This is my latest project, it's obviously a 1968 Buick Skylark, and is going to go together somewhat like something I would have built 45 years or so ago. A 1974 C20 is donating its 454/TH400 combo to it, which is cool, since it will all bolt together with GM parts, and, I had no welder at age 18 either. It will remain stock for now, except for headers and a cam swap. I searched around for a decent '68-72 A Body for a couple years, and ran across this one in December. It won't be a body-off resto, as the floors are rust free like the rest of the car. I have made one exception to my 1979 and older rule, and that is concerning the brake system. It has 4 wheel drums, which don't scare me at all, but after pricing all of the parts it needed, including one hub and spindle, I went with a 4 wheel disc kit from RPUI. It's still in boxes, but I'm pretty happy with it. I will be running the Corvette wheels, since they were pretty cheap, and would have been something I would have ran back then. So basically, it's going to be a driver, it has factory AC like it's donor pickup has, and I plan on driving the wheels off it. It's stock BOP rear has 2.80 gears, which should suit the local highways just fine. Progress on this will be sporadic, but it should be on the road before Labor Day.
They are heavy but nothing with 2 doors rides nicer than A bodies. Maybe a Caddy, but I would be caught dead in one.
Ok, I have the 4 wheel disc brakes installed, and will share a couple pics, and a couple tips also. First, remove the old stuff, and install the new.
Now, my ball joints, tie rods, and rubber boots were all in good shape, so I unbolted the steering arms with the tie rods connected, and used a piece of 5/8" threaded rod to press the ball joints from the spindle. The rod is 3 3/4" long, and using a washer and a nut on each end, I put pressure in between both ball joint studs, and whacked the spindle with a hammer. This way, I don't damage the rubber boots, and can reuse them without issue.
That 10' length of 5/8" threaded rod also allowed me to make a couple spring compressors, to pull the front end down and unload the ball joint/spindle connections. I ran them right down through the shock absorber holes, with some short lengths of angle iron on the control arm ends. I'm going to see how I like the stock Buick springs, but those will probably get ditched in favor of something a little stouter down the road. When that happens, I'll probably have to redo my homemade compressor setup, we'll see.
At the rear, I cut a couple lengths of 3/8 fuel line to keep the parking brake cables from rubbing the frame, and glued those in place with some weatherstrip adhesive. Then, I came back and reinstalled them with some tape to keep them in place while ye Olde glue dried, and cleaned up the goo that got left behind where they had slid to.
When installing the rear rotors, be careful not to jam them on, because the flanges and/or rotors may need some clearancing. My right side axle flange was not very even at its outboard edge, so i had to trim it with a grinder to get the rotor to go over it. Using a dial indicator helped to keep it even. The left side caliper also required a little grinding to clear the wheel, so be aware that you may have such issues. I trimmed the wheel opening flanges even with the wheel opening moldings, because these cars are really tight when it comes to tire clearance at the rear. These are 8 inch rims, with 4 1/2" backspacing, zero offset, and have about 3/4" of clearance on the outboard side, and probably 3 inches on the inside. Now, this kit does come with a proportioning valve, but in my case, I would have to rework some of my brake lines, and not wanting to do so, I am running through my original junction block/differential switch, and will add a prop valve to the rear later if needed.
When it came to the rear brake lines at the axle, I cut the hard lines down as shown in the picture, and did not use the tabs for the hoses at this time. I'll be keeping an eye on everything, and if this looks like an issue, I'll go ahead and weld them on. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the kit, but will warn that you need to check EVERYTHING, as mine was shipped without the caliper braket/steering arm bolts. A phone call to them had them shipped out right away though, so no complaints here.
About the parking brake, or emergency brake in my native Buckeye tongue, the cables required some attention after moving the transmission crossmember rearward. I drilled new holes for the small clips about 4 inches outward from their original location, which took up some slack, and got them away from the large flanged drain holes in the floor, but still am winding up with the adjuster almost hidden on top of the crossmember. Now, there should be a hole on each side of the crossmember for the cable to run through that I haven't "installed" yet, but even so, that's going to put the adjuster clip thing in the crossmember, and that won't work too well either. I think I am going to shorten the hook that hooks into.the right side of the crossmember, to help take up some more slack. I'll report back on this when I can.
One last thing, and while I did replace all the rubber brake hoses, I did not replace any of the hard lines. I have been all over them, and none showed any pitting at all, and only some very light surface rust in some spots. The old fluid that came out was extremely clean, every tube nut broke loose with ease, and I'm pretty comfortable that they will most likely outlast me. I won't recommend that anyone else do what I'm doing, you will need to use your own judgment on that.
While its outside your criteria window, I would suggest 2 things to make it a better daily driver. I would use an overdrive transmission like the 700R4/4L60 (not 4L60E) that has upgraded parts, and a 3.23 set of rear gears. I think it would make the car much more enjoyable on a daily basis. When your car is finished, you will basically have a Buick version of a Chevelle.......why not make it better than a Chevelle.
If your starving an OD in it why not put some gears under it? My Olds 442 (basically the same car) has 3:55 posi. It tachs up on the freeway, OD would help. My PU has 3:70 gears and a OD. It’s awesome.
No, I won't be using an OD trans here, it's drivetrain is coming straight from a '74 C20, in keeping with my build "era". Thinking about it, even my 4 wheel disc setup uses pre-1980 stuff. Over the past couple of days, I dropped the fuel tank, fully expecting to find a nasty mess. Surprisingly enough, even though the 5 gallons of gas it held were kind of nasty, the inside of the tank looked like new. No rust or varnish to be found. I tested the sending unit to make sure it worked, and was glad that I did. It had no continuity between the insulated metal strip and the post, or stud, where the sending unit wire connects. No dirt or corrosion, just no darned continuity. So I took a tiny socket and pressed the pal nut, or whatever the little metal retainer is called, down a little tighter, and Shazam! We got a connection. The strainer was toast, so it got cut off, and I reinstalled the tank with new hoses, and some extra rubber gasket material a the contact points between tank and trunk floor. For the resto crowd, there was a numeral "23" stamped on the top of the fuel tank on the left side, in 1 1/2" inch black numbers, and some illegible yellow chalk marks along the top right edge.
After reinstalling the fuel tank, I decided to remove the trim pads, so I could clean and lube the window regulators, rollers, tracks. While i was at it, I pulled the door latches out also, to give them a good cleaning, and lube them up also. This also gave me a good opportunity to vacuum up all of the crap that was laying inside the doors and quarter panels, and there was quite a bit of crap in them. As far as lube goes, I just used plain old white lithium on everything, using enough of it to treat my bipolar disorder for a year or two. The next time I do this, I'm going to try open gear spray lube on the regulator gears, since they were originally lubed with a dark colored paste. Remember, CLEAN and lubricated parts, are happy parts. I did find one 1/4-20 bolt with large integral washer in the right quarter, but it looks like the build sheet is nowhere to be found. It may be hiding under the carpet still, but since the Protect-o-Plate is still on the radiator support, I have all of the OEM info I need. I'll start taking more pics as I go along, might make things more interesting.
Ok, I've been busy with the instrument cluster, it's bezel, and all of the associated controls. To start with, the bezel itself had some issues, those being some of the standoffs, or mounting points. Four of them were broken off, but fortunately, all of the pieces were there. Two of them hold the speedo assembly, and being rather long, were easy to make a strong repair to. To start, I drilled a series of holes through them, spaced far enough apart to keep from weakening the part, but close enough to provide the needed strength. Next, I took a piece of 1/4 inch brake line, and drilled holes through it also, again as many as conveniently possible. Using super glue to hold the plastic pieces together, I mixed up a little catalyzed spot putty, although anything that would flow through all of the holes would also work, think JB Weld or the like. On the shorter pieces, they were broken off even with the back of the bezel, and it's only about 1/8" thick there, so there's not enough room for a reinforcement like I used on the speedometer mounts. Instead, using a 3/32" bit, I drilled into the bezel at an angle, in several places at each mounting point. Then I drilled through the broken-off pieces, and using the same catalyzed spot putty, glued them back in place. Hopefully I'll get the pics attached in the proper order
Next I took and cleaned up the HVAC controls. '68's have some dial operated controls for the cables, along with two electrical switches, and three vacuum controls. I did take the lens off, and gave it a good cleaning, because I like to drive at night, and hate dirty, crappy, dim, instrument lights. The fan switch dial, or knob on most anything else, was broken, only allowing it to turn on the low speed (of four). Someone had pulled it's pigtail off and placed a jumper in it at some time, but I was able to wrap a cable tie around it and make it operable again. Some silicone lube on the vacuum controls, electronic cleaner on the switches, and white lithium drip on everything else, got everything back in order. A friend converted an old refrigerator compressor into a vacuum pump, and I used that as a source to check the action of the actuators. All checked out good, so we're back in biz there. The repaired fan switch, with it's red zip tie is to the left, the vacuum control for the heater valve is the same one used on '67-72 Chevy trucks, and probably everything GM for the period.
While I had the cluster out, I went ahead and polished up the lens, and tested all of the circuits. I'm always amazed at how pesky those little sockets that hold 194 bulbs can be to get working. Thinking about it some, I'll probably use some dielectric grease on them the next time around. I also checked the fuel gauge function, and all of the wires to the plug for continuity. AFAIK, Buick never put full instrumentation in Skylarks for '68, so I'll have the idiot lights to remind me to check the gauges. The clock is inop at present, I may break down and get a conversion done on it at some point, meanwhile it can be my excuse for being out late. The cluster is an assembly again, and ready to go back in the car. If anyone knows a locksmith who can make keys to fit old lock cylinders, I'm all ears.
One more post for the night, and that will be about windshield wipers. These cars came with concealed wipers, but, the base model GM A bodies came without. So, the base models use a wiper motor like a Nova, Camaro or Firebird, while the upmarket ones use a motor that is similar to a Square body pickup, with a different transmission. When the concealed wipers go into the park position, the wiper arm also takes a little jog to the left, pulling the wipers down below the hoodline (is that a word?) Anyway, the washer pump action, and the high and low speeds, are controlled from the ground, or negative, side. To test the wiper motor, the center terminal will be hot, and it will also be pigtailed to one side of the washer pump solenoid, relay, or what have you. Low speed will have the left and right terminals connected to ground, high speed will have the right terminal only connected to ground, and to park them, only the left terminal will be connected to ground. Most wiper switches will have a ground wire attached, although Buick used a dedicated ground wire to the plug for the switch. The washer pump will operate when it's other solenoid terminal is connected to ground. If you're having trouble getting things working, check the little brass ground strap that goes under the lower right mounting bolt. No ground there, no workie. Hopefully this will help someone who is having windshield wiper/washer trouble.
In last night's postings, I forgot to mention that I also replaced the insulation that is behind the dash, and under the cowl. Since I had some 1/2" thick foam rubber here, I used that, instead of sourcing repro stuff. The main runs under the cowl are approximately 8" wide, and the right side piece can be one long item, about 32" long. The piece for the left I broke down into 3 sections, to fit in between the steering column support. The other bits are random sizes and shapes, including one that goes behind the kick panel on AC equipped cars. I'll guess the extra weight will be worth it in noise reduction, and the cost was very low.
Thanks Greg, it crossed my mind to go ahead and do the same thing to the two remaining speedometer mounts, but I passed on them for now.
The Jalopy Journal
