I reposted this from the Boatload of Fun forum, since not many people probably saw it. I had Christmas week off, so I took my girlfriend and her kids with me to my parents for the holidays. My mom kept the girls busy, while Joanne helped me half of Saturday, and all day Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to get "The Beast" running. ^here is a pic, the rest were changed to links. I scaled them to 800 pixels wide or less, and lowered compression to just above where artifacts were visible. I did not want to really crappy looking tiny pictures, but I have changed them to links. When I picked it up and drove it to my parent's last September we noted the gas tank leaked like a sieve and a wheel almost fell off. I got it home and started a brake job and dropped the tank. It sat until Christmas. Here are two pics of the wheel. Luckily it got really hot from the friction and blew up the tire before the wheel came off and really ruined my day. Luckily the fender skirt the flew off didn't get hurt at all, those are hard to find, because apparenly they catch water and rust out everywhere else but here in Texas. http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/badwheel1.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/badwheel2.jpg The lug nuts were loose, but rusted to the studs, it had sat and been driven like that for a while. Yes, it looks like a slotted mag where the lugs where. I was able to get studs and rear brake shoes no problem, but I had to order brake pads from CARS Inc. in New Jersey. Well after 2 months of phone tag and billing address versus shipping address hassles, they cancelled the order. Crap. I had pulled some complete spindles off of a 72, but the spindle height was too short and the steering arm was longer. It would have had tons of camber problems and slow steering. On a tip from my friend, I called a local place that relines pads and clutches, and I'll be damned if he didn't have a set for me. The back end was lower than the front, so I cut a coil from each side on the front while I had it apart. I got new ball joint and steering arm boots, and repacked all the bearings in the front, as well as flushing new grease into the ball joints. Joanne doesn't know much about cars, but she got out there like a trooper and wirebrushed and cleaned thick grease off of everything in site. I had some before and during pictures, but they didn't turn out very good, and I already have a ton posted anyway. http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/joanne.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/cutspring.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/frontend1.jpg[ http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/frontend2.jpg Luckily the gas tank was in great shape, just a little surface rust. The leak was in the return fuel line. (yes, this has a return fuel line, I have no idea why) Joanne wirebrushed the rust and dirt off of it, we cleaned it with brake cleaner and used Permatex Extend Rust Treatment, it goes on clear and basically stops rust and acts as a primer for rust. This picture shows the treated gast tank. http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/gastank1.jpg I painted the neck and top silver, because I had silver paint. http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/gastank2.jpg I ran out of silver, and plan to paint everything under the car semi flat black, so here is the completed two tone gas tank. http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/gastank3.jpg I didn't have time to do the underside, but I did go ahead and scrape, rust tread and paint where the gas tank was going back, along with the straps, so I wouldn't have to drop it again. I do wish I had done the straps silver, but I was already out of silver at the point. The straps just had a tiny bit of surface rust as well as the trunk floor. This is much better than my old malibu which was a bunch of holes connected by some rusty metal. Here is the trunk floor with the clear rust treatment, it looks like its wet. http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/trunkfloor1.jpg here it is with two coats of semiflat black Krylon Rust Preventative Enamel. http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/trunkfloor2.jpg here are the pics of the finished(ha) car, we did hang the passenger side exhaust before going on the 165 mile trip from Abilene to Ft Worth. http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/buick01.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/buick02.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/buick03.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/buick04.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/buick05.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/buick06.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/buick07.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/buick09.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/buick10.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/littletrey/buick/buick11.jpg I was raised on Chevys, but love all old American iron. I just kept my eyes peeled for a good deal on an original, unmodified car. It has 69,000 miles on after my driving it back to Ft Worth. I paid $960 for it, and $240 in parts now. My dad got the tires for me for $80 mounted and balanced as a Christmas present. With the 235/70R15s the speedo is dead on. Sunday night at 5:30 we hopped in it gassed it up, and drove 165 miles knowing we had to be at work on Monday. When I first got it I changed all the fluids, belts and hoses, expect the tranny. The front end is rebuilt, the shocks were great all around, and I needed new sway bar bushings, I went with Polyurethane. They didn't have the main bushings [sarcasm[(they don't stock 7/8" bushings, what an outrage)[/sarcasm], but I can get O'reillys to order some. I am not too worried about getting an Adco swaybar anytime soon. Besides, its not like this 5000 lb beast will ever handle great. I went back with new brake hoses, but couldn't bleed the brakes very well. We spent four hours trying. I let the master cylinder go dry when I pulled the front calipers in September, so I will probably have to bench bleed it and then go back to bleed the system. I am going to redo the trunk interior next, already have the weatherstripping, and start looking into getting the electrical stuff working. The drop dropped further on the drivers side, but the spring pigtail hangs off the lower suspension arm in such a way that I can break a ball joint, compress the spring, rotate it up to nearly half a turn and try it out. I can play with it back and forth and then try it for a while. I also realise they may settle further, and will do this after I get the turn signal fixed and my taillense and marker light. Its registered, insured, but not inspected yet. Anyway, once the front sits level, I can cut off the rest of the pigtail without pulling the spring. It rides smooth, and I only heard two rattles during the 2.5 hour drive on the highway. The weatherstripping needs to be redone, so there is a lot of windnoise, but no squeaks or rattles like my daily driver(1989 Oldsmobile Royale 88). It brakes great despite the tiny foamy bubbly brake fluid. We are looking at houses, and are getting married in March, so after I have a garage for it I can look into getting a paint job.
