Good morning, fellas! Owner of a 71 skylark here, who recently got back into the game. I’ve got some work ahead of myself to get this thing lookin nice after sitting outside for a few years. Anyways, just a general question I have that I wanted to ask the pros- just how similar is the 71 Skylark to the Chevelle? I’m replacing the interior right now, getting rid of that old ugly green carpet and trim. Currently working on finding new door panels, but it seems as if everything is on back order and will be a few months. What are some of the major differences between Chevelle and Skylark parts. Are a lot of them interchangeable? Also when it comes to watching videos/looking at instructions, would the Chevelle look similar as the Skylark. Unfortunately there just isn’t as much out there on the Skylark as there is on the Chevy. Thanks Joey
Not much of anything that isn't chassis is interchangeable except the glass but not the back glass. The carpet is likely the same and the seat frames are the same, but the door panels, trim and exterior body panels are all model specific as far as I know. Maybe the arm rest pads. I think I used some sort of Nova arm rest pads on my 71 GS. They aren't perfect but worked well enough.
I don’t even think the metal pieces that affix to the top of the rear door panels are the same between the 2 models. This might mean there would not be enough vinyl to cover the top of the door panels, or that you would need to fabricate your own pieces for the rear sail panels. The rear shelf is different as well as the rear window, and trim around the rear window and the corner pieces. (The trim around the rear window is longer on the Buicks.) You are setting yourself up to create a big mess, and eventually will end up spending more money when later you have to buy the correct pieces. Duane
The other thing is generally the Buick interiors are the deluxe version( depending on the model) and the Chevelle interiors are the standard versions, Duane
...thanks to both being A-bodies, there are enough common parts to cause the uninformed/uninterested to misidentify Buick A-bodies with "Buick" badging...
