"Fly Low" 1964 Buick Skylark revival

[RMMiller]

This car has never had air shocks, probably the neutral drops etc?Attachment 147075

My poor high school car had it's share of neutral drops! I had picked up a 396 so we were trying to blow up the mighty 283. Our choice of weapons....neutral drop to low and WOT til the crank came out. We learned about governors that day and how hard a TH375 would hit second when it over rides the gear selector! The 283 lived for what it's worth.

[tim222]

The guys at work have been giving me some flack for my lack of progress, but I did manage to spend a few hours in the shop.
I disassembled the factory front suspension to reuse the spindles and steering arms.

The 50 year old grease on the parts was removed with a 8" Brass Wire Wheel I picked up from Harbor Freight on my bench grinder.

This got me to the point where I could start mocking up the front suspension assembly:

[tim222]

Now its time to start mocking up the the 11" Wilwood Dynalite front brake kit.


I find I need to drill out the top mounting hole to 37/64 and tap 5/8-18
For whatever reason I actually have the tap , but have to run to the hardware store for the bit.

Not the best clamp, but it worked:


There is a reason to "Make a couple turns, then back out" when tapping...
Immediately after snapping this picture I broke off the tap buried all the way in the hole..
That will teach me for tapping the last 2/3 of the hole without backing out

[tim222]

After 45 minutes screwing with the broken tap in the blind hole I determine the spindle is junked.
Breaking the tip off of one of my punches helped convince me the car needed a time out, and drop spindles.

Couple clicks on online and 3 days, brings some Right Stuff Detailing 2" drop spindles.
(BTW, no drilling or tapping required, should have done this before breaking a tap, a punch, and buying a special size drill bit)

Not sure where this will get me for ride height, I might pre-load the coil overs a bit.

[tim222]

Inch by inch, so long as progress keeps happening.
The 11" brake kit did not have .050 washers for the upper mount location, so I tried with less .032 shims on the lower bolt location.
No luck, the caliper is not centered over the rotor, I will have to disassemble and re-shim to try and center the caliper on the rotor.

Wilwood kit mocked up on the spindle:

[tim222]

Have not determined drive-train yet, so I have been cleaning the BOP 10 bolt a bit while I decide.

These are not known to hold up with to much power.
Things I have found on it so far:
1. Brakes need completely replaced
2. Wheel studs need replaced
3. Passenger axle was broken by me sometime around 1996 and the replacement was done super Hack-Job (cut off and ground on etc.)
4. Gear ratio is something like 2.6 or 2.7:1 based on eyeballing revolutions
5. Gears and carriers are available but too much $$


Carrier #312


A lot of wire brushing and a little Paint:

[Paraman1]

I have the rear diff out of my 64 El Camino sitting on the side of the house complete with brakes. Its a 3.08 non-posi but if you find yourself in Boise you can have it! As a matter of fact I can ask my buddy when he might be going to Spokand on business soon and might be able to get it to you that way?

Its not an uber cool 9 bolt setup but it's free and functions if your interested?

[tim222]

I have discovered that so long as I sit down for dinner with the family my better half doesn't freak out if I sneak out to the shop afterward!

Spent a few more hours working on the rear axle and discovered that I had made an error on a prior post.
Very few stampings on this housing, and difficult to read.

On the Passenger side near the top, C71- stamp appears incomplete:


Front of the housing 13?6191:


Ring Gear Specifies 14 tooth / 39 tooth (39/14= 2.78 ratio):

[tim222]

I also managed to push in new UMI upper mount bushings and re-assemble the shafts into the housing.
End-play and spline engagement on the funky replacement axle is better that the side with the factory shaft.
I also pushed new wheel studs in, I may use this axle temporarily at least to get the frame back on the ground?

If not I can always pass it along to someone needing an a-body axle later.
This housing has the least re-enforcement flanges of all the early a-body axles, but has bolt in axle shafts so..

Anything I find indicates the axle a capable of handling 350-400 ft/lbs type drivetrain.
It really depends on how your driving it

[tim222]

I removed the spindles and front brakes so I could work on the front sway bar mounts
In the end I used new hardware with nuts inside the frame rails, not the best solution if I have to work on it later I know.


When assembled there is a bit of an odd angle on the sway bar end links.

At this rate it will be a year before I can see where this suspension sit with a complete car on top of it.


End Link angle:

[tim222]

I got the rear suspension reassembled and torqued to spec.
All the UMI pieces have assembled easily, I am not sure what length to set the adjustable upper at for a starting point?
I think I will measure the factory uppers and set them to that length.

I am assembling the car with the original axle for now, I will likely change later.
I can only handle one axle project at a time and I just sent my camaro axle in to be rebuilt.
This axle still does not have any brake components other than the backing plates.
The drums are damaged, but I put them on simply to get the actual track width.

I may look for some CL 16" tires for the rear that are closer to the size I will run so I can verify fitment to the wheel well.

Also built some platforms to raise the chassis to fit my harbor freight car dollies so I can move it around the shop.

I seem to spend lots of time chasing hardware, good thing the hardware store is only a couple miles.
Every other original fastener is mis-matched or damaged, so I have been replacing.
Rear Suspension Assembled:

[tim222]

I guess it did not occur to me that I had changed the wheel stud size to 1/2-20 with the wilwood kit.

Ran and got some new lug nuts to mount the wheels.
Adjusted the Aldan coil overs to the middle of the range
Spend some quality time with a micrometer and shims to get the disk brake mounts parallel to the disk

bolted everything back together and set chassis on floor!
TBH it took everything I had not to sit where the drivers seat would be and move vroom-vroom noises

Back on the ground:


Clearance at front crossmember:

[skylark guy]

Everything looks great! You're making me antsy to redo my suspension, brakes, and rear end..........and the rest of my car.

[tim222]

Slow progress is better than none?

Decided on Pro Forged steering kit, they offer 2 choices 13/16" and 7/8"
Was not sure which was correct or what exactly was being measured?

Decided that my power steering car must be the 7/8" after spending 15 minutes on the phone with summit.

Turns out the difference is the size of the pitman arm joint and I ordered the wrong kit

CPP 500 series power steering box and Pro-Forged steering components:

Also: note lack of clearance between ProForged idler arm and UMI front sway bar
You have to offset front sway bar to the passenger side for fit.

[64G-lark]

Great to see another Buick in the group. I will be following your build.

[tim222]

I spent way too much time deciding how to power this car.
Combing thru specs and estimating costs, chevrolet performance, Blueprint engines, etc etc.

It struck me that I would spend an easy 20k to go fuel injected ls and have 600ft/lb.
In 5 years it would still be an outdated engine and BBC's are timeless in 60's cars

That led me to a decision; I wanted easy to drive and lots of torque.

As it happens I knew where to find a fresh 496bbc that should lay down 600lb/ft
Mark 4 454 block with Mark 5 heads
Scat Stroker crank, forged Icon pistons, forged rods
Chevrolet performance roller cam with Howards roller rockers and triple springs
Also came with an Air Gap manifold and a Thunder series 800cfm carb, and some 2" headers
Not sure if I will stick with that, it's a little small.

Anyways I believe I got an excellent deal for $4500

[Bygblok]

Cool to see another Buick. My 66 will be off my trailer soon and spending my cash! I think I’m going 5.3/4l60 at this point. This one is for my wife to drive!

[tim222]

The 496 was built with the same camshaft as the Chevrolet Performance 502ho with some upgrades, another point of compression, more stroke, and less bore.
This leads me to a 2600 stall speed paired with a 4 speed TCI transmission for highway driving

TCI streetfighter with a TCI breakaway converter will make this brute quite streetable


Now it is time to get the motor mounts and crossmember sorted out so I can start assembling the drivetrain!

[tim222]

Update Time!
I used the summit racing transmission crossmember to save some time, knowing I would be chopping it up.
In the end I ended up taking about 2.75 off each side
This fits between some angles I added inside the frame rails that I will clean up after final fit-up

Picture shows angles tack welded in place and crossmember fittment:

[tim222]

Next I mounted the Engine / transmission combo to the frame.

I found the Corvette oil pan provided with the engine does not fit the A-body frame and will need swapped for a specific Chevelle Oil pan.

I left it on the frame anyways so I could feel progress