Project Wheels and Stance

[JayR]

Since the weatherstripping was old, cracked and generally dried all to hell, I replaced every seal with a complete kit from SoffSeal but not before the dried up trunk seal allowed enough moisture in to make the trunk floor a little scaly so I stripped the floor and painted it up with a quick coat of POR 15. This is supposed to be the rusty sheetmetal one-time-fix cure-all. Just keep it off your skin or anything else you don't want to be black forever! They even warn on the can to keep it out of the grooves of the can or the lid will go back on permanently.







A little carefully cut carpet and some sound deadener and this will be a distant memory!

[JayR]

We've been hard at it over at J-Rod and Custom and I have proof.


Look at that pile of parts next to the soon to be molested Grandma car!

Just like Christmas morning!

Here's a funny comparison. The new rotors are a hair smaller than the original hubcaps!

[JayR]

The Buick is in good company at J-Rod's! Dig the intake he fabbed and the soon to be fabbed headers for the TT BBC.

You know about junkyard dogs, well Dozer is the shop dog. It took a little getting used to being on the ground with a handful of tools and having him walk up and lick your face but Doze' and I are cool!


Check out the old meets new replacement parts comparison. The Hotchkis TVS system is so complete and so slick. I can't wait to get behind the wheel with the new parts. It won't even feel like the same car.

[JayR]

So much cool stuff!

[JayR]

We were making good progress when we noticed sunlight going away but there wasn't a cloud in the sky so Chris looked out from the driveway and crapped his pants when he saw the cloud of smoke billowing into the sky from this 5 alarm fire a half mile down the street. Well, being boys, we had to go see it and it was the biggest fire I've ever seen. 5 story 120 unit apartment complex that had been under construction and was fully erected, sheeted and roofed and was ashes in an hour.

The heat was so intense, we couldn't stand closer than 4-500' away.

[mild2wild]

Jay, car's gonna be killer. Us 64 guys gotta stick together. Surround and drown time on that blaze! I know how hot they can get. Eighteen year veteran, currently captain on Eden Volunteer Fire Dept!

[WS6]

I love clay bars. That's great that the paint appears to be in such a good state.

[JayR]

So it's been a while since i posted because I was in Columbus for 4 days last weekend and doing 4th of July weekend with the fam the week before and trying to keep up with design client's projects and Jared moved into a bigger shop, blah blah, blah....

We still managed to get a lot done and I'm going to be ready for Good Guys next week and will be doing it right!

Here's what we've been up to since last time.

Putting it together up front is so easy with the Hotchkis stuff. It's like it was made for the car! Oh ya, it is! But seriously, they make the installation so complete and so easy. They even include new hardware and bump-stops.

The directions are really complete but for men like me who don't read directions, the guys on the tech line are super helpful. What I learned from talking to them on the phone and at the Good Guys shows is that this cool little spacer gives you a 1/2" boost if you need it or you can remove it to drop 1/2" which I will because out of the box, the kit is only a 1" drop so the end-consumer can fine-tune it to your taste.

There it is in it's original location below the cool formed rubber grommet that holds the spring in place in silence.

[JayR]

Like I said, the out of the box 1" drop and the spacer aren't going to cut it since the name of this project is "Wheels and Stance" so we took 3/4 of a coil out which is a little more than an inch of coil which equals about double that because of the spring rate, per the good guys on the tech line.

[JayR]

Looking a lot different after a hard night's work

[PhillipM]

Nice work Jason! But how are you going to get that thing down like the Olds without bags? Haha Anywho, can't wait to see it all finished.

[oestek]

Lookin' good Jason! I really dig that car!

[JayR]

As if I have spare time between finishing the car in time for Good Guys this weekend, enjoying the epic NW summer with my family and keeping up with wheel orders and design clients, I went ahead and stayed up until 1AM re-drawing the Buick Sunday night because the first rendering was bugging me. You know us creative types; our own worst critics.....

[JayR]

In addition to late nights at the drawing board, we've had some late nights at Jared's shop and it's getting right down to the wire but Phase One is all coming together like we planned.

Look what the UPS man dropped off to wrap around the wheels! BF Goodrich G-Force T/A KDWs! in 235/40/18 for the front and 245/40/19s for the rear. I know the widths are a little conservative compared to some of the monster tires a lot of guys are running but mini-tubbing would require moving the framerails and it just wasn't in the summer time-frame and these will hold plenty of gs!



There's no mistaking that tread pattern on the BF/Gs! Love the snakeskin/flame pattern on these tires that just adds to the whole style of the car!

[1offwizard]

Are they on yet? LOL Cool project J!

[dmc69]

we need pics on the car... quickly!

[PhillipM]

No 275's out back?? Is your wheel well smaller than our 65?

[PleaseNoSteve]

Very cool stuff guys!

[JayR]

No 275's out back?? Is your wheel well smaller than our 65?

Yep, 275s would be SNUG as that bodyline cuts into the space just a little. It might have fit but rub every time the suspension articulated for a driveway, etc. I know, waaaaaa

[twosaturns]

back in the day ('90), I ran 205/60 15 front and 225/60 15 rear on a '70 nova; it all fit up in there easy. I used the same sizes that I saw on a 911, so I figured, good enough for Porsche, good enough for me! but now, man they would be considered small!
I think the sizes you chose will look good. some of these big sizes look too cartoony.