1970 Pro-Touring Lark

Discussion in 'Pro-Touring' started by BuickBullet, Feb 16, 2014.

  1. 70staged

    70staged Well-Known Member

    Well my GS350 4speed car came factory with a bench. I just thought about swapping the auto in the Skylark to a manual and putting this trans in.
     
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  2. BuickBullet

    BuickBullet Well-Known Member

    Hey All,

    Sorry I had started my job on Monday, so I have been pretty busy lately, and updates will be fewer and further between in the near future.

    My objective was to remove as little sheet metal as possible, so the cut walked an inch back from my mark, and was made with a sawzall. I am going to have to go a little further in the front to gain additional clearance, as well as clean up some of the edges, but the transmission is real close to lining up.

    Pbulski, my cut started a little smaller, but is going to grow bere pretty soon in the front area, but should not need to be any wider or longer from what I can see so far. My goal is to minimize the tunnel size (of course I want the trans to fit properly and have clearance, but you get the idea) as to impact the carpet the least.


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    The front of the tunnel will need about an inch more of cut to be able to get the transmission to line up and fit the rubber mount onto the isolator. SST shipped me the wrong cross member ends as well as pedal assembly so the pause has been convenient to get those switched out. They were responsive and shipped me the correct parts free of charge.


    I would call tremec, SST, or American powertrain and see. There are multiple shifter locations, and the front shift location may work in a bench seat application. Mine being in the rear would not be compatible with the bench seat. It's probably pretty close that the front shift location would work though! Once I get the transmission lined up correctly (by cutting more) I'll have a better idea.

    I don't think door panels will be in the cards, as a post car I would have to get them custom made, and that's just not in the budget right now. I'll try to get more progress and pictures for y'all soon!

    Thanks
     
  3. Great read man. I appreciate all of your pictures and information!
     
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  4. BuickBullet

    BuickBullet Well-Known Member

    23ED5877-5BCB-4DBF-AA68-D6A22990285E.jpeg
    This has been what's been keeping my dad and I busy, creating the harness bar and door bars. It always amazes me how much time it takes (me at least) to fabricate anything.
     
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  5. Sebambam

    Sebambam Well-Known Member

    really cool project. i would love to do a 5 or 6 speed, but i had the 4L80 setup planned for a driver, when i am done i literally want to daily the ProLark.
     
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  6. BuickBullet

    BuickBullet Well-Known Member

    Thank you! I definitely have been biting off a lot of work for myself, but I'm trying to just chip away and keep making progress. I've been following your project pretty closely
     
  7. BuickBullet

    BuickBullet Well-Known Member

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    Added some lower bars in!
     
  8. BuickBullet

    BuickBullet Well-Known Member

    Finished the door bars and the transmission hump, the whole project is on pause as I moved away from home and am getting situated at work.


    Skylark Door Bars.jpg
     
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  9. buicksWILD

    buicksWILD Well-Known Member

    Sweet build
     
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  10. Sebambam

    Sebambam Well-Known Member

    What's new?
     
  11. BuickBullet

    BuickBullet Well-Known Member

    Just moved back home to pick things up on the car again, installing sound deadener this weekend, pictures soon. Saw you got yours up and running, congratulations!
     
  12. BuickBullet

    BuickBullet Well-Known Member

    upload_2020-12-5_22-45-42.jpeg
    Mocking up the AL driveshaft
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    While we are in the process of doing some repairs to the floor pan and creation aluminum door panels put our focus on some items outside of the cabin. Namely, pulling the current 455.
    Over the years the 455 served us fine throughout high school, but it certainly had its limitations. My dad had long ago dreamed of building up a Stage 1 style 455, and that's what we're working on dropping in. Today we started taking out the engine, which meant dropping the transmission and bell-housing from their mocked up locations. Of course we ended up dumping the contents of the radiator on the floor but got the engine out in only a few hours work.

    Now it's cleaning up the engine bay, and getting ready for the new engine.
     
  13. Sebambam

    Sebambam Well-Known Member

    Do you have a new Engine already?
    Wat will be the specs?
    I am in the process of building a BBB with some goodies, even though i dont have a project for it yet....well i plan to take out the 350 sbb twin turbo out of my 68' and go over it and /or swap the 455( 464) in for a NA 68' ? idk yet lol
     
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  14. BuickBullet

    BuickBullet Well-Known Member

    The new engine is another 455, the short block and heads have been assembled by a local shop. We'll run an aluminum intake Edelbrock intake on top. It's likely quite similar to the warmed-over 455s that have graced this board for years, as a 462 with higher compression, a TA 413 Cam, and Stage 1 valved heads.


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    Double Roller billet timing gear. Degreed @ 113.5 with +4
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    A 0.030 bored over Buick 455 Stage1 (462 displacement) aligned honed, decked, balanced, and blueprinted. Compression calculations indicate 10.0 to 1, so will barely run on pump gas.
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    I ported and polished heads before sending them to the machine shop to have larger Stage1 intake valves & springs installed. Head machine work included surfacing, valve guides, and unshrouded valve pockets.

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    Picked up the TA Performance shorty headers from the powder coating dude last week as well. They were a never-installed Craigslist score....1-7/8” primaries, 3” collectors. Exits similar to stock manifolds. Supposedly 25-30 HP gain over stock manifolds on 400-500 HP combinations. Hopefully, we are somewhere in that power range.
     

    Attached Files:

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  15. Sebambam

    Sebambam Well-Known Member

    Cool. Get a TA single plain intake over the eddie. And dont go to small on the carb or even better do a EFI setup.

    Mine is kinda similar I also ported the heads myself and send it all to the shop.
    I got a custom cam from SCOTT BROWN.
    And big longtubes .
    20200821_140319.jpg
     
  16. Stg'd 2Discover

    Stg'd 2Discover Lumpty, Lumpty, Lumpty

    Re single plane over Eddy.... That depends...... You have a 6 speed stick double overdrive car vs Sebambam's auto. A lot of gear shift car drivers like the Eddy bottom end torque, especially when ticking along in the 2 overdrive gears. If it's not a wilder cam/head combination, consider the Eddy by all means. Once built a 413 cam motor using mildly ported 70 iron Stg heads , headers, with 10.5 Cr. with 950 Quick Fuel that was a more fun to drive on street with Eddy than the SP1.
     
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  17. Sebambam

    Sebambam Well-Known Member

    i am a friend of use what you have....
    and stg'd 2Discover is right i have a Auto where a single plane works well... thats a good point
     
  18. BuickBullet

    BuickBullet Well-Known Member

    Your car looks great!
     
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  19. Sebambam

    Sebambam Well-Known Member

    Thanks buddy ... shes almost done... shes certainly a driver already... a few "cosmetics" ( the boring Stuff) are needed
     
  20. BuickBullet

    BuickBullet Well-Known Member

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