Project Hoopty a GN impersonator with a 488 Olds

[carguykeith]

Hi all, haven’t posted on here yet but figured I should give a little back for all of the information I have received from this site, so here goes.

I guess I’ll start with what isit, well it started life as a gray vinyl topped 81 Buick Regal limited with the all powerful 5.7L diesel and I actually drove it that way for a full year before I changed anything (read super poor sophomorein college).

By this point the motor was going through more coolant and oil than it was diesel so it HAD to go. Being the non-sensible car guy I am, I saved every penny I made that summer and rebuilt a basically stock Olds 455 and shoe horned it in. I know and Olds motor in a Buick is odd, but since the diesel block is Olds it was easiest to keep it that way and reuse all the accessories.

The next year was the suspension, but I was still doing it on the super cheap. So just one of those PST super rebuild kits with polygraphite bushings, drop spindles, some IROC springs (from the same car I got the wheels from) and a huge swaybay up front then, air bags, boxed control arms, a stock rear antisway and no-hop bars in the back. I also got this idea I could do body work, so I pulled off all the chrome, the half vinyl top patched the holes with bondo and rattle canned sandable primer gray the whole car. About time for a picture I guess:




My last year in college I finally had enough cash to get it painted so I gave it the old college try by going through another couple of coats of spray bomb primer, adding a fiberglass cowl induction hood, changing out the front clip to an 86/87, then dropping it off at Maaco… It actually looked pretty good from about 10ft away for the first year or two.



I of course destroyed the original TH350, but my uncle rebuilds trannys so I had him put together a TH475 (basically a 400 with a lower/ stronger first gear). Then I blew up the posi 2.73 7.5” I had pulled from a junk yard when I put the 455 in (the original rear was a peg leg 2.23). So I put in an 8.5” 10 bolt from a Grand National and added c-clip eliminators (losing one axle out the side of the car was MORE than enough for me). Lastly Ialso got tired of the IROC wheels and got some 17x8 centerline sabres with my first real paycheck, which were high style in 2001...

[carguykeith]

Ok I've tried two different computers and three different browsers and nothing will let me insert a picture in a reply. Am I missing something here? I have direct link for everything on imageshack I just can't get the popup window for inserting a picture....

[muthstryker]

Cool car, as far as your picture links go. Just put the link in between these HTML tags... That insert image popup window does the same thing.

[BulldawgMusclecars]

Always good to see another G-body project on here, especially a Regal!

[carguykeith]

Thanks for the welcome and assistance on images, tried to do an html tag but had the format wrong. Anyways back to the build.

This is where things slowed down for a bit, I met a girl, followed her up to Alaska, bought a house and got married. In those 5 years I drove the car all of about 4 times (one of those being up the AlCan highway) but the drive up took out a wheel and killed the power steering pump then once I got up here I no longer had a shop or any car buddies. So she got parked in the back yard and neglected…



First I built a shop so I had somewhere to work that didn’t involve my or the wife’s car being out in the cold. This isn’t the place for shop buildups but the basics are 26x30 with a scissor trussed roof to allow for a lift, in floor heat, a 200amp breaker panel, hot/ cold water, a beer fridge and a urinal.






Luckily I was able to convince the wife this was sweat equity and didn't need to come out of the car fund.

[carguykeith]

While the shop was being built I started buying parts for and building the motor, since I could do that in the garage and continue to park both rigs in it. In retrospect I would have done things differently, but 5 years ago a turbo LS build was WAY too much money for me and big inch full roller motors where the best way to make power with street manners in my mind. Here are the specs of the now completed motor, I hope to have it dyno’d in the next month or so and will update when I do.


Here is the long block all buttoned up.


I went ahead and built a test stand to run the motor out of the car, totally worth the extra effort!


Here’s the motor in the car and almost all of the accessories installed.


And completely installed in the car.

Not sure if anyone is interested, but here are ALL of the details for the engine build:

488 CID Olds 455 with Rocket Racing heads, 10.25:1 comp ratio, full roller

Short Block:
• Stock F69 block, filled with hardblock to water-pump holes, clearance for stroke, machined for Torrington cam thrust bearing, enlarged oil drainback holes from heads. Decked squared 10.165, align honed with ARP studs and 5-main halo girdle installed, bored .30 over
• Factory forged crank, offset ground to 4.5” stroke. With .003/ .004 rods and main clearances
• BME aluminum BBC 6.815” rods, with .011 rod side clearance
• Custom Wiseco 24cc dish 560g pistons (.020 in the hole), std moly rings
• Rocket Racing blueprinted oil pump with bolt on 7/8” pickup
• Cloyes hex-adjust double roller timing chain set at 2 degrees advance to put cam at “straightup”
• Lunati mechanical roller cam 249/ 252 @0.50 .592 lift and 112 lobe separation, with roller thrust bolt
• BHJ SFI harmonic balancer (weight removed and entire rotating assembly internally balanced)
Long Block:
• Rocket Racing heads (fully assembled to match cam w/ springs, keepers, valves, retainers, guide plates and rocker studs)
• .028 Cometic layered head gasket
• ARP head bolts
• Harland Sharp 1.6 ratio roller rockers
• Smith Brothers pushrods (5/16 x .083 x 10.0, 4130 w/ 0.040 oil holes)
Exterior:
• 1150 Dominator (7320) changed to annular boosters, enlarged idle air bleeds, reduced idle jet size, jetted with 84’s and 91’s and 4.5 PV in primary only, 4 corner adj 1.25 screws out each
• Mallory Pro Comp 140 fuel pump/ 1407 (non-return) regulator
• 12 Gallon foam filled fuel cell, 8AN flexlite throughout fuel system
• NOS “big shot plate” and progressive controller (just wired and using as spacer, not plumbed)
• Rocket racing intake modified by RR for dominator, otherwise untouched except I added 4-corner cooling with 8AN flexlite hose
• Ebay special fabricated aluminum valve covers
• CSR Electric water pump and electrical fan with VSD controller
• Frank’s front plate with Alternator hole, modified to fit power steering pump
• MSD distributor (locked 32 degrees, bronze gear), variable timing adjuster, 8.5mm plug wires, 6-AL ignition and HVC coil
• RobbMc starter
• Braille no weight B14115 battery in trunk
• SFI 16.1 Balancer/ flexplate (weight removed, internally balanced)
• Moroso 7qt oil pan (modified to fit halo) w/ Lokar LS-1 oil dipstick modified to fit motor
• Accel u-groove plugs, P/N: ACC0516
• Peterson Oil filter, Setrab oil cooler (block tapped 3/4& 1/2NPT with all 12AN Starlite hoses)

[carguykeith]

Sadly I actually had the motor completely done and running on an engine stand I built almost a year ago (actually the week after new years to be exact). Then running again in the car and even drove it a half dozen times this summer. But,as car projects go (at least for me) I just go it reassembled after a complete disassembly due to the cam thrusting into the block…


Not what you want the magnetic plug to look like!


The shiny spot is where the metal was coming from.

Luckily I noticed the metal in my oil before any real damage was done, so just a torrington thrust bearing for the cam, a quick cylinder hone/ crank polish some new bearings/ gaskets and I’m good to go again.



Just need to put it back in the car and install the intake, valve covers and front plate.

[carguykeith]

Now that I got the motor all done and ready, along with a shop to finally be able to work on the car I started by tearing everything apart!

The first thing I did was remove all signs of any “bodywork” from the previous paintjob as quickly as possible. Let’s just say neither MAACO or I did the car any favors… The paint could literally be rubbed off with a bare finger and it was only 7-ish years old. The good news is that I hadn’t done as much damage as I could have and a buddy that has done A LOT more body work than I have helped me get everything back together.







So a bunch of hammer/ bondo/ sanding hours and a couple coats of primer later the body was finally ready for some real paint.

[carguykeith]

Notmuch on this video you can’t see by the pictures, but it’s a nice reminder forme just how tore apart she was:



Oh that reminds me, I also decided I better put a role cage in the car since I knew I would be taking it to the ¼ mile and it better be faster than 11.50’s…. So the whole interior was gutted and the body was removed from the frame. Besides, now I can call it a frame off rebuild!


I was really wishing I could have funded the 2 post lift for this part!


In case you were wondering it’s not too hard to get the body OFF the frame, the hard part was getting it back ON and all squared up with the frame…


I know the role cage is much disputed on here but I put a lot of work into keeping it all out of the way and even made the door bars removable. I have a plan to keep the back seat actually usable for at least one person without killing whoever rides back there (think 4-point harness). I will say this though, between the 6-point cage and the poly body bushings the chassis REALLY tightened up.

[carguykeith]

Then I figured if I’m going to do all of this I might as well redo the interior, so out the rest of the stock stuff went. Besides, this made it much easier to re-wire the whole car. Well that’s not true I did re-used the lights, wipers, and ignition switch from the factory harness…




Next I painted all of the blue interior pieces black (that vinyl additive paint works very well, my buddy was very impressed and was kicking himself for passing on a couple of projects due to not liking the interior color.


Prior to install:


Dash assembly re-installed:

Sorry the pictures get a little overlapped here, but besides re-wiring and the 6-point cage using Chris Alston’s removable door bar kit I also made a custom gauge panel, dyed the seats, installed new carpet/ headliner, a B&M Mega shifter, a Recaro drivers & Procar passenger seat (got the Recaro on Craigs list with the plan to buy another one new, but they are really expensive) and finally Scott Rod Fab door panels to finish off the interior.


Not the prettiest wiring job but I’m ok with it and I can access everything by just dropping the glove box out of the way.


Before someone asks, I better explain the big light in the middle, it’s a shift light that comes on 300 RPM before the rev limiter kicks in.


Here’s the cage all mocked up but not welded yet:


The top of the rear spring cups make a good location for the rear down bars, just need to weld some plate to give a good flat surface.


Trying to keep everything as out of the way as possible, this is where the front bars meet the frame right behind the body mount.


Here she is all welded up with the interior pieces that had to stay in the car. Note the rear firewall riveted and fire caulked in place.


Here are the door bars welded in.

[carguykeith]

It was nice at this point I was startign to see teh light at the end of the tunnel, gettign the iterior all back together made me feel a lot better for some reason...



The front dash back in one piece and all wired up.


Here is the back seat all assembled, notice no seat belts at all right now as I didn’t want to mess with the third 4-point and no way anyone is riding back there with just a lap belt.



Here is the front seats and doors all assembled, I really like the door panels and was surprised how much weight they removed. I'm guessing between removing the crash bars in the doors and stock door panels I took 20lbs out of each door!

[CruizinKev]

cool car!! good to see another g-body here! looks great!

[mert.celet]

Looks like You're living a dream. Nature, Fresh air, A Beautiful house and a 455
Subscribed

[carguykeith]

Ok so that takes care of the interior, but I really wasn’t ready to paint until I got it off of jackstands, so I ought to talk about the brakes and suspension upgrades. I had spent way too much putting the motor together and way too much time on the bodywork so this is definitely where I cut some corners. I know you guys don’t really approve on skimping here, but if I was ever going to drive this thing I needed to dial back the costs a little bit. Anyways, it’s still way better than it was last time and light years better than stock. First major change was the brakes, so with some Flynby brackets/ hubs and a couple of good eBay scores I upgraded to C5 equipment in the front.

New vs. Old:



I went ahead and reused the too big 1 5/16 swaybar, the stock lower control arms with polygraphite bushings, the Moog 5662 springs and the drop spindles to save some cash. However I did upgrade to proforged upper/ lower balljoints, QA1 Stocker Star adjustable shocks, and Speedway 8” chromoly upper control arms to help with suspension geometry. While I was ordering from Speedway, I also bought an AFCO circle track steering gear, power steering pump and reservoir to finish it all off. I also picked up the weld on rear disk kit that uses my stock front calipers, but haven’t found the time to install them yet.

Oh I also changed out the brake master cylinder for an aluminum unit for a 91 Carpice and the steering intermediate shaft / ragjoint for a non-ragjoint unit from a jeep Cherokee.



For the rear suspension, I also cut a couple of corners but do really like the stance and ANYTHING is better than the previous boxed/ poly bushed factory arms and no-hop bars! As it sits now I have Edelbrock Upper control Arms, stock lower control arms boxed with polygraphite bushings, QA1 stocker star shocks, F-body isolators (GM PN: 10290379) Moog 5959 springs w/ exactly one coil cut & HR parts-n-stuff weld in LCA braces and a Hellwig pro-touring anti-roll bar (PN 55809).


I guess now would be a good time to talk about the tire/ wheel combination I’m running. I’m sure this won’t get much appreciation here but they are just off the shelf aftermarket BMW wheels. Beyern Rapp for a 5 series 18x8.5 with 5 3/8" BS front/ 18x9.5 with 5 3/4" BS. I did put some extra cash into the tires though, Nitto 245/40 NT01s in the front and 285/40 NT05R’s in the back. Right now I’m using some 1” bolt on hubcentric adapters in the rear but this winter I will be notching the frame so I can ditch the spacers.


Here is what they look like on the car:

[carguykeith]

Let’s see… That covers the motor, interior, suspension/ steering and the wheels/ tires right? I guess since I have the pictures I could show a couple of other details like the trunk holding the fuel cell/pump and the Braille battery:



Then there is the mock up of the fiberglass bumpers and trim panels:




Oh and the front and rear frame horn reinforcements, which also doubles as the replacements for the massively heavy factory bumpers. If someone is interested in the specifics it’s 3x3x1/4 Aluminum angle.


Notice I couldn't resist the temptation to make sure the posi still worked…



Some probably noticed the surroundings of the last picture so I probably should wrap this up with the paint job. The buddy that helped with all of the bodywork also painted his car in my shop last year, so we made the “paint booth” re-buildable and I kept everything for when “Hoopty” was finally ready. Basically it’s just a 2x4 frame with plastic sheeting stapled to it. Then a dozen furnace filters on one wall and a used forced air furnace blowing air out on the other wall. The paint is nothing special, after the Feathercoat primer I went with a layer of black epoxy sealer then a basic basecoat/ clearcoat all of the PPG Omni variety. The sad thing is I’m pretty sure the Maaco paint job almost the same cost that this paint job was and I bet this paint looks a lot better 7 years later!

[carguykeith]

First pulled into the booth, after wet sanding but before getting all trimmed out.



Epoxy sealer done, I have to admit I seriously considered just leaving it like this but figured I could always hit the car with 400 grit and spray some flat clear later...


Here it is after 2 base coats.



And finally after both coats of clear


This one shows the luster and the orange peel the best I think.



Out of the booth and reassembled!


Just a cell phone shot but you get the idea on the refleection...

I tell you what, it was tough taking sandpaper to brand new paint but it did make a big difference once it was all done. I’m a little too much of a chicken with the buffer so the paint doesn’t shine quite as much as I would like it to. Oh well I was never after a show car quality paintjob, just wanted a nice looking coat of paint. If I’m honest with myself; I would say critically looking I took it from a 20 footer to a solid 5 footer, which is good enough for me.

[mc84_zz4]

Nice ride! I am jealous about the shop, heated floors make a HUGE difference.
Nice match to the house too.
:

[carguykeith]

Of course as with any project on here, I’m definitely not done with the build… Besides the re-installation of the motor, I also have a bunch or work to do on the rear-end. I already have the weld-on metric rear disks, TA Performance cover, 3.73 gears, UMI Rotojoint lower control arms/ relocation brackets and reinforcement arms. Now I just need to order the Truetrac and 30 spline axles so I can install it all and do the rear frame notch…

Also I noticed the front didn’t settle as much as with the old motor (which makes sense with AL heads, rods, front bumper and front plate/ accessories). So I really need to cut off half a coil of the front springs to bring the front end down an inch or so.



Anyways this is how it sits now ready for all of the above changes:


Both of our rigs together.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a ¼ mile time that day which was the last test and tune of the seaason, the starter decided to quit working and with an auto trans that was the end of the day.

Here she is getting trailered home:


Robb MC was great though, they took a look at the starter 2 years after I bought it and determined a bearing had unseated itself keeping the armature from fully engaging so they fixed it within 24hr of receiving it free of charge and even paid shipping.

Here is another video I shot, showing the car all put together, also happened to catch how easy the starter turns over the big motor with the distributer locked at 32 degrees of timing.


I also like the fact that this is almost exactly 6 months after this video is shot; Kind of puts it all in prospective I think.:


In case anyone wants just the facts of the whole build, here is a list I put together like the one for the motor:

DRIVETRAIN

Exhaust:
• Kooks 2” primary G-body headers, ceramic coated.
• Summit 3” x-pipe and welded mufflers with dumps in front of the rear axle

Transmission:
• Turbo 475 with 2.48 1st, 1.48 2nd gear ratios
• 3,200 RPM Stall Coaan 10" converter
• B&M Mega shifter with neutral lockout and reverse wired into it
• 1350 u-joint output flange to 3” steel driveline

Rearend:
• Currently: 8.5” 10-bolt, stock 28-spline axles, posi, 3.08 gears, mark willliams c-clip eliminator.
• Purchased but not installed yet: 3.73 gears, , TA diff cover, 1350 pinion flange
• Planned: 30-spline axles (still researching best mfg/ $) Detroit tru-trac

STEERING/ SUSPENSION

Steering:
• AFCO racing power steering pump with remote reservoir and AFCO 12.7:1 gear.
• All new Moog steering components, Jeep Cherokee intermediate arm (no rag joint),
• Grant 15” Steering wheel

Front Suspension:
• Speedway motorsports 8” (left) chromoly upper control arms
• Power Performance Motorsports tall upper and lower ball joints
• Belltech 2” drop spindles
• Stock lower control arms with polygraphite bushings
• Alignment is: 3 degrees caster -.5 Camber and 1/8 toe in
• Moog 5662 (Iroc Camaro) springs
• QA1 Stocker Star 12-way single adjustable shocks
• Hellwig solid 1 5/16” antisway bar

Rear Suspension:
• Currently: Edelbrock adjustable upper’s, stock lower control arms boxed with polygraphite bushings, QA1 12-way adjustable shocks, F-body isolators (GM PN Moog 5959 springs w/ a coil cut & HR parts-n-stuff weld in LCA braces. Driveline loop and Hellwig pro-touring anti-roll bar (PN 55809)
• Purchased but not installed yet: lower arm relocation brackets along with UMI non-adj lower control arms with rotos and control arm reinforcement braces.

Brakes:
• Master cylinder replaced with 91 Caprice aluminum unit
• (when rear disks added)Distribution block removed t-fitting and proportioning valve installed in its place.
• Front: full C5 Corvette conversion, using flynby brackets& hubs and GM everything else.
• Rear: circle track weld on GM metric disk kit (going to install when rebuild rearend)
• Linelock to B&M shifter handle button

Tires/ Wheels:
• Front: 245/40 NT01s on Bayernn “Rapp” 18x8.5 ET15
• Rear: 285/40 NT05Rs on Bayernn “Rapp” 18x9.5 ET15 (1” hubcentric spacer until frame notch)

INTERIOR/ EXTERIOR

(Started life as an 81 regal limited with 5.7L diesel)

Interior:
• Competition engineering 6-point roll bar with bent rear bars through package tray and Chris Aston’s door bar kit for both doors.
• Camlock 4-point for passenger and 6-point for driver
• Recaro driver’s seat using modified (1"lower and further back) g-body seat sliders, passenger seat is Procar Sportsman on its sliders.
• Gutted dash, removed entire HVAC system, kept all lights and windshield wipers operational
• Added secondary fuse block, braile battery in trunk, custom gauge panel and HVAC/ radio panel.
• Painted interior black with vinyl additive paint, new black headliner and carpet, sealed trunk/ passenger wall/ package tray with .032 Alum sheet.
• Replaced doors with non electric doors, removed door crash bars and installed custom flat black aluminum door skins (by Scottrod Fab)
• Removed column shifter and installed B&M Megashifter between front seats

Exterior:
• Fiberglass front/ rear bumpers, bumper fillers and 2” cowl induction hood
• Gutted/ welded bumper shocks, added aluminum angle bracing at front and rear frame-horns
• Removed front inner fenders, all wheelwell trim pieces, rocker trim and vinyl top, filled all holes, blacked out all window trim.
• Installed 84-87 header panel, grill and aero mirrors, changed to black door handles/ locks
• All body bushings replaced with hyperflex poly kit
• Full body gloss black re-paint, including 2 coats primer, epoxy sealer, 2 coats base, and 3 coats clear

[carguykeith]

Well that about wraps everythign up to date. I will update this once I actually have some time to work on the car again. I guess I should mention kid #2 showed up the 22nd of August, so I haven’t been spending much time out in the shop the last couple of months... He’s sleeping through the night now and the wife and I are starting to settle into a good schedule so hopefully it will be pretty soon.

[hessdawg]

nice ride
can you tell me how you modded the ls1 dipstick?
do you cave any pics of that ?
also where did you gey your oil fill tube and breather ??
thanks brad