Green Machine II - 71 LeSabre Custom 455 Four Door Sedan

Good question, John.

The car did run really strong when the points weren't acting up.

I got between 13 and 16mpg depending on...well, a lot of things. US 69 has so many little towns it goes through, and all of them reduce speed to 45 or less. At one point, there was a town every 5 miles. So it would go from 70 to 35 or 45 every few miles. That got really old.

 

Here's the new plastic/aluminum radiator, upper rad hose, thermostat, and fan clutch installed. I painted the gooseneck...it's sticks out like a sore thumb now I also noticed that it's the replacement cast iron type...not aluminum like the old ones. I started to replace the plug wires, and all the ends were sticking in the distributor cap, and some of them looked burned. I guess that could account for some of the problems on the way home:rant: Off to the hardware store again for new ignition parts!




I couldn't live without installing the trim around the window frames. The car looks way too plain without them. I went to a junkyard this morning and found some from a 73 Caprice. I also have 3 sets of NOS door guards...soooo I installed those too:grin:




The UGLY - I cleaned out the channel this morning and let it dry...but I need to clean it really well before I try blocking any holes.




I need the lower piece of stainless that runs along the bottom of the quarter on the drivers side..




Here's what it looks like...anyone got one?




It's difficult to tell, but I did a quick buff/polish on the front portion of the left fender and hood. I think it'll look 100x better after I give it a treatment.

 

Well the only radiator is could get instantly was an aluminum cored piece with plastic tanks. I've seen this on many newer vehicles, but apparently, they are offering these as a lower cost alternative. This was around $112, as opposed to one that was almost $200 (3 core), or a 4 core which was $229.

I just used a new thermostatic clutch for it...cost about $35 or something.

Both bought at O'Reilly's.

 

Yep, I'll be there with the Centurion.

 

Thought about it....but I enjoy being parked with the other Buicks. Plus, I'm almost never at my car when I'm there.

 

Messed around yesterday with the ignition, since it was still running really inconsistently.

I found out that the distributor shaft has a lot of side to side play, and that messes with the dwell for about 10 degrees each way. So...I will probably need to find another distributor sometime soon. :rant:

It runs well enough now, though.

I also did a big test spot on the trunk, seeing how a large spot sould look when buffed out. It turned out ok...but this is going to be a long haul project. I forgot how heavy my tools are to do this.:spank:

I did the drivers side half..









I would've gone further with it, but the rain was blowing in and soaking all my tools and my legs. I had the garage lowered down halfway, but was having trouble seeing well enough to continue.

 

I had intentions of doing some wet sanding on the paint today, but the bucket of water was a bucket of ice when I got to the garage this morning.

Sooo, the next thing to do was to clean up the seats. I started by pulling the rear seat bottom out and cleaned it up on the floor. It turned out really nice, so I decided to take out the upper seat portion. I found TWO buildsheets - one on the seat bottom, and the other stuck to the seat back.

"While I'm at it" strikes again. I'm pulling the entire interior apart so I can redye all the nasty brown trim and the backage tray. I'm not sure about the carpet, but it would be nice to do that, too...especially when I have all this stuff out of the car.


I'm done for the day - gotta get ready for my sister's birthday...

Here is my progress so far:

Dirty seat bottom...




Clean seat bottom!




Nasty package tray from the leaking rear window...




Clean package tray!




Tearing it all apart...check out the BROWN trim pieces around the window.




This is what they are supposed to look like...maybe a tad darker, but this works really well.




Complete (almost) passenger side! The trim around the rear window was all cracked up and broken, so I had to epoxy all of the pieces back together before I hit them with the dye.