My name is Jason. I bought a '63 Skylark in late '98, traded it for a daily driver truck in '99 and regreted it. Sunday I was looking in the local paper ack where I grew up and saw an ad for a '63 Skylark. Called and found out it was my old one so today I bought it back. I plan to customize it so I hope people will be willing to help me out with my questions. I also have a '48 Ford coupe, '27 Ford coupe and '25 Ford truck in various stages being built.
Nice car. However, don't be surprised if you get little encouragement to customize it. I often see threads on the "eBay" forum where folks are ridiculing cars that have a lot of customized body and/or interior work. Now, enhancing the mechanical parts of the car is heavily supported here, so you will likely get very good advice on engines, trans, etc..
I was thinking of putting a nailhead in it but I was told it is too heavy of an engine. I guess I will need to find a donor 300 motor and get more power that way.
Nice car, glad you got it back. That sounds almost like the story my grandpa had with his '62 chevy, sold it, and after he did, he started to regret it and offered some money to the guy who bought it and had bought it back. Very cool. Oh, and welcome aboard. :beer :TU:
Try this...roll a late, rear drive, Regal chassis under your 63, and drop in a 455/Nail Head. That should satisfy your customizing needs and produce a real "Go Getter" :Brow: Ive owned and wrenched several 300/340 Buicks...they were quiet, smooth and reliable, but I was turned off by the lack of power and general quirkiness.
That's great that you found and bought back your old '63 skylark. If only I could find my old one that I owned back in the '60's. Yeah, right. p I'm still looking for a nice one though, but don't have much hope, but one never knows. Go for what you want with your skylark. It's yours to do with as you please, but personally I would keep it pretty much stock with a few upgrades here and there. That 215 cu in aluminum motor was really powerful and the car on a whole weighed less than a corvette of the same year, or so I was told. Mine had a 4 speed and posi rear and shot out of the hole like it's tail feathers were on fire. Had great fun with it and hope you will do the same with yours. Enjoy! Jim :TU: :beer
My original idea was to build it as a factory custom. Basically use all the good stuff available when the car came out and make it look like a custom Buick show car that GM could have built for the auto shows. That is where the idea from the Naihead came about since I have one laying around from a Riv. Lover it clean the body up and paint it some factory Buick color from '63. Also throw some cool wheels on it with white walls. I figure with the look I would go fo it would have to look like it was built as a concept car but still have some '50's influence.
does anyone know of a rear end I can use to switch this to a 5 lug pattern? I know the tempest was 5 lug but I think they all had the rear transaxle. Did the come with the coil setup like on the Buicks?
