The Red Car has a new caretaker
 

Well, My Pal Dave is on a road trip and will be returning tomorrow with a new addition to the garage and I am really getting excited. It's a 1973 Buccaneer Red TA with the L75 engine and a 4 speed. The car only has 15,400 original miles, wears a majority of the original paint, and comes with a trunk load of original parts including the spiral shocks, hairy hose, coil, water pump, radiator hoses, brake pads, and Wide Oval spare tire. I purchased it from board member West Coast GTO who had owned it since July, 2013 (14,100 miles), and has documented a good bit of what he did to the car on various threads here.

I am still working to unravel some aspects of the car's history, but am very fortunate that a ton of the paperwork is still intact. The car was built at Norwood with a cowl tag date of 04A. The car was shipped to Munson Pontiac in Marion, Indiana on April 9, 1973, and leased by a Marion, IN doctor on April 13th under a two year lease. It's ironic that this car was a lease vehicle originally, because the Black Car also was leased by a London, ON lawyer the first three years of it's life.

The doctor terminated the lease after one year, and on April 11, 1974 it was purchased from James Matthews Buick by another Marion, IN resident under a 3 year installment contract for $4200. The mileage at this time was 9,291 miles. Included with the documentation is the lease agreement, the installment purchase contract, the Bill of Sale, receipt for State inspection on April 11, 1974, the odometer mileage statement from that same date, and the title application dated April 13, 1974. Also included is an original Matthews Buick keychain.

This owner kept the car until February 4, 2011 at which time it was sold to an East Coast buyer. He titled it in Jan 2012 at which time the car had 13, 713 miles. The owner of the prior 37 years would be 63 years old today, and signed the transfer paperwork in 2011, so I am hoping he is still kicking and that I can track him down. A copy of the Indiana title assignment is included in the documents, as is a copy of the East Coast owners title.

In early July 2013 it was bought by West Coast GTO ("WCG"). Prior to his purchase a comprehensive 8 page inspection was done at which time the mileage was 14,076. He titled the car in CA on August 11, 2013, and transferred it to Idaho on July 31, 2015, at which time the mileage was 15,046. I have copies of both of these titles as well, with the Idaho title assignment to me on February 9, 2016 showing stated mileage of 15,333. WCG did a fair amount of mechanical work to the car and kept comprehensive records and receipts which he was kind enough to include.

This is the good stuff. The uncertain "stuff" is that somewhere along the way the original air cleaner was lost, the engine has been pulled and painted, ram air exhaust manifolds were added (the originals were retained with the car), and the TVS switch from the front of the manifold was removed and a pipe plug installed. The manifold vacuum fitting by the left side of the carb has also been removed and plugged. Also, the idle solenoid is in place, but is inoperable. I have a picture of it, but it looks very different from a 1972 and earlier solenoids with no nut or lock holding the solenoid to the bracket - I'll need some help with this. Lastly, the paint is a bit of a hodgepodge, with at least the driver's door, nose, tail filler, shaker and rear center spoiler section having been repainted. Most of the rest of the paint appears original, along with the checked lacquer appearance.

Needless to say, I can't wait to get it home. The interior, trunk, engine compartment, et cetera is all original and I plan to keep it that way. I plan to sympathetically clean up the car, correct what's wrong, and give it a light fluffing. Then I plan to just enjoy it. I've already tracked down a survivor air cleaner assembly, and ordered a set of Wide Ovals for it....Hopefully, this will be a fun journey. Thanks Mike for being such a good Caretaker.

Here's a few pictures.

http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...s13ktcxez.jpeg

http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...psfotewozw.jpg

http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...psxj6skptr.jpg

http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...psqp0oekir.jpg

http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...psoqpqywtf.jpg

http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...shaypctts.jpeg

http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...s3tettv74.jpeg

http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0qpyolu3.jpg

http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...psska0pfix.jpg

About time you posted this...

You have a keeper there Bob, I'm glad to had been able to assist you in the acquisition. Can't wait to see it live in person.

Very nice 73, congrats on the new addition!

Congrats on your purchase. I remember when West Coast GTO bought that car, and I considered buying it when he put it up for sale. Very nice car...

Congrats!

Very nice score. Enjoy it.

I purchased a '73 last October and plan on enjoying mine as well.

Jim

Very Cool! This should be a late emissions, and 1 piece headliner car . Great find and thanks to the previous caretaker!

Congrats on the purchase. I'd be afraid to drive it (well sort of).

Nice car, congrats Bob!!
Any idea why the why the 8 track and honeycombs aren't on the PHS?
Does this mean they were added by someone?
Not shark tanking at all, just wondering...

Thanks evryone. Special shout out to HFR who consulted on finding a correct air cleaner, and especially to Doug who played front man for me on a couple dry runs and generally held my hand. Also Burd in Detroit who inspected another Buc Red '73 for me that didn't pass muster.

Bruce - I'll need some help on the early/late emission thing. If I remember right the cut off was some time near April. I thought the cars with late emissions had a different intake without a provision for a thermal switch, and maybe a different carb???

Congrats on the 73 TA!

Very good looking TA.
(sure miss mine)

:)

The EGR switch (fiasco?) was in mid-March, so yours should be a late emission engine.

:confused:

I think that honeycomb wheels were a no cost option on the TA's just like the transmission. Therefore, they do not appear on the invoice, but would be on the build sheet. The 8 track was added at some point, including a factory harness. I am theorizing that the long term owner had it added at the time of purchase in April 1974, but don't really know. I know that WCG didn't do it (in fact he removed it) and I can't imagine the buyer before him would have added it either in 2012. It's on my list of things to sort out.

Does it have the '265 carb?
Fix that broken hose clamp.
If you have the build sheet, it (honeycombs) would be on there. And, I'd like to see it. Honeycombs are also date coded.

We're the intakes the same or different? Was it a hard cutoff, or to the extent there were assembled engines would they have still been used until inventory depletion?

Gotcha. It's got the 265 carb.


http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...psfpj4vsc2.jpg

So many of us here have had our 8-track players discarded long ago and have had to chase down and restore originals.
Nice to see it go the other way for once!

Congrats Bob, glad to see you found yourself that red ta. Nice dry low mileage one at that.

There is a whole section on the egr change-over.

This is one page from it:

http://www.pontiac-power.com/csn/73-t-21a-1-wrace.png

And another after the change:


http://www.pontiac-power.com/csn/73-t-21a-11-wrace.png

:)

JohnTA - you are the man. Some pictures and part numbers would really be helpful. I assume the Distributor Vacuum Advance solenoid on the drivers side is sort of like the TCS on '72 455 HO's?

Here goes the learning curve again....