Hey guys, I've been doing some work to this beast and decided I should make a project thread, keep it updated and such. At least it will give me a history of the progress So, here is the story. I quit my job in August of 2010, started a "picking" company buying old stuff for cheap. Found this car on the online newspaper ads at about 12:30 at night. Woke up the next morning, gave the person a call. It was a 22 year old Russian girl. The car was in pieces. A fender was removed, all the trim was removed. I knew nothing of Buick's, never even owned a v8 engine before. I know some things, but not much. Took it for a drive. Drove like a dream boat. the price was 900.00. I offered her 800.00 By the time I got back, two people were waiting to test drive it. She declined the 800.00, I gave her 900.00. took the car home, picked up the fender the next day. Put the car back together, cleaned it up (this girl took it apart to re-build it in auto body shop, all the screws were in tiny jars in the trunk, very well organized) Was planning on selling this car. The interior was like it came from the dealership yesterday. Perfect. The car ran well. It was a 2bbl carb. Tried to sell the car, put it on ebay, bids were going crazy, I wanted to keep this car I decided. Oh, and 2 weeks after I bought the car, I took that Russian girl on a date. thats another story... I remove the 2bbl, put a 4bbl stock intake, with a rebuilt 750 CFM Rochester carb. The day I get it running is the day I leave for Arizona. I move to AZ because I am broke and need to find a job. I get this job, 2 months later (Dec 29th) I fly to Utah, get a truck/trailer and haul it to AZ. We put some wheels on it and thats about where I am at. I am planning for Twin Turbo setup, two tone white/black. Shave door handles. I would love to hear ideas from you guys. I'll post some pictures as well. Video links to youtube, etc. Thanks and I look forward to keeping you guys updated. And if anyone is in the Phoenix area, where are the buick clubs? -Shane
some youtube videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocK0LTJKjp0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H7Cibbo5Ys some google page with photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/bugnuker/69Skylark#
Just got some new shocks for the front. Took off the OEM ones it looks like. Whole new car. Drives so much better. Gabriel shocks, the firmer ride. Any recommendations for better shocks when the time comes? Some nice performance ones? Also, if you checkout of Google link with skylark pictures, I've added some of photoshoped colors. I am going for the two tone, black up top, white on the bottom. The green and yellow were just fun to play with. -Shane
Nice! Thats a good looking car there. Good to know there are some other 4 doors out there haha! -Shane
I'd clean it up and cruise it as much as possible. That's a good lookin' 4-door. Soooooo, did the russian girl follow you to AZ?
Me too... :grin: The story had all of the makings to a happy ending. You know, he got the car AND the girl.
Hey guys! No pictures of the russian girl. Oddly enough, she spends about half the year in Arizona, the other half in Utah. So I just might see her down here. Story on her is I called her up after about 2 weeks of owning the car. She was delighted to hear from me it seemed. We went to dinner. This is when she tells me she buys and sells cars for a living. This buick was her 40th some odd car that year. She intended to keep it and work on it in auto body shop at a University in Utah. I guess she found an rx8 for about 4k, needed to tell the buick and a mustang to buy the rx8, and she sold that thing for 10k. So she moves cars around, mainly from AZ to Utah. She got the Buick from the original owner's daughter, her mother had passed and they needed to sell the car. The russian girl owned the car for less than 3 months. Then she dropped from auto body shop. She was adopted and rescued from teenage sex trafficking. Pretty scary stuff. She started a NPO for rescue homes, and had one setup in AZ already. She goes to college even though she has her business degree, just to get the student loans at 1.9%. then she bought a house with that student loan money, max payback is 500.00 a month. Smart girl. Maybe too smart for me... haha Anyways, thats the story on her. Its really nice to see these other 4 door cars coming out. I love it.
Updates: We put 17inch tires on the buick a while ago. It seems I was careless, and was not checking lug nuts. Front passenger tire was making some noise. When to check it, the tire had all 5 lugs and seemed strong. No tire iron anywhere around so I drove to the nearest auto store (.5 miles away) when I got there, i noticed I only had 4 lugs... not good. Borrowed a iron, tightened ones I could, but two studs had become loose and were spinning freely. Replaced 2 lugs, and drove carefully home. Took the whole assembly apart and replaced all 5 studs with new ones (I'll tell you, getting that drum cover off or whatever its called was not easy. Has to rig up two different JAW pullers to get the job done. No amount of hammer beating would get it off. Thought it was grooved pretty good, but clean. Gotta love rusted on parts!) Then, we finally got a 220 welder hooked up and boxed the frame where it was cracked. Now, my battery cables were failing, and the battery would not charge. Will be getting new battery Friday and replacing the cables. Also hoping to get 4 new tires this weekend and will finally be safe to take it to the track to get a base reading. Fun fun!
Updates: Put on Ta Performance Intake. New plugs (NGK) New 160 thermostat A Tachometer has been installed Frame has been welded back together Pictures and youtube's below! Prepping for weld - 12s Video - HD Welding the Frame - 10s Video - HD Intake off the motor TA Intake: Thats it for now! More pics soon to come. -Shane
