65GS.com - Buick Gran Sport Enthusiasts!

General Discussion => GS Questions => Topic started by: dsags on November 03, 2014, 07:25:48 AM

Title: GRAN SPORT PROTOTYPE ?
Post by: dsags on November 03, 2014, 07:25:48 AM
Been searching for another Gran Sport project and came across a hardtop in Minnesota. Mark Ascher did me a BIG favor and drove the two hours to look at the car. Unfortunately the seller is not a Buick guy and did not have much information on the car to share. The inspection revealed a car that appears to be a 1965 Gran Sport - boxed frame, ventiport front fenders, exterior badges, glove box emblem, battery on drivers side, cross flow radiator, A/C with proper attachments, big nailhead engine with correct exhaust manifolds, etc. Only problem is the trim tag says 12 C for a build date and Buick did not build any GS's until 1965.

The seller said he was told that this was a prototype car for the original run of Gran Sports. No documentation of course. So ...... has anybody ever heard of Buick building a prototype car ? If not, what do you make of this car ? A rebody ? Any insight (speculation even) is welcome.
Title: Re: GRAN SPORT PROTOTYPE ?
Post by: schlepcar on November 03, 2014, 08:25:52 AM
I talked to the guy last year if this is a 4-spd car...I believe there was some conversation by others on the site. As far as I remember the guy was pretty honest and the car was a legitimate GS. I do not believe I was convinced that it was a factory stick car,but for the price we discussed it really did not matter. The trim tag did not match some of the things on the car,but it may have been changed or the car could have had drivetrain swaps. As far as I was seeing it was definitely a GS and priced fair at the time. Someone here had posted info on the trim tag previously,Dan
Title: Re: GRAN SPORT PROTOTYPE ?
Post by: dsags on November 03, 2014, 08:49:27 AM
Dan,

Yes, this is a 4 speed car. Seller is definitely an upfront guy, just not a Buick guy. Engine is a 425 from a 1966 Riviera. Trim tag says the car was originally an automatic and Midnight Aqua in color with a black interior.

Seems strange to me to have so many Gran Sport clues on a body with that trim tag. Body was definitely not that of an original GS.
Title: Re: GRAN SPORT PROTOTYPE ?
Post by: Brian on November 03, 2014, 12:33:53 PM
First thing to do is look on the inside of the quarter panels and up in the area beside the rear window above the quarters inside the trunk.  If it was originally a Skylark, there will be filled in trim holes where it had the mouldings down the quarters and the halo trim around the roof.  Some other things to check--since all 65 GS cars came with a floor shift, look at the underside of the trans tunnel and see if it was originally a floor shift automatic--they would have had to fill in the hole in the floor where the auto shifter mounted through when it was converted to a 4-speed. 
Title: Re: GRAN SPORT PROTOTYPE ?
Post by: schlepcar on November 03, 2014, 01:19:53 PM
Am I wrong,or was the car built in the 3rd week of December? Is that a 65 trim tag? Everything else on the car says GS as far as I could tell....They all had the box frame and everything looked legit,but that tag was definitely not a four speed tag. I thought the car was for sale out east somewhere,but I can't recall. It is definitely the same car and if you search here there was a pic of the tag somewhere on the site,Dan
Title: Re: GRAN SPORT PROTOTYPE ?
Post by: schlepcar on November 03, 2014, 01:42:17 PM
I found it, it is a post started about an "S" on a cowl plate from last year. The same car was already discussed here......That is a good thing that these cars are getting that rare because some of us are getting tired of looking at four red 69 Z28's at the same car show. Of course they are always original Z's with matching numbers 350 still intact with the auto trans......The parts to duplicate that GS alone are worth what the guy wanted at the time,but I was too far from his location. I was not able to verify if it had the correct borg Warner trans,but I thought he said it was....The trans that I have had do have the Vin number stamped as a partial. If you ever pulled the trans and it matched the car,you would know that the car was an original GS. That tag does not make sense to me because if it was a December tag it would be on a 66 car, wouldn't it ?
Title: Re: GRAN SPORT PROTOTYPE ?
Post by: dsags on November 03, 2014, 02:09:41 PM
Good memory Dan. Same trim tag. The tag is from a 1965 model year Skylark. That means it was built in December 1964. First Gran Sports were built in January 1965. I don't follow the story that Walt is talking about in the other post http://65gs.com/board/index.php?topic=1622.0 (http://65gs.com/board/index.php?topic=1622.0) so hopefully someone will explain it.
Title: Re: GRAN SPORT PROTOTYPE ?
Post by: schlepcar on November 03, 2014, 02:30:17 PM
That makes sense if it were Dec. 64.....So either someone swapped bodies or tags,or they worked their rear off making their skylark into a 4-speed GS from a wrecked car. I was looking for an original stick car when I saw it and ended up working on a total basket case that my friend had. I did not know when I bought mine that the stuff was getting so hard to find.