OK Steve; This Invicta is way too good to part out! It in fact is probably a better car than what you have. Just my opinion. Mitch
I have a good running low (364ci) compression engine from a '57 Special. I will let it go on the cheap. It is in Northern Colorado. PM me if you like. Dan
You east coast guys would probably wanna hang me for parting out such a solid car. While it is saveable looks are a bit deceiving. The interior is totally roached, top to bottom. The exterior is pretty straight but does have a fair amount of rust down low, terrible chrome, damaged and missing stainless. Plus years ago somebody "got started on it" removed a number of vital interior and trim peices that have since disappeared. The car was vandalized a bit too as you can see in the pics. A shame really as the clock shows 67,000 miles. Judging by condition of most of the car and the way it runs and drives I'd bet that mileage is right. I think she'll help more than a couple of '60s live on though. This weekend I'll go over the Invicta top to bottom to see how much is good for more use. Steve weim55 Colorado
OK Steve; I can have that car looking human over the weekend. I have every part to complete it and I could have it serviceable (running and looking decent) in the time it takes to do it. Like I said, you have 10X the car as your Lesabre. Trippple pedal is all mythology. Wait until you start driving it with a decent compression 401. The tranny will scatter much sooner than later. I am in that dilemma myself. Mitch
I can't help it Mitch. I'm always a hot rodder first! I can't tell you how hard it is to keep my mitts off this thing and leave it alone. I have three complete ready to rock 455s in the garage. Love to put one of those in the '60 ! But I won't. The soul of my LeSabre is a nailhead, so that it will stay. How's that for restraint!? For all the bad things I've heard about Dynaflows (dynaslush....) I wasn't too keen on having one those in my garage. I've never actually owned a Buick with one so I can't speak for myself on that one. Until now....... That Invicta runs damn good with that Dynaflow! Good acceleration, shifts well and firm. It doesn't even leak. The automatic makes that machine a great cruiser. But yea, I dig the stick in the LeSabre. I always like oddball, rare optioned vehicles. Putting the LeSabre together with the 401 will be kinda neat. Sorta like the factory hot rod Buick never built. The no option 401 stick 2 door sedan. I like it! Although that 3 speed looks pretty husky if it expires I have a spare. Or even better I thought it would be fun to put a 4 speed in it. Carefully installing it with components to look as factory as possible. Hot rodding aside..... this car will be a cruiser. A highway machine. Quiet and comfortable. When I purchased my GS 455 it was bone stock. With 2.93s, stock exhaust, quiet 455, it was a beautiful, smooth, tight highway machine. I miss having that. I'll keep the '60 on track to that theme. A couple more pics of the parts Invicta. Not so nice... Steve weim55 Colorado
OK Steve: Every forum is different. The HAMB people would prime that 60 Lesabre 2 dr. sedan, put the Mexican style blankets over the seats, heat the springs, paint the wheels bright red and add some fat white tires. The BCA people would want to leave it stock doing as many anal touches that are authentic and correct. The B-59 people would like the car only if it were clean to begin with although it's one year too new for them. I can see going through that 364 , cleaning up the body and interior a bit............BUT NOT AT THE EXPENSE OF THAT INVICTA SEDAN YOU HAVE. If that Invicta were a convert in that shape people would be chewing the fenders off of it trying to buy it. 4-dr sedans are the least popular body style, for now. I distinctly remember guys cutting up 59 and 60 Electra converts 25 years ago. Who would do that today? Don't cut up that Invicta sedan! Mitch
Yes of course, I feel a little guilty cuttin' up the old Invicta. But anymore I'm all for seenin' stuff just gettin' USED. No more sittin'. The cause is good. The LeSabre will see the road instead of sitting. And many a '60 will benefit from the parts. I'm not a crusher guy. I'll take off every useable part that might find a home. This parts car is the best thing that could happen for the project. I went over the car throughly. Here's what will get used..... the complete engine, radiator, power steering setup, passenger floor pans, door sill cover panels, radio buttons, arm rest bases, various interior trim and trinkets that are in better condition. The brakes were just done (maybe 30 years ago) with almost zero miles on them. Drums, shoes, hardware front and back. I'll use the coil springs if they look good when I take 'em out. New looking still tight air shocks in the rear (more 30 year old stuff). The complete rear axle assy with 3.23 gears (I drive almost all highway). A few peices of exterior stainless that is in better condition or that I would like to add. Gas tank, since it's already clean and i know it doesn't leak. 2 correct '60 wheels 15 x 6. Some great spares: generator, starter, regulator, tailights, front lenses, cables, switches etc...... Well worth the 800 bucks and I'll probably get about half that back sellin' off good parts to other homes. Game plan: #1 goal, just get it done! I'm tired of all the 4 wheel yard art I have with "someday" plans. This won't be a restoration. I'll be doing all the work neccessary to get the car running and driving. Reliable and safe. While most of the appearance stuff will remain as is, I'm a stickler of stuff workin' the way it's supposed to. Every switch, knob, system, component, etc. has to work as it intended to. One by one I'll tackle each. Should be a pretty simple deal. (yea right...laughs..) In the beginning I had a goal of making the car road worthy for a total cash outlay of $4,000 dollars. That's including the purchase price of the car. Am I dreamin" ??!! I still think I can come in pretty close. Be cutting some corners and reusing EVERYTHING I can. I'll post the numbers as I go. We'll see................. The first lofty goal I have is to get the old girl running under it's own power by the 4th of July. So much easier to work on a car that runs. Let's get to it................. Steve weim55 Colorado
First things first.... gotta get the car in position to get operated on. Here's the "professional" shop I'll be working out of. Yep.... that be the driveway! Hey this whole project is low buck, might as well follow that theme all the way! I decided to knock out the rusty floors first as the exhaust goes right underneath and I don't want to deal with that in the way later on. Plus I dispise doing rust repair so I thought I would get the ugly stuff out of the way first. These are the two areas getting cut out. And a pic of that solid floor in Invicta parts car. Man I love Colorado cars! Steve weim55 Colorado
If you end up using the 401 remember, if you don't know, the out of balance between the 364/401 flywheel/flexplates is different. The 364 has an out of balance of approx. 3 1/2 ozs. & the 401 approx. 4 1/2 ozs. Using the stick flywheel from the 364 without adding the additional 1 oz. will give you an out of balance vibration. You will also need to remove the pilot bearing adapter from the rear of the 364 crank & install it in the 401. Put them both on a bubble balancer & you will see. Weight gets added in the same area. other than this it's a bolt-in swap. I've torn up many of those 6 bolt top cover trans. CAN'T "Speed shift" 1st-2nd. The only way to go something different is to go to an open rear. MUCH WORK!!!!! Tom T.
Correcto on the 364 401 balance issue. Berensens (spelling?) has some wonderful stick shift parts including new flywheels for 401s. I'd love to go that route but it's just too pricey for me. I called them and discussed my situation and they offered to balance my 364 flywheel to 401 specs for $80.00. Works for me. And yea, no speed shiftin' the column three speed. If I want to do some gear jamin I'll choose a car in the garage that can handle it. Thanks for the advice Tom. Steve weim55 Colorado
I really like what you are doing with the car Steve,glad to see that you found the other car.Good luck with it.
Steve, you don't even have to spend the $80.00. Just put them on a bubble balancer & add the one oz. in the appropriate area. You could even drill a hole & bolt it on or use a tack weld. No big deal.
Tom, I was layin' awake in bed last night thinkin' the same thing. How tough could it be to change one ounce? Here's pics of the stock 364 flywheel. As you can see it's almost a neutral balance. The factory took metal OUT to balance it. Do you mean I'd have to take another ounce OUT of the flywheel in the same area to balance per a 401 ? Thanks, Steve weim55 Colorado
Surgury time....... Got the patch panels cut out of the parts car and the preliminary cuts done on the LeSabre. Cutting the passenger rear footwell out of the parts car was a peice of cake. Zip, zip with a cut off wheel, done. The front footwell was an absolute nightmare. Layers of sheetmetal, braces, the frame, and a bazillion spot welds. No easy way to get this out cleanly. In the end I used a cutoff wheel and the torch to get what I could in one peice. A section above one of the braces was rusted a little too. So the front floor is going to have be cut, trimmed and puzzle welded together. I like my Eastwood spot weld drill bits. Made quick work of removing the braces from the replacement panels. Another nice surprise is the floors from car to car are EXACTLY the same in every dimension. No turning back now............ Steve weim55 Colorado
You need at least a bubble balancer & you need to ADD weight. It is usually in the area of the reference hole for the flywheel/flexplate on the outside edge.
Floors..... Got my first taste floor pan replacement this weekend. Not too tough.... I started with the rear pan first as it's much easier to work with than the front. Good practice. With everything trimmed close to the final size I laid the replacement pan from the parts car in the hole to aline for the final cut. A neat surprise here, all of spot weld holes I drilled out are in EXACTLY the same place from car to car. To aline perfectly all I had to do was line up the holes, screw the pan down to the braces through those same holes and final cut the pan with a cutoff wheel. I butt welded the pan in place from there. Pretty straight forward. Next I gotta do that nasty front pan.... Steve weim55 Colorado
Look Ma, No Holes !! Finished up the floor pans. Passenger front was a bit of a pain. Had to peice together sections as I thought. Turned out pretty good. I was able to butt weld 3 sides but had to lap weld a couple of areas in the toe board. Not restoration quality. Good solid driver quality. Knowing what I do now it probably would have been easier to pony up for a replacement floor section for the front. Way too much time cutting out the replacement from the parts car and no real good way to get it out cleanly. As for the rear the used panel was the way to go. An EXACT replacement. Easy work with and install. Using it was a good call. Finished the floors with one last small hole by the speedometer cable on the drivers side floor. There's still a full day of work to finish out cleaning up the surface rust and POR 15 the entire floor. I'll get to that when I start on the interior after the car is running. My 15 year old son Kenny and I pulled out the 401 and Dynaflow from the parts car today. Next in line is all the mechanicals..... Drivetrain, brakes and suspension........ Steve weim55 Colorado
