Paint work is done and the assembly process has begun. The car is pretty much all assembled and ready for the motor & trans. I'm really happy with how it turned out. My builder and I did not cut any corners and followed the original plans we came up with to make this a "Stock Appearing" - "Race Car". My goal was simple, build a stock appearing 1970 GS that will run in the 10's and appear to weigh what it did when the factory built it. We went to great lengths to reduce weight where it wouldn't be noticed. Honestly, I don't excpect most people to believe me when I tell them what the car actually weighs. All I need now is to win the lottery and I can build the engine this car deserves!! Here are some pics: The motor is the next. I'll post more pictures as progress is made.
Didn't you have one of these about 4 or 5 years ago - same basic plan? If I remember correctly, that one was silver.
Good memory!! Yes, I did. There are some differences with this car though. This car was pretty much rust free so the "foundation" was much nicer to start with. This car also received a frame off restoration which allowed us to evaluate EVERY part & piece weight wise before reassembly. We also went to great lengths to keep this car truly "Stock Appearing" (My silver car was somewhat stock appearing but not to the level of this car) I studied alot of car magazines and pictures to try and get some of the smaller details correct when the reassembly process started. Bottom line is it's still a race car but we're trying pretty hard to pass it off as a showroom stock vehicle. We even hid the Oil & Temp gauges so they wouldn't be visible to most onlookers. The following photo shows our Aftermarket Temp guage hidden behind the Vent. We did alot of little things like that to keep an overall stock appearance. It should be a fun car when its done.
I forgot to post the link to my website that will be following the restoration. There are more pictures as well. Here's the link > 70 GS Stage 1 / Stock Appearing Build Up I'm sure some of you purists will notice I'm running an A/C Dash Pad on a Non A/C car so if anyone reading this has a Burnished Saddle Dash Pad (Non Air) for sale or Trade let me know!! Thanks!
Will you have your cars at any local shows this spring or summer? I try to get out to swap meets around WI and MN but miss a few. Great looking car!
No plans at this time. I do however hope to make it to 3 or 4 of the Musclecar Shootouts Rock Falls Raceway is having this summer. Normally they have 2, this year they have 4 scheduled. All depends on how soon I can get a motor built. We may take the GSX on part of the Hot Rod Power Tour also.
Todd, Just curious why you went with a buckets/console set up? Did you compare the weight of a bench seat/column shift setup? I always heard the bench was lighter. Are you running disc brakes? I see the pedal....Disc setup is the safer way to go, for sure! Nice job! Brian
I chose the Buckets with Floor Shift for a couple reasons. 1) The car came with them 2) I like the looks of buckets with a floor shift more so than a bench and 3) Don't plan on the seats weighing what they normally would. (Whether I would have chose buckets or a bench) Anything and everything that could be lightened while still appearing "normal" was lightened. I am running a Wilwood Disk Brake set up (Front & Rear) for safety reasons. The brakes are one of the few parts on the car that are aftermarket. This car did come with front discs but for safety reasons I went aftermarket on both ends as mentioned. Thanks for all the comments guys. :TU:
Super nice Todd. I sure wish it could be ready for the GS Nationals this year. I cant wait to see it run.
Wow that is a very nice looking car. :TU: Is that color the original color or did you change it? Also what do you think the completed car will weigh, since you say it was lightened quite a bit?
That's cool........I love the hidden gauges.......I've got a car that I'm building along those lines and it's almost finished...........but it's a Dodge....... Wayne
Hi Todd- Looks nice! I need to get a schedule for Rock Falls. What part of the power Tour? I may go with some friends or the wife and I may just take our Lightning. (yes I have a non Buick Hot Rod also ) Guy
It's not the original color but my plan was to paint it a color that wasn't "Aggressive Looking" if that makes sense? In other words I didn't want the car to look mean or fast. No offense to anyone with Green cars with Brown interiors but my goal was to have the entire car look "harmless". Again, no offense to anyone with Green Cars, especially fast ones. I haven't weighed the car yet but based on what was done to my Silver car and what was done to this car I have a good idea of what it will weigh. My silver car was 3,060 Pounds. This car has a Factory Front Bumper so I gained a few pounds there but we lost some weight in quite a few other places which should make up for the Bumper and then some. Here's the weight slip from my Silver GS: (From 2004) Car ran 10.30's / Fairly Stock Appearing. When this car is completed I plan on 4 corner scaling it. I will take a picture of the car on the scales and post a photo of the weight at that time. ( It's the only way people will believe it) I've been into Buicks and only Buicks for 25 years. I've taken every trick I've learned over the years and incorporated into this car. Here's a picture of the Bumper Brackets we fabbed up: (Factory Bracket shown on Top, Aluminum Bracket shown on Bottom) Thanks again to everyones comments. We hope to wave the Buick Flag high and mighty with this car. (And maybe win back some of you guys that didn't care for my LSX powered GSX!?!?!)
Thanks Jim! We need to combine your Horsepower with the weight of my car and then run those Hemi Guys again!!! Your car was a big motivator for this project. It would be fun to sit down and share some secrets. I wish we lived closer, we'd have alot of fun with these cars! Thanks for checking it out.
I believe Rock Falls website is www.Rockfallsraceway.com (I think that's it) You can see there schedule on the site. Not sure on the Power Tour yet, I have to look at the schedule again. I wouldn't do all of it, but a couple days worth. Hopefully see you guys sometime this summer!
