1964 Buick Skylark Convertible mild custom project

Brian your Lark is amazing. Mine is low budget low custom after it was hit by a drunk driver. I wish I had the vision like you do. Great COLORS!

 

Thank you Hey Man Greg!

Thanks Skylark Mike. The clock hole is plugged with a small tach from a Nova. The number style and color even matches the Skylarks style and color. It took a little trimming but it looks like it was made for it. I posted info on post #82.

Here's a link to my photobucket. http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc495/lowflylark/100_3442.jpg

Ed, Those crunched photos of your car are hard to look at. OUCH, that had to be painful to work through. I originally planned to do my car in the exact colors and wheels as yours. My wife also loves the look of your car. For some crazy unknown reason I went nuts and started to customize my car in the middle of the restoration. I then decided on triple black but settled on the black cherry pearl after seeing an ElCamino done that way.

Your car looks great with all the trim done up. Doesn't look low budget in those photos.

 

Wood work is almost done but I wanted to finish the bottom area so I can clean up the garage a bit.

I used a heavy carpet in the cargo area so that it can take a beating and clean up nice. The topside is for looks so I went with a lighter smoother finish.

The compressor should be much quieter tucked away in the cargo as well as mounted to wood rather than a tin drum.





I put in a divider at the pump head because the head gets pretty hot and I don't want it to melt anything in the trunk (like the air hose).



You 64 Skylark guys will notice the stainless trim from the door panels.







I tapped into the air tank and added a lift just for kicks.

 

The ribs are a nice touch !!
compressor mounted to vibration absorbing wood ...
That would work with a vacuum pump, too... I'm thinking about a vacuum pump to help my wipers ... mount it on wood. Thanks for that great idea !

Nice Work (again)!

 

Brian,

More amazing work!

I went back and checked out the posts about the Nova tach. I had forgot about that mod. Saw a few other things I had forgot, probably because you have done so much with your car. Keep up the nice work, and thanks for posting updates. Always enjoy seeing your posts!

 

Thank you Michael

bulldog,

Great idea to add a vacuum pump. That would improve the wipers for sure. My compressor has rubber counts so that helps with the vibration. You could put rubber mounts on the wood mount as well and that will quite the vacuum pump down even more.

 

Another panel for the trunk is complete. Mounted the sub and side panel in for the last time.

 

Simply amazing....

 

Love what your doing here ! I can only hope to get my 64 convertible close to this. Mine came from the Leeds plant in Kansas City, it is still the original color (black, red interior), and has the 300 motor with the power pack option, the block is properly marked with the K P stamping and all parts are there. It also came stock with the BW 4-speed, buckets, ironing board console. Does not have a posi rear end, which I thought with these options it would have. Just over 100,000 on the odometer, it needs a total restoration and is in pieces. The trim plate is consistent with the options and the motor number matches. It will be a great car when I get it done someday, in the meantime thanks for the dreams!!!

 

Thank you 64scraper!

Sounds like you have a car with great potential. I love the sound of it and all the options. I would want to restore that one back to the way it rolled out of the Leeds plant. That is odd to not have the posi with that combo.

Thanks for sharing your car info.

 

I spent most of the afternoon popping in and out of this thread reading it front to back. You did a great job in detailing your work for others to learn from. It's greatly appreciated.

Well done car and an amazing attention to details in both the thread and the car.

Be be very proud of the work you performed. It's top notch.

Keep us posted of any updates.

 

You are very kind. Thank you.

I'm not the best at putting words together but I have learned lots about the car hobby. I am glad to have this thread to be able to share what I have learned.

 

I finished the rear panel so I had to try it out. It's hard to tell in the photos, the panels are covered in soft, no sheen, fake leather.

The tail panel will need to come back out because it is way to tight now that it is covered. I can adjust the side panels in a little to loosen it up.

 

My secret compartment in the rear quarter. Don't tell anyone...

 

The hidden chamber kicked my butt all over the garage, then the living room, then the kitchen... (then my wife kicked my butt for making a mess in the kitchen) p Sorry dear.

You can see in my prior posts that I spray glued 1/8" foam sheet onto the plywood. I trimmed the foam to contour my nested door and end panel laps. These photos tell the rest of the story.















The top switch is a "top secret switch" (sorry), the middle switch will kick up the bottom trunk panel about 2 inches. I had to add that one because I made all the panels very snug for a clean look but then the ram could not pop it up without a lot of air pressure. Once it popped, it would go up dangerously fast. This kick up was a happy accident because it now has a fashion statement. I can kick it up at shows so that people can see it opens but still hide all the crap that I carry with me on road trips. The bottom switch is to the lift cylinder to open and hold the large bottom trunk door.

The 5 port solenoids actuate the rams. One line is constant air pressure, two lines for up and down movement, and the brass filters are adjustable to release the air to regulate the speed of the movement. These can be adjusted to push hard enough to break stuff or soft enough to take all day to get full travel.

 

Very nice !!!
:bglasses:

 

Many, Many hours later. The Trunk is DONE!!! And, the stereo system is DONE!!!

This first photo shows the back side of the amp panel with a bank of mid-range speakers and two tweeters that are sorted with a couple of cross-overs. You can also see the capacitor I added to push the amplifier. I'm a little disappointed in the bass output of the 10" sub but overall the stereo system sounds great.



It takes a few minutes to air up the system before I can drive the car so I added an air inlet so I can fill the system with my garage air compressor. Now I can fill the system in seconds.



Open the side door, push the two blue buttons and the bottom door opens and also holds the side door open.

 

I finally received my acceptance and move in date for the Salt Lake AutoRama! I move in March 18. Show opens on the 20th. That gives me all day on the 19th to set up, clean and shine. (not much to set up).

I have been putting in many hours of fine detail work. Cut and polished the trunk lid again. Last time I did it I left fine scratches that only show up with indoor lighting and with the lights of the car show...

The rear wheels had a clear coat but the front did not. ??? I had to use paint remover on the rear wheels to get the foggy underlying stains polished out. I have wanted to do a red pinstripe on these wheels to give them the look of the old redline tires. With the wheels all buffed up, the stripes on and the center logos on, the wheels look very nice.

While the wheels where off I detailed the brakes system and painted the parts of the rotors. The rears had bare metal that got rusty and the fronts had a thin coat of paint but they started to flake and rust already.

My list to complete this car is now very small;
I have some wiring under the dash that still needs to be cleaned up and tied down.
The A/C needs to be charged.
The transmission speedo gears need to be changed as well as the tweak governor a bit.
The speedo topped out at over 120 when I hit freeway speed and I think that broke something because the needle dropped and has not moved since. I hope it is just the cable because I don't want to pull the dash apart.

I have plans for many long distant car shows. This car is not going to feel the ride of a trailer so I need to roll on some miles before I can trust that my work will get me there and back.

 

The car is in the AutoRama and was given the class of Semi Custom. This class is based on 10 mods or less (like wheels, engine, brakes, interior, etc). Other mods like door gaps, are considered cosmetic or over-restored.

Once the car was in the lights of the show I realized some of the 2000 grit sand scratch was showing. :eek2: I hand rubbed for hours with 3 different compounds before I felt it was acceptable. It still has some noticeable scratch but...

I'm looking forward to see the judges notes. (They will give out copies of the judging information after the awards).

 

Lots of great comments from the show crowd and mostly for it's flat straight panels and tight even gaps.

Come to find out the judges put my car in a class all on its own so naturally it one first place in it's class. The judges really liked my car so I think they made it easy for themselves to judge and make it a natural wine. The shocker was in the final top awards....

... I won The Street Acheivement award for Paint. This award is given to recognize body work and finish. The award was not in my wildest imagination.