'71 Electra restoration. Doing it in less than 4 months!

So I may have solved a piece of the mileage puzzle with this car. While putting the road mags on, I discovered paper tags on the outside of both drum brakes. In large bold letters, they read "QP", which I am assuming are factory paper markings.

I pulled the drums off and it doesn't seem that they have ever been cut. The leading and trailing shoes both have 6 to 8 millimeters of meat left. This leads me to believe that the 55,xxx miles the odometer reads may be true. I am truly amazed how clean the undercarriage is on the car. Being a Wisconsin car most of its life, I find it hard to believe that it would look that nice at 155K. I will have to take pics of it on the lift at work.

After our wedding (when I have more time), The doors are going to get jambed and I will begin my search for a 9 3/8 posi-traction carrier so I can put down the torque properly.

The top is set to be done later this week. The pattern isn't 100% correct, but the color is very close and it is a double seam top. The exhaust will soon follow. 10 days to go!

 

Looking very good!!

Where did you found the vinyl top?

Another question: when I was preparing my Electra for the repaint I discovered a few tiny holes in the fender which looked like they were there from factory and it made me think I was missing some piece of molding or something like that.
I noticed the same holes in your Electra (?):





Is there supposed to be any moldings... or what is the use for these holes??

 

There were no moldings in place in that location, nor did it appear that there had ever been before. I will take a closer look tomorrow and let you know my findings.

 

There were never any moldings offered for the area of the front fender indicated.

 

Your Electra is gorgeous. Soon you will marry your bride and then marry a home and then marry another Buick.:bla:

Good look on finding a Buick 9 3/8 posi. It sure would be nice if somebody would make aftermarket parts to upgrade our peglegs.

 

I couldn't find any moldings in the exploded views I have here as well... (there should be IMHO.. it would look better than it is now) so wondered why those holes were made there.

 

Rob, upon a closer look there was never anything there. There are no holes in that spot on my fenders either.


As a side note the top is on and completed and the back window is in. I am scheduled for Tuesday to have my exhaust done by a local shop. Pics to come soon.

A bit of a setback for the honeymoon. I was planing to take the Isuzu Amigo in my sig to my parent's summer home in SW Michigan so I could tow our boat. I was doing a tune up on it at work today along with a fuel injection system cleaning and the motor caught fire. The line from the bottle to the fuel rail had a leak that I didn't notice and when the injector cleaning solution hit the hot engine block, it went up. It burned up some wires along with my hood, cowl, and firewall before I could get to a fire extinguisher.

Looks like I'll be taking the Electra now. The problem is I don't have anything to tow my parent's boat with since no one makes a frame hitch for these relics anymore.

 

Maybe, just maybe, you could find a hitch in a salvage yard. Long shot I know.

 

Great job on this resto! And they do look much better without the fender guards. I think I'll be taking mine off my '72 come her resto time. Also, are those holes in the fende for the fiber optic lines that feed the top headlight jewel lenses? Not on yours, but were offered in '72 (got them on mine). Maybe they were drilled for future use. I'll look at mine tomorrow and see.

Are you going to use this for your 'limo' ride at your wedding?

 

I got real lucky and another member stepped up and saved my ass with a frame hitch! Its off a '72 Delta 88 so I'm fairly sure it will work on my Electra. Either way, the price is right and I'm willing to gamble.

As a side note the Isuzu didn't get burned as bad as I thought. The worst damage was to mostly vacuum lines and a few sending units. It still runs too lol.

 

Well, it all came together nicely. The car is all done and on time; new top and exhaust in place. Here I sit 12 hours from the ceremony and I am excited!

I'm glad I was able to save this relic and make it a part of my new family. I'm just happy to find it before it got turned into another giant cube in a junkyard somewhere. There will be more pics to follow of the car in its wedding attire after tomorrow. Its going to be a great day. I may even do a little smoke show when I leave the church lol.

Happy trails!

 

Just in time and a great job !!

First concentrate on your wedding now... have a very nice day!

Looking forward to the photos

 

Really turned out nice Mike! And I am impressed you were able to do it all such a short period of time.

I have next week off from work, so I will be making major headway on the Riv.
Where did you get your vinyl top material from? Did you do the installation yourself?
:beers2:

 

First, congratulations on your wedding! :beer Second, you did a fantastic job on that Electra, it looks great.

 

Well, the day went very well. It was, quite honestly, the best day of my life thus far. I'm so happy to finally be married and also to have the car done. it performed flawlessly. I left a giant patch in front of the church with the A/C blowing cold. Our photographer took some awsome pics of us laying one down which I can't wait to see once he puts them up on his website.

I guess after we pulled away, a few of my friends got rowdy and left some rubber too.

To answer your question Dave, we did not do the top ourselves. I had a professional come out to my dad's shop since we don't have enough expierence with vinyl. The color I chose was about 2 shades lighter then the original. I'm very happy with the lighter color. It looks great.

Like I said, I don't have any pics of the car at the church yet (except for one with my dad and groomsmen in front of it), but once we get back from our honeymoon the photos should be up on our photographers web page and I will link them here.

I still have to jam the doors and a few other odds and ends, but that will all be done in good time. Now off to the honeymoon. I decided to take my dad's truck instead of the Electra since with my luck a paino would probably fall on it while we were driving down the highway. We are going to my parent's summer home in SW Michigan to save on money, but it will be fun. See ya in a week!

 

Congratulations on your nuptials and your car too.

Have fun on your honeymoon, and don't update this thread until you get back!!!

:Brow::laugh:

 

Mike, the car looks fantastic!

Congratulations on your wedding!

 

Ok guys, obviously I'm a little overdue for an update here. Married life and work has been consuming most of my summer. I have had a few chances to go to some local shows but not as many as I'd like. Hopefully I will be joining next years Hot Rod Power Tour! We'll see. Enough small talk, on to some pics!





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Future plans involve going back and painting the door jambs, painting underneath the hood and a few things in the engine bay, Edelbrock performer intake & mild cam, roller tip rocker arms, HEI distributor, equal length headers from T/A performance, plus a few odds and ends. Now that I have the time, all I need is some money!

 

I figured settling into married life had something to do with your absence.
Car looks great!

:3gears: :beer

 

Not sure if you can tell but this pic is actually from my wedding day leaving the church.