new guy from The Netherlands

Hello all,

just signed up. Picked up a Buick Wagon last week and thought I'd sign up here.
My name is Hans, 22 years old, from The Netherlands and own 3 classic American cars at this point (see signature).
The newest addition is a 1979 Buick Estate Wagon.



Little rough around the edges and could sure use some TLC (as always it looks better on pictures than upclose in real life). But it's in good technical condition. It has an Olds 403 by the way. It runs and drives so sweet. I do have some plans with it. Some things need some attention. A 'drive it while you fix it' project. It's going to be a fine and decent looking cruiser. This car is going to function as my daily driver soon

I'm mostly a GM-guy, Buick in particular. And I defenetly have a thing for station wagons also. Maybe I find my ultimate dream car one day: 1959 Chevy Sedan Delivery

 

Very nice wagon. Reminds me of mine when I got it. Welcome to the forum

 

to the wagon train, bird. Like those box wagons. Had a few cherries and dropped built 455's in them. That 403 should work real nicely in there. Keep us updated with pix as you work on it!

 

Welcome to the Forums FB. You folks overseas have a lot more to deal with when purchasing an older American vehicle. You can't usually just pop into your GM dealer to get parts so you must be pretty committed. Glad you found us. Look forward to seeing more pictures of your car.

 

Welcome glad to have you..

 

Freebird....congrats on the wagon!
whats the plan for her?
whats the deal with 74 Monte??...i always had a thing for those...(shhh...dont tell all my Fords)

 

Freebird, welcome to the forum. Nice Buick, for sure.

 

Welcome to the forum. Should be a fine project.

 

Hey Freebird, love your new Buick Estate Wagon! Love '77-'79 EW's.

Glad you joined up. I hope to see more pics of your new toy, especially the inside!

David

 

Welcome aboard, Hans. Good to see you here as well (as on v8buick and the monkey board (I'm 'Harry Clamshell' over there))

 

Thanks for the welcome y'all!

Sorry for the late response, been kinda busy last week.

Yeah you are right. When you see people drive classic American cars, or any kind of classic they are committed. Other people would never buy it. Personally I think our tiny country is well filled with classic American cars. There a more than anyone would ever suspect (in all shapes, sizes, ages and styles). And more and more coming. There a lots or projects going on in garages, barns and backyard sheds across the country. And people keep importing them thanks to the euro-dollar rate.
I think the only European country that could top us is Sweden.
I get pretty much all my parts thanks to the internet. Ebay, rockauto.com and classifieds at forums. It's great to have a couple of contacts overseas

I don't really have big plans with the Buick Wagon. I want to use this as a daily driver. First order of business is making it run on propane (lpg) thanks to our ridiculous gas prices. After that I'm thinking of repainting it. And with that I mean with a roller. At work I can get awesome industrial paint, pretty much like that rustoleum/tremclad stuff from the famous '$50 paint job' thread. I can get it in any RAL color I like. I'm going with flat black again.
In the picture in my first post the car looks pretty decent, but it sure has it's rough spots, few scratches and peeling paint. They also painted over the wood vinyl on the sides (yes it once was a woody). And the top of the car (hood and roof) are not black, it's a very dark purple. Anyway, I want to take all the moldings, chrome strips and wood vinyl off. Sand it, take care of any bad spots I might find and nicely roll it again. After that I'm putting all the chrome back and use some good sealer to seal it all off (no water behind moldings anymore). After that she would look just fine and would be able to handle the road everyday and the elements.

As of now it sits without the seats and carpet. I might have a few pics tomorrow. I want to coat the floorpans with POR15 one of these days. And probably put in new carpet and sound deadner. After that I want to take off the door panels and give the doors the same POR15 threatment. Probably going to repaint some interior panels (and glue sound deadner on the back). Also want to use some leftover pieces of carpet on the doorpanels and kickpanels (what's on there now is kinda dirty and torn up).
So yeah I got me a few plans with the car

The 1974 Monte Carlo is my project car. It kinda got on the back burner. I already have it for 4 years
It's from Texas originally. The floorboards and trunk floor are/were very bad. The rear quarters aren't that good either. Other than that it is pretty solid. A while back I found a 74 Chevelle partscar here in Holland. I bought the floorpans sections and the trunkfloor.
Since I bought that red 75 Buick Century the Monte project really slowed down. Right now I'm also building a Buick 350 engine for that Century. Also takes a lot of time, effort, reseach and money. It wont exactly be stock (high comp. pistons, performance cam, home port job, roller rockers etc. etc.). And now I have this Wagon to mess around with also lol. I think I'm taking on too many projects at once
But come hell or highwater I WILL finish that Monte. I love that car. It was my first car, I even got it before I got my license. Stripped down and dusty as she sits right now I still find myself staring at it for some time...gotta love those body lines! Sometimes I feel quilty for letting her sit for so long. I'm going to do some work on it soon again. I have a maroon-ish color in mind (original color was light blue with white vinyl top, it's a 'Landau'). I love it in the maroon color. The previous owner got a red/maroon interiour for it also (interior plastic, all the panels, backseat and the swivel buckets). I'm thinking of going with a black vinyl half top. She'll be pretty again some day.

Put one of those swivel buckets in the Wagon today so I can at least sit down and drive the car. My Buick Century also has bucket seats and a floor shifter, this Wagon is my first car with a bench seat and column shift actually. Now I only need me a girl Gotta love bench seats, king of the road!

Hi Rob, yeah I figured that.
You mentioned this great forum to me at V8Buick.com

 

Welcome Hans! "Wouldn't you really rather have a Buick? A Buick?..." Yes sir. Some nice cars Hans! Welcome. So what is it like to drive a car as big as a cruiser around the streets in Holland? Parking has got to be a difficult issue!! You might have to tie a couple of VWs on as tugboats to get her in a spot!

Tot Straks!

 

We're getting used to it.

 

LMAO....that Boat Tail sticks out just a LITTLE farther than the rest of those cars!!