1972 Buick Skylark Begs Mercy, Hides Dirty Secrets Upfront, You Can Flintstone It Home

Introduced in 1953, the Skylark moniker soldiered on until 1998. The model’s first generation only came around in 1964, together with the Pontiac Tempest, the Chevrolet Chevelle, and the Oldsmobile F-85. The newly introduced intermediates, together with the pony cars (announced by the Plymouth Barracuda but spearheaded by the Ford Mustang), were making a head-on charge at the American driver.

Traditionally, the Skylark was a good seller for Buick in the '60s, with at least one in every ten automobiles sporting the Tri-Shield emblem being a Skylark version. The car was so popular it was used to graft the muscle car proposal from Buick onto it – the Gran Sport that eventually grew into a separate model – the GS ‘Hemi killers’ of the early seventies.

When the Clean Air Act became effective in 1971, and Detroit’s fun motoring was read its capital punishment final verdict, the Skylark was on an upward trend in sales. In fact, 1972 was the model’s best year, with almost 217,000 examples assembled in all body styles, trims, sub-series, and versions. However, there was virtually nothing linking the moniker with performance.

The sole engine available was a 350-cube V8 (Buick’s own undersquare proposal of a plant that only shared its displacement with other General Motors engines). The 5.7-liter V8 had nothing in common with the fabled Chevy small-block, nor did it trace its blood lineage in the same roots as the Olds 350. And mentioning Pontiac’s uni-block V8 is pointless, as the creators of the muscle car didn’t even care about small- and big-block segregations, relying on a single block size and fiddling with bore and stroke to get to whatever displacement they needed.

Of the mentioned 216,771 Buick Skylark automobiles assembled for the 1972 model year, over one-third were two-door hardtops. 84,868 units were labeled as Two-Door Sport Coupes, and the ‘Sport’ designator was only wedged in the name to differentiate the pillared model from its no-post brother.

Fifty-two years ago, someone bought a nice two-door hardtop with a trusty two-barrel 350 V8 and an automatic tranny, sprayed Fire Red with a White vinyl top, Saddle vinyl interior, and a split-back three-passenger front bench seat with an armrest. After serving an indiscriminate number of miles and years, the Skylark has ended up in a boneyard (Garland Auto Recyclers, in South Dallas). Benny Sanchez from Classic Ride Society YouTube channel found it baking under the merciless Texan sun.

It’s pretty worn but not too far gone, and a Good Samaritan might get a deal on it for around $2,000 (the wrecking yard asks $2,500). The underside is fairly solid – at least the frame appears to be, but the front floorboards now serve as always-on ventilation. However, the body is pretty straight – don’t mind the driver's side front fender and door dents.

Sadly, the 350 V8 part is the sad news: the reliable old motor is long gone, taking its 155 horses and 270 lb-ft of torque with it. That’s around 157 PS and 366 Nm according to the Society of Automotive Engineering net standards of 1972. If the ten-bolt differential housing still accommodates the original rear gearing, then this Skylark has the 2.56:1 axle mandated by the three-speed automatic gearbox. It was the lowest ratio (numerically speaking) offered by Buick for its cars in 1972.

Although its front end is presently a solid remembrance of fish mouth designs, the grille is in the cabin, resting intact on the back seat. The doors are finicky and open only when they feel like it, but the glass is intact. As for power, an Oldsmobile 307 from the mid-eighties or newer now sits between the front fenders.

The corporate engine still wears the four-barrel Computer Command Control Quadrajet carburetor, and the black valvetrain covers indicate it’s probably forty years older. The Olds 307 V8 (five-liter) powered a series of Buicks in the 80s (none of them Skylarks), including the Riviera and the Electra. It was anything but a performer, delivering even less performance than the original 350 two-barrel this Skylark came with in November 1971.

The Olds motor delivered around 134 hp and 255 lb-ft (136 PS, 346 Nm) in its regular setup, although a high-output variant was available, with a neck-snapping 180 hp and 245 lb-ft (183 PS, 332 Nm). This Skylark is far from what it was born to be (which wasn’t much, to begin with, but still), but it’s not that deep into a coma to be sent to the crusher just yet. And yes, the days of $200 rollers are long gone. Even absolute wrecks demand high premiums nowadays, but this could still serve as someone’s project (as it appears also to have been in the past).