Classic Hifi Care

I did a short (5 min.) video of this year's S. Pat's parade in Bay City (March 17). It's short in part because some of the segments I thought I had recorded did not show up when I went to assemble them. Must have been cold temps/cold fingers. In any event, right at the beginning and at 1:00 you'll see (briefly) a nice '56 Buick Century 2-dr hardtop. It's owned by a body shop guy and is in the parade every year. I asked him if he did restorations and he said no, as expected. Can't hurt to ask. I tried to tempt him by offering a chance to work on a '38 Buick.

And for bagpipe fans, there are three pipe bands. We Scots were well represented in the Irish parade....

https://youtu.be/fw4-mbkufw4

Chris Campbell

Thanks for sharing that, Chris. That is a nice '56 Century model 66R. The only thing I see wrong with it is that it is a '55.

Oops. These are rare in MI because most of them turned into iron oxide many years ago.

Chris Campbell

56 buicks had "1956" in the grille crest. '56 cadillacs had "Nineteen Fifty-Six" in gold script on the dashboard... weird practice to me.

I have a '57 grille bar hanging over my shop door, a trash-pile find. I has the year. I thought that was cool. The '57 Super I had was missing its grille bar and I have always wondered if this one came from that car. Wish I had bee able to keep the car.

Chris Campbell

The 1955 and 1956 Buicks shared a body, but the '56 was the first really "modern" 1950's Buick. Gone was the maze of heater hoses for the underseat heater like on the 1955's and earlier. The transmission cooler was located in the radiator in '56, it was on the transmission with ten miles of heater hose, in '55. The '56's got aluminum bell housings on the Dynaflow, Carter AFB carburetors (late Century models) window distributors (late Century models), bigger valves, higher compression, dual exhausts available on Special, standard on other models. Telescoping shocks all around. The 1956 version of the 322 was only rated 19 horsepower more than in '55, but it was LOT stouter, and the '55 was no slouch itself. I have a soft spot for the '56's, but grandpa had both the '55 and '56 versions and loved them both. Art thought it was morally reprehensible to restore a '55 thru '57 Buick and not put Kelsey-Hayes wire wheels on it.