"Fly Low" 1964 Buick Skylark revival

[tim222]

I might have been pushing it with 2" drop spindles and the coil over sprigs I selected?



I think I have another 1.5-2" upwards adjustment and I need it:

[tim222]

One small piece of the puzzle at a time.
Decided on the Dougs D322 headers and the Miodon Low Profile Oil pan.
Everything arrived but I still need to swap the oil pan, oil pump, and pickup.
Not sure if the frame stands I have currently will work or if they are dimensional different than the BBC units.
May need to change/modify those as well depending on header clearance.


Headers are beautiful though!

[tim222]

While I was changing the oil pan to a A-body pan I decided to change out the pump to the Moroso Bluprinted oil pump.
This pump offers additional support to the pump vanes and relief grooves machined into the pump body and cover.

Balanced and Bluprinted pump on the left, M77 on the right:

[tim222]

After the corrections to the oil pan and new headers I needed to start fitting up the body etc.

I had a feeling about ride height...


Probably not going to work:


Thats what I get for going BBC!
No big deal, I changed out the Aldan Coil-overs to 550lb springs and got 3.5" under the headers with the 24" tall tires that are on the car currently

[tim222]

I have always thought the 1965 skylark had nicer tail lights.
After seeing a sequential LED '65 skylark tail light mod on this board I made up my mind to ditch the 64 tails.

Finally found someone parting a 65 near me, got the tail lights and tail pan with inner support braces.

Due to the way the guy had cut apart the parts car I found it easier to remove the inner supports from the parts car pan and cut my car to fit the bigger lights.

Using a sharpie and a square I drew all the cut lines and cut with my trusty dewalt 4-1/2 grinder with a cut off wheel:


Then I drilled out the spot welds holding the inner brackets to the donor tail pan.
To fit the 64 tail pan I had to cut out all the existing braces on the car, they are in the way.
Then the bracket fits pretty well, test fit:


Lights fit nice, I will weld up all the holes around the outside for the 64 trim before welding the inner pans in place.



On another note the passenger side light has a chipped off piece of the aluminum casting, anyone selling a passenger 1965 skylark light assembly??

[tim222]

I got about half the trim holes filled in the tail pan last night.
It is getting closer, I still have the harder outer holes near the factory lead work.
When I start tacking in the hole plugs the heat may cause the nearby leadwork to melt.
Once all the holes are filled I can do the final fit-up for the light supports and weld them in.

[skylark guy]

Would you happen to have some spare lenses for the 65 tails? I have to go back and check but I think I need a passenger side brake light lens, as mine is cracked in half.

Also, car is looking great! I'm WA too. We should bring the Skylark's together sometime.

[tim222]

I have 2 passenger side tail assemblies, both slightly damaged.
I think my "extra" has a cracked lens also, I will have to check.

Its free for the taking if its something you can put to use.

[tim222]

Made some small progress on the Skylark over the Turkey Day holiday.

Continuing in the trunk pan I found that the factory assembly of the passenger side inner wheel well had a gap to the tire.
Over the years the build up of dirt and water had rotted the bottom edge.

In order to replace the body support mounts behind the tires that had to be cut to take the body off I needed to repair the wheel well.

I cut off all the scaly rusted area and traced it onto the sheet metal, cut the perimeter and bent it over my bench vise, came out pretty close.


It was easy to cut out the body mount channels and clamp & weld in the new ones.
The center section of the trunk pan took me a bit because I refused to overlap the joints for whatever reason.

Im sure most guys just overlap these, seal seal, and a dab of filler, I guess I felt better about but jointing them.

[tim222]

I had to go to .025 wire to mig the forward side of the Left and Right floor sections in.

In the end I welded the entire perimeter on the topside and 70% on the bottom.

Where I warped the trunk pan I used a very small amount of short strand body filler.
I actually should have used some filler along the front seam in the center as you can spot the weld.
I seam sealed with the SEM seam sealer and gave it a top coat with the NAPA brand trunk paint.

I still need to touch up around the wheel housings and give it another coat of trunk paint, but it is good enough for now.

[tim222]

I made some progress over the last couple weeks.

In order to keep the scope within reason I am choosing to keep the carb set up for now.
There are a number of advantages, I have the carb and the fuel pump to run this engine already.
I figure I can always switch later after the car is back on the road.

I bought the cheapest tank on Summit, it was $87 and I wont feel bad if I pull it out down the road.

With the trunk pans finished up I was able to run the 3/8" fuel line and install a new tank.
I suppose they just plan on you cutting down the tank straps, they were 4" too long.

[tim222]

With 496 cubic inches I wanted 3" exhaust with a x-pipe.

I went with the pypes system with the dumps so I can install the electric cut outs later.
The system fits real nice, but my repairs to the rear frame crossmember covered the holes for the rear hanger.
I still need to weld it all up, but I think I will pull it down so I can tig all the joints except the muffler connections so I can remove it easily in the future.

You can see the 3/8" open frame style fuel line on the inside of the passenger frame rail.
Where it normally is inside the frame I mounted it to the new boxed plate, and let it jog out for the factory mount.

I will clean up the floor pans later when I pull the body back off.

[tim222]

Finally solved my rear end dilemma, I scored a nice 1965 Chevelle posi 12 bolt Saturday!
Getting it set up now with a set of 3.73 gears I had set aside for my camaro.
Got a reasonable deal on it as well, $700 for the housing, axle shafts, and posi center section.

She's not the prettiest, but I will clean it up after I get it back from the Bill Johnsons shop.
I stopped by yesterday expecting he would be able to get to it in a few weeks, but he is working on it this week!

Only picture I got is from the ad, super beautiful:

[tim222]

I may go back on this later and add a/c but I needed to get the accessories hung on the engine.
I looked at lots of options but most of them are pretty spendy.

I even went so far as picking up a complete parts bbc with a serpentine set-up.
It is a truck engine and all the brackets are cast iron and super heavy and bulky.

I turned back to trolling the online parts websites and came across a pretty cool set up.

Low Mount ICT Billet alternator and ps pump brackets:



Doing this stuff after work/kids homework/sports/family obligations/etc etc, it sure is a slow process!

[tim222]

Im super stoked, I picked up my new to me axle last night.
New bearings, seals, and the posi unit rebuilt.

I knocked off the surface rust and crust and threw a quick coat of satin black on. (still wet in pic)
I chose to use paint as opposed to powdercoatoing because I can touch up paint easily.

I have a nice moser diff cover and a disk break set-up for it before I put it under the car.

Now I can cross off the "Get Axle" line from my to-do list!

[1989GTA]

Nice job. I like the conversion to the 1965 tail lights that you did. I do like the sequential tail lights conversion. I do have a spare 1965 tail light assembly. The chrome parts have pitting. However the parts are heavy and I really do not want to ship them.

[tim222]

Got the axle a little further along over the weekend.

Gear Pattern (You can see where the 488's backed out and scarred the carrier)

[tim222]

I also got the brake lines done sunday evening.

Because I had ordered the lines for my old axle I ordered the drum kit.
I had the tools to cut and flare so rather than returning and reordering I just cut down the drum kit.

[therobski]

Our builds have similarities with the work on the RUST and some mods. Getting towards the finish on a 7 year 64 F-85 "post car" Great JOB. I stayed Olds power BB 400E from a 67 442. I like that Buick...

[tim222]

I had a little time last night and got the axle stabbed underneath the car.

I must say I have a lot of respect for those of you who are able to build these cars your self in your garage and achieve perfect results.

Myself I have scratches and marks on nearly every component from assembling them a dozen time trying to get it how I like!



I am hoping to have this car on the road by spring with the current drivetrain.
This engine in current state and placement is putting too muck load over the front tires.
I am already contemplating swapping this engine into another one of my cars and using something lighter in the Buick.