I am new to GM cars, new to Buicks, and new to this forum. I have been a Ford guy my whole life, but I fell in love with a Fire Red 1970 Buick Skylark Custom convertible recently, and the restoration is underway. I am at a point where I want to replace several pieces on the car and I have found two differing varieties with some parts, such as the coolant recovery tank, etc. Are there other parts on the car where I will find any early version and a late version of the same part? Based on what is currently on the car, I believe my car to be a 1970 (early) Help me to understand the differences between a 1970 Skylark (early production) and a 1970 Skylark (late production). Is there a VIN number cutoff point that clearly separates the two groups or any other clear marker that would tell one from another? o No:o No:o No:o No:o No:o No:
Ask the Judges about what they will accept. I have noticed December 69 - January 70 for changes: Radiator top cover from plastic to metal Coolant reservoir top from clear to black with different script Center storage console from type 1 with the emblem to type 2 with a button Lower seat control button from chrome to black I am sure there are others that the great Buick minds on here can help you with. I think the issue of whether there was a date specific cut off has been discussed before. If there was, it is unknown to us. More than likely it was inventory exhaustion that led to the changes. I have always felt August - November cars had the earlier stuff, December to January was a transition period, and post January 1970 was the late model year changes period. But check with some of the Judges to be sure.
Also about this time. Instrument lenses changed from pointed to flat. Font on dash instruments altered. Sail panel lamp lenses changed (hardtop cars only). Probably a few more that I have not thought of.
You guys are all right. I wrote a basic article about this for the GSCA, it is posted below. Duane 1970 SKYLARK/GS PARTS CHANGES If you work with 1970 Skylark/Gran Sports for any length of time you will notice that quite a few parts changed during the production year. The most obvious changes include the radiator cover plate, radiator overflow jug, rear courtesy light lenses, instrument panel lenses, and the height of the numbers/letters on the instruments themselves. Now that more and more people are interested in restoring these cars correctly, I am often asked when these changes took place, and if these parts changed gradually or happened all at once. To answer this I compiled data from talking to hundreds of original owners and looking at many unmolested original cars. I also took both the body build date (Located on the ID plate on the firewall.) and the various production plants into consideration. By doing this I discovered a few things; (1.) the production plants introduced the new style parts at different times, (2.) even weeks after the new style parts were introduced some cars were still being built with early style parts, and (3.) as time progressed the ratio of early/late parts decreased, until at the end of the transition period, only 1 early style piece could be found on any particular car. Below is the time sequence for these parts. Cars built on or before week 11D would have been built with only early style parts. Early Style Parts, Up through 11D (4th week of November 1969) Plastic Radiator cover, with metal end caps, and associated emission decals. Clear Top and Bottom Radiator Overflow jug Tri-shield Courtesy Light Lenses (4-tab) Pointy Instrument Panel Lenses Tall Numbers/Lettering on Gauges Transition Period (Week 11E thru 01A) Starting week 11E some later style parts were introduced. At first the cars had only 1 or 2 new style parts, but by the end of the transition period, the reverse was true. Later Style Parts, after 01B (2nd week of January 1970) Metal Radiator cover, with associated emission decals. Black Top with White Bottom Radiator Overflow jug Concentric Circle Courtesy Light Lenses (4-tab) Flat Instrument Panel Lenses Short Numbers/Lettering on Gauges By week 01B the changeover was basically complete, so cars built after this would have been produced with only the later style parts. The above info is offered as a guide only, there are probably exceptions. Duane Heckman
Just thought of a few more, The early/late inside mechanisms for the door lock buttons were also different..........................as was the painting scheme for the dash bezels on the very early 70 cars. The early 70 trunk lids were also different, as was the steel package tray area between the rear seat and the rear window, and the rear window defroster set-ups.............. and the frames on the big block coupes also changed, as did the body bushings, and the with/without rubber strips stapled to the body between the taillights, and the shocks on certain models, plus different wheel/tire offerings thru the model year....................there were tons of changes.ou:ou: Duane
Duane. While we are on this subject I should ask if you have any knowledge of this issue. A close friend has a '70 Stage 1 that is a fairly early build (09E). This is a California car (Flint build of course), and has all of it's original sheet metal. He had a spare hood lip molding that he had replated for use on the car. When we went to install it, we found the attachment holes at the ends (under the curves) did not align with those in the hood. We did a side-by side comparison with the original molding and sure enough, the holes were located differently. My friend is highly detail oriented and had no desire to drill new holes in his hood, so he sent the original molding to the plater. Well....the plater polished the edges off of the original, and it ended up with a rounded (instead of stepped) profile. Long story short......we had to go through quite a few original moldings to find one that was suitable for replating and matched the hole location of his original part. I speculated that the hole location was changed at some point in production, perhaps because the original location was inducing stress to the pot metal and causing cracks. Or maybe it was an issue with parts suppliers? Have you run into this?
Jim, I have heard/seen of different hole locations on the 70 GS hood lip moldings but I think the location was changed due to "fit" problems. Years ago I had two Diplomat Blue 70 Stage 1 4-speed cars , 1 early and 1 late. The early car's hood was not usable and needed replaced. (Some idiot drilled hood pin holes in it, of course they also used lace to paint areas of the car, but that is another story.ou Anyway you could see where the front lip molding had been on the car and the marks left on the hood for the screws. There was actually not even a complete hole there, but was a half circle "cut-out" where the screws barely caught the edge of the sheet metal on the hood. I imagine it was cheaper to move the holes then redesign the hood, so that was the "fix". Now I never checked the date codes on the hood to see if it was original to the car because we were throwing it out anyway, so I never knew where it fit in the production year. GM did this type of "running" change all the time, that is why they used to "run" the protect-o-plates under the credit card type machines when you got your car serviced. It allowed them to "Id" the time period of when the car was built so they knew which parts were used to build it. I owned both these Stage 1 cars at the same time. Here I had two of the same cars, from the same year, from the same production plant, and when you really started looking at the parts ended up looking like two completely different vehicles. This was the first time I had seen the differences between early/late 70 flint cars and I was amazed. Duane PS. When GM does these running changes they call them "after jobs", This refers to changes and/or model introductions that were done "after" the model year started. ALL 70 GSX's are" after jobs".:laugh::laugh::laugh:
The parking brake foot lever control assembly are completely different from my early cars to the late freemont built Skylark I have...
