Well I got the car it's first tank of gas and took it for a couple of short rides. Dan, the guy up the street that owns a 70 GSX, heard me start it up and started walking down the hill. He didn't know what was making all the noise but had to check it out. It certainly didn't take me too long to remember how to drive a stick car. You can't really hear the "crack" of the Mufflers until you get on it, otherwise it just sounds loud and powerful. I'll tell you, this thing has a lot more power then my X-Camino or 71 GSX and this is a 400 motor. All this thing wants to do is go. I took a few pics. Enjoy. Duane
"You do know we are all jealous. Great job. Duane." Yeah well it took an awful amount of time and money to get you there. Just doing the research on this one took time. I am very happy with the way it turned out. Thanks guys. Duane
Duane What a car. And Quality resto time and fashion. Would love to know the cost. It would put a lot into people’s minds . The reality of What it takes. Must have taken a toll on you guys. what a project
Duane are you going to showcase this car Strategectly to the high end shows. Like the shows that Muscle car Review advertise and Hemmings. Also this car needs centerfold articles by both magazines. Are you in the process?
Alan, I'm not telling which driveway it's in right now, for obvious reasons and I am thinking our BPG picnic was in 2001, but not sure. The plan is to take it to BG, Cecil, Chicago MCACN, plus to a Concours d'Elegence show in Radnor PA. They invited me to bring both the Motion car and my 71 Stratomist Blue GSX. I had the dates for the events written down somewhere, but if someone could post them here it would be great. (I hope the Cecil and BG events are not the same dates, as they have conflicted in the past.) The car was scheduled for a photo shoot last Thursday, but the weather was not cooperating and I did not have enough time to get everything ready. (I only got it the Sunday before) It is tentatively scheduled in 3 weeks. We will see if the weather cooperates then. I also have not decided which magazine to put the car in, but was given a few choices. The first order of business is playing with some turn signal issues with the 69 car, it's probably those small brass "pins" in the rear light sockets. (Boy was that a stupid design, and am glad they fixed it for 1970.) and adjusting the emergency brake. Then I need to turn my attention to the 71 car. It needs a few things done, but not too much. We are planning to drive both Buicks to the Radnor event. As to the cost, I have not added up all the receipts, and frankly don't know if I really want to know. My main concern until this time was with paying for it, as I am a regular guy with a regular job. This also would not be the car to use to estimate restoration costs. Billy and I paid a lot for the car in the first place, which was more then anyone ever paid for a 69 Buick "project car", then you add all the 50 year old vintage "specialty parts" that either needed attention, or needed to be found or made. Just the money I spent to have the 5 wheels polished, and 2 of the original centers repaired/replated was crazy, plus the NOS clips I needed to buy for the trim rings. On the other hand Nick gave me over a thousand dollars worth of parts free, and a lot of the guys either gave me parts, or sold them at ridiculously low prices (You included), because they wanted to help. I also included a bunch of my own parts, and they were mostly the really hard to find small pieces that I saved over the years............plus all my labor, which was not included anywhere. The bottom line is this, we do things like this because we want to. Jimmy really did not get to finish any of his cars and it has been frustrating for many of his friends. The idea was if we could get one of them and finish it then that was what we would try to do. Over the years I missed out on buying 2 Motion cars (One was a Baldwin Motion Phase III Camaro) so I set my sights on this car. I had plans to only bid it so high, but Billy also wanted to see it finished, so he threw his money in the pot and the rest is history. I can tell you this much, restoring a 69 car is not for the faint of heart. You need to really want to do it, and you better have a really complete car to start with. Having a case of extreme tunnel vision and drive also helps. Duane PS. Mike I love the toy pic. Thanks.
