Survivor: A little rough around the edges. I've switched the braking system to a '67 when I bought it. (76,000 mi.) Also did all the 'usual' maintenance items. Thoroughly cleaned the underside and painted it all in Eastwood products.
Thanks for sharing! (Re: SHOW YOUR 64-65s. Post your Pics!!!) Dear Bill and Jerry and 1964-65 Buick admirers, Thanks for sharing! :TU: I really should post some pics of my trusty wagon on this thread. Perhaps over the weekend when I should be cooped up in the house by rain. Cheers, Edouard
It has a 12 bolt rearend out of a `70 Chevelle, so it's 1" wider overall than the original. Wheels are 15x8 with a 5.5" BS, tires are 275/60-15.
20150922_140800_resized_1.jpg (76.3 KB) 20150922_135413_resized_1.jpg (70.6 KB) 20150922_135603_resized.jpg (73.6 KB) 20150922_135734_resized_1.jpg (45.8 KB) 20150922_135812_resized.jpg (60.6 KB) 20150922_140134_resized_1.jpg (57.7 KB) 20150922_141841_resized.jpg (67.0 KB) Unrestored original interior (radio delete) added VDO tach and gauges, painted to match interior color; unrestored body & paint, clear-coated by the previous owner. Just your average body-on chassis restoration. Rebuilt the front a-arms, added power front disc brakes. Rebuilt rear with adjustable heim-joint trailing arms, H&R sway bar and 12 bolt (3:73 gears with spool). Engine compartment was taken apart and repainted and restored. Added 464 CI engine, TA aluminum Stg 1 heads , SP1 intake with Pro Systems 1000 cfm carb, HEI ignition, headers, and 3" SS X-pipe exhaust thru Walker Dynomax mufflers, T400 trans, 3600 stall converter. So far ran a best ET 10.76, as it sits, with MT Drag Radials 275/60x15 Tony Saggese
1965 Buick Special wagon "restomod" (Re: SHOW YOUR 64-65s.) Dear lovers of 1964-65 Buicks, Somehow I never did post any photos of my 1965 Buick Special wagon on this thread, so I decided to take some new photos while taking her on a first of the year outing. For those who dont know, my parents bought this car in April of 1968 and it has been in the family ever since. Here is a photo of her with me and my sister in April 1968: She has had a long series of adventures with us that are summarized in the first post of this thread: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.p...tures-of-a-trusty-quot-billy-goat-quot-Wagon! This is what she looks like today: She was repainted in 2011 after she was hit by a German sports sedan in a parking lot and suffered significant damage. The color is the original Buick seafoam green which was matched from a collection of 1965 paint chips I found on eBay. Under the hood she now sports a 445 cid Buick big-block engine recently put back together by TA-Performance. Here is a view straight into the engine compartment: As you can see in the upper left corner of the engine bay, she has been fitted with an EZ-EFI self-tuning Electronic Fuel Injection system that is performing very well since the engine was installed once more in November 2015. Here is a view of the passenger side of the engine: You can see the Sanden compressor for the Vintage Air air conditioning system (the car wasnt originally equipped for air.) You can also see the very pleasant effect that Mike Tomaszewski achieved by painting the valve covers nailhead green and then machining the logos back to clear aluminum. The engine has a number of features to improve efficiency and performance such as: a hydraulic roller camshaft, roller rockers, ported Stage-2 aluminum heads, and so on. According to engine simulation software, the engine in its current configuration produces 490-500 horsepower and produces in excess of 510 ftpounds of torque. Here is a drivers side view of the engine bay: All the mechanical work, including the installation of the Vintage Air system, was done by Orinda Motors: http://www.orindamotors.com/ They used to be a strictly modern car shop that started to work on classics as mostly a favor to special clients. This has changed as last year 20% of their revenues came from work on classic cars. Sometime this year they will officially launch their classic car repair website and start explicitly advertising their services. Here is a view of the drivers side with the door left open to peek into the interior: The dash required considerable modifications to allow for the Vintage Air system, the Art Carr 200-4R transmission, and other modern conveniences. Here is the view of the dashboard from the drivers side door: The air conditioning vents on either end of the dash are OEM. I had to come up with a template to cut the dash to fit the vents. After spending decades struggling with shifting a TH350 with the original ST300 indicators and needle, I opted for a ididit replacement steering column. That gave the car an upgrade to a tilt column and of course the chrome doesnt hurt! The ididit column has the option of putting the shift indicator on the column which I opted for. That allowed for the tach to be mounted in line with the steering column for a cleaner look: The steering wheel is a Grant aftermarket model. It has been dressed up with a leather grip in a color that luckily is a close match to the interior from Wheelskins: http://www.steeringwheelscover.com/ An Invicta horn button was bolted on top of the Grant button to provide the obligatory Tri-Shield. The car has been fitted with a Detroit Speed Selecta Speed interval wiper system. This thread describes how I modified the wiper switch to work with the original Buick knob: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.p...Speed-interval-wiper-system-for-a-65-Special& All the gauges are electric Auto Meter models. Here is a view of the instrument cluster from the passenger side: As anyone who has seen a 1965 Buick A-body with factory air will realize, the center A/C vents arent OEM. They are instead 2 round vents from Old Air Products: http://www.oldairproducts.com/catalog/accessories/32-13/louver-p-3343.html 2 inches barely fit into the panel above the radio on cars without air conditioning. It was quite a struggle to cut that panel and the support steel behind it. However, I much prefer the look of round vents all around. I suspect that is what the Buick design staff would have preferred as well, but were overruled either by the engineers or the accountants. The Vintage Air system is controlled using an original Buick lever control. How this was done and other aspects of installing the Vintage Air system are described in this thread: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.p...t-system-into-a-1964-67-Buick-Skylark-Special The kick panels are from Custom Autosound and include fish gill air vents. This is desirable since the Vintage Air system is recirculation only. So the OEM cable-controlled fresh-air vents are a convenient way to bring air from outside into the car. The stereo is a Custom Autosound 630 fitted with the Bluetooth interface. It was modified to look more original as described in this thread: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?268438-FYI-Custom-Autosound-mods-for-improved-authenticity Here is a view of the rear seats: The seats and carpeting were redone by a San Francisco East Bay institution: Armand's Auto Upholstery. The cargo area also has been redone. Here is a picture taken just after it was completed in 2010: Returning to the exterior here is a view of the front passenger side of the car: To complete the photo tour, here is the rear passenger side of the car: Bringing this car back to life has been a 5 year struggle, but Im extremely pleased with how she has finally turned out. The 445 cid engine and EZ-EFI fuel injection are a very wonderful combination. The self-tuning process isnt quite complete, but already the car can go from appearing to be a sweet innocent grandma wagon, to a real powerful performer. As the EZ-EFI system as improved the tune, the Art Carr transmission has also become more mellow. If you are careful, you can accelerate the car without any abrupt shifting - as some passengers will prefer. I am also very pleased with the performance of the modern additions. The Vintage Air system works very well for both heating and cooling. As advertised, it does adjust itself to maintain the temperature, so you just set it and forget its there. The Custom Autosound stereo works very well. I now provide all the music from my iPhone 6. The only minor annoyance is that you must start the music playing on the phone. Im hoping to solve this problem someday by some adjustment to the phone. Ive even had a chance to try out the Detroit Speed interval wiper and it works exactly like a modern wiper setup. I hadnt intended to be caught in a bit of drizzle, but it worked perfectly in that situation. I hope you all enjoyed a peek into my 1965 Buick wagon modernization project. I think it does show that if you have the interest and are willing to make the effort, you can incorporate modern conveniences in a classic car without sacrificing a period appearance. Cheers, Edouard
My Astro Blue '65 purchased 3 years ago from a friend and fellow board member. Added the Super Wildcat 2x4 setup, fresh dual exhaust and a set of original Cragar G/T wheels. Drive it daily during the summer months-
My 65 I picked up recently. I'm coming over from the newer F body and Y body stuff. Prior to this I had 2 C4 corvettes, 3 4th gen F bodies and 2 5th gen F bodies. I've got a lot of questions for you guys
my new 1965 Buick Special wagon 300 V8, 3spd standard, factory A/C, 60/40 split rear seat (option code Z2) a two seat wagon only option, AM radio, roof rack, two tone interior, accessory rear rubber matt,
