – I know more than one person who pulled over to find a wheel hanging 6″ out of the wheel well. Apparently there was a C clip that would pop and that would allow the axle shaft to slide out. A friend used to race one, it ran 12.6 in the quarter mile with a built Chevy 350 and a license plate on the back.
The C clips were used in numerous vehicles, including some Fords. Chevrolet’s top dog, the 12 bolt rear (not to be confused with the Olds “12 bolt”) also used the C clip axle retention. Stock axle’s broke fairly easily when subjected to racing or just messing around, and yes, the wheel and brake drum will exit the vehicle. C clip eliminator kits are available, as well as stronger aftermarket axles. This is a really nice car, but… not exactly desirable. I always liked the looks of these.
The lines on H- body’s have always impressed Me, it’s easy to imagine this body style released today ( with 21st century refinement) and finding homes on people’s driveways! This is a rare example of a Detroit attempt at building a decent small car that wouldn’t wind up as a rental fleet special!
WEW! Boy times have changed. To think at one time you could feed these into a press fast enough. I hated selling the doors as they weighed what seemed like a ton,” but most felt that way on cars then”. The V8 oil pan was a good money item. I would buy them at sales just for the V8 stuff for the race heads. Quite a few of these ended up as race cars. I wonder where all those went? Yeah, i know the same place i put the dozens upon dozens i handled. A nice looking unit but doubtful it has reached the 30k relive my youth status yet.
My son had a Oldsmobile Starfire with a 350 V-8 , that he installed . It would scream ! Glad he lived through it . Always thought it was a dangerous vehicle for a young teenager .
It’s a nice car. I’ve always liked the styling of these and the old Sunbirds as well but 30K?? LOL!!!
This is for WT1998ZX2. The Oldsmobile Omega was a Nova clone. The 5-speed was only matched with the Oldsmobile 260 V8! The Oldsmobile Starfire was a clone of this Buick!
The Good: Leather seats, fuel injection. The Bad: No A/C or five-speed gearbox. The Ugly: The solid rear axle, which had a nasty habit of ejecting its axle shafts and the tires bolted to same. Cute, entry level cars, that saw a lot of secretary duty. If you can still find one with a body that doesn’t have more holes in it than a wheel of Swiss Cheese, they can be made to perform the way that Ed Cole and GM’s engineers intended. There’s lots of power upgrades available for either the V6’s or the 265 V8, but changing the rear spark plugs on the V8 is an exercise in frustration, even with the post-recall retrofit kit (rubber plugs for the holes you had to drill in the wheel wells) installed.
The H-Body cars were supposed to get GM’s Wankel engine, but when that program was stillborn, the V6 became the default option, with the 265 V8 as the upgrade path. Power output on all of the engine options was pitiful, thanks to the crude Malaise-Era emissions controls, but modern technology can fix that in a hurry, and this example has taken full advantage of that option.
For the truly insane, Schwartz Performance is building a Chevy Monza with a twin turbo V8 and a full frame under the body, with an IRS setup! I expect the build cost to run well into six-figures, for a car that likely wouldn’t bring close to that at auction, but hey, if you’ve got it, flaunt it, baby!
I actually own the sister car to this, a 75 Oldsmobile Starfire, which just so happened to be featured on this very Barn Finds site 4 years ago TODAY, by coincidence. I bought it on the eBay auction and found the car to be even nicer than described. The chassis is completely free of any rust, downright spooky. I gave it a coat of paint, new carpet, fresh tires and converted the AC to 134A. These are actually nice driving cars despite their Vega DNA, not the rattletrap I expected. Front seats are plenty roomy despite the car’s tiny exterior. And its the only one at any car show I take it to.
Asking more than a C4 ZR1 with 3x the miles and 1/3 the herspers, hard pass.
The Monza V8 option in 75 and 76 was the 262. 265 was a 55 and 56 Chevy engine. I bought a new Monza in 78 , Pontiac 4 cylinder engine, 4 speed. I really enjoyed that car. Have 75 now originally 262 V8, 4 speed. I’ve changed it to a 383 , 4L60E automatic with AC,PS,PB. It’s fun to drive.
I’ll bet it’s REALLY fun to drive!
$31,500 😂😂😂
The Monza V8 option in 75 and 76 was the 262. 265 was a 55 and 56 Chevy engine.
.I bought a new Monza in 78 , Pontiac 4 cylinder engine, 4 speed. I really enjoyed that car. Have 75 now originally 262 V8, 4 speed. I’ve changed it to a 383 , 4L60E automatic with AC,PS,PB. It’s fun to drive.