Well, paint stripper removed the stuff on the roof. I am fairly certain it was latex paint. Uncovered some stuff I was worried about though. Hope the roof is salvagable. I will try some rust neutralizer and patches before I replace the whole thing.
Did a bit of a tune up today. New plugs, wires, cap, rotor, points/condenser, fuel filter. Big concern was compression of the engine. 140-160 in all cylinders. I suppose that's good. Now to figure out why the tranny won't always engage drive. Reverse works well enough, but drive and low don't always engage right away. Oh well, planning to get a th350 anyways.
Well, received the rest of the trunk pans from Goodmark, which are significantly cheaper when you order them from Summit. Glad I shopped around. Going to start with the trunk pan replacement and "tulip"/filler panel replacement soon. Should be fun! Got most of the interior apart, fromt and rear glass came out with no drama (Tightwire kit was the best $25 I have spent so far!). Amazes me the stuff I find while tearing into this car. Found what was left of the trim broadcast sheet, you can see most of the writing is no longer legible, and a four legged friend must have found it first. Also found a dented floorboard under the rear seat, which led to the finding of a banged up rear control arm mount. Has a noticable height difference compared to the other side. Time to find a good body/frame shop in the high desert thats willing to touch something this old. Damn. I think this car led a rough life before. Also have to determine if the brazed seam from the replaced quarter panel is worth cutting out and patching, or if I should just Mar-glass it (though I dont like the idea of that). Also need to determine if it is worth it to replace trunk hinges. Does anyone know anything about the billet aluminum/pneumatic ones, I forget who makes them right now. Pricy, but worth the cost? Also, went to GNRS in Pomona last weekend (plenty of custom Buicks!), has me rethinking theme for car. How does black paint, black vinyl top, red interior, and black 17" steelies with poverty caps sound, all with a pro-touring style suspension and turbocharged 340? I think sleeper, very cool.
Looks like your floor pan is solid, if you don't have any holes under the rear seat, I would just grind down the rust and paint it.
Haven't had a whole lot of time to work on my Skylark lately. I did get to rough out the passenger side quarter panel, which was the worst of all the dents on the car. Doesn't show well in the pictures, but I even was able to rough out the character line going around the wheelwell. Now it just needs to be finished. Still up in the air as to whether I will replace the metal at the top from when this quarter was brazed on, or just fill it with about 1/4" of fiberglass filler. I think I have finally come up with a build theme for this car though. I have been leaning towards either full pro-touring or custom, as I feel the 66-67 A bodies lend themselves well to a number of different looks. Inspiration struck me watching an episode of Fast n' Loud, the one with the '65 T-bird. I am not a fan of T-birds, but that car had the look I wanted. So I am thinking, black or dark green paint, vinyl top. Body will maintain an overall stock appearance. 17" or 18" steel smoothies with poverty caps, air ride and disc brakes all around with sway bars, and turbos to the 340, with a TH350 or 200R4, whichever I can find at the scrapyard, and a posi. Updated but mostly factory looking interior. I think it would look awesome. Also, can anybody chime in on how to properly remove the rear filler panel without causing more damage.
Had a broken spring on my trunk and converted to gas struts using the original trunk hinges. Was pretty easy. Used hood struts from a Grand National. Not very expensive and fairly easy to get. Let me know if you are interested and I can provide more details.
So I was at the LA Roadster's Show and Swap yesterday. Made a bit of an impulse buy, felt it was a good deal. Hopefully I am right. I bought a pair of new CPP A-Body "tall" spindles, $100 for the pair. Aren't the tall spindles for A bodies just B-body parts? I think I have read this somewhere. Am I correct in my recollection that for these to be used on my Skylark, I need different upper control arms, and B-body ball joints? Also, I read somewhere about "1LE" Camaro brakes fitting right on. Is this correct? Has anybody done this? Or did I blow $100. The goal is for bigger brakes and improved steering geometry, which if I remember right, this swap will achieve.
Boy do I feel like a dunce now. Didn't verify those spindles were B-body parts. Ended up being for '55-'57 Chevy, even though the instructions with them are for '58-'70 B-body.:af: Guess seller was ignorant to what they had, and I should've verified instead of making an impulse buy. Won't happen again, I've got no budget for that.ou:
Received some much needed motivation to continue working on this car today. Had a body/frame guy look at it today, and he said the bend in the frame was actually fairly minor, should only require one downward pull, and should be done in one afternoon. And should only cost about $300. I was expecting worse, as was he when I initially described it to him. Maybe I won't sell it.
