1972 Buick Estate Wagon

Looks much like the other '72 currently for sale.

https://cleveland.craigslist.org/ctd/d/1972-classic-buick-estate/6286706824.html

 

Cornering lamps and fender mounted turn signals... nice!!

 

That sure does look like a 73 front clip.

 

Wow two very nice Buick clam shells in one week. Where are these things coming from. On his website there is also a nice 76 Century Estate which I'm sure has been followed on this forum before:

http://www.actionautowholesale.com/1976_Buick_Century_Painesville_OH_11061562.veh

 

I like it. Would take a lot of looking tho. Looks like it's been repainted to me.

 

Yup got to be careful with those vinyl roofs. That different front seat upholstery is unique. Maybe the car was custom built for a GM executive someone way up the Buick ladder... or a previous owner found a parts car Electra of the same year and swapped the seat in!

 

The '76 Century Estate is very nice but has been for sale a long time. It is too high at $12k.

 

I believe it's been mentioned in this forum many times before that having nice upholstered seats up front for mom and dad and vynil in the rear for the spill prone children was a popular option in those days, especially on the GM wagons. We have even seen this on 80's wagons posted here before.

 

I dunno I have seen a LOT of weird "it never happened" stuff in the 70's. Happen. Just saying cash talked back then.

 

If the front seat is not factory, it was not transplanted from an Electra as the power seat control was on the door armrest for Electras - see the brochure photo.

 

Upholstery on the wagon for sale not the same as '72 Electra either.

 

That said, it looks very much like the '72 Estate Wagon upholstery design and matches the back seat design. Could the front have been reupholstered at some point in cloth?

 

They used the original front seat and cut out vinyl and inserted cloth, end of story.

 

Odds are the cloth front seat was done afterwards. However there were factory screw ups. If you get a chance to read "Echoes of Norwood" by Philip Borris, he details the inner workings of the Norwood, Ohio Camaro assembly plant. Part of the reason he wrote the book was to show the problems and errors GM had to deal with when mass producing cars. On page 120 he mentions that GM would sometimes lose an entire shipment of cars because of computer interface problems back then. Some dealers would sell these cars at a 100% profit. Even if GM caught the problem, it was more cost effective to write the cars off the books than prove the dealer ripped them off. If GM could lose an entire shipment of cars back then, they could have certainly screwed up and put a cloth bench in the front of this wagon with a vinyl rear seat. Who knows maybe the assembly line guy just flipped down the rear seat to try and avoid it being caught and get it out the door.