Post Script; I no longer own this car. I sold it today, December 3, 2021. A new owner is taking it to Northern North Carolina as I type this, ending 36 years of ownership. This post will remain as a dedication to this car and my late father who originally bought it in 1982. RIP.
Or let's call this post, "Everything you always wanted to see in a 1975 Buick Electra 225 Custom Landau Coupe, but were afraid to ask!"
I finally was able to pull out my 1975 Buick Electra 225 coupe out a week ago to do a digital picture shoot of the car, finally. I took almost one hundred pictures of the subject at hand.
I have posted less than half of them here, for now. I will probably add more as I get the time to edit the images. Remember, now, this is an all original paint, meaning it is still wearing it's original GM factory applied paint. As such, there are chips, scratches and some small minor dents in the body of this car, but NO rust, or rust out at all. The interior is still all original, complete with about 10 years of wear and tear, until I pulled the car out of circulation in 1985. In other words, you are looking at a preserved 10 year old car, here, even though that vehicle is 38 years old as of this posting, now.
The 1975 Buick Electra's front end design in my opinion is just plain old majestic, and elegant. No plastic was used in the making of that grille at all. It is all metal. Chrome plated "Pot metal", if you will. I made the "1975" licence tag, myself by painting a tag blank black, and attaching brass house numbers to it that I bought from a hardware store in the mid 1980's
1975 was the first year for rectangular sealed beam dual headlights, in the full size Buick series. They were only available in the Electra line that year. LeSabres for 1975 still had the traditional round sealed beam dual headlights, yet. In 1976, the LeSabre received rectangular lights as well. Parking lights are mounted in the ends of the front bumper. In 1976, these would be moved out of the bumper to just below the headlamps, above the bumper.
Big 455 cubic inch V-8 engine was the biggest engine that Buick ever built. The only GM passenger car engine that was bigger was Cadillac's, That V-8 engine was 500 cubic inches. The big A/C system was problematic, to say the least in these cars. They were always springing leaks, losing the R-12 "freon" that they used, the compressors would seize up, and or burn out their clutches, etcetera, addendum. As such, the A/C system in this car is not in working order, right now. It is still complete, and intact, and could be rebuilt with new seals and converted to 21st century R-134 tech to make it work, and to work more efficiently.
Brushed aluminum speedometer face with black numerals lights up very bright at night as opposed to a more traditional black faced white numeral speedometer face. Buick coat of arms shield mounted in the center of the steering wheel, as well. The green, yellow and red gauge on the right side of the speedometer is a "fuel usage" gauge. Basically all it does, is it tells you how far you are pushing the gas pedal down. with me, it was always in the red, saying that I'm wasting gas. The big 455 inch V-8 engine under the hood, even in it's 1975 detuned state was still a gas hog, regardless on how hard or soft you pushed the accelerator pedal to move the 5,000 pound automobile.
Automatic Climate Control A/C and heater systems was designed to keep you comfy during all times of the year in all climates. Headlight switch and windshield wiper with delay controls are visible here in this picture, below the driver's side outboard A/C dashboard vent.
Buick coat of arms shield theme carried over to the trunk lock cover, as well.
Basic dash controls shown here. Notice the HUGE A/C dash vents.
Early stereo four speaker AM/FM radio, for the time put out a decent sound. By today's standard, though, the sound is kind of tinny. Not much bass, compared to 21st century automotive sound systems. But it still works great.
"B U I C K" spelled out in individual chrome plated pot metal letters across the front of the grille header panel below the very dignified Buick coat of arms shield header panel ornament. Each letter is individually held in place with stamped sheet metal nuts that are threaded onto the integral molded on studs that are on the back of each letter. No "peal and stick on" letters, here, folks! this is the best you were able get in Buick for 1975.
Fenderskirts really dress up this car, and give it alot of aristocratic dignity and class.
Side swipe damage from 1982 is evident in this driver's side shot of the whole car, as you can see the screws my dad put through the moldings to keep them from falling off the car after it got hit.
The interior armrests have cracked from 10 years of use, as you can see from the tape at the bottom left of the picture.
Mechanical digital "chronograph" type clock still works above the "Electra 225" script on the genuine fake wood grained plastic dashboard panel.
Dashboard in this car seems like it is a mile wide compared to the cars that are built, today.
The 1975 Buick Electra 225 was a very elegant and aristocratically styled automobile, in my humble opinion.
Bright metal trim was still in use profusely on the interiors of these cars, yet in the mid 1970's, as this picture of the passenger side interior door panel and armrest shows.
1975 Buick Electra meets 1994 and 1992 Buick Park Avenues, respectively.
Period correct PA licence plate, although it is not registered, showing what tag you would have been issued for your new Buick from the dealer in 1975-1976 in Pennsylvania.
Massive 1975 grille is all metal on these cars. No plastic was used in these at all. This grille design was unique to the 1975 model year, only. The 1976 Electra had a smaller chrome plated rectangular plastic grille with the parking lights moved up from the bumper corners to right below the dual rectangular headlamps, above the bumper. This necessitated the shorter grille, for 1976, as the parking lights now occupied the space that the '75 grille end extensions originally occupied, making the 1976 Electra grille less elegant than the '75's.
"Egg crate" theme used on the long taillights was a bring back design from the 1969 Buick Electra, as this year had the same basic design for their taillights, as well. The '69's were three grids high, whereas the '75-'76's were 2 grids high.
The car was very lightly sideswiped while it was parked along the street in 1982 shortly after my dad had bought it. You can still see one of the sheet metal screws used to reattach the bump molding above the driver's side fender skirt, as well as the long parallel scratch in between the skirt and the molding. I tried to buff the scratch out, but it was just too deep, even though it was not the whole way through the paint, there.
Optional Buick crested side corning lights at the front ends of the front fenders. Also optional fender corner top turnsignal headlight indicator lights are visible in this image. Manually retractable antenna on the right fender (left side of image above the "portholes") was a dealer install for installing a CB radio, which as you can remember, those of you who were alive during the 1970's, was a bit of a national craze, back then.
Buick coat of arms shield theme is carried on from the steering wheel to the header panel ornament, to the trunk deck lid lock cover, to the wheelcover centers, shown in this picture.
They just don't build them this big, anymore!
As you can see, this car is really a wonderfully rust free vehicle, as it does not even have the so typical rustout bubbles at the bottom of the landau top chrome vinyl top divider molding and the top of the quarter panel. 1970's GM cars with vinyl tops were notorious for rusting out in very short order, here when kept outside, continuously. This car was garaged almost from the time it was brand new until now. It was only parked outside in the weather during the time my dad owned it from 1982 to early 1985 when I bought it from him.
"B U I C K" script on right corner trunk deck lid edge, above the end of the taillight, inboard of the vertical backup lights in the vertical ends of the bumper. A neat thing about these, is while you are driving at night, these light up red as taillight, "outrigger" lights, if you will. But when you put it in reverse, they turn white, and put out quite a bit of light to let you see where you are backing at night, quite well.
At 234 inches (19 feet, 6 inches) this car was the longest production Buick passenger car that was built. It was even longer than the Cadillac deVille series that was built during that same time period. And HEAVY! These cars had a curb weight in excess of 5,000 pounds, making it also one of the heaviest regular production GM passenger cars ever built. Not counting wagons, or factory built Cadillac Fleetwood limousines.
The 1975-1976 full size Buicks were the last of their kind to be built. Starting in 1977, they would start to downsizing these cars. Never again would Buick build a car this big.
Driver's side view of car.
Full size Buicks still wore rectangular versions of their famous"portholes", '"ventiports", as to what Buick called them in 1975. Electra's always had four on their front fenders. LeSabres had three.
Replacement period correct standard Electra specific wheelcovers that I found at the big Carlisle, PA big spring meet, two weeks ago, are like the wheelcovers that my first 1975 Buick Electra had when I bought it as a three year old car in December of 1978. See my original post about this car about that first Buick on the link I will apply later right here. Link;
http://jayveejayaresjunk.blogspot.com/2012/08/1975-buick-electra-225-custom-landau_1.html
Jim.
