1970 Stage 1 Frame-Off Restoration Project - "Kokomo"

Discussion in 'Members Rides' started by BUQUICK, Jan 11, 2011.

  1. SmittyDawg

    SmittyDawg Need another garage....

    Awesome job! Thanks for sharing this thread, Gary!
     
  2. Postsedan

    Postsedan 13427 L78

    GS Restoration ROCKS! :grin:

    The 1970 GM engineers at Buick would be Speechless :shock:
     
  3. Oldskewl59

    Oldskewl59 Gold Level Contributor

    Sorry to see this thread wind down. I looked forward to every update. Fabulous job on the restore and thanks for all the photos of it.
     
  4. BUQUICK

    BUQUICK I'm your huckleberry.

    Dan you're funny! Thanks for the compliments.

    Gary, it's winding down but there are still several updates coming as some of the final details are completed. I'll also be posting some better photos of it in its finished state. It's very rainy this weekend so it looks like it will be a little while before I can get those photos. I'll also post the final tally of exactly how many hours and exactly how much money, down to the penny, that it cost to build it. Then there will be pictures and videos of the car being enjoyed. My dad and I are both really anxious to go to the drag strip and start sorting it out. My dad plans to enjoy the car all summer and also plans to be at the GS Nats in October.
     
  5. Brett Slater

    Brett Slater Super Moderator Staff Member

    Gary,

    I'll echo Gary's sentiments when I say its too bad the thread is winding down. It's been very exciting watching the progress and transformation over the last 2 + years. The work and craftsmanship is incredible and I'm looking forward to the labor breakdown and more pictures and video.

    I'm also hoping that dark green 72 Stage 1 survivor car becomes the next thread we can all follow the progression of.

    Congrats! :TU:
     
  6. 70gs2nv

    70gs2nv Rick Pirch

    I would say yes, enjoy it this summer take it to car shows and cruise nights. The car is just so beauitful, share it all you can, great job!!

    Rick
     
  7. pphil

    pphil Well-Known Member



    .I don't have a clue as to the hrs but I am going to guess down to the penny is ..............48,862.57
    ( that's money only NO LABOR)
    if I win don't worry about delivering it as I will pick it up............:Brow::laugh::grin::laugh::grin::Brow:

    scott
     
  8. BUQUICK

    BUQUICK I'm your huckleberry.

    Very interesting guess Scott. Before I give the total hours and money spent, maybe some of the other guys would also like to give a guess?
     
  9. moleary

    moleary GOD Bless America

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  10. pphil

    pphil Well-Known Member

    priceless :laugh:

    scott
     
  11. BUQUICK

    BUQUICK I'm your huckleberry.

    Moleary and Scott, you guys are funny.


    Back in post # 212 I mentioned that I was looking for a trunk light for this car so that my dad could be finished with the trunk. Well GKMoz (Gary M) sent me a PM and offered to sell his NOS trunk light. The light was in perfect condition and included the original box, installation instructions (that even shows a 70-72 Buick A-body) and the two clips to hold the wire to the trunk hinge. Of course I took Gary up on his offer and the light is now installed on Kokomo. It plugged right in, and works perfectly. My dad was really happy to get this little finishing touch. Thanks Gary M!

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  12. dl7265

    dl7265 No car then Mopar

    1150 hrs ?
    DL
     
  13. GKMoz

    GKMoz Gary / Moz

    You and your Dad are welcome, I love that car ! My pleasure !
     
  14. DeanTX

    DeanTX Silver Level contributor

    I am a new member here (in Dallas) since i just recently bought a 70 GS i am about to begin restoring. I ran across this thread two weeks ago and read every post and looked at every picture many times.

    i went to Nashville this weekend to go to a wedding. But I had a chance to go by the Goodguys show on Saturday. Low and behold I saw this very nice GS and had to take a look, since it was the only GS there I think. I surprised it was the same car I read about. Small world. It is stunning how it looks like a brand new car. Add a window sticker and it could be on the showroom floor. George was very nice and answered all my questions. I only hope mine turns out half as good as this one.
     
  15. rack-attack

    rack-attack Well-Known Member

    WELCOME!!!

    AND.........:gp:
     
  16. dl7265

    dl7265 No car then Mopar

    George is a great guy . Welcome to the forum . You're the 2 nd Dean GS guy in Dallas .

    DL
     
  17. Racerx88

    Racerx88 Platinum Level Contributor

    :Brow: :bglasses:
     
  18. Brian Albrecht

    Brian Albrecht Classic Reflections

    I'm going with 1,970 hours.
     
  19. BUQUICK

    BUQUICK I'm your huckleberry.

    Here are the last few details that were added to the car. My dad painted an AC Delco oil filter and put on the stickers from Mike Trom to give the appearance of the old style oil filter.
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    I also made a couple of stickers for the car: the first is the DH sticker for the steering box.
    [​IMG]

    The other item is the door certification sticker or VIN decal as some people call it. There are reproductions available, some are good, and some are not. We ordered a few of the blank stickers from Jim Osborne Reproductions but they were very disappointing since they were the wrong color, the font is not correct, the corners are correctly rounded, and the sticker is very slick and shiny so it is hard to print on. And a problem with all the blank labels is that it is not easy find a way to print the VIN and date onto it. Even if you have a typewriter, it might not have the correct font for the numbers and letter.

    I decided to just make a decal from scratch on my computer. So now I can very easily just print them rather than paying $12-$15 for the blanks, then trying to figure out how to feed it through my printer.

    So here are two photos of the original door sticker, the reproduction as seen on my computer screen (looks pixelated because I enlarged the size for this photo, it prints with nice smooth corners), and finally the decal installed with the clear overlay on top of it. To get the numbers to match the original required using five different fonts. I could continue tweaking the color, word spacing, fonts, etc to get it exactly like the original, but this was close enough for us. Besides, no one will really ever see it anyway.

    One other thing we noticed, the original door (the brown one below) has the raised areas to indicate where the sticker should be placed. Well that door was badly rusted so my dad replaced it, and the replacement door came off of a very earlier production car and youll notice it is just smooth and doesnt have those decal location indicators.

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    1969-12 door .JPG
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    Dean, Welcome to V8Buick.com!

    Thanks for the kind words about my dad and his car. Hes a good guy and a great dad. There was a reproduction window sticker for the car laying in the trunk, maybe I should stick on the window :)

    ---------- Post added at 12:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:14 PM ----------

    I'll find the photo of the handwritten logbook and post a photo later of the total hours. Anyone else want to guess on the hours or dollars?
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2023
  20. 66BulldogGS

    66BulldogGS Platinum Level Contributor

    Gary,

    This thread has been awesome. Love all the time, attention, and detail put into everything. Your Dad is definitely a true craftsman and artist. Amazing job with the car. Keep us posted on any of the other little details being added to the car.

    I will be helping Don to restore the 66 Skylark GS he just purchased. The plan is to do as yall have done here, take it back to exactly how it would have looked coming off the showroom floor. Including inspection marks and everything.

    Again, bravo to the work yall have done.
     

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