1964 Buick Skylark "Project Angry Bird" budget build

[Dr. Evil]

Just keep at it, great work! I'm way behind you guys but its still nice to see other early skylark builds here. I've been dragging my feet on my BBB build but its close.

[64G-lark]

Been a while since I have updated. I got disgusted after photobucket ruined all my links. Finally decided to fix them. A big thanks to Larry and HostMyJunk.com . Still have to fix a few strays but I think I have most fixed.

In July of 2017 we went to Gingerman Raceway to meet up with friends and enjoy a weekend of racing. It was also a good time to meet up to pick up some parts. When Aaron Oberle upgraded his rear in Grandpaw I bought his previous. This got me a nine inch Mosier housing with a Strange noduler center section, 31 spline axles, Truetrac diff and 3.70 gear. The rear is slightly narrowed.




My vicious guard dog Scout slipped in the picture.




The Farrington wagon.


Aaron and Jill’s Vette.

[64G-lark]

Labor Day weekend 2017 didn’t go as planned. Chase and I were loading the Buick rear end in my truck on Friday evening with the intentions of going to a Cars and Coffee the next morning. We had a mishap and the rear end fell on my big toe. The brake rotor specifically. I won’t post the graphic images but it was not pretty. Needless to say we never made the show and I spent the evening and next morning at the ER. This slowed me down a bit.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Ouch!

[NoNo]

Ouch ! That is some mishap... Sorry to hear about your toe !

Great work on the car, though, I don't know how I had missed this thread. Love the A bodies

[64G-lark]

The reared was set-up for coilovers and had the adapter plates to accept Kore 3 disc brake conversion for the 330mm C-5 corvette rotors with integral parking brakes in the hats.
I made the decision to upgrade to ridetech coil overs.



Brake rotor part number

[64G-lark]

At times I am my own worst enemy. I am just to picky. When I started this build BRP was the only company offering mounts and headers designed to work toegether. After trying my own mounts, then eventually going with BRP I was never completely satisfied. Finding the sweet spot of engine placement that didn’t mount the engine to far forward, tie rod clearance to oil pan, header clearance. Power steering pump pulley to steering gear, room for heater hoses, room in front of the engine for fans and the cia. My last changes got me close in all respects but I compromised engine height and drive line angles due to the header design. Before I ordered a drive shaft I wanted to take another look at what Holley was doing. I was already using their FEAD. After talking with Todd at Holley about my goals and comparing dimensions with my current set-up I determined their rear mount design was what I was looking for. This would mean more changes had to be made. I started with the engine mounts and found them to be what I was looking for. The engine sat lower in the frame, I had more clearance for heater hoses, and still had clearance for the power steering pulley and tie rods. My headers would have to change and I would have to make some more changes for radiator location and the CAI.

The Holley mounts use the 4th gen. (98-02) Camaro clamshells and I opted to use them with Energy Suspension polyurethane inserts.

[64G-lark]

Next up was changing to the Holley transmission crossmember and headers. I am a fan of the mid length header and upgraded to the 1 7/8” primary.





The only downside I have seen with the Holley parts is the transmission crossmember and mounting is very heavy. After mocking it up for fit I decided to see I could lighten it up a little. These are the mounts that bolt to the frame rails. The one in the back is as made. The one in the front is after shedding some weight.



The crossmember itself didn’t have much that could be removed. I did add two holes to make accessing the transmission mount bolts easier.

[64G-lark]

In early December Chase and I attended the PRI Show in Indianapolis thanks to the Farringtons. Good times catching up with friends and making new ones. Also a chance to see all the new parts. We had a great dinner after the show. While there I finally ordered the driveshaft from Steve at Dynotech. Great person to deal with.





3.5” aluminum driveshaft

[64G-lark]

When I fired the car I was shocked at how loud the car was. Since I moved the engine and changed headers I was having to rework the exhaust. I have been very impressed at how well all the Holley and Hooker components work together so I decided to try the Blackheart 3” stainless steel exhaust. Impressed again. It tucks up tighter and has a true x type crossover.

[Sterho]

Just stumbled across this awesome thread. Not too many of us out there that are building early Buick PT rides, especially at this level. I am a few steps behind you, but working on it. Great work so far, and I would love to see your car in person some time, being you aren't located that far away from Rockford. Always looking for road destinations on the weekend.... Thanks for sharing all the detailed pics!!

[64G-lark]

Thanks Sterho it’s been a long project. Do you have a build thread? Welcome to come take a look sometime.

[65Skylark]

Would you be able to give me your passenger head to firewall measurement and frame to oil pan rail distance? I'm trying to determine if going with a holley kit will actually be worth the investment on my 65 Skylark vs the mix & match parts I have now.

Thank you

[64G-lark]

65Skylark here are a few pictures you requested. This link might help out as well.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...ew-thread.html

[64G-lark]

Paraman1

Here are a few more pictures for you.

[Paraman1]

Thanks a bunch Mark! I just ordered my headers, oil pan and motor mounts from TDS-Kreations as well as buying 2 motors to get started on my LS swap. So thankful there are some guys doing great things with the early A-bodies so that those of us following along have an easier time building ours

[Dlmwtvl]

Great work!!!
What brand brakes did you go with?

[64G-lark]

I have done a poor job of keeping the build updated here. But I am glad to report the car has been on the road since late September but is now put away for its winter hibernation. I have been through and still working through a few issues. I finally resolved a number of electrical gremlins. Once on the road it took some tweaking to get all of the Dakota digital gauges calibrated and working. I will try to bring the thread up to date over the coming days.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Nice!

[64G-lark]

Thanks Bob.

I’m happy to report all of the Holley components worked great. In the end I used their oil pan, front accessory drive, rearward engine mounts, 1 7/8” mid length headers, 3” exhaust, and transmission mount. I was really pleased with the exhaust system as it cleared everything and tucked up tight.
The only issue I had was a slight rub of the steering shaft on a drivers side primary header tube. This was due to the larger Borgenson collapsible steering shaft. I resolved this by adding a couple of washers between the engine block and the motor mount.