1972 Buick Turbo LS Pro Touring - Garage Made

[Vimes]

It wasn't primer grey when I got it. There is a shot of the back drivers quarter in the first picture of the thread, it is a light blue.

Around the tail lights on the rear bumper it is not painted black there is a rubber piece that basically seals the tail light to the bumper (the rubber is black). The outside housing of the tail lights themselves are black plastic.

It had a Buick 350 in it. I looked up the casting numbers. (they were a thin wall casting which made them lighter than a standard chevy 350)

Bummer. Oh well. Those are great cars, hope to have another one day. I know they're basically the same car but I'd much rather have a Skylark than the Chevelle I have.

[lwilliams]

oops posted this in my new member post by accident here is the one with the pics.

Picked up my seats. They are from the cobalt ss. Totally bought them hoping they would be good, my cousin picked them up for me. Got to sit in them and they are fantastic, bolstering is really good on them and i fit in them really well. Not sure how you could ever go wrong with them, considering that I only paid 300$ for the set. What is really nice about these is that the drivers side seat is height adjustable (had no idea when i bought these that was the case). I originally just set them on the floor of the car and was a little disappointed how high i sat but then viola, height lever. i can adjust them so i fit perfect in it and still have a few clicks (2-3 of even lower adjustment. I am 6'2" so i was happy they have adjustment.

That being said there was a bunch of work to get the original brackets off the rails. I didn't count but i wouldn't be surprised if there was about 20 or so 1/2" to 3/4" rivets holding the brackets to the rails. I used an angle grinder to cut the rivets off then a pin punch to knock them out of the rails. Had to wack it with some pretty decent force but i was careful to check the rails to make sure i wasn't bending them or anything like that. This probably took me 2hrs at least, there was a lot of rivets. As an added bonus i wasn't paying attention to the spark show i was sending from cutting off the rivets and melted tons of metal dust into my garage windows.

not the nest pic but this is what the rivets were like.


then what they look like cut off. you can see it in the picture, there is a faint outline of the rivet and bracket that i could see and use the pin punch to push them out.


I will need to do some floor modification to the driver side. The body mount sheet metal that contacts the seat at the front and rear of the rail doesn't allow the sit to sit centered with the steering wheel. I will have to cut out enough to get the seat to move about 1-2" to the left I figure. Won't be hard just some added work. I will put in a 90 degree angle of sheet metal to fill the hole i cut out and weld it in.

essentially the angle piece here from the top of the mount to the bottom of the floor defiantly has to go then maybe some more. ill slowly cut out portions and mock the seat up until it fits right or i just get to close to the mount itself.

This spot hits the front of the seat rail on the drivers side by the door


this spot hits the rear side of the seat rail on the same side


There is also a hump of sorts on my passenger side that sits in the middle of the rail (on the side closest to the drive shaft tunnel) and doesn't let the front and back ends of the seat rail sit on the floor. Really hard to get a picture of this with the seat in and you can't really notice it just with the passenger side area on its own. I might cut this down to as it will allow the passenger seat to sit a little lower. I'll post pics of it and you can see where the hump was. They way that the seat sits on the pass. side, it is a little high for me (and i have some tall friends) so likely getting it to sit lower is a good idea.

you might not be bale to see it but the pass side seat has a slight lean to it from that hump.



Once i get the floor all sorted out, I'll make up some brackets that bolt to the under side of the rails and then to the to body braces that run underneath the body of the car. The funny thing is that the seat rails are almost perfect to set in the factory holes as bare rails about an inch or so short on each end. Probably use 1-1.5" flat stock for the brackets.

Got my rear control arms. The uppers are adjustable Edelbrock arms (i don't even know if Edelbrock makes them anymore) i have the poly bushing on the axle side and then it is a rod bolt/bearing on the other end. Will just have to locate the axle to center once everything is bolted up. The lowers are adjustable from TRZ motor sports i believe. My friend that i got the lowers from said they are set to factory length already so i will just keep them that way. they are both rod bolt ends. I heard a lot of things like the rod bolt/bearing style ends are super harsh on the street and noisy etc. In talking to my buddy he said they are a little louder but ultimately fine for the street and not a harsh ride. Plus you can torque the rod style ends to spec without the car being on its own weight like you have to do with the poly bushings.

uppers


lowers


I also went a different route with my rims! I am picking up a set of C5 corvette Z06 rims on Friday. My buddy had the same rims on his Chevelle and i really like the look of them. they are 18x10.5 (rear) and 17x9.5 (front). currently they have michellen pilot sport tires on them 295/35/18 and 265/40/17 which are supposedly at 75% tread left. I will work them off at some point (likely as burnout victims)and then maybe throw on 305's in the rear (would definitely have to trim the fender lip )and 275's up front. Was really thinking that having the car set up to be square (295's all four corners) would be cool but it would be about $3000 or more to get all of that sorted out, so for $1700 for this set i am happy. The corvette rims are only about 1 lbs or so heavier that the super speed wheels i was looking at from what i have read. After getting the wheels i will just have to do some measuring and get some wheel adapters likely 2" (might have to cut the fender lip) or 1.75" if i can avoid the fender lip issue and they still look right on the car. here is a pic of the rims/tires.


here is a pic of a buddies chevelle that had the same rims on his car


Should hopefully have my rear brakes this weekend, 11" low profile wilwoods. They are 6hrs away and a friend may be heading that direction and could pick them up. They are brand new in the box so pretty excited about those!

NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS

Holy fack fack fack fack.

When i had taken the axles out of the rear end (72 chevelle 12 bolt posi) i must have spun the posi unit and the thrust washers that sit between the smaller top and bottom spider gears slipped out and are now trapped behind the spring and plates. this freaking sucks. I tried for about an hour and a whole bunch of options to get them out. Magnet, pick, tried pulling them through the springs, tried pulling the springs/plate out enough to see if they would come out, tried wedging the spring and plates either up or down to create some space between the housing and the spider gears but no such luck, it is just too tight and there is not enough space. oh and did i mention that by the time i noticed this i had already sprayed a bottle of anti-slip additive and a liter of rear end gear oil in the housing.

you can see the washers behind the springs all the way at the back.


I really don't see any other option other to remove the spring pack and plates. could be kind of sketch because i am pretty sure that they are the 400lbs springs. i talked to the guy that built the rear end and he was really trying to get me to avoid taking the spring pack out. It is also really tight because the plates hit the ring gear when i pull them out so hopefully I can compress them enough to get them out. Going to wrap a whole shwack of welding wire around the plates and twist it super tight, probably zip ties, a clamp or ten and hopefully be able to get it out safely and not lose an eye or two (safety glasses first). If i can get it out it will be easy to grab the thrust washers and put them back in.

Open to any other suggestions of getting them out without removing the spring pack. Other option is to take it to a shop and have them take it apart but it would essentially mean taking the entire posi out of the rear end removing the ring gear, removing the spring pack and then get the thrust bearings. I'd like to avoid it if i can. Besides i have two eyes anyways.