Hello to the group... Longtime Buick/GM enthusiast & owner, my recent and current Buick as of December 2016 is my 1968 Buick Electra 225 In Tarpon Green Metallic w/ Black interior & Black Vinyl Roof. Most of the mechanicals are completed and I installed new floor insulation and new carpets after giving the entire interior a cleaning with distilled white vinegar. The car sat since 1989 with 48k original miles on it. Needed everything one would anticipate for a car that sat for 27 years. But to mention some, replaced all fluids, New Radiator, Carb rebuild, new dashpot, new fuel pump and fuel lines & filters, gas tank stripped and lined/coated in & out, new fuel sender, new tires, new brake lines, brakes, brake cylinders & Master cylinder, removed old single exhaust, replaced with new dual exhaust. Converted ignition from points to electronic (Petronix - problem free so far...). Since July the car has been making the rounds to the local cruise-ins and this past Sunday it's first car show where it suprisingly (to me) won an award... In a few weeks will be addressing the A/C, then in the Fall I'll be addressing a few more items (right side paint), replace power antenna, have AM Radio repaired, spray the trunk floor with trunk factory color spatter paint, and install the new trunk carpet and Buick trunk mat... Then she'll be fully ready for all of next year... Dennis Hudson Valley, NY
Very nice, spent a a lot of time behind the wheel of of 68 Coupe in the distant past. Great road car with beautiful lines and lots of elegance
Thanks, it just sails down the road floating over everything... And that classic power-steering that you can steer with a pinky. Very much enjoying the comfort and performance of the '68 Electra 225 Coupe!
Thanks, Roger. Yes, the trunk offers a lot of real estate representing a decent portion of the overall "225" inch length of the car... Those original hub caps and all the original trim pieces remained in-place since new. The only piece I have taken off is the body-colored plastic center bumper trim that mounted with 2 screws under the front bumper directly below the Buick Grill logo. These often crack and become unsightly as the one on my '68 did, and I feel the car looks better with all of the bumper's chrome showing anyway... So off it stays, but it's stored in my parts-bin for originality.
Here are a some photos I have to share. As I mentioned the car sat for 27 years, these pics show just some of the restoration I did with the Electra: I removed and replaced all the original carpet & insulation, cleaned and scrubbed every inch of the interior with distilled white vinegar, coated the all of the interior floor pans with Eastwood Encapsulator/sealer, then installed new thermal (temp & sound) insulation, followed by a new factory-spec 2-piece black carpet set. made a new trunk/rear seat divider, painted flat black and covered the interior side with the thermal insulation, cleaned all the seats - w/ distilled white vinegar (including cleaning and lubricating all underside seats/springs ) then applied conditioner to the seat surfaces which were already in like-new shape as can be seen in pics). Pics also show the tank after it was cleaned and recoated inside & out, and then fitted with a new fuel sender... The results were well worth the time, effort and expense... https://goo.gl/photos/VbYfbo4dNSZ8EDYv8
Thanks for the compliment! Yes, this was/is indeed a labor of love and was really driven my passion for these "Big Buicks". There is still a few more details to be completed which will be done this coming fall/winter. But for now, I am very much enjoying this great driver's car that is so much fun going to cruise-ins with. As a matter of fact, I brought it to it's first car show last Sunday and to my surprise and delight it won an award in it's class. My goal is to keep it as close to original as I possibly can and properly maintained for as long as I am it's caretaker...
Finally saw this thread; - wow! Good work! Nice to see another Electra saved from an ignominious fate! I'm a big fan of originality and preservation, so I love it when I see the factory stuff looking as good as it did in a showroom. So distilled white vinegar will lift off years of road grime and crud? Do you end up dousing it or does it come off with a rag? Does the car smell like a pickle jar or a salad bar afterwards? And what is the difference between distilled white vinegar and regular off the shelf white vinegar? Is it more concentrated? The seats in my Electra are an off-white, what Buick called "sandalwood". Being a convertible, there's years of crud lodged in the "grain" that doesn't seem to want to lift no matter what one hits it with, so I'm looking for tricks and solutions short of replacing the upholstery.
The helpful Distilled White Vinegar suggestion came from a restoration shop owner I spoke with. He told me he has been using it for decades with tremendous success. I simply poured it straight into a 2-gallons pump-sprayer (straight - no dilution needed) as he suggested and went to work with it. After testing it in inconspicuous areas first, I then applied it to all the various surfaces including the headliner. I later used the advice and saturated all the interior areas with it, except of course electronics and such. And I used a very soft brush to assist cleaning the surface areas. Yes, it smelled like a salad for 100 people for a few days, but it did fully dissipate in just a few days (car was of course kept outside for this step) and superbly cleaned all the areas it was applied to and fully took all the musty odors with it. Removing and replacing the carpet was also very important and I recommend replacing carpets instead of trying to clean them. The restoration shop I spoke with said the worst thing to do is shampoo a carpet that may have any amount of mold in/underneath it as all it does is spread and activate and mold spores. I didn't find any moldly areas in or under my carpets or other areas, but since it was musty smelling I chose to toss out the carpets/jute and clean everything and replace with new since I had the time and opportunity to do so. My Electra doesn't have power windows, so I also doused the inside the door panels too, but if you have electric windows, it is recommend to take off the door panels and wipe everything down with rag with the distilled white vinegar to avoid damage to any electric components. Since I replaced the original carpet set with a brand new OE style carpet set w/jute backing, I found it very easy to clean both the front and rear seats while I had them out of the car. This especially allows for a thorough cleaning in the underneath areas where I saturated the seats with the distilled while vinegar and also used a dremel tool to clean off an later lubricate all of the springs and metal parts underneath seats making them look like new. Afterwards, I treated all the seat surfaces with Meguiar's Gold Class Leather Cleaner/Conditioner that helped make them look and feel spectacular. It was time consuming project that requires a little planning and patience , but I was in no rush and the results were well worth the time spent doing it. With the Eastwood Encapsulator applied to the floor pan along with the new sound/temp insulation and new OE-style carpet set installed, and with all the seats and interior cleaned and refreshed the interior is now like brand new. I would highly recommend anyone take the time do this if their interior needs a refreshing as it a very low cost do-it-yourself job with just the effort of removing the seats, kick panels and rear side panels that yields huge positive results of a restored interior that is quite satisfying when it's completed. It's like being in a new '68 now with the added benefit of the added improved floor insulation.
What brand/type of insulation did you use? It looks like it says Rattletrap XXX? Is it lightweight or heavy? How was it to work with? How is it installed? After seeing your insulation, I'm tempted to do something similar to my car. My car has that multicolored fiberglass itchy stuff. I have no idea what it is called LOL.
I did a hands-on comparison of a few different products, inclduding DynaMat that was being installed in a friends Firebird before I decided to go with the FatMat Rattletrap XXX. The FatMat is 80mils providing more insulation than the 50 mil Dynamat, but the thickness of the FatMat was still very easy to work with. It’s also a peel and stick and came with a razor cutter and and a roller as a “kit”. Installation is as easy as laying down a section mark off your cutting points, cut the piece to size and then peel and place the insulation. In the pics you can also see I taped all seams with heavy-duty thermal insulation tape that you can buy at home-improvement stores. It makes for a very tidy finishing. All that is necessary is you have a clean floor to apply it to. I went the extra step and first applied Eastwood’s Encapsulator coating that you can see in the pics. Gave it a day to dry before installing the FatMat insulation. The 2-piece OEM carpet set I purchased also came with the original style factory “jute” insulation already adhered to the back of the carpet. I think that is what you are asking about... It’s called Jute and is what GM and most automakers used as carpet insulation. During the carpet install, I sparingly used Eastwood’s Carpet spray adhesive when installing the carpet over the FatMat insulation. You don’t need a lot, I applied in areas like the footwell, at the point where the center tunnel and floor meet and any area that you may see where the carpet would otherwise pull up on it’s own. The results were very significant and now the interior very quiet and comfortable compared to just the Carpet and Jute alone. Well worth doing, and I would do it again on any car that I would be doing an interior on. Hope that is helpful to you. Here’s a link to the FatMat on amazon where I purchased mine at: https://www.amazon.com/FatMat-Self-...1507547705&sr=8-1&keywords=fatmat+rattle+trap
