It still blows my mind that looking at what I started with last Fall and where I'm at now. talk about snowball effect! This board has been a HUGE help for parts, information, and inspiration!:TU: I think the '66 hard-top has some of the best lines for a 4-dr car, I'm still torn over if I'd like the next vehicle to be a wagon, or 2-dr, guess I'm right smack dab in the middle. I also find it amusing I started my old car search looking for a Plymouth Duster or Valiant and would have liked one with a 340, and ended up with a Buick with a 340 in it. Illinois also just changed thier Antique vehicle plates, you have two options a $51/year tag that allows unlimited driving from April to October and restricted driving (service, shows, etc) the rest of the year. the old antique plates were like $100 for 4 years I think, but restricted year round, and regular vehicle tags were $95 a year. Anyone in Illinois might want to look into that!
Wow Bill I just found this thread, you really did cut the back off that car! The 66 looks great did you get the Star Wars Air Cleaner from the 67 parts car? You guys really went to town on that 67 good job.
yea we didn't waste anytime with the sawzall......and on the off chance you didn't want that section, or in case you wanted more we figured we'd just cut the whole end off. I purchased the star wars aircleaner off a board member a few months back when I wanted to do a GS340 tribute with my 4-dr '67 :Brow: But it looks awesome on the '66, so I'll keep it for shows. Had a lot of non-Buick people ask about it. :TU: one walker by said "Back when they designed engines to look good"
I've been keeping track of the miles i'm getting at every fill up, and I was sort of surprised it's getting better than I thought it would considering it's the original engine, carb and trans and I'm pretty sure none of them have been rebuilt. 340-2V with ST-300 and 2.73 gears about 12mpg in the city driving to and fro from work, and about 19mpg on the highway. :TU: Of course my method for determining this is to fill up the tank till it clicks off noting the milages then, and at the next fill up comparing how far I've gone and the amount needed to reach the "click" point on the gas nozzle. (dividing the number of miles travelled by the number of gallons). Obviously there are a lot of variables here (such as volume of gas at time of fill up, abient temp, angle of where i'm parked etc) but overall I'm impressed, that's just as good as I was getting with my truck (but a lot more fun to drive :grin
This is the 66 you're talking about, right? Congratulation on getting it together so quick, I'm very envious. Are you using it as your daily driver, you must be getting a lot of looks.
Yup this is the '66. Brian and I had a long 4-days, and got the '67 apart and the engine and trans in the '66. I lucked out, the '66 was in need of very little (just an engine and trans :laugh. It drives like a new car. Since I drive about 3 or so miles to work and with it being so dry around here lately I have been driving this as my daily driver. Or course with no A/C my wife won't get in it, so when we go anywhere as a family we take her car. I get tons of looks, but it's just a blast to drive and very comfortable.
Thanks! Me too, I was tired of just drooling over it while it sat in my driveway, and I think the neighbors were getting a little concerned....:eek2:
I think those are the rim's I need to fit over my disk brakes, want to trade? Darn shame were so far apart
those are what I assume to be aftermarket chevy style rallies (they at least have chevy derby covers on them) they came with the car. 14" up front and 15" in back, I have drum brakes all around but there seems to be quite enough space in front to fit disc brakes. I should look and see if they are disc brake coded originals, rather than modern stampings.
They look like the 1 Rim that fits on these big old disk brakes that came with 67's, might be Chevy Caps but Chevelle's could have front disk brake too, there were probably a lot more of them.
hmm interesting. I'd like to find a set of buick caps for them, but I have other things I need to get done first.
Another question for all you Buick nuts out there. obviously my car is now no longer numbers matching (but hey its a 4-dr and I doubt anyone would care if it was). But out of curiosty, could you have ordered a 4-dr hardtop in 1966 with the 340? I know the standard engine for the 4-dt HT was a 300, and in 1967 the 4-dr post cars got the 340 standard, but say as an option. Another question i've been tossing around my head and found no good information in the interwebz (dang you google!) the GS was still an "option" rather than a seperate model, and from what I've found so far it could only be ordered on 2-dr models. Is that correct, or could come wacko (such as myself :grin back in 1966 checked the 4-dr and GS option?
Re: My 1966 Buick Skylark well had a "warm" day here in Chicago so I started the skylark up after charging the battery a little to let her run. Didn't take it out on the streets with the salt but ran her on my driveway a bit to let the fluids flow. Nothing like listening to that SBB fire up and run Can't wait for spring!
I snuck into the shed on Sunday and fired up mine for a bit. Getting really antsy for spring. May 3rd I do the 340-4 swap. Local car show the 5th! I enjoyed your posts and pictures!
I love telling people I have a 340 and it ain't no MOPAR uzzled: I've got the carb and intake to convert to a 4bbl but haven't had the time or money lately to really get into it. For just motoring around town the 340-2V has been plenty fun! :TU: Are you just going to put a 4bbl intake on there or do the whole thing and raise compression a tad.
whelp, while at work someone called in sick so I had to hop in the car and scurry over to the other library location this morning. One of the roads I had to go down stops at a sign and then you have to merge on to US.30 (speed limit 50) always sounds nice to flex the Buick's engine a bit. :Brow: Car's body is also about 12 miles away from rolling back over to 00000.0 I'm proud she'd made it that far! (though the engine/trans has about 25K less miles on it)
well, I'm 1000miles late, but odometer rolled over 10,000 miles on the car a few weeks back. Granted the engine and trans have less than that, but I'm still impressed with the condition of my '66 after all this time. Also considering it's been a rustbelt car all it's life (Purchased new in Madison, WI). Last weekend pulled the AM radio out, never listened to it anyways. I'm not much a sports fan and can't get any music stations around here so I added a radio delete plate. (I'm going to keep the radio, so if I ever want to return it to factory I can). I kinda like the look of a big ole' spot of chromed metal smack dab in the middle.
