1987 Buick Regal Build

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YGspider said:
Its the good O'le case of good from far but far from good. And yes the Cutlass was sold and I miss it very much. Never will I ever purchase a old turbo car again haha but I love mine to death 😀

Why no more turbo'd cars? I have an 84 Type-T & addicted to turbo spool.. Currently looking for an 86-87 GN..
 
YGspider said:
Its the good O'le case of good from far but far from good. And yes the Cutlass was sold and I miss it very much. Never will I ever purchase a old turbo car again haha but I love mine to death 😀

The guy who got that Cutlass is lucky to have it. In all the pictures of that Buick, it looks almost like new paint. I guess that's camera distortion.
 
well, I've decided a color. and it is none of the original three. I picked dark garnet red met. the black cherry pearl was too dark, it looked black. won't be long now!
 
Re: 1987 Buick Regal Build- Body Bushing Q's

I was under my car last week and I noticed my body bushings were in rough shape. how difficult is it to change them? how long do they take to change, and do they really need to be changed? how invasive of a process is it?and if I do it myself, what tools will I need and what will the cost be for new bushing and bolts?
 
Re: 1987 Buick Regal Build- Body Bushing Q's

Not to hard to change them, just use a floor jack and a board to lift a section of the body off of the frame and swap them out. The difficultly of the job depends how rusty your car is. You may run into frozen bolts that may snap off or spin the cage nuts which require cutting and welding the floorpans to fix. You also may run into your frame being rusted out around the body mount holes, again this will require cutting and welding in a frame repair washer. The passenger side number 2 mounts almost always needs a frame repair washer. Replacing the mounts will make the car ride like new again, and help prevent cracks in the body. How hard of a job it will be depends on how good of a shape your car body and frame are in. Just be ready for some welding.
 
Re: 1987 Buick Regal Build- Body Bushing Q's

In regards to the body bushing replacement, I just did it on my '86 Limited. Again, like it was said previously, as long as the bolts aren't rusted into the cage nuts and end up spinning, it shouldn't be too hard. I'd do it in these steps:

1.) Get under the car and break the body bolts loose if they will. I got lucky with mine and they all came loose without any issues. There really isn't any way to tell just by looking at them whether or not My rear frame rails were replaced so the rears were already in there from when that was done, but that's a whole other story. The bolts back there were almost completely rotted to a nothing on the non-threaded part (where the bushing/metal sleeve goes) but the threads were perfectly clean with the factory phosphate coating still on them (!). Otherwise if they won't break loose and the cage nut ends up spinning you'll have to cut into the floor to access it.

2.) At this point if all the bolts come loose you can then decide if it's worth it or not. Whether they do or don't they should be replaced regardless. Taking both bumpers off in preparation isn't a bad idea, but with mine the front only interfered with the bumper fillers when the body was lifted. Take the bolts completely out of the one side and loosen the other side, then jack the body up and slide in the new bushings. Hand thread the new bolts into the side your are working on then repeat for the other side.

I used this link for guidance but did not follow it completely:

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/bodygau ... hings.html
 
Re: 1987 Buick Regal Build- Body Bushing Q's

I am still replacing my body mounts on my Regal. It's is a rust free car, all the bolts came out without any problems, but I found my frame was rusted out around where the passenger side number 2 body mount goes. Not as rust free as I thought. So I had to pull the passenger side fender off, lift the front corner of the body up as high as I can, and weld in a frame repair washer on top of the frame there. The rain water drain from the HVAC box dumps water on that body mount, making that part of the frame very common to rust out. A quick look on the net shows the number 2 (behind the front wheels) and 6 (behind the rear wheels) body mount holes are the most common spots needing weld repair on these cars.

http://www.montecarloss.com/community/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=220140&page=1
 
Thanks for the answers on the body bushings. I will probably do them eventually, sometime after paint. Mine aren't crumbling to pieces, but they are a little ripped up. Anyways, i went to get a quote from Meineke for my exhaust yesterday, which is a very simple setup, (stock until it gets to the muffler, then uses dual GN tailpipes) and i already supplied the muffler and I only wanted it new from the intermediate pipe, back, and a new crossover pipe. The guy at Meineke(who was difficult to deal with and acted like exhaust work was rocket science) comes back with a quote for over $600. :shock: i said "uh-huh", and walked out the door. then i went over to NAPA, and they were able to get both tailpipes for $45 a piece, the intermediate pipe for $30, and the crossover pipe for $45. So, all in all, $160 in parts, so that means he was charging me $440 in labor and shop charges for a bolt-together exhaust system? I wont be returning to Meineke anytime soon. :x
 
joesregalproject said:
Thanks for the answers on the body bushings. I will probably do them eventually, sometime after paint. Mine aren't crumbling to pieces, but they are a little ripped up. Anyways, i went to get a quote from Meineke for my exhaust yesterday, which is a very simple setup, (stock until it gets to the muffler, then uses dual GN tailpipes) and i already supplied the muffler and I only wanted it new from the intermediate pipe, back, and a new crossover pipe. The guy at Meineke(who was difficult to deal with and acted like exhaust work was rocket science) comes back with a quote for over $600. :shock: i said "uh-huh", and walked out the door. then i went over to NAPA, and they were able to get both tailpipes for $45 a piece, the intermediate pipe for $30, and the crossover pipe for $45. So, all in all, $160 in parts, so that means he was charging me $440 in labor and shop charges for a bolt-together exhaust system? I wont be returning to Meineke anytime soon. :x

Unfortunately that is what you'll come across from time to time when paying to get something done on your vehicle. The more you know how to do the better off you are, not that there is anything wrong with paying someone to do something on your car. There are different sources for exhaust parts as well, I believe NAPA sells Walker products, which tend to be the lower priced ones. I paid about $100 for a pair of stainless tailpipes from an unknown source (custom made?), but unlike what you'll buy at a store these don't have any wrinkles since they must have been mandaral bent. The other tricky part is your hangers and getting everything level, I got lucky with my tailpipes in that they had factory Grand National hangers welded to them. But now is the time to learn.
 
kustomkyle said:
joesregalproject said:
Thanks for the answers on the body bushings. I will probably do them eventually, sometime after paint. Mine aren't crumbling to pieces, but they are a little ripped up. Anyways, i went to get a quote from Meineke for my exhaust yesterday, which is a very simple setup, (stock until it gets to the muffler, then uses dual GN tailpipes) and i already supplied the muffler and I only wanted it new from the intermediate pipe, back, and a new crossover pipe. The guy at Meineke(who was difficult to deal with and acted like exhaust work was rocket science) comes back with a quote for over $600. :shock: i said "uh-huh", and walked out the door. then i went over to NAPA, and they were able to get both tailpipes for $45 a piece, the intermediate pipe for $30, and the crossover pipe for $45. So, all in all, $160 in parts, so that means he was charging me $440 in labor and shop charges for a bolt-together exhaust system? I wont be returning to Meineke anytime soon. :x

Unfortunately that is what you'll come across from time to time when paying to get something done on your vehicle. The more you know how to do the better off you are, not that there is anything wrong with paying someone to do something on your car. There are different sources for exhaust parts as well, I believe NAPA sells Walker products, which tend to be the lower priced ones. I paid about $100 for a pair of stainless tailpipes from an unknown source (custom made?), but unlike what you'll buy at a store these don't have any wrinkles since they must have been mandaral bent. The other tricky part is your hangers and getting everything level, I got lucky with my tailpipes in that they had factory Grand National hangers welded to them. But now is the time to learn.

that's correct, they were walker, but they were aluminized, and the car will never see rain or snow again, so its not worth paying extra for stainless. Its not that I can't put an exhaust on myself, but I just figured with all the stuck bolts and such, it might be easier to drive it a half mile down the road and have someone else do it in a couple hours.
 
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