The Project

1964 Buick Skylark 2 door coupe

Chelsea has named him Charlie

This is the project vehicle





The engine

Not in the best of condition, a seized 4.9L V8 300 high compression engine. Looking for options other then a rebuild.

The doner

Purchased a doner car from the Sunshine Coast, unfortunately it has a lot of rust and it did cross my mind to restore it as well but its to far gone to be practical, it will live on in memory in what it contributes to the coupe. Great solid engine and drive train. The running gear will be swapped to the coupe chassis after it has been removed and painted.

The quarter from hell

A lot worse then i thought, but forward we go

Stripping the paint off

If anyone said this is easy then they are wrong, very time consuming, there was metal under the 4kgs of body filler i removed.

Its Shiny

A few hours later

Things you find

Steve found a Danger Noodle skeleton in the chassis rail

The Bonnet

Have progressed to Paint Stripper seems to work a lot better then sanding.

One Side Primed

slowly getting there

Off it comes

Removing the chassis was a difficult job with seized bolts with dirt  and dust caked everywhere.

Repairing the quarter

Think Steven missed his calling, maybe a panel beater is his second trade. Getting Closer

Steven showing Chelsea how to straighten a guard.

The bottom edge and the centre of the guard are slightly deformed, from memory it lost a wheel early 80's which came back and smacked the front left guard.

Starting on the dash

The dash was cut into multiple pieces when converted from left to right hand drive, removed all the old filler ground back to bare metal and now ready for new filler.

Chelsea tackled the front cowl, air cleaner and front bar and support braces

The Firewall

You may of noticed in an early picture how the firewall had a huge hole from the old heater box, unusable due to rust and corrosion decided was time to replace remake the whole front. Plated all the unused bolt holes and plated over the original hole, with of all things part of an old Ford XY bonnet Great practice for Chelsea learning how to apply filler. This also has a heatproof matt to be applied before the body goes back on the chassis.

Air Con Heater Box

Sometimes Ebay is the place for everything hard to find, located this heater and air con condenser fan unit and assumed it would fit. The fit is not as high as i hoped but once the console goes in it will be hidden from sight. The dash can now be final filled and prepped ready for painting.You can see one of the three original heater box holes to the left of the picture

The Back Window

Repairing the back window is now in Stevens hands. A bit of cutting, a bit of welding and some bog..

The Dash

Chelsea and I have been restoring the dash, sadly the coupe dash is destroyed  and the doner car dash although complete didnt fit correctly due to slight differences in the steering colom placement. The cluster must be made to suit the skills of the person fabricating the dash as both are completely different. Always up for a challenge sometimes you need to modify to make things fit.

Chassis off

Decided early on the body had to come off the chassis to replace brake lines and clean up floor and chassis. Swapped the drive train from the doner car to the coupe chassis. Much easier to do with out the body in the way. Most of the underbody has been finished. Sadly i deleted a folder of pictures which contained most of the pictures from this part of the build.

Drivers Door

Yeah whats a little rust between friends, once i started it just got worse. Trusty welder and grinder,  Chelsea and i had this door smashed out in a few hours.

Interior

Started doing some of the door trims, all the old trims are ruined and will need to be made from scratch. Wood work being my specialty it was easy to remake the door cards. Never done upholstery before but got to learn somehow..

Insulation

Started installing the shiny foil backed foam deadner, sticks ok but washing the inside of the car should help with adhesion. My son Luke has been helping with the foam install.

Rear Quarter

Like the drivers door this quarter was worse then expected. Slowly getting better at panel repair, patience is the key here slow and steady.