John Bozio 1953 Buick shown to the public again

REMEMBERING ITS IMPACT

John Bozio from East Hartford, Connecticut started customizing his Buick in the early sixties. He used some brand new car parts back then including the oval 1960 Plymouth steering wheel and Plymouth and T-bird interior components. John never finished the car after he had started to redo the car. He sold it and eventually Red McCormick bought it and put it back together in black primer. The car was offered for sale at the 1979 Hersey Swap Meet.

Bengt Sjöberg of Tibro, Sweden had been looking for a custom from the US for some time and his ‘special US eyes’ told him the Bozio Buick would be prefect. Bengt bought the car in 1979 at and had it shipped to his home in Sweden.

Here he pulled the Buick apart and started a complete restoration. Bengt showed the car at several Swedish shows in the early/mid 1980’s. Where ever Bengt brought his Buick the car was a big hit. A lot of car guys in Scandinavia that laid eyes on this car were lost to custom cars forever, including our own CCC contributor Per Webb, who photographed the car in 1983. A lot of people still remember the impact this car had on them. This Buick  inspired people to built their own custom cars as well.

After showing the car for some years, Bengt put it in his garage and did not show it to the public anymore. The car was still in perfect condition, but there was no interest or time to share it. Until the car was invited at the 2013 Jokers Car show in Tidaholm, Sweden. Here the car was one of the highlights of the show held June 7-8 – 2013. Wolf Christiansson had been looking forward to see the Buick again after so many year. According to Wolf it was the highlight of the year for him.