Junkyard Find: Donked-Out 1969 Buick LeSabre
One thing about the East Bay is that you see a lot of donks there. Last time I visited the area in which I had all my earliest formative automotive experiences, I spotted this ’69 Buick sedan sporting 22″ wire wheels in a local yard.
This car has been picked over pretty well, but nobody seemed interested in a full set of 22s. Perhaps they were just too beat-up.
Some vestiges of this car’s former luxurious glory were still visible. The vinyl-with-molded-in-stitching upholstery still had that Leather of the Future™ look, for example.
This “Sonomatic” AM radio probably cost the original purchaser the equivalent of 500 bucks in 2012 money. It was all worth it when this song came on.
The LeSabre’s standard 350-cubic-inch Buick V8 made 230 horsepower and oil-tanker-grade torque.
By 1968, the freedom-crushing nanny-staters had finally mandated shoulder belts for automobile front seats in US-market vehicles. Buick softened the blow by adding this tasteful request above the steering column.
There’s still a fair amount of useful stuff left on this car. Bumpers, taillights, instrument cluster, and so on. Let’s hope some of these parts get rescued before The Crusher eats this car.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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@Mr.Nosy: Gee, here's something new at TTAC -- homophobic and racist rants. Very charming. What's the matter, did you get kicked off the Fox News comments section?
Yes, I saw "What's Up Doc?," "Milk" and the MC Hammer story on "VHI Behind the Music." "Bullit" too, of course. Liked them all. Oh so sorry that I didn't get it...you're just a poor misunderstood wannabee who needs attention by using the slang of people you don't know that well who probably want little to do with you. Again, My bad. Tell me how to get in touch with mommy and daddy. I'll make sure to them to up your November allowance this month because your widdle feelings wuz hurt.