1956 Buick Century 4-door Hardtop - 4 holer For Sale

  Up for sale is my '56 Buick Century Riviera Hardtop. For those who know Buicks of this era, the 4-holer is the one you want. This was the small car with the big power, 255 Horsepower to be exact, that was derived mainly from 4 barrel carburation, and the 4 portholes on the front fender told everyone that you had the hot-rod, much to the chagrin of the owners of the 3-porthole Special. This car has more cool patina and sheer character than most anything on the road. This car has recently undergone a complete mechanical restoration all within the last year and a half. The entire drivetrain was removed and completely resealed. The engine was a low mileage rebuild but did leak. The pistons are still standard sized and all cylinders have great compression. The Automatic Dynaflow transmission was sent out and completely rebuilt at a cost of almost $1,500. The rearend was inspected, resealed with new pinion and axle seals and detailed. Many other new parts were included in this process including rebuilding of the carburetor, new fuel pump radiator, voltage regulator and new shock absorbers. The entire brake system was gone through also including new linings which were arched into the drums, wheel cylinders and a rebuild of the master cylinder which is next to impossible to get parts for (1956 only). New brake hoses were also installed and the pedal has a very assuring firmness to it despite not being power assisted.  This car still has its original factory paint. That's right, this car has never been painted, which is almost unheard of and alone tells the tale of originality of this car. Originally this car was triple black (roof, middle, coves) as shown by the firewall tag. I was told by local Tempe Buick expert, Art Wright of Arts Antiques, that most likely the white coves were done by the dealer prior to delivery, as contrasting color cars brought more money for the dealer.  Where the paint may be chipping off you can see the red-oxide primer underneath. All doors close very easily and line up great showing that this car had never been in any significant accidents (as well as the paint being original). This car is remarkably complete too and still retains it original air cleaner and other under-hood items usually lost over the years. The only trim item missing is the grill badge which can be sourced on e-Bay or have something custom made to fill the grill hole. The interior is almost all original with the exception of the brand new bright red carpeting with sound deadener under it. The seat upholstery is all original but has a hole at the drivers butt. The headliner is also coming apart at a seam but has been hand stitched back together. Personally I think the interior is cool because it is original, but redoing it may add to driving comfort for some. The good thing is that the choice is yours.  Anew piece of foam and some Mexican blankets may be the coolest answer. The door panels are included with the car but are beyond repair. They can be used for patterns and the metal trim on them is still good as are the forms for the armrests. The dash cluster was recently (3 months ago) rebuilt with a new speedo cable. Even the radio (old aftermarket) works.Here is what does not work on the car - The horns. The relay clicks, but no sound. I hot wired them directly to 12 volts and still no sound. It may be the contact in the horn itself and they do come apart. The fuel gauge is unresponsive. The sending unit is good. The gauge does not respond to any level of resistance, including ground, from the sending unit wire. I told the rebuilder of the gauge cluster to address it and I believe he forgot because it wasn't until the dash was back together that I realized it didn't work. He did make speedo work nicely though.This car oozes patina and was one of the biggest attractors for me when I purchased the car a couple years back. Nobody likes an unreliable car that is ugly, but ugly cars that drive well are really cool. That is the basis of the rat rod philosophy. Underneath, this car is very solid. The chassis and the running gear all look deceptively good, as there is no corrosion anywhere on the mechanicals. There is some rust in the rocker panels and in the trunk, but has not spread to the floor pans, which are in good shape. Structurally the rust has not effected the body at all and unless subjected to the wet or salt on a regular basis, should never show any growth or pose a problem. Please see all the pictures as I have tried to document the rust as well as I can Fully restored, these cars bring about $25,000  but the amount of work that has been done already make this car attractive because most shops would not do this level of work for the starting bid.  All of the work to this car was done at my classic car shop, Only Oldies Classic Auto in Chandler AZ which I have recently sold. This car lived at the shop and was used for promotional purposes and driving to car shows. Unfortunately, since I no longer own the shop, the car has no indoor home. I have all of the parts receipts for what went into the car including the transmission which was outsourced to Paul at Automatic Transmission Experts in Phoenix. All documentation and receipts are included with the purchase. Please give me a call to discuss. My name is Sam 480-231-6536. Please leave me a message. Currently during the week I am in class for the next month to pass Federal licensing exams. I will call you back! Please make sure to leave all info and if you are back east, let me know what time is best to call as often I am not out of class until 8pm Mountain time. Thanks For Looking... and no, the guy in the last picture is NOT me. Its Johnny of Johnny's Eastside Tap and Grill. He loves this car and is mad I am selling it. Sorry Johnny.