Things are in motion now. With a donor car, I got a decent rear end and have this old thing back on all fours again. The engine is at Twister Engines in Alpharetta, GA. for a mild build and the trans is in the garage waiting to be bolted up. The rear end is now spinning with a Yukon posi and the original 2.73 gears. It was set up by Adam's Automotive in Chatsworth, GA. Yes, the drum brakes will go away when I figure out how to measure for the correct disk set. As you can see in the pics, the front end is C-5 and adjustable. A quick ratio gearbox was suggested by my Brother-N-Law and is already in place. Body and paint is complete and original color. It has been sitting in the garage for a few years so please overlook the dust and a few cobwebs. It has been lowered 1 inch. I didn't want to get too far from original but give a good ride and improve the handling as much as possible. Here are the pictures for now, much more to come over time. All suggestions welcome!
Out of the garage and into the shop. The road trip blew off some of the dust. Now it's about time to visit a resurrected 350 at the machine shop.
Some days I question myself. WHY am I going to this trouble and expense? -especially when I would like to retire sooner rather than later.. my block was cracked so got a numbers matching for $400 plus $50 shipping. This one is in excellent shape and is in process of all those grinding machine$. Wish I could watch it all happen but I have to work all the hours I can just to pay for it. Meanwhile, the Saturdays are filled with prep work. Got a wiring harness, radiator tested good and was painted, new heater core..... now I'm tired just thinking about that much work. I loved this car at 6 years old when my Dad first drove it home. At 16, I was given a choice of this car or go get a new one. As you can see, I chose this one. What is it about this car? Am I having my crisis???
My life to this point has been one big mid life crisis, so why limit yourself to only one period of time? Haha. Cool project, keep us informed.
While looking for interior paint info, I found these and thought they might interest someone. Still not sure what color the dash is. It looks like an olive drab mixed with tan. The instrument cluster has areas with a golden tint to it. I guess this is one of those areas where you just get close and live with it. More pics soon. The engine should be back around Christmas!
One piece at a time. I should have the 350 back in a week or so. Dyno run complete. It's more than stock but no race car.
Hey Dave, I'll have all the specs and more pictures in a week or so when I pick it up. It was built to preserve the low end torque so I didn't get greedy with the cam. There are a few more tweaks that I will do once I get it back. I hope to bump up the torque a little more than shown in the document.
Well, the ripe tomato is back in the shop. I'll have to digest this one for a while. It might mean Ramen Noodles through retirement. I'm sure Grimes Automotive did a great job on every detail. Maybe I'm in the wrong business. Anyway, here are some documents on the engine build. I will still have a few things to do before it returns to the mounts but I hope to set it in next month. Grimes worked with TA on many of the parts. I would like to hear from someone at TA. Did this build meet your expectations? The carb is the Edlebrock with the TA intake package. If I understand correctly, this is not a standard 600 CFM. What is it and should I go back to my Qjet? All opinions are welcome... everybody has one
You took on a big job and should be proud of where you are today. It will all be worth it when you're done!
The front end is a work in progress. Thought I would drop a few pics out here to see if anyone else was doing the same thing. The wheels/tires should arrive next week and I'll get started on the brakes after I do a lot of measuring.
Just had to slide one on to see what it would look like - I'm sure many of you have different taste. I had to go with at least 17s to get width on the front. With these, I'll be able to rotate front-back. I like the old school look of more rubber and may get taller tires in the future. AR VN501 17x9 and 5.5 BS. BFG 275.40.17.
Got brakes. Well, almost. There's still the plumbing to go. Tobin (Kore3) was great to work with on this. He fabricated a bracket just for the TRUE Buick rear end and it matched up perfectly. I did have to clean up the axle flange by flat filing it smooth. That took up the extra space offset by the axle seal. The original axle seal is .490” and the only after-market available is .470” .. So cleaning up the flange and using the spacer that came with the kit left less than the .018” tolerance end play. You will see one picture of the pieces that must go on before pressing the bearing. There are a couple of pics of loose fit while I was making sure everything matched up. If you look close, you will see where the original retainer fit inside the caliper mounting bracket. All fit very well and you can see pics of the final assembly. I finished building the front brakes also.. more pics.
Inside paint done except for instrument panel. It's not quite original but looks pretty good. Looks like leather.