This 1970 Buick GS 455 Stage One car is one of 1785 hardtop automatic cars, and it came in pretty rusty! The V8 Speed & Resto Shop crew is tasked with replacing the rusted sheet metal with new steel to bring this car back on the road to recovery! In this case, the customer removed the body of the Buick and restored the chassis himself. This is what the body shell looked like when we brought it to our shop.
We knew the quarters were rotted beyond repair, so some large sections were trimmed out to give better access to the inner structure. The body was going to the media blaster, and it is faster and easier for the blaster to clean the structure with "windows" in the quarter areas. The GS hood came back pretty solid, but with some dents in the outside skin. Not a big deal to fix. We didn't allow the media blaster to strip the hood skin, as we like to do these with a dual action (D/A) sander to prevent warpage. The door shells showed some rot in the structure... and also in the skins.
The deck lid had some pin holes in the skin. The parts were all cleaned and hung in the booth for a bath in epoxy primer. The media blasted body shell showed us what we had suspected all along this car needed quarters, a trunk floor, and repairs around the window frames.
Once the crew got a good look at this car in bare steel, they wheeled it into the paint booth for a coating of black epoxy primer. The primer is used to protect the steel from rusting, and you'll notice that not all areas were primed, as much of this sheet-metal will be removed. It did not make sense to wastefully spray primer on steal that would be cut off and discarded. After the primer was applied, the Buick's body was installed on the body jig, and the metal replacement began.
The crew started by drilling out the spot welds that held the rear wheel tubs in place. This car will be utilizing reproduction sheet-metal as manufactured by AMD. Once the spot welds were drilled, the rusty wheel tubs were removed and the new reproduction inner and outer wheel houses were installed.
I don't care who is doing the work, I just appreciate it being shared here. This GS is obviously a high dollar investment, and I applaud anyone daring enough to save it. Whether you pluck multiple muscle cars off the stage at Mecum every month, or are barely able to afford a single driver quality Skylark, we all come together to celebrate Buicks on this site.
This project is a little bit of a jigsaw puzzle, as the trunk floor will be replaced as well. The wheel tubs were welded together, and then attached to the inner structure of the car, but not attached to the trunk floor. We obtained a replacement trunk floor from AMD, but this piece is designed for a 1970 Chevelle and not a Buick Skylark or GS. The difference is in the back part of the floor where it attaches to the floor structure of the Buick, as they are simply different shapes. However, our crew was confident we could install the floor without it looking like it had ever been repaired. The trick was to remove part of the floor section where it flattened out in the back and adapted to meet the angled trunk floor section of the Buick.
I was in red Bus to pick up a part and next door was this shop. I just walked in and looked around. When I drove by they had the door open and I had seen the tell tale quarters that told me this was no Chevelle Thee work I saw was top notch. I am very much looking forward to seeing the build and finished product
Wow, thanks for the kind words! Glad you liked what you saw! You're welcome to come back any time, coffee's on me!
This area was then butt welded together, and all the welds ground smooth. The rear support panel was removed from the car, and reinstalled after being repaired. The weld is in the ground area, now metal finished and invisible. The plug welds are from the lower brace on the outside of the car.
It does look like some fine workmanship. Looking forward to more! Did you have any "before" pix? I like to see what it was found as.
