Our 1965 Skylark is a 72,000 mile original survivor. We acquired it September 11, 1999, purchasing it from the third owner. It was assembled at the Fremont, CA plant and subsequently sold by Mucci Buick (now defunct) in Menlo Park, CA. It is a low option car, having only automatic, radio and power steering options.

From the few records that came with the car, it appears that until sold by the original owner or family in 1991, the Skylark accumulated about 28,000 miles. The second owner used it for daily transportation, putting 40,000 miles on it in the next five years. During this period, our Skylark lived in LA and Phoenix. I suspect that it was during service in Arizona that the interior and top were sun-baked, rendering the dash pad to a fair representation of Death Valley hard pan. The third owner used the car only a little in the three years she owned it, but hauled her two large dogs.

When we first saw the car at the Back to the 50's Cruise Night in LaMesa, it desperately needed a new rear seat and a good cleaning. During its travels, our 'new' Skylark had been hit hard in the left rear quarter and had been subjected to some 'creative' maintenance. I spent the next six months sorting out the worst of the ills, adding matching Rally wheels and new Michelins, correct center hubs, reupholstering the rear seat, installing new motor mounts, front and rear sway bars and other bits the make it more roadworthy. The most persistent electrical problems were finally solved with the installation of a reproduction rear body harness. Look, Ma! Brake lights! Signal lights! Interior lights! And … they don't all work from the turn signal switch!

Then it happened! New house. The past two years have been spent turning our new house into our home, so the Skylark waits for a bit longer. Next on the to do list: disk brakes/dual brake system, new top, rebuild the front end, have the engine gone through and put in a TH200R4 in preparation for a tour of Route 66. In the mean time, she gets to go to work with me on Fridays and do a bit of local cruising during the weekend.