February 2010, I bought my 1971 Skylark Custom Convertible. It had no top on it and the seats were from a 1995 Monte Carlo. It has factory air, a 350 (2 bbl) with a TH350 trans and a 3:08 open rear. The fenders and quarter panels are new, the paint is PPG Dark Midnight Blue Metallic. The steering wheel is a cheap undersized aftermarket piece. The "Joe Dirt" gas pedal really gives it some class. ou: To keep up with the "Joe Dirt" theme the previous owner had some oversized springs in the rear, Cragar 15" x 10" mag wheels with zero backspacing on the rear and a broken spring on the front passenger side, giving it that nice red-neck rake. I found a decent center console on ebay, it is a custom made piece for the 68-82 A-Body cars. Sony explod 6" x 9" speakers behind the back seat are supported by a bazooka style 300 watt 8" subwoofer in the trunk. You have got to love ebay for some of the hard to find stuff. I was having a really hard time finding a correct back seat. The '95 seats were too tall and wide, they interfered with the convertible top frame. I won this back seat, which had been recently recovered, for about $100.00. I had to drive from Philadelphia to Long Island to pick it up but in my opinion it was worth the effort. I have seen worn out seats selling for 3 times as much. The arm rests and cylinder covers came from ebay too. Next I needed a pair of A-body Strato-buckets. Craigslist produced 2 sets of seats that I got for $400 total. The dark blue seats are from a '69 GTO and the white ones came from a '69 Chevelle. I cannabilized the headrests from the GTO seats and installed them on the Chevelle seats, then I used Dupli-Color vinyl and carpet dye to dye the seats black. I was able to sell the GTO seat cores for $200 after I was done with them (not bad, huh?). The seat buttons looked bad and new ones are expensive. Dupli-Color to the rescue again. I used their chrome paint, after a few coats to get the paint to lay flat they are passable and look fairly decent once installed. I used the chrome paint on the headrest hardware too.
Now to get under the hood. During the summer of 2010 I noticed a slight tapping noise at highway speeds, I thought it might be an exhaust leak. Wrong. It turned out to be a bad bearing that started to knock. The 350 got a fresh rebuild and a change over from a 2 bbl to a 4 bbl intake & carb. After I got the car back I took it out for a cruise and the wiring harness shorted out against the intake manifold - not a pleasant experience! I spliced the butchered harness back together until a new one could be installed. You can see where the harness shorted out against the intake manifold. I ditched the Grant (cheapo) sport wheel and found a decent sport wheel from an Olds Cutlass. Again - Dupli-Color dye did the job and is holding up just fine. You may also be able to see the gauges in this picture. I changed the idiot lights for a gauge cluster and installed a repo-ed in dash tach. New springs were installed in the front and the rear as well as a complete overhaul of the front & rear suspension. It looks like a normal car again. The new convertible top was professionallly installed and in my opinion, worth every penny. A pair of Cragar SS 15" x 10" mags with 3" backspacing gets the rear wheels tucked in just right. Next job is to straighten out the front grill and bumper. I have a custom billet aluminum grill and a straight bumper that needs re-chroming. Here's the Billet grill. It has been about 2 years since I bought the car. I installed a tilt steering column, all new weatherstripping, aftermarket kick panels with 6" speakers, HD stereo radio with CD and a bunch of lesser items too. I LOVE driving the car and the compliments it brings.
The stance on your vert looks great now Lee. Looking forward to seeing the billet aluminum grill installed.
I also have to give some credit to Mark (carmantx) for the beautifully rebuilt Quadrajet that is now installed. I had a brand new Eddy 750 on it but it always ran a little rough, especially when cold. The Quadrajet has none of those issues and now the motor runs smooth as silk. Thanks Mark! And thanks to all of you for your compliments!
The right stuff. A fresh built Quadrajet instead of a generic application Edelbrock. Back to the stock look.
stupid ? but was that car purple before it was blue I looks like a car I used to see years ago in bergen county
No, not purple, Strato-mist blue as best as I can tell. There's lot's of new sheet metal and what is not new is of questionable origin. I bought the car in Rio Grande, NJ (That is as far south as you can go, next to Cape May, NJ) and the seller told me that he got the car from someone in Pa. ---------- Post added at 12:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:15 PM ---------- Thanks Gary!
