So, I've purchased my first 65 GS and I love it. I was invited to attend this years BCA event in Charlotte with the owner of this car. He and I drove another of his many Buicks, his 1962 Invicta convertible from South Florida to Charlotte with his wife following in another car. The night before we left, my wife and daughter dropped me off at their house so I could spend the night as we were getting on the road pretty early.
He and I were in his garage going through some of the paperwork on the GS and I was drooling over the car which I knew was to be mine very soon. I was behind the wheel in the drivers seat, and he in the passengers, when he removed what I recognized to be the original factory service manual from the glovebox. I immediately exclaimed "that's the service manual, open it to the back cover", and guess what we found?
Now, he's owned this car since 1988, 24 years, having purchased it from the third owner at Spring Carlisle in PA. In the back of that manual was the POP which has been in his possession all of this time. He had no idea. I took down the original owners name and address and went to bed on my I Phone doing an extensive internet search for the original owner whom we'll call, "Corky." I had no luck finding any contact info on him at all. But through a web-site called Geneology.com, I was able to find his family tree along with his siblings. Since I couldn't find anything on Corky I started searching for his siblings and was able to find who I beleived was his brother located in PA.
I went to sleep that night with the web page loaded on my phone and saved for another time. We woke early that next morning, got on the road for Charlotte, and encountered the remnants of a tropical wave/depression which gave us rain from South Florida to Jacksonville. From Jacksonville on it was absolutely beautiful and never rained again the entire trip up and back.
Once we arrived at the hotel in Charlotte, I met up with my dad who is a Buick retiree. He drove down from Flint and, both of us being tired from our respective trips, went to bed fairly early. The next morning, Thursday June 28th, I woke just before 7:00am and told my dad that I was going to call the number I had found in hopes of finding Corky. The phone was answered by a woman and I introduced myself apologetically for having called so early. I told her a bit of my story stating that I had recently purchased a 65 Buick GS which I thought may have possibly belonged to "your husbands brother?"
Unbeknownst to me, a man had gotten on another phone and was listening to our conversation. When I was done with my story to the woman, he asks, "How do you spell the last name?". I told him the spelling of the last name and described the car and he tells me "I remember that car, it's my brothers old car." I asked if his brother was still alive, he tells me yes and gives me his cell number. He tells me to call right then because he's "probably on his way to work". I called "Corkys" number and get him on the phone.
You wouldn't believe how excited he was to know that his car was not only still on the road, but was a low mileage, mostly original car that had gone through very few owners after he sold it. We've had numerous conversations about his old car and I sent him a number of pictures showing it just the way it was when he purchased the car new at 21 years of age. This is some of his story. He purchased the car brand new on the dealership lot of a place named Bert Webber, Pontiac and Buick in Schaefferstown, PA. (The dealerships "badge"is still on the trunk lid today.)
He says that the dealership owner, Bert Webber Sr. was purchasing two 4-speed cars for his son, Bert Webber Jr. to drag race with. One was a 65 GTO and the other was this 65 GS. "Whichever car arrived at the dealership first was the car Jr. was going to use to race." The Goat showed up first so the GS went out to the back lot and sat for sale. When Corky found the car it took some work, and some time, in order for his dad to allow him to purchase it.
When his dad finally agreed Corky was 21 years old and told me he thought that the sticker on the car was somewhere around $3600.00 and change. He brought the car home in October of '65 and "drove the hell out of it" for the first year that he owned it. He said, "If there's any doubt as to whether or not that car has a posi rear end, I'm here to tell you that it most certainly does". Come fall of '66 Corky married his sweetheart, to whom he is still married today.
Now, she didn't drive when they married so Corky, being a farmer at the time and having a pick-up truck as well, put the GS in a barn and there she sat for the next 21 years. He said he drove the car sparingly all those years until he came to realize that it would do a new owner good to see the car get used again and so, he sold it. In comes Mr. Cortright. Corky was able to locate Mr. Cortright and found a phone number for him so I've been able to speak with Mr. Cortright. Mr. Cortright purchased the car in order to "flip it".
Mr. Cortright said that he's had a small used car dealership since 1972 and was "amazed" that he had found an all original, low mileage Buick GS 4-speed, in a barn, in his "backyard". Mr. Cortright purchased the car sometime in early '87, owned it for what we believe was less than 5 months, and sold it to Mr. "Lee". Now, Mr. Lee was extremely difficult to get ahold of. He was the missing piece in our puzzle because the title had his name on it when my friend purchased it, but my friend purchased it from a broker, at Spring Carlisle in PA, in 1988.
After a few weeks of internet searches and pay "people locator services" I was able to pinpoint his whereabouts. I put a letter in the mail, and about a week later I got a phone call while on shift at the fire station. Turns out Mr. Lee was a speed junky AND a 17 year volunteer firefighter in PA, so we hit if off immediately. His story is as follows. Mr. Lee purchased the car from Mr. Cortright in PA in 1987. He purchased the car "in pursuit of the fastest car I could get my hands on".
He said, at one point in his life, he went 7 months with no car payment because he just kept on trading cars in, one after another, trying to find the fastest car he could. He said he didn't own the GS for long, as best we can tell, less than 5 or 6 months. He traded the car in on a 1969 'vette to an auto broker named Jones Motor Cars in PA. Jones Motor Cars brokerage took the car to Spring Carlisle in 1988 and that's where my buddy found the car. He, my buddy, says that he and 2 other people offered the same amount of money for the car that day and that they were all told "no", it wasn't enough.
He was able to strike a deal a month or so later for $200.00 or $300.00 dollars more than they had offered at Carlisle. He bought the car in the spring of 88 and has had it garaged ever since. The car has just under 48,000 original miles. It's never been wrecked or repainted, the interior has never been out of the car and the drivetrain is all numbers matching. Corky said the only thing he ever had done to the car was having to replace the syncro in the tranny.
My buddy has had the radiator recored, an exhaust system put on although the tailpipes are the original from the factory. The rear passenger side window was replaced because a guy mowing his yard back in the late 80's or early 90's sent a rock into it breaking it. The tires and battery are not original to the car. He bought the car with 40 or 41,000 miles on it in 88 and has put very few on it since. Corky is beside himself knowing that the car is still intact and being driven by a die-hard Buick fan and hopes to one day get to drive it again.
He's 68 years old and still working in PA and is one of the nicest guys I have ever spoken to. That's my story, I known it's a long read but I thought someone here might enjoy it. I'm no Brian Stone and I know I have alot to learn about these cars, but I've been wanting a 4-speed 65 for awhile now and have finally obtained it. Wish me luck.
