My first "classic" Buick...1967 Special/GS Tribute

I am replacing the black 18's with chrome 20's. So, I will no longer need them. Yeah this car was up for sale last year in Ohio. I picked it up for a real good price too.

 

I knew the car needed a bunch of stuff done to it but of course after getting it home I found a bunch more stuff to do.

Here is an update on what I did so far.

When I first got the car home it was flooding almost every time I tried to start it. Driving around it would bog and choke on acceleration.

The air cleaner was rubbing the hood even with a drop base. It had a 1" spacer under the carb so the fuel line would clear. And the choke adjustment was turned beyond rich so the wire connector would clear the drop base. It was running so rich my eyes were burning.

The spacer was not correct for the edelbrock spread bore manifold. I got the correct adapter plate and then some heat dissipation plates to get the carb high enough so it would clear the fuel line to the manifold. Then added a 1/2" spacer a new drop base air cleaner so it would clear the choke and the hood.

I found the idle mixture screws out past 2 turns. They are out about one turn now and it's running so much better. I also adjusted the secondary valves to open later.

 

Next issue was a lot of oil leaks. I found all valve cover bolts very loose, as well as all the oil pan bolts. One bolt had completely fallen out. I found a bolt and torqued then all, and tightened a loose power steering return hose and those leaks stopped.

There was also a large leak at the driveshaft yoke. In addition I was getting a vibration at highway speeds. I found the u joints had a lot of play. I had new I joints installed and the shaft balanced. It turns out the shaft has some wobble and will need to be replaced since I'm still getting a vibration. It's better, but not gone. While that was out I removed the extension housing on the trans and installed a new bushing and seal. At least the leak is gone now.

There was oil everywhere in the engine compartment and under the car. I washed it down with engine degreaser and simple green.

 

I like it!!

 

The next issue was the interior rear side panels. The previous owner had installed GS style door panels and rear side panels. But I found out the rear seat area in a Special is different. The back seat on a Special is the full width of the car, on a Skylark/GS it's narrower and there are these large armrest/spacers built in.

Some extra material from the interior came with the car. I got some illustration board from a craft store and cut it to fit the space I needed. I glued the material to it with headliner adhesive spray. I used chrome door edge molding on the bottom of the GS upper rear panels. The original Special rear armrests came with the car but were in bad shape so I painted with chrome spray can paint. The whole thing is not correct but for a back seat it looks good enough to me.

 

The spark plug wires were mismatched (6 yellow, 2 red) and installed kind of haphazardly. I got cut-to- fit musclecar wires from Summit. They look like the factory style and had the correct boots to match the Mallory distributor I have. I got the wire holders at Pep Boys for about $3 per side. I made valve cover studs from some 1/4" threaded rod I have. I made 2" lengths and ground down half to hold the wire looms.



The distributor was clocked so that the vacuum advance tube was pointed straight at the fan, and had to make a hard turn. I removed it and reset it in more of a correct position and got rid of the fake braided line covers.



I set the timing to 10 initial. It's about 35 total. Any more and it detonates

 

Next up was installing some of the missing trim. The PO gave me front wheel opening moldings, but I had to locate rears. Boy I almost fell over when I found out how expensive and scarce they were. But I really think they look great. One of the fronts seems to be NOS, as it was covered in some rubbery type of coating that was really a pain to remove. I polished the moldings with turtle wax chrome polish by hand and they came out very nice.



The reverse lights were included with the car but not installed. I was able to clean them up and paint them, fix the wire connectors and I ordered new housing gaskets. Now they are looking good and working too.



I don't know why the engine was blue as this is a '67 engine. While I removed the radiator to check for leak, I decided to just keep removing stuff and I painted the engine block with Duplicolor 1653 red. It's really not easy changing engine color while in the car. There was a lot of masking. At this point all of the previous racing-style braided hoses and fittings have been removed.




The power steering pump on the car was sitting way to low, very close to the steering box which caused the lines to be all twisted up. Also, there was no room to tension the belt properly. I got an original GS pump and bracket from a car part-out and it now fits and works great.



The interior had a lot of LED lights installed. I removed them all. Here are original style courtesy lights getting ready to go in. Also a reproduction later style GS steering wheel is now installed.



This forum has been great for finding just about all of the missing parts I've need so far!

 

When I got the car the switch pitch and kick down function were not working. The throttle switches were gone and the wire from the trans was cut. This was one part I could not locate here on the parts wanted section. I found an old B&M shifter neutral safety switch in my stash and I made simple bracket out of aluminum to use as a full throttle switch. The switch and wire from the throttle idle switch was still there so I connected that and the trans wires so now I have full throttle kick down function, as well as full throttle high stall, and idle high stall.

 

It's looking great! Lots of great fixes and adjustments.

 

Very nice!

 

I bought a set of 15x7 rally wheels. Tires are 245/60/15 (tight fit) on back, 235/60/15 on front Cooper Cobras.

 

Great choice on the wheels. I just got the same brand although I went with 255/60/15 on the back
and 245/60/15 on the front. No rubbing but I do have air shocks on the back and I have them
pumped up right now to make sure I don't have any issues. I plan on putting some 1.5"
solid coil spacers in this weekend and verifying that I won't have any issues. I put the white lettering
out on mine, and I like that you didn't on yours - that would be too much with the dark blue paint I think.
That white interior looks awesome and I like that new steering wheel! Great job on the car.

 

Thank you Brett. Yeah mine is too low in the rear for 255 I think.