Hi everyone, I'm new to this board and definetely new to Buicks. I know nothing about them and I just picked up a '66 Buick LeSabre convertible. It needs everything body and interior wise and I can't find anything. Any ideas where I can go?
Welcome. What do you plan to do with the car? restore it to show condition or make a nice driver/ cruiser. First purchase should be a shop manual, 2nd should be a fisher body manual. With any convertible the fisher body is almost a must, it covers all the convt top working and interior. I have quite afew NEW 66 parts for this car and alot of used stuff so do several other members on the site. Don't be afraid to ask questions Good luck Jim Schlf palbuick@aol.com
Lost Soul, first, attatch a signature with your first name so we can talk like humans. Do this in the "user cp" Create a plan for this car: How far you plan to go in restoring will determine the whole thing. Find out where any and all rust may live. This will help you decide your future. Have a good look at the motor and drive chain. Does this car run and drive as is? Important, do you want to garage this car for a year while you restore? Or do you just want to make it nice for now while continuing to drive her. You've decided this is your car for keeps. Order the manuals like Jim said imediately! Do not start taking things off or out before having one on it's way to you. When you get one, start reading. Pick a project. Take a notebook out to the garage and start writing. Make a list of everything that needs work. Prioritise your list by order of importance. Pick projects that you think you can handle but, more importantly, projects you can finish. What I mean by that is not to open all the cans of worms at once. Don't pull the engine and gut the interior in the same day. Chances are they will both stay that way alot longer than you might think. Allow 3 times longer than you expect. When you buy the new carpet, and think you'll get it in and done over the weekend, guess what, you pull the old stuff and see the undercarpet insulation is rotted from water damage so you can't live with that, since you're "already there" You take that out and order some new. Guess what, underneath that stuff is some mild surface rust and one of your vent drip tanks has rusted through and well, since you're "already there"......you get the picture. You'll find things as you dig deep into a 30-40 plus year old car. You will want to fix it. It all takes time to do. Don't rush. Research. Find out as much as you can on a project by project basis. I'll use the carpet as an example. If you use the "search" on this board you'll find alot of reading material, with pictures to help you. Here is a couple of mine dealing with the interior. http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15214&highlight=progress then later... http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20489&highlight=progress Post questions, read and learn before you dig in. Choose a project, prepare, do it, finish it. Good luck and welcome aboard. :beer
