1938' Buick Special

1938 Buick Special Coupe Back in the year when Errol Flynn immortalized Robin Hood, when Walt Disney dazzled the world with Snow White, when Glenn Miller music was coming into full swing, and Bingo was becoming the latest rage, the 1938 Buick Century was just about the most exciting thing this side of Lana Turners sweater closet! ...Thx to Hemmings for this intro! For consignment, a classy Buick Special from 1938 turned into an upscale hot rod. This car is now immersed in a sea of whos who of high-end parts, has a snazzy paint scheme and a custom interior with all the conveniences of a modern day cruiser. As the 1938 ad stated East-West, This Roams Best! not to mention it looks cool too. Exterior With its curved horizontal ribbed vertical styled shaver chromed grille and the bullet encased now LED headlights hanging off of either side, slowly the cars were becoming more homogenized. This would be the last year for the running board, so until then we will enjoy them attaching the rounded front and rear fenders that frame polished American Racing wheels wrapped by Cooper Cobra series P215/65-R15s in front and P255/60-R15s on back. This car is all steel, all straight and has nicely minded gaps. It is bathed in PPG 2 stage white for the front to mid door lowers, and a purple hue that has more red in it than blue, and is just gorgeous. The purple takes over on the doors in a 3 lined waterfall graphic if you will and encompasses the remainder of the car. It is also seen on the hood portion of this beautiful Buick. The split rear glass is just the start of a cascading rear trunk design that ends in a sharp curve for the rear roll pan. The rear fenders come along for the ride very shapely and back heavy in their design with more LED tail lights with shiny chrome bezels. Dual exhausts sneak a look from the bottom center of this curvaceous bumper less rear. Interior A swing of the doors and we see the wonderful texture of a gray dyed burlap with some black padded burlap graphics for even more texture. A shiny actuator and wing window crank are mounted here as well as the power window toggles. Inside more of the textured burlap in gray covers the low split back black burlap tuck and roll inserts on the front bench to which seat belts have been added. In back a high back gentle C curved rear bench stretching across the entire back of the car also in the bray burlap with black tuck and roll inserts. These buckets float on a sea of thick pile black carpeting. For the dash customization liberties were taken and now we see a purple steel background with white flat panel inserts for the dash front. Within these panels are nicely arranged circular Auto Meter platinum series gauges that line up to keep track of all the vitals. Billet knobs and pulls abound as does Vintage Air, an AM/FM/CD player, and a CB radio stack down below the dash. An Ididit tilt column is topped by a LeCarra rally banjo style steering wheel. Drivetrain Under the hood in the pristine engine bay now sits a 350ci V8 which the consignor states is bored .010 over. It has a 4-barrel Edelbrock carb on top and a Muncie M20 4-speed manual transmission shifted with a Hurst shifter. This throws power to the rear Ford 9-inch 3.55 TracLok axle. Undercarriage A Fatman front end along with Mustang II suspension for the front, and leaf springs for the rear are supported by a totally rust-free frame, floor pans, rockers and body hangers. Power disc brakes have been put on the front, and power drums for the rear. A shiny Flowmaster exhaust exhales via all this black framing and mechanicals engine at the back center. Drive-Ability A quick fire up and off to the test track I flew. In Buick form and burlap luxury I took this car through its paces, and all performed swimmingly. Good handling, bias free braking, and smooth shifting as it accelerated nicely. The A/C was recently serviced but may need a new dryer on it. All other functions were working well. A very nice example of the 38 Special, (Formerly the 40), with its late 30s design and lines. Great paint scheme which is somewhat timeless in its execution of the color change. A nice interior with lots of texture, and some added conveniences put us firmly in luxury hot rod territory. Go go go!