my conv My conv it a 64 lark with the kp engine. red with white top and white interior with black trim. In Tulsa Oklahoma where I am we can drive the car most of the year weather permitting. It does have a/c but it does not do very well. We rely on the top down.
sorta started I'm not looking to do a complete 100 point resto on it. I want some of my own ideas in it. although i did replace the timing chain along with all the gaskets for the timing cover (i didnt have a main seal left) rebuilt the oil pump added a booster plate. I also replaced the heater core and blower motor. got finished about a week ago with all that. I had to fix the convertable top lines. there still kinda shoddy but they'll work for now. since im still in school the interior is going to have to wait. I'm going to do custom door panels along with bringing it back to the factory pearl interior. i'm also planing on rebuilding the carb (2bbl) or biding on a 2bbl that i found on ebay thats going cheap to get me by till I can dump some more money into it. I'll get it running good with what it has fix the interior (maybe paint or jump to some performance we'll see what happens after the new or rebuilt carb) although i did screw up some paint pulling the fender off.. but the paint isnt perfect anyway.. there aint much to photograph. yet.. though it is at my parents house and he just got a nice new digital camera for christmas... so maybe i will be posting some when i get it back in the garage. Nate
The larks and GS's didn't have hte scissor top did they? I know the full size buicks did. My Centurion has the scissor top and it needs a complete overhaul. Something I didn't expect to see when I bought it. Where do you go to school? It's been a real pain trying to keep my LeSabre running while taking 18 hours of class. I am ready to move on to another project that will at least be worth my time...a convertible is a lot more sought after than a 4dr sedan with hail damage Adam
skool No i woulden't call it a sissor scissor top but someone else may.. im not to sure. I'm just about half way done with my sr. year at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. I'm studying Mechanical Engineering Technology. basicly its a mechanical engineer with less calculus. I'm interning at Briggs and Stratton now and the money is decent but I'm waiting for something else to open up they are allowing me to stay as an intern there untill something opens up or I find something else come graduation. How about yourself? Nate
I just graduated from Southern IL Unviersity-Edwardsville with a Music Business degree but I am currently working on a 2 year old Irrigation sompany with a partner. We started the company after my sophomore year in college and it's going great so far, so we'll see how it grows. The scissor top opens different than most tops. Instead of the frames folding straight back they fold inward towards the middle of the car and they use a non-hydraulic motor to move the top. So you'll see cables and electric motors running it instead of pumps and fluid. Adam
Hey I got one ride outa five that's respectable! 69 GS 400 Convertible, Crystal Blue Exterior / White Top / White Interior. 4-Speed, Buckets, PS, PB, PT, AC, AM/FM. Hope the picture makes it... Steve
Nice cars and you need this book Hello, I enjoyed looking these posts over. If you don't have it, you should get (or ask for a present as I did this Christmas) the following book Brad Conley mentions on page 2 or 3 of this thread: Buick Muscle Cars by Bill Holder and Phillip Kunz, ISBN 0-7603-0153-0. Brad is too modest, in addition to having his Centurian pictured, he was also a technical advisor for the book and wrote a Foreword. It also has a detailed section on GS, GSX, etc. as well as all Buick muscle. Nice work Brad! A couple of stories I was reminded of as I read about your cars. I bought mine in 82 while a sophomore in college. Dad borrows it one day not long after the purchase and returns saying "be careful with that car." I respond, "I am careful." He says "I really mean it." Of course I always have been easy on it; enjoy riding in it more than working on it! A few years later in a moment of weakness, he spills the truth about his early caution: while pulling out to pass another car, he gets on to it and the posi brings the rear around... he is a good driver and keeps it on the road. Another time he borrows the car and it returns with a broken speedo cable!??! As for others driving the car, my wife didn't want to for the longest time, now enjoys the attention she gets when driving it and is much harder on it than I am! My brother on the other hand had his one and only chance to drive it. Borrowed it exactly one week after my purchase to go to a going away party for a friend of his joining the army. I foolishly let him take the car. He normally drove a welded and bondoed 70 Nova SS 350, 4 speed and 4:11 posi that would literarily stand on its a** and peal the hides. He was good at it also, too good as it turns out. The next day I start my car and it has a tapping sound. My father and I are in denial and we drive it to the local gas station to put some "leaded high test" gas in it thinking that was what it needed (lead for the valves? I don't know what we were thinking). About 0.5 miles from home, the tap turns into an all out rap. I keep driving, nursing it the rest of the drive home, park it and literally cry. After two days, I get my courage up and pull the left valve cover. I find a broken valve spring (in three places) that has completely collapsed, the keepers have fallen out, the rocker arm has slid on the shaft and the rapping was the pushrod hitting the valve cover. The valve is sitting right there in the seat. I can't believe my eyes and I can't believe the engine is in one piece. I buy a KD valve compression tool that uses air pressure through the spark plug hole and replace all the valve springs with new Stage 1 springs as well as replaced the bent push rod. The valve cover still has the visible scars. To this day I don't know why it didn't suck that valve into the engine! And to this day, my brother has never driven my car again! A few years later, a friend of his says to me, "you should have seen your brother grab 4 gears of rubber between the length of two telephone poles with your car." hmmmmmmmm, that explains a lot! Fast forward a couple of years: my brother and I are returning home from college. I left before him not knowing his schedule. He catches up to me about 6 miles from home (45 mile drive). I would never race him even though he asked often but on this day due to a brotherly squabble we had the previous day (can you say doughnut in the middle of the gravel parking lot where we both were staying with his lightweight bondo bucket on steroids spraying gravel all over the place??? grow up already!!), there was no way I was going to let him by me. I drove 6 miles with my eyes in the rear view mirror and my right hand on the shifter waiting for the nose of that Nova to show the slightest lift. He never tried it and the match was never held. Probably a good thing, we can both still live to tell the story! I think he knew those 4:11 gears were no match for the road we had in front of us and of course, he knew from his own experience about the horses under the hood. You will really like this part. He now has a 74 Nova SS he wants to restore. He just bought a 69 Wildcat for the motor. He wants to put the 430 in the Nova!!!! If he ever gets to it, he might be able to keep up with me with that unibody powered by Buick! GS1
guess im a little late because i didnt see the post. I have a 68GS400 matching number car. Its charcoal metallic (silver) with a black top and interior.ed
John, Nice 71!!!:eek2: I remember seeing your opel take King of the Hill in 2000. That little car cooks!:TU: Jerry
68 lesabre I got a '68 lesabre convertible. Bought it last year in Canada and then took it home to the Netherlands. Now it sharing my garage with my '68 lesabre coupe. Maybe the only one this side of the "pond".
I was surprised to see as many European locations with Buicks! I think you'll find quite a few people here with Electras, LeSabres, etc. over on your side of the Pond... Nice car, by the way...do you have any pics?
photo's I bought the convertible last July in Canada and before I were able to take it to the road summer was almost gone. We had a bad summer last year anyway, not a "convertible summer" So I didn't get a chance to take a lot of pictures. Just a couple to e-mail back to the people I bought it from. For some strange reason I don't seem to get a picture posted in a reply. Why??
pictures Now I know how. This is me in Canada with the previous owner. (I'm the one on the left :grin: )
Here is Scott White's (Driver2) 70 Skylark convert. Although his boy (the wheelman) might try to have you believe it is his car :Brow:
THANKS, Chris!:TU: This is a pic of my '70 Skylark Custom Convertible, that I got for free in '98. I drove it home that day, and restoration began, 2 years later when I added the "extra" parts that I'd collected over the years: GS Hood, GSX Rear Spoiler, 15" Buick Mags, fresh 350-4 (455 soon), Street/Strip TH350. It came with the 12 bolt rear end!:Brow: The paint is Dodge Viper GTS Blue, custom mixed with Metalflake, for a "One of a kind" color. It now has a Black interior, and a new White top. Future addition may include White GSX stripes, to accent the Blue body. Total invested: $3500. Don't give up! Even a "basket case" can be brought back to life, if you have the "vision", and the patience.:Smarty: :TU: :bglasses:
hello all, noticed this post and thought i'd ad to it. I have a 'few conv cars. to start off with, the '66 special w/300 c.i. and st300, and the onlt power option is the power steering. then there is the project car, a '66 skylark conv. with a 425, s/p th400, power everything, and needing almost everything replaced on it. like i said its a project car. We bought it as a parts car but couldn't resist temptation to revive it. it thas a story! This car was actually used in a bootlegging operation, and has a holding tank where the backseat is supposed to be. and the original owners swapped in the 425 nailhead :Brow: these cars are in central North Carolina, the special is driven daily in and around Raleigh, winston-salem, and charlotte, but mostly raleigh. my uncle is also working on a '66 skylark, that runs and drives, but the interior was firebombed, and needs a good cosmetic restoration of the vehicle. other rag tops in the works are a '66 GTO clone, and a #'s matching '66 GTO the only non-drop-top muscle car would be the other buick project, a '66 GS, but we don't have the original block, or a few other "original" items, so it will become a "resto-rod" with a 455 and trans to be determined later. it seems we have a "thing" for 1966 gm a body ragtopso No:
