“Years ago my parents picked up
a ’62 Skylark one time when they
were on vacation,” recalled Lehman.
“And Dad wound up buying a parts
car for it ... Well, when he eventu-
ally sold the Skylark, he didn’t need
[the parts car] anymore and he just
shoved it in the barn and it sat there.
It’s always been here.
“Well, I always dreamed, ‘Hey
maybe some day we’ll restore that.
But it was real far gone. Sometimes
it was, look at the one in the barn,
then go online and look at
pictures of other cars
andwhatthey look
like. And we’d say
‘Hey,thisiswhat
it couldbe.’”
Nick alreadyhada Chevy II fora
hobbycarwhenhebeganentertaining
theideaoftakingona projectcarforhis
wife Tiffany to eventually drive with
himtoweekend carshows.Hiscasual
onlinesearcheseventuallyturnedupa
1962 BuickSpecial sedanrestingqui-
etlyina barninnorthernIllinois.“It was probably a three-hour
drive. We saw it on the internet
and thought about it and wound up
calling the guy and asked about it,”
Nick said. “He still had it, and we
wound up going down one week-
end and looking at it in his garage.
It didn’t run at the time, but it was
complete. It was cheap enough. It
was complete, but it had been re-
painted a couple times and had a lot
of surface rust from sitting. It was
probably in the guy’s garage for
10 years.Hehad bought it think-
ingaboutrestoringit andjustnever
gottoit.I thinkit wasathisson’s
houseandat somepointtheyhadtosell
thehouse,andhehadto sellthecar,too,
becausehehadnoplacetoputit.”
ThatpurchasekickedoffLehmans’
¿rstbigrestorationproject.It tooksev-
eralyears,somehelpfroma paintand
bodyshop,andthepurchaseofa parts
car,butthecouplepersevered.Theend
resultwasfantastic,andevenmorethan
Nickbargainedfor.Nick and Tiff any Lehman patiently
put together this dandy 1961 Buick
Special, using pieces and parts from
three cars.http://www.oldcarsweekly.com August 22, 2019 ❘ 53