First real drive was a success! Had carb issues so I ended up rebuilding a 750cfm qjet I had on the shelf. The car is really dialed now. Oil pressure at idle is 15 pounds, it never crept over 190. First car show of the season tomorrow, I anticipate getting mixed reviews but I couldn’t be happier. The ride tech suspension makes the car handle on rails. The most comparable thing I have driven to it is a 2017 corvette. It feels great!
Had a visitor join the garage for a few days. This is my 10 year restoration that is hopefully coming to an end soon. The first car I bought 11 years ago. Found it on this board. Ignore the mess, it was unexpectedly delivered because my Dad needed to make room at his shop. He is doing brake work on a ‘76 vette.
I’ve sadly become the 75% done guy. It’s so close to paint. The RR quarter needs to be finished but other than that it’s now 100% rust free and needs final body work and paint. Interior, engine, trans, rear, etc all brand new. Car runs great. My dad is my paint/body guy and we work on his schedule. He’s carried the project the last 3 years and I couldn’t be more grateful. I read back on my original thread about the car and cringe at how impatient I was, but man there was/is a good supporting cast of people on this board. Cell phone camera technology has come a long way, too. Lol
Sitting in a hospital room awaiting the birth of our first child so had some time to update this thread. I’ve been working on this car since we moved into our new house and I remodeled the garage. Long story short, I put very limited miles on it from 2020-2023. It did one thing well: handle. The car legit is on rails. However, it was never aligned, had a nasty exhaust leak, the exhaust hit the coil overs and made unbearable clunks, and 100 other small things like a tired interior, the wheels, etc added up and made me not love it to the point where I was pretty set on selling it and building a more purpose built race style car. I had an epiphany that with life priorities changing, I probably won’t get the opportunity to get much track time and the car as currently configured would not be competitive anyway. I’ve since changed gears and wanted to build more of a street sleeper style car. So in November 2023 I started working on it again. I’ve also been collecting parts to do a 4 speed swap and a complete black deluxe interior so that is the new path. There is some rust repair that needs to be done in the inner wheelhouses, but the 4 speed swap is almost complete. I also installed TA shorty headers, new brake booster, a nice original dash bezel, rally gauge, floor shift steering column, a refurbished AM radio with added Bluetooth, replacement 4x10 front speaker, 6x9s in the rear, a hidden amp under the passenger bucket, Dynamat, and new autometer gauges. The wheels are US wheel extended rat rod sized that accept a stock dog dish hubcap. It has the same 315s and 275s that were on the car previously. Finally, a Brian Trick 3.42 8.5 trutrac with 30 spline axles is ready to go. I will eventually be building a more stout engine/trans combo. I have been collecting parts and have a set of TA stage 1 se heads on the shelf from my buddy George. I am waiting on a few things to get done, but the plan is to get the car back on the road by late spring/early summer. I ordered legendary’s rallye bucket seats in late August. They should be shipped around May. photo dump from the last couple of months:
Congrats on the family and the progress. Very cool to see your life happening around the project. Family is a priority and raising kids is a huge deal. Be prepared for a whole new level of delays.
Congratulations on the new addition to the family. I have twin boys. Looking great so far and it will be a blast to drive. My son just got his Legendary Rally Seat covers a couple of weeks ago in Pearl White for his Diplomat Blue 70 Skylark convertible. He ordered them at Spring Carlisle in 2023.
Thank you both for the kind words. We are really excited. I’ll try not to push cars on him too much, lol. Ken- feel free to post pics in this thread if your son’s buckets when they are installed. I know of a few people who bought them, but haven’t seen any pics of them installed yet.
Great read Louie I don’t know how I missed this. Congratulations on your new arrival. Be patient you’ll eventually get some time back for yourself.
[QUOTE="Be patient you’ll eventually get some time back for yourself.[/QUOTE] No he won't. LOL. Lots of sleepless nights when they're little. Lots of sleepless nights when they turn into teenagers. But, they're worth it. Mostly. Congrats on the addition to the family, Louie. Soak up every minute while your little one is young. It's cliche but so true, they grow up fast. Btw, your Buick looks sweeeet with the dog dishes. Gonna be a lot of fun shifting the gears. Aaron
Thanks all. Brent- it’s a GN trick. When running an aftermarket oil pressure gauge on a GN , you shouldn’t eliminate the stock sending unit as it ties into the fuel pump relay and can cause it to fail. While I think I could’ve used the rally gauge sending unit for both the stock gauge and aftermarket, I had the tee fittings laying around and used an original rallye gauge sending unit that I don’t know if its functional so decided to run both
Louie, I’m so proud of your accomplishments young man, good work. I remember when you joined V8BUICK with your project car and dream build. Here you are. I know you have worked hard, had a vision of the build, asked a lot of questions, paid attention and had good support. Seems like you will carry the Brand torch another generation! Pass knowledge and your experience at any opportunity you can. Much Aloha!
Mark, thanks for the kind words, it really means a lot. It’s funny to look back at old posts of mine and the impatience I had. Probably annoyed a lot of guys on here lol, but I’ve learned more from this board in 15 years than a lot of guys do in their lives. I couldn’t be more thankful to guys like you putting up with me as a kid, giving their time to answer my wild questions, and help guide me along the way. Best of luck in your new endeavor- enjoy the islands and I hope to still see you around here! @docgsx I could only be so lucky to have pics like that of my own in a few years. Thanks for sharing! Baby William was born yesterday at 10:31 pm. 7 lbs, 15 ounces. Mom and son are doing great. I’ll post some pics with my GS nats shirt soon. My dad affectionately refers to him as “GS” - grandson. He is nuts