BUICK 1964 Skylark Coupe Project

[CopperNick]

CK80, your notion is valuable and very much worth consideration. Sort of like the old Stage Coaches that moved goods and people from station to station before the advent of the train.

Only uncontrolled variables I can see having an impact are trust and dependability. Really have to own a high level of trust to depend on someone you have never met to act as a link in a transportation chain bringing parts from somewhere to you. Using myself as an example, I don't have what I feel is a high degree of trust anymore. As I have aged, it has dropped. In point of fact about the only thing in which I trust is the probability that Murphy is perpetually lurking around the corner and waiting to cause a glitch or snafu.


As for Joe's new digs, any rabbit hole can easily be made deeper by the application of a shovel and some sweat equity. Looks like, in his case, he has the sweat equity thing pretty much down pat.



Nick

 

[joesregalproject]

And burnouts. I forget Joe, how deep are you going with this? I know you're trying to stay out of the rabbit hole.

I am trying to avoid rabbit holes with this. The outside and the jambs of the car will be stripped to bare metal. The underside of the car isn't gonna get much more than a good cleaning, the frame will get some paint touch up, not much more. Inside the trunk and passenger compartment, maybe some of the firewall is where I'm going to utilize a combination of POR-15, primer, and simply just scuffing some of the existing paint. Stripping to metal in those areas is just too much work and not enough reward.

For primer, I'm cheating and using a DTM 2K Urethane that is a one step deal vs. using an epoxy and a primer surfacer. Still has excellent corrosion protection and it saves some work. Same stuff I used on my turquoise F150.

 

[joesregalproject]

I borrowed a pressure pot blaster from a friend and man, that thing kicks *ss. My little compressor will only run it for about a minute at a time but it really works well. If I can get a compressor strong enough to run it I can strip a lot of this car very fast.

Anyways, I sprayed primer today. Gonna need some filler work in this area where the SCT ate some of the lead out of the seams and where I had to grind the pitted areas, but that will come later.

 

[joesregalproject]

Got the hood stripped today. Had two layers of very thick, gummy lacquer on in. My SCT strip wheel is down to nothing so I had to do the drivers side with 4.5" strip discs on the grinder and the DA.

I'm also out of primer, so I gotta go drop some money at the body supply shop.

 

[CopperNick]

That's Bee-yoot-iful. Gotta get one of those SCT's for myself and soon.


Nick

 

[joesregalproject]

Got primer on the hood today. Like everything else so far, this isn't bodyworked, just getting things stripped and rust free so I have a clean slate to work from. For the most part this hood was very straight though. Couple small dings and the one corner needs a little straightening.

You can't really see it in the picture but I got some tiger striping in the primer on the second coat. Not sure if that was a gun issue or if my wrist started getting lazy. Not that it matters with primer but it's something I'll be keeping an eye on.

 

[CopperNick]

And that is the next step for me as well. Box panels and front fender eyebrows. If the weather cooperates for heat.



Nick

 

[joesregalproject]

We're well overdue for an update, or at least a proof-of-life post. Unfortunately I haven't gotten anything of note done on the Skylark lately. Not out of lack of interest, I just haven't had much time or extra funds for it the last several months. I've got school and work full time right now and it has my schedule absolutely filled. What little extra time I've had has gone into my late grandfather's Lacrosse that was left to me, trying to get it ready to use as a winter ride, and I've put a lot more time into it than I'd have preferred. At this point it is more or less up to spec, and I don't anticipate much more than oil changes on it for a while.

This weekend being Thanksgiving, I had some time to push the Skylark out of the garage, air up the tires and blow the dust off of it, and clean up its garage space. It hasn't become a coatrack, nor will it, just not much new to report. So it may be slow going on the Skylark till we get to early spring but I fully anticipate having the car close to paintwork or (optimistically) painted by late summer.

Nothing new to see, but posts without pictures are lame, so here's a few shots from today.

 

[CopperNick]

Probably posted all the work shots for the S-10 P/U box and front fender in the non G Body project forum. The work did get done and fall vehicle rotation occurred the week after Canadian Thanksgiving.


Nick

 

[DRIVEN]

The fit and finish on the passenger side actually looks really good by 60s GM standards.