A long time good friend, and life long car/motorcycle guy, recently celebrated his 80th Birthday. His daughter and son-in-law live up the street from me and asked if I would surprise Bob with a ride from their home to the party venue, a nicely renovated old theater downtown. Bob was born in 1938.....my Buick Special Coupe was manufactured in 1938 and, coincidentally, it was discovered the old theater was built in 1938..... Here are a few pics of that evening...... not quite in chronological order.... Ray
Great story! Bob is looking great as is your Buick. Happy Birthday to Bob! Nice thing for you to do. Hope you got a big slice of birthday cake!..........Don.
Thanks, Don! Yep...food was great, catered by a teriffic local bar-b-que specialist, likewise cake and pie from a renowned local bakery......a little dash of Swing Era music....a good time was had by all! On a side note, Bob soon after went ‘into the shop for a valve job’....total success and is good to go for a lot more miles.... Ray
Ray...Beautiful Buick Coupe...didn't know you had it. '38-'40 Buick Coupes that ran at Fremont Drag Strip in the early '60s dominated 'F' stock, long launch from massive torque, tall gears. Nice birthday surprise for Bob, glad to hear about his valve job.
Thanks, I'll pass that along to Bob. I have known him for probably twenty five years. We were introduced by his daughter and son-in law, who I had known for some time. At the time, Bob lived in Iowa, though he grew up in Quincy. He was a long time IBM Service Tech, then went independent for several years before he retired. He is the kind of guy most of us enjoy as a friend...knowledgeable, with a wide range of experience, mellow and has a good sense of humor. I felt privileged to be the 'chauffeur'for the evening. Hopefully, I'll see '80' in due time and one of my slightly younger friends would be willing to do the same for me.
That l-o-n-g hood, low windshield, huge fenders and lights in pic #2 really looks wild. I'm pretty sure the first prewar I ever dragged home at 16 was the 35 Buick 4dr. But, my first prewar in-person experience at age 10 that stoked me hard, was a local kid that dragged home a 32 shiny black sidemounted 32 Chevy. I loved the styling. I tended to be into mostly 30-32 cars for many decades, (as far as "prewar" tastes), until I worked on a few 34 LaS in the last 5 years, ...then I was slowly getting hooked on these bigger fat fender cars, and finally getting to drive them... it hit me hard. My 34 LaS sure looks more like 37-38 GM from the rear, which seems so far advanced for a 34 car. The side view of your 38, sure shows that GM ran with that same basic styling for quite a while. I'd better hurry up...so I can drive one again.
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