I just figured out how to combine and edit videos, so I'll try to get a few put together and post soon. I'll maybe put together a video of the dyno pulls and a video of the car running now. Here is a video of the driver's side door closing. Even with the reproduction door rubber, it closes like a Buick door should. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xpipaLQU8UE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
It's been a while since I’ve posted any updates so thought I post while the wife and kids are asleep. My dad ordered his exhaust from Torque Tech Exhaust because the tailpipes they sell are NOT cut at an angle. He wants the large pipes to be visible, not cut at an angle which disguises the pipes. He bought the X-pipe system that has 3-1/2” pipes from the headers to the X-junction, and 3” pipes coming out of the X and traveling to the back bumper. Since they don’t know which headers or mufflers will be used, the system does require hours of work to get the best fit. Put it together, figure out how much to cut off the 4 pipes that go into and out of the X-junction. Take it all apart, cut the pipes, then reassemble. Depending on how much you are willing to cut each time, you might get it on the first shot, or it might take a few times to get it exactly as desired. Since the X-junction is directly below the driveshaft, a person has to be careful to get it close, but not too close to have an interference with the driveshaft. After getting it all in place, my dad tack-welded it, then took it back off the car and welded all the pipes together to make the X-pipe one piece. Then he put it all back on and the car just sat for weeks while he waited for the rear bumper to return from the chrome shop. He wanted to be sure the tailpipe tips were not too long and stick out too far past the rear bumper. When the bumper finally came it turned out that the tips didn’t require cutting, but he wanted to be sure before he took the exhaust to have it coated. So here is the exhaust after returning from being coated by NitroPlate. They do excellent work, are reasonably priced, and they are only a few miles away so there is no shipping cost or delay. It took them 10 business days and the cost was just a little over $300. They are also the company that did the gray coating on the headers. The mufflers are polished stainless steel units from Magnaflow. They have the tube that goes right through the muffler and offer almost no restriction. I’ve got these exact mufflers on one of my cars and my dad liked the sound so he got them for his car. A few stainless steel band clamps are used to hold the mufflers to the pipes and a few polished u-bolt clamps were purchased to hold everything to the hangers which are attached to the frame. There are still a couple of adjustments but it’s all reinstalled. The rear bumper took over 2 months at the chrome shop but once it returned it didn’t take long to put it back on the car because the brackets, license plate door, tail light housings, and harness were all ready to go. After getting the bumper assembled board member Mr Big stopped by to help him hang it in place. So with the exhaust back from the coating company it went back on the car quickly and it was finally ready to pull out of the garage under its own power. On Friday 4/12 he actually drove it down the street and back, 1.5 miles. The interior is not finished, but he made provisions for something to sit on. Everything seemed to work as expected during the short drive. He was very happy to finally drive it. We stopped by my parents’ house this evening for a visit and dinner and we pulled it out of the garage again for a couple of photos and a video. Here's the video of it running: <iframe width="640" height="360" src="" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I m so glad you got my car finished when can I pick it up..................:Brow: you know I am joking but boy I love that car and it sounds great hope to see it soon scott
X2, I was the lucky very first to have the video sent to me :TU: George ROCKS! You should be proud my friend.
Well Scott when can I come pick up the Wildcat? Ha! Thanks. I think he really enjoys doing rough cars because the transformation is so dramatic. He will have to get past my ragged, stock appearing '67 first! After driving this car only 1.5 miles, he later drove his '66 GTO and said it felt like a slug compared to the Buick. The GTO has a 400 with Edelbrock aluminum heads & intake, and a 4-speed. The poor GTO will soon be a 2nd class citizen to him. Clarkie & PaulGS, Thanks for the compliments. He will appreciate those kind words next time he comes on here to see what I've posted about his car. Yeah Dan, the video was filmed specifically to send to you. You always encourage my dad and get him charged up. Here are some photos from Tuesday. Since the car has the exhaust on it now he can move the car around as needed. He pulled it back into the paint booth and did the last bit of painting. He paints his cars in pieces so the bolts on the trunk hinges are obviously chipped when the lid is bolted on. So to give the appearance that it was painted together like the factory did it, he paints just the inner section of the hinge again. He scuffs it and sprays several light coats of color then a few light coats of clear. Using a brush is not acceptable since these bolts are so visible. So the trunk is finished except he asked me to find him a trunk light. I have one I removed from a parts car but haven’t been able to find it yet. If I don’t find it soon I’ll post a parts wanted ad. He worked on his seats today. I'll get some photos up soon.
So the trunk is finished except he asked me to find him a trunk light. I have one I removed from a parts car but haven’t been able to find it yet. If I don’t find it soon I’ll post a parts wanted ad. Gar, email me at gkmoz@sbcglobal.net I am sorry i never got back to you on the trunk light. For some reason the site won't let me PM you ??
Now my dad's focus has shifted to finishing the interior. He wanted to do this a month ago while waiting on the rear bumper to be chromed, however he and I both didn’t think about the fact that a pearl white bench seat is a special order item from Legendary Auto Interiors. So when he called to order the covers is when we discovered that they take at least four weeks to manufacture and deliver. The covers arrived early this week and he can now resume with the interior. Obviously the back seat was first. The original brown seat cover was stripped off the frame, the frame was sandblasted to remove all the rust, painted, new foam and materials installed over the frame (purchased locally), and the new cover was stretched over the frame and secured with hog rings. Te seats after being removed when the restoration began: Here’s the backside of the original seat covers from the back seat, note that it has dates of 10-29-69 and 11-13-69 which is over a month before the car was built (the build date on the body tag is 12C – 3rd week of December ’69). The floor was already covered in Dynamat and the freshly restored seat belts were already installed, so the seat could be put right into place. He first installed reproduction black carpet, then installed the rear seat. If you look closely you can spot a few subtle deviations from stock. A ’70 GS with a pearl white interior came with a white headliner, but he preferred black. There’s a MSD ignition box on the floor that will be under the front seat. This location was chosen so it will not be exposed to engine heat and also because he didn’t want the box visible. One last change from stock is that a ’70 GS also came with three sets of rear seat belts and he choose to only install two sets. Why? Three reasons 1) there will probably never be more than two people in the back of this car, 2) it looks much neater and less cluttered to only have two sets of beats instead of having wall-to-wall seat belts across the seat 3) it saves money! Having seat belts restored is pretty expensive, so not doing a third seat of belts saved some money.
Gary, who did the seat belts ? All the seat belt restoration places in TX would only sell a "complete" set for about 1k .I only needed 2 re webbed. DL
By far, the best restoration thread on this board. :TU::TU::TU: Car looks great. Someday I hope to have mine done.
DL, The seatbelts were done by a place in your area: www.pythonrestoration.com Guys, thanks for the kind words.
Love the car. Love the color. Love the quality. Love the thread! Absolutely Great job George/Gary ! WOW !
Thanks guys. I've got some catching up to do with this thread because my dad’s actually been out driving the car and it's just about all wrapped up. Here’s the front seat when the restoration began back in 2008. It doesn’t look too bad but man, oh man, did it stink! Not sure if it was mouse pee, but it had quite a smell. I think Wild Bill said the car sat in a barn for a long time. Recovering the front seat sounds like a quick and easy task but in this case it was a time consuming process. Just like the rest of the car the seat frames were also pretty rusty. So after disassembling the seat and stripping it to the bare frame, he had to sandblast all of the metal components to get rid of the rust. Hours of dirty work! Then he sprayed some paint on everythng to keep the rust from returning. When the new pearl white covers from Legendary arrived, the reassembly continued. New burlap was purchased from a local source, along with new cotton, and a box of hog rings. The miscellaneous parts were also cleaned up before being reinstalled. The center armrest was disassembled, the metal components were blasted and painted to remove the rust, then the new vinyl was stretched over it. New headrest covers were installed after removing the old covers, and cleaning the metal stem. With the components of the seat all finished up, my dad had my mother help him reinstall the lower portion of the front bench into the car, then he assembled the rest himself. I wasn’t able to stop by there today so he did send me this one interior photo that he took today. He had to send some photos of the car to his insurance agent so he popped the hubcaps on the car for the first time so that it would look finished. Here’s a couple of the pictures. He also took the car out on another road test today to the gas station (5 miles away) then on a trip down the highway to check things out. The speedometer still needs some calibration to be exactly correct but we both expected that. Everything seems to be fine. Still need to tweak the throttle cable because it’s not opening to WOT when the pedal is mashed to the floor. It's pretty plain looking with the blackwall tires and no vinyl top, but that's exactly how he wanted it. This is what he would have ordered in 1970, if he had even known that that these cars existed! He returned from Vietnam in July 1970, and has said many times that it would have been cool to come home to a new car like this one. I’ll be sure to get some more photos when I go to visit this weekend. If the weather is okay we’ll also take it on another road test and get some more video.
