Wet behind the ears does not do it justice. Purely stupid does

I have no skills but I have a dream and a 1971 Skylark Custom Convertible 350-4. The car was my brother in laws who passed away. My son is 17 and was way tight with his uncle and is named after him. Trying to keep my son and I on the same page while paying a tribute to a good man. The car runs pretty well. It sat in a pole barn for a good period of time so we replaced the break lines, pads, gas tank, and radiator just for some peace of mind

Power convertible top works. Power windows work. AC not so much. Heater core is bad. Like to get this fixed and do other things at the same time as I understand from reading posts here that the dash has to come out to get to the inaccessible 4th bolt. I believe in doing things right and killing as many birds as possible with one stone.

What we are going to do is get this to an every day driver level with a bit of nasty thrown in. Rebuilding the engine with the goal of gaining HP is part of the plan. Eventually suspension, paint, new top , and redone interior. Not going for show but want it real nice and a bit nasty.

Have read a lot of posts here and it only reinforced that we don't have a clue.

Looking for a place to take the car to get it evaluated stem to stern. Live near Louisville KY.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Welcome to the group and sounds like a great father son project. There is nothing like this to build a great relationship.
I can't help you a location to have someone check it out, but I bet someone on here will help you.

Enjoy the car and the time with your son related to it.

 

Sounds awesome. I can only say read everything you can twice and make sure you know wht your doing befor e pulling it apart and check it three times before you think its right when ptting it back together. There are some tried and true ways to make a Buick 350's make more power. Just matters on how far you wanna go. A mild build shouldn't be too bad. TA Performance carries a lot of parts for the buick 350 to help you along the way. Be patient and learn from knowledge on here and others mistakes. If I see a person that hit a snag I read into it. So I don't end up following the same path. Welcome and Good Luck.

 

Welcome! When you take something apart, take lots of pictures so you know how/where everything goes back together. "Bag and tag" everything. Save the old parts. And, before you do any "nasty" to the engine, get the rest of the car up to par first (suspension, etc). Post some progress pics and DO NOT be afraid to ask any questions, no matter how "dumb" you may think they are. We all started somewhere and asked those same questions.