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Restoring my ’65 Buick Electra 225 (Of barked knuckles and aching joints) by Steve Hartwich My cousin Horst Neumann was born in 1926 in Germany. Although he was 27 years older than me I understood him probably better then anyone in the family. Horst was a confirmed bachelor (after one, early failed marriage) who loved his cars. Although he never owned more than one at a time he often would write on the back of a photograph in German, My beloved Abbey or My be- loved Buick. Abbey was his ’46 Lincoln sedan. He had a relationship with every car he ever owned very much like the strong feelings one person develops for another. In Germany when Horst was a child I was told he spent a lot of time riding his bicycle for fun. Once he came to the United States as an immigrant in the early 1950’s he transferred his love of bicycle riding to a car. I think his first car was a 1940 Buick Super Sedan. He later acquired a 1941 Chevy tudor sedan that came with his marriage. I don’t remember Horst prior to the ’46 Lincoln. I used to ride around in it a lot when I was a small child. Typi- cally we’d take a ride on the highway (Horst’s favorite pastime) then stop at Sydney’s Drive-in on the Plaza for a scoop of vanilla ice cream. We did the same in his next car, the ’56 Buick Special and to a lesser extent in his ’65 Electra 225. By the 60’s I began to understand that Horst was different than most people. He worked and lived for his car! He delighted in buying new parts for it long before they were worn out. Then he would come to my folks’ house and tell us about it. My folks were used to it but family friends never understood him. Sometime in the 80’s Horst asked me if I wanted his car when he died. I said yes. He asked what I would do with it. I told him I would restore it. End of conversation. Horst was in his 50’s by now and although he was in decent health he never went to the doctor and cured exterior ills with rubbing alcohol and interior problems with Anacin. I guess he must’ve known he wasn’t going to last forever. He smoked 1-3 packs of Lucky Strikes or Camel’s every day and drank coffee morning ‘til late night non-stop. The topic of the disposition of his car came up only a few more times after this. It was decided if he really wanted me to have his car upon his death he would need a Will. This was accomplished by Horst buying a simple Will from the drugstore and filling it out. In early December of 1988 I got a call on a work night about 9:30PM from Shawnee Mission Medical Center asking me if I knew Horst Neumann. I said yes. They told me he was unresponsive and asked if I could come to the hospital im- mediately. When I got there I waited a short time and was met by a Doctor, nurse and chaplain. Horst died ear- lier that evening at the cashiers station at a local restaurant he frequented. He never regained consciousness. Later that evening I drove the ’65 Electra home to my apartment on the Plaza and it went into storage for 1½ years. From the middle of 1990 to Spring of 1995 it was at home again after I sold my ’57 Buick Century sedan to another Buick club member in SC. In this time period I removed some of the chrome and thought I was going to restore the car. I was wrong. It needed extensive body work which I wasn’t prepared for or interested in doing. It was easier to go out and buy a running and decent looking collector car that needed little or no work. I bought my ’70 Coupe DeVille and ’49 Diamond T in 1994. So in the Spring of 1995, I’d run out of indoor storage and work space behind my house and the Electra was driven to Topeka to spend the next 7 years at the now infamous Chicken Coupe. Having it at the Chicken Coupe was not only convenient but it made me almost forget my prom- ise to restore the car. From time to time I would inquire with Buick parts salvage dealers about buying a rear clip for the Electra. I felt the price they wanted was too high. Forward to year 2000. I saw an ad in the Sunday newspaper for a ’65 Electra 225 four door hardtop with a Johnson County Kansas phone number. WOW! At last I may have found the parts car I was looking for. The following Saturday I went to the house in Lenexa and looked at the car. It had the engine and transmission in it, the body looked great except for a large V-shaped dent in the hood, grill, bumper and frame. None of that mattered to me because the main thing I needed was a good, rust-free body from the windshield to the rear bumper. I made a verbal deal with the owner, a man named Ivan, and told him I would pay for the car when he delivered it to the Chicken Coupe within a few weeks. Everything was going according to plan. The next day, Sunday, I rounded up the Flory’s and Rich Gibbs and we moved and physically pushed around cars in the Chicken Coupe all day to make room for the parts car. That night I got home I was very tired and checked my email. One was from Chicagoland Buick club member Steve Kelly. Steve said he had purchased a ’65 Electra parts car in Lenexa and offered any parts from it I might need for the restoration of my car. WHAT!!!!? Certainly there couldn’t be TWO ’65 Electra parts cars in Lenexa! My fear turned into rage. The next morning I called Steve and found out he had unknowingly bought the same car (at a higher price) from the same man, Ivan. Now I was disappointed that I didn’t have the car I needed and mad at Ivan for screwing me and going back on his word. Steve calmed me down and asked me what I wanted off the car. I told him I wanted the body from the windshield to the back bumper and maybe a few odds and ends. Since he wanted the drive train and interior parts we came to an agreement and we both got what we wanted and I paid him the same price for the car that I would’ve paid Ivan. (Now known as Ivan the Terrible!) June 05 Starterator, newsletter of the Contemporary Historical Vehicle Association car club, Sunflower region 3 http://clubs.hemmings.com/chvasunflower While looking at this PDF ’ONLINE’, most of the Hot Links work. Click on them and see. Restoring my ’65 Buick Electra 225 ……….. Within a few weeks Ivan delivered the car on a cold, wintry day to the Chicken Coupe. It was minus the seats but since I wasn’t a big fan of his by now I didn’t men- tion it. I just paid him what he was due and let him leave. He dropped off the car just outside the door of the Chicken Coupe. No problem. (We thought.) We’ll just push it back inside and maneuver it into position. WRONG! Little did we know that the right front wheel was damaged presumably during the front-end wreck it had and it wasn’t attached to any part of the steering mechanism. With a space-saver spare and the big Elec- tra crippled at the right front it took a lot of old-car inge- nuity and John Flory’s help to get that beast moved back inside and into place where it wasn’t in the way of run- The parts car from Lenexa. ning cars. The car stayed there along with my real Elec- tra until March 2003. My cousin Horst with the car approximately 1970. Restoring my ’65 Buick Electra 225 by Steve Hartwich Part two Forward to 2001 and 2002. After nu- merous visits to the Chicken Coupe to move, remove and replace various peo- ples cars with Rich and the Flory’s I de- cided the restoration of my Electra should take place soon. The Chicken Coupe was just about full to reasonable capacity and it was high time to take ac- tion. It had always been my intention to have someone cut the rear clip off of the parts car, do the same to my Electra and have the good rear clip welded to my car. John Flory was the first to tell me that he wouldn’t do it that way. He would take the body off my car, then the parts car and put the parts car body (the w h o l e thing) on my car’s chassis. WHAT! You gotta be kiddin’ me. How was I going to do that? I don’t think so! I consulted with life-long body man and friend Joe Giordano. He said even an experienced body man like himself would never be able to weld the rear clip, rear quarters and everything to the body on my car and make it look like it came from the factory that way.

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