I've had this car since 1984. It's a '70 GS 350. I bought it for $450. I had to drag it home. I rebuilt most of it and drove it as a daily driver until 1994 when I bought the '87TR. Around 2003 my son expressed interest in it so we rebuilt it with a 2.73 posi and smaller tires but global west suspension parts and a milder 350. He only got 16 mpg on that motor probably because I used the hoged out race heads on it. I got him a Saturn (40 mpg) and he gave the car back to me. For 36 years I've built "Pro Touring" type cars starting with my '70 Skylark street car, which turned into a C Prepared Solo II car, then a Time Trial/Road race car. Back then I had to make many of my own parts like swaybars, homemade accusump oil systems, etc. Now, many companies make great parts for A bodies. I started out thinking I was only going to pull the iron headed Stage 1 462/2004R combo out of my '78 F150 and put it in the GS with some rear disk brakes. It's gotten way out of hand. I put on the rear disks from TSM mfg.com but my custom 15x10 Spyder Motor Wheels wouldn't fit over the caliper. I looked for some 15x6 Spyders to make some new 15x10's with less wheel drop but couldn't find any. So, here we go. I worked with John at Complete Custom Wheel for some 17x10.5 and 17x12.5 wheels. He says they are the old Kenesis 57 style with custom offset. The tires are a new size in front: 295/35-17 with Viper size 335/35-17 in rear. These are Kumho Ecsta XS, gumballs with only a 180 AA A rating and 8/32 tread. On a 12.5 inch wheel the rears are 13.9 inches in section width. I knew they would touch the frame rail if the outer was to fit inside a trimmed fender lip and that would require mini tubs and notching the frame! Here we go. If I have 17's up front then I might as well put on 13" rotors. So I ordered the Baer Pro+ system with 6 pistons and two piece light weight rotors. If it has that much rubber to corner and that much stopping power then I might as well pull those TA stage 2SE heads out of the attic I was saving for the race motor and bump up the compression. Here we go! Then I saw the FAST EZ EFI system in the For Sale section and praise God I was the first to reply. So it seems I have a great Holley 870 I need to sell. I towed it to a friends shop to pull the body off to notch the frame and do the mini tubs. Well if I have the body off I might as well sand blast it and powder coat it. Here we go! And I can't put the ugly brake lines back on so lets get some SS ones from Inline Tube. Man this is getting expensive. My goal is to drive it to Bowling Green in May, Lord willing. Here's a few picts.
Engine pictures of degreeing the cam and cam bumper construction from a nylon screw from Home Depot. Also the valve reliefs I cut in the pistons. Also the oil pan baffle I made and the oil line mod from Mike Phillips.
These show setting the bump steer with the Baer Trackers and a laser gun site. also the frame notches with the rear and tires on.
Thanks guys, part of this is peer pressure from my good friends "Concours" James Weinman and his brother who only lives a mile from me "Clone-Cours" Rusty because he's trying to duplicate a Concours car. They're calling me "Race-Cours".
335s? That makes my 305s look like pizza cutters. I also worked with John at CCW, excellent customer service and a great product. You are famous at CCW, John told me you were his other Buick customer. Way to go Paul!
John is good at pushing a person into getting the most rubber possible under a car. We used 17x12.5 on all four corners of the Skylark. It required no front inner fenders and a slight outer fender trim. We put 17x10's in front of the TR with 11's in back. That's with GNX flares.
Thats Cool, Like how you narrowed the frame for the rear tires. Its that little bit extra thats always needed. How will you be doing the inner rear wheel well ?
Richard, I bought inner wheel tubs from The Parts Place. That's the easy part. The measuring and cutting and welding and grinding the welds is the hard part. Jim, Yes the polishing job you did turned out very nice. Thanks
You have good taste. Its everything im trying to accomplish in an A-body . You should post a lil history about yourself (with pictures ofcourse) of your past projects.
Your project looks KILLER! I remember reading in the GSxtra about your 350 road race car. Excellent Work.
I have known Paul for about 30 years, and his cars/truck are all fast and are all BUICK powered! His 70 Skylark road race car only had a 350 in it at the time, but was the King of the Hill and would put Vettes, Cobras, and Mustangs back on the trailer - with a Big Old Buick??? o No: 3GS is looking very, very good, Paul. I just may have to go build me a Resto Mod Buick now! :3gears:
