Roadkill's Junkyard Gold

On this episode of Roadkill's Junkyard Gold,

we're back at K&K Motors, Incorporated,

exploring the world of Buick muscle.

We're going fast with class.

I'm Steve Mignotti, hot rod historian, author,

and lover of all things cars.

I travel all across the country to uncover the forgotten

and hidden gems of the automotive world.

This is Roadkill's Junkyard Gold.

When better cars are built, Buick will build them.

That was one of Buick's better known ad campaigns.

On this episode of Roadkill's Junkyard Gold,

we're in Graham, Texas at K&K Motors,

where over 10,000 cars cover 67 acres.

Among them are many great examples of Buick muscle

just waiting to be explored.

1967 was the year that Chevrolet and Buick

both launched their 350 cubic inch V8 engines.

How do you tell them apart?

They're both red when they're new.

Well, here's the thing.

The Chevy small block has its ignition distributor

on the back of the engine.

The Buick put it up front on the driver's side,

where it's a little bit easier to service.

Digging deeper, when you pull the valve cover off,

inside of a Chevy, you'll find stamped steel rocker arms

with ball stud mounts.

While Buick used shaft mounted rocker arms

mounted on pedestals.

And the rocker arms are die cast metal.

So the Chevy and Buick 350s are similar, but not the same.

Dodge Power Ram 150 all wheel drive half ton pickup.

67 El Camino.

Oh, a Buick Riviera.

This one's a 1966.

This is the second generation Riviera.

Now the first Riviera launched in 1963.

It was Buick's first personal luxury car.

By 1966, the wheelbase grew from 209 to 211 inches

and curb weight blossomed from 4141 to 4,316 pounds.

These were big cars and they were only available

as two door coupes.

The thing that makes this one stand out

is the fact that it has these GS logos

on the fenders and up on the grill.

That means that somebody paid $176 and 82 cents

for RPO A9, the Grand Sport package,

which transformed a Riviera into a senior muscle car.

Now in 1965, the first year for the Grand Sport,

that would have meant a 425

with dual Carter four wheel carburetors.

But for 1966, dual quads relegated to an option

on top of the Grand Sport.

So what this one has is the big 425 in its final year

with a Rochester Quadrajet intake manifold.

Kind of weird.

The spread bore Rochester Quadrajet,

which was a very modern carburetor

designed for fuel efficiency was installed

on the antique nail head.

So to see a Rochester Quadrajet manifold on a nail head

is a really rare one year piece.

An additional $179 would have got the optional

Super Wildcat dual quad 425 with 370 horsepower.

But this thing packs 340 horse,

which is plenty to move this thing down the road.

And also it has 465 foot pounds of torque.

I do see on this one, it has the standard power brakes

and power steering, optional air conditioning,

and 1966 was the final year

for the single circuit master cylinder.

One detail found on all 1965 through 69 Rivieres

is hideaway headlights.

Hit the switch and these things rotate in an up position,

giving you a full grill effect.

And it looks kind of weird

with the headlights hanging like this,

but the hood came down and covered them up.

That was the whole deal on this design.

Inside, even though the Grand Sport

transformed the Riviera into a muscle car,

one thing you couldn't get in any Riviera

was four on the floor.

In fact, no manual transmissions of any kind

were ever offered in Riviera from the beginning to the end.

In this one, we see the automatic

shifted up on the steering column,

would have been a turbo 400 underneath the floor.

An option would have been a console shifted automatic

between the front seats.

And speaking of seats, 66 was the first year

that Riviera could be had

with the standard front bench seat,

which for the first time

made it a possible six passenger car.

This one has the straddle buckets, which were an option.

And because of the column shifted automatic,

it has the abbreviated center console.

If this was ordered with the floor shifted automatic,

it would have a full length console.

1966 also brought a new rear axle.

Even though this second generation Buick Riviera

has the 425 cubic inch nail head,

the Buick engineers knew that for 1967,

the 430 cubic inch second generation Buick V8 would arrive.

That would eventually go to 455 cubic inches

with 500 foot pounds of torque.

So a new rear axle was needed.

This is a Salisbury style rear axle.

And inside here, we find a large nine inch ring gear.

This car being a Grand Sport

should have a positive traction differential.

Well, I see an open differential on this one.

So somebody has been in here,

they probably robbed the limited slip differential

and put it into another car.

But I do see the 323 gear ratio in this one,

which was standard on Grand Sport.

Standard Rivieras would have had a 307 axle ratio

with a thinner gear.

The 323 gear set gave these cars

a little bit better acceleration.

This is a good example of the monster axle

seen from 66 on up,

including the big 12 inch finned iron drum brakes

seen on all Buicks from about 1959

all the way up into the early 1970s.

In total, there were 45,348 Rivieras built in 1966,

an all time high sales number,

but of them only 5,718 were Grand Sport muscle cars.

Makes it special.

So I think I'd be forced to restore this car

back to original condition.

I'd respray it, it's medium green metallic,

reinstall the vinyl top, but I changed one thing.

I'd find a factory dual quad setup for the 425

and then show the world,

you could still get full size Buick muscle cars

with dual quads as late as 1966.

These are Datsun Z cars, mid 80s.

These things got larger and larger.

They started out in 1971 as the 240Z,

very, very pure sports car.

That's a 280ZX.

This is a 3000Z V6 power.

By the time you get to these things,

these are pretty good sports cars.

On a 71 Firebird.

Now Buick never got their own pony car.

You have to wonder what might it have been like.

I'm gonna guess they might've called it Wildcat

or maybe Skylark.

The early 70s were not a good time for pony cars.

In fact, Camaro sales were down 8.6%.

Javelin was down 4%.

Mustang sales were down 24% on that big gen two version.

Barracuda and Challenger down 66 and 64%.

And Cougar was down 13%.

Only Firebird enjoyed an increase of 9% over 1970.

So was there room for a Buick pony car?

No way.

This one was an Esprit, not a Formula or Trans Amp.

So this one has the standard 352 barrel,

which was the base V8 in Firebird.

VIN in this thing reads, oh wow, 10006.

This is the sixth car off the Van Nuys California line.

Earlier this season on episode 23,

we saw a 67 Camaro number 125.

That too was a very special early car.

So we call these pilot cars.

They're built in slow motion to help the line workers

get a better handle on what's different

about the new model year cars versus last year's cars.

Are they worth more?

Sometimes pilot cars have been known

to contain prototype parts.

If you pull the headliner down or the cardboard door panels,

you might find prototype markings or differences in them

versus full production cars.

So they can be pretty cool.

But this 71 Pontiac begs the question,

what would a Buick pony car have been like?

That's a question we'll never know the answer to.

71 Camaro, 73 Monte Carlo, two very different takes

on a two-door personal car.

Chevy Silverado Model 20, three plus three cab.

Oh, and a 1969 Buick Skylark GS400.

That hood doesn't lie.

Now, Buick is one of the first companies

to mate a small car and a big engine with the 1936 Century,

which was the compact special

with the V8 heart of the Roadmaster.

But by 1960, the muscle car movement was starting to kick in

and Buick was falling behind.

By 1965, Buick launched its first muscle car

in the form of the GS400.

And by 1968, the second generation of the Skylark was out.

This is a 69, but it suffers

from something called sweep-spear styling.