A-Body Alternative

In a world clotted with Chevrolets, Jerry Yorek's Buick stands out fresh

Text and Photos by Ro McGonegal

It's getting near dark but the sun is still right, burnished gold light spreading over everything, softening features, encouraging activity and creativity. We still gotta shoot the Buick.

            Any second now, Yorek's 53-year-old butt's gonna come flyin' in the driveway. It does. His '66 Skylark is making angry noises. The 509-inch, nuts-only Rat under that lumpy hood sounds as grumpy as its owner looks. Jerry's a big cat, someone you'd probably want to step away from if things got ugly. But this evening, he's feeling right, even vindicated. He and his car are being acknowledged for their naughty deviation from the straight and narrow and for their supreme essence-of-hot rodding attitude, which is now, we're afraid, considered somewhat extreme.

            Yorek's project began when he found a swap-meet 12-bolt that had been fixed with 4.10's, Strange axles and a spool. He had a yen to hang it in a '64 Olds Cutlass or a '65 Buick Skylark.

            "I wanted something different," said Yorek. "Not your common Camaro, Nova, Chevelle, or Corvette. I've done all those."

            He looked for one every week for year in a tri-state rag called Special Interest Autos. Compared to vintage Camaros and Chevelles, the Skylark and the Olds represent very inexpensive alternatives to project car life. He found the right one on the north shore of Long Island, stuck $800 that the ad cried for in his sock, and hitched the trailer to his Suburban.

            "The car had been garaged all of its life and had been disassembled by the original owner's grandson. The motor and transmission were out of it and the seats were out and skinned. The car was very straight, though, but had a little rot in the bottom of the fenders and the rocker panels. I told him I'd take it and he says for me to give him $300 and take it away. Six months and about $15,000 later, I was tooling around town."