1987 Buick Regal Build

[307 Regal]

Any luck finding spacers yet?

 

[joesregalproject]

Yeah, I did find a set. I met up with turbov6 today, about an hour away from me at his garage, and got a set of spacers and bolts, and a front F41 sway bar and the brackets and bolts for it. Man, is that front bar a heavy SOB! I also got my old exhaust brackets sandblasted at school today in metal shop (How cool is that? I got to work on my car at school!), and I wire wheeled the rear sway bar and started wire wheeling the front one, since they didn't fit in the blast cabinet. I'll probably bring the spacers to school and blast those too. I also bought a set of front and rear bumper fillers off of tobyp, from his 84 Regal part out. I'll try to get pictures of all of this up within a few days!

 

[307 Regal]

Good stuff! I'll keep an eye out.

 

[joesregalproject]

Well I got the rear sway bar painted and on, and I cleaned up and painted the front sway bar. I also got new end links for it, as well as frame bushings. I will probably put it on tomorrow. Also, I got my intermediate pipe hung, after I sandblasted my old exhaust bracket. I went to start it up to see how it would sound, and the battery was dead. So I will go up to Walmart hopefully tomorrow, it's still under warranty, so I'll get a free one. Some pics-

 

[joesregalproject]

Well I got my F41 front sway bar in today. It was a bit more of a pain in the *ss than it had to be, but I did it. First problem was the idiot at Autozone only ordered one sway bar bushing, so I had to drive around the entire metropolitan Pittsburgh area trying to find another. After I did, I came home, bolted the bar in, and as I was putting the last bushing frame bolt in, the threads in the frame stripped. So I had to go to Home Depot and buy a metric 1.5x10 nut, and put it on the inside of the frame. It worked though, I was able to tighten it up okay after. I put the new end links on, tightened it all up, and now I'm set! F41 sway bar upgrade: Complete

 

[307 Regal]

Bummer on the threads. That happened to me too. We ended up re-tapping the frame for slightly larger bolts.

 

[joesregalproject]

Bummer on the threads. That happened to me too. We ended up re-tapping the frame for slightly larger bolts.

Yeah, I thought about doing that, but I took the farmer method instead and just used a nut inside the frame. What size bolts did you tap them out to?

 

[307 Regal]

Bummer on the threads. That happened to me too. We ended up re-tapping the frame for slightly larger bolts.

Yeah, I thought about doing that, but I took the farmer method instead and just used a nut inside the frame. What size bolts did you tap them out to?

Might have been 7/16 but it's been a while..

 

[joesregalproject]

Well, I finished my exhaust up today. I sandblasted and painted my old exhaust bracket which was awesome (or as put by the wood shop teacher at school who happens to be an old hippie "cool, dude" 8) ), I got my muffler on, and the tailpipe attached to it. There were some alignment issues with the pipe and the bracket but I was able to force them into place. My main concern with it is the tailpipe is behind the body by about a millimeter or two, which is means for failing inspection, so I may put a chrome exhaust tip on it to bring it out past the body. Also my fiberglass bumper fillers came in from tobyp (A+++ seller) so they will be making an appearance here soon.

 

[307 Regal]

That tailpipe almost looks like the stock geometry. It would be a shame if failed inspection. Are you sure that rule isn't just for side-exits in front of the rear wheels?