1964 Buick Skylark Convertible mild custom project

Hi Doug,

The rubber fillers look like they should work from other similar years. With some trimming they may be better than nothing. A friend of mine works in a rubber shop and we talked about getting a set and making them work. I decided on cutting up my car and tucking in the bumpers in the end.

 

Brian,
She looks good you've done a great job on it from the pics shown. Are the headlights you put in the "Angel Eyes" I think is what we see out here as them advertised as. Anyway, fantastic job so far man, I like it that you've incorperated some of the old school faness by tucking the front bumper and rounding the door corners it adds a good touch to it.
Doug

 

Doug, thanks for the feedback and comments. I have been following your 300 motor threads (I hope that was you) I went the rounds on keeping my 300 as well but my motor was mostly rebuilt and so cheep to refinish that it was a no brainer. I figured I couldn't go too wrong. If I blow it up then I will have to decide what to do next. (hope that doesn't happen) Besides the motor is a great conversation peice and it sounds fantastic.

I have heard the headlights called angel eyes and haloes. I wanted to go with the actual BMW projection haloes but they have a very deep profile and they would interfear with my battery holder. I didn't want to relocate the battery so I went with these. There are some cheep plastic ones and some pricey ones. These are the middle of the road price but at least they are glass. I'm told they pull lots more power but I upgraded to a 100 amp alternator to run my air pumps so no problem there.

 

While I was working the frame and front suspension I tweaked things a little to get the car a little lower. The front cross member was off the ground about an inch but now she lies solidly on the ground. This makes the 18s push tightly against the inner fenders. I did a mini tub on the fender wells and I modified the inside of the fenders to let the wells move upwards just a little. I still need to fab up some removable driving bump stops in case the car has a full air pressure lose at driving speed sending the car down the road in a shower of sparks. The attached drawings shows a cross section of the fender and well (hard to show in a photo). I will add a before and after photo later when I put the fender wells back in for the last time.

 

Nice job so far on the '64, looks like she'll be a sweet cruiser.

 

Most of the engine compartment parts were in great shape but some parts had extra holes or brackets that were intended for other options or body styles so I cleaned out the parts and holes I didn't want. I smoothed the fender wells and core support and made brackets to hang wires in hidden areas as much as possible, then I covered them with a nice coat of semi-goss (almost satin) black.

Since I moved the bumper back I had to move the condenser as well. The original condenser was falling apart so I searched high and low for a new one. I found a Cutlass condenser and I was told it was the same but again Buick had to be different. Luckily only the mounting brackets are different, and I needed to fab new brackets because of the bumper, so that was OK. I bent up some new hard lines for the overdrive trans and extended them up front for a cooler.

The orange caps up front are temporary covers for the A/C lines and I have the date code correct on my camera again.

 

Brian,
You earned the good remarks man, no doubt. You are right it is my 300 thread and I'm still thinking on that one! Again nice job on the front inner fenders, looks like it will come out great! Keep it up man, you're a motivator!!
Doug

 

I like most of the mods you've done so far, although it looks like the fender is now permanently attached to the window frame?

 

The window frame is only held on by a few screws. Two at the glass, two at the cowel and four under the rubber seal at the vent window. That frame peice is just a thin cover for the stong parts of the A pilar.

So yes, the window frame cover is permenantly attached to the fender but removable as one full fender, And with a replacement fender and cover (that I do have for extra parts) it can be taken back to original. (Oh ya, the door will need to be replaced. Got those as well)

I've always restored cars to 100% original. I built a top show trailer queen once for Concourse and scored 95 out of 100. This is my first mild custom but my heart made me keep the option to go back to original if the desire was there. The trailer queen lost its fun after a few shows. This one I plan to drive all over the country.

 

I was going to add that you're a braver man than I am to do that not knowing that it was removable. I prefer a driver than a trailer queen any day.

 

Hi Tim,

No, Im not that brave to weld a fender to a cowel. I have known a couple that did but they don't drive them. I'm worried about the bumpers getting tagged in a parking lot now that they are smoothed with the fenders. I am still thinking on the paint and if I should use a color and type that is easy to touch up just for that reason. I hate parking lot dings and the fools that cause them.

 

I snapped these to show the inside fender mods. Notice the missing weld nuts, holes, lower flange, square bump area and front seam. That sqaure bump in front of the hinges has always bothered me. Why was it there in the first place?
Only the three nuts for the hinges and the two holes for the rubber stops are left.

 

As I put the front end together and prepared the motor for starting I tried to make everything look new. Check out the fan shroud. Someone in the past had painted it black. It had a couple of cracks in it. I fiberglass over the inside of the shroud to hide the repair. When I sanded the crasks smooth I found the original finish waiting to be seen. I sanded the intire shroud with 320 wet and sprayed it with clear. These little areas of detail are great surprises. I did the same thing to a couple of parts on the A/C system under the dash.

 

I needed to be able to move the car around so it was time to get the car running. I hooked up all the hoses and belts and I topped off all the fluids. Time for the wire harness.
I didn’t want the original wires running alongside the new stuff. I wanted them in the same harness. I only need 6 wires from the original wire harness, but the control box was going to add about 50 new wires.
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The new system has about 9 connections that monitor all the timing, temps and pressures. The throttle body has another 5 connectors and 3 vacuum lines. There are extra wires running back a forth for each component to be monitored and adjusted by the controller. I wanted to make my own wire bundles to make them look good, so I pulled the new wire harnesses apart to make each wire a perfect length, in its perfect bundle, all in a woven sleeve. I wanted to move the regulator from the firewall and I then realized that the 1 wire alternator doesn’t need one. I didn’t have any information on what wires I could remove so I took a guess and pulled them out. (So much for the generator light on the dash. That one is gone.)
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Now I had so many potential areas of failure or screw up. If the engine didn’t start, where would I begin to trouble shoot?
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While I’m doing the wires an idea popped into my head. With a few more wires I can make the car start from a remote control. Well I couldn’t pass that up, so I purchased an alarm system with remote start and tossed those wires into the harness. I hooked everything up and tried to hide the huge bundle of wires as much as possible. I think it looks pretty good.
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Of course at this point I was questioning my ability and if everything was correct. I turned the key to the ON position to first test for any fuel leaks. I could hear the fuel pump running and I could move the throttle and get a shot of fuel with the idle sensor. No leaks, so I turned the key to START. The engine sputtered and popped and tried to start. Good sign. I had spark. I turned the distributor a little in what I hopped would be the correct direction and turned the key again. More pops then tall flames out of the Throttle Body. The throttle body has lots of plastic parts so fire needs to go out fast. Luckily a rag did the trick. I turned the distributor a little in the opposite direction and turned the key again. KABOOM, and I heard something hit the floor. One of the tail pipes blew off. I checked the firing order and the rotor position and tried again. The throttle body was making sucking and blowing noises. So that means the timing is likely 180 off.
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I personally put this motor together and I new the timing was correct. The original starter always had problems turning the high compression so I upgraded it. I tested the starter but turning the engine over a few times but I had forgotten I had removed the distributor to replace the vacuum advance and install a Pertonix Ignitor system. So when I set the timing back to 0 and put the distributor back in, I could have been off 180.
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I carefully slid the distributor up, turned the rotor 180 and slid it back down. I put in my ear plugs this time and turned the key. It fired up and roared. What a huge relief.
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I pulled the car out of the garage and not in my wildest dreams did I imagine the power and torque that could come from this little 300. All the hours of porting and all the upgrades have made a huge difference from what it was before.
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I can’t get the engine to idle and it wants more fuel but at least it’s moving on its own power. I will address the tuning of the control box this winter (and I will try to hide those last 4 wires for the A/C).

 

It was hard not to drive it around the neighborhod like this but the neighbors were giving me dirty looks over the niosy mufflers, and since it wouldn't idle I had to rev it up to keep it running. I dropped it on the blacktop in the middle of the street while I moved some stuff around in the garage (and for a few photos of coarse). When I went to put the car away I couldn't get it off the ground. Took me a while to find out that the ground wire was loose on the valve controller.

 

You show remarkable restraint not driving the car around a bit like that.(LOL.....) Wouldn't stop me! Things are really coming along. Good job, looks good! I can hardly wait to drive my '60 too. I'll probably be steering it for the first time while sitting on an old wheel or something...(LOL...)

Steve weim55 Colorado

 

Time to celebrate!:beer

We had a great 80s party and with the car finally looking and sounding like a car again I had to park it in the middle of the action and show off the progress. Its been 3 years since the car came apart and a few people have seen the garage mayhem, but this was the first time it was out in the sun again. I had to start the car many times so it could be heard and of course everyone wanted to see it go up and down on the bags. With the music and the loud car we pissed off the neighbors and the cops showed up. Great time for a bunch of middle aged crazy people.
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I have finally chosen my color and, drum roll please Black Cherry Pearl. I am layering the paint in mixed layers. 100% solid base, 75% base and clear mix, 50% base and clear, 25% base and clear, 10% base and clear then 2 coats of clear. This is an old school technique that will layer the cherry pearl and let the eye see deep into the finish. I plan on driving the hell out of this car and with the tucked pumpers and tight gaps I hope I dont chip it up because it will be hell to match layered paint.
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With this color and gloss I need to skim coat all the panels with a thin layer of filler and sand it with a long wide flex board to make sure it is perfectly flat. I primed the front fenders, hood and doors with a good coat of primer surface. I sanded the doors to see what kind of body man I think I am and to my surprise they are flat. They will need two coats of primer to get that finish I want.
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You can see I took the plunge and welded over the door handles. Ive never done this before and I hope I dont regret it. I may end up slugging in a new set of smooth chrome pulls from a new Buick if the electronics give me too much of a headache. The new Buick handles have a retro look and I havent seen them done yet, but for now I will stay smooth and decide later before paint.
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I put all the tail trim on so I could align the bumper and trim for final adjustments and they all fit terrible. Time for more mods...

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Wow what a great job you are doing! Keep up the aweseme work and be sure to keep us posted.... I just found this thread today and read the whole thing.... Thumbs up!!!

 

The tail light section of the 64-65 Skylark must have been tough to finish by the poor sap that had to spread lead at the GM assembly line. I havent seen one yet that looked the way the designer intended. The 64 tail light is usually twisted a little and the trim is usually twisted a little bit more. The trunk lid lines usually dont follow through to the corners of the fenders either. And on top of that if the guy spot welding the center section in a little low (like mine) then the trunk lid had a huge gap. Also, under the tail light at the top edge of the bumper the guy would usually leave this area unfinished and very lumpy. This one is a very good example.



I cant live with mine like this so I sliced and diced. The left side was the worst on mine. The tail light opening had to be cut out, twisted about 3/16 and welded back in. The trim was about 3/8 too high. I first tried to oval out the holes to lower the trim but that didnt work so I had to slice some more. I got the lead out of the fender and found the fender was welded on to the tail too high. This explains the trunk line and fender line not meeting up and the lid gap so big I could get my fingers in, so I cut the fender lip and tapped it down a little.

 

Look closely at the trunk gap on these two photos. The gap from the lid to the Blue paint is about 3/4 of an inch. I had to weld on a 1/2 inch strip of metal to get the new gap to about 3/16". But now If I slam the trunk it will bottom out and chip the paint so a power trunk pull down will fix that.