BUILD THREAD 81 Buick/Olds Turbo Wagon 02/15/2024 More Parts!

[liquidh8]

Re: 81 Century/GN Wagon build-up 56K beware!!

Got the fender fillers 1st and second stage made. I made the forms, layed the glass and got the shape. Pulled the pform off this morning, and put the spray foam on the wheel well flare area, so when it cures I can shape it and glass over it. I also put some more mat on the lower backside, along with a flange, so i can attach it to the lower part of the fender. Pics later tonight. 😀

 

[liquidh8]

Re: 81 Century/GN Wagon build-up 56K beware!!

Pics, we all like pics, at least I do!

Here are the fender fillers, the part between the front wheel and the bumper, after the first layer of fiberglass. I only did on initially because I have to make the wheel flare, the glass over it again. When it is all said and done, they’ll be 3-4 layers of mat.

Here is the passenger side just taped on, to make sure it still fits like I planned, I have it taped on a bit crooked I know, I just wanted to get the pics.

Then I layed some sprayfoam down, so i can sand it and shape the wheel well flare, to continue from the fender down the fender filler

Here is the backside of both, with another layer of mat and resin, along with the flange to attach it to the lower part of the fender.

When it is all one color, everybody will begin to see how it's really gonna look. I am going to get out in my shop tonight and sand on the foam, and hopefully get that glassed over.

 

[dogsht]

Re: 81 Century/GN Wagon build-up 56K beware!! update 2/21/1

Never been a wagon fan or a fan of that year front end Buick, that said I really like this car & project. Big fan of the GN motor and the interesting different fun fast even fuel efficient (big bonus nowdays) swaps that have been done with it. The only thing I don't love about this car is the chevy rallies. I like them they just do not fit this car at all. If you like em all respects to your car and your opinion as its the one that matters here. I would do the old Buick chrome ralleys 15x7 up front and 15x8s in the rear. Regardless kudos on a very cool project. 8)

 

[liquidh8]

Re: 81 Century/GN Wagon build-up 56K beware!! update 2/21/1

Dogshit, thanks for the compliment. I too hate the front end of this year Buick too, that's why I am going thru so much work to change it up, lol. I like the wagons, but I like the Buick/Olds wagon body lines better. Hopefully it'll turn out like I want. An updated version of and 80's car, haha. Anyhow, the rally's are on there just to move the car around. I have 17x8 Bullit wheels on the Malibu that are getting put on this, then I will be upgrading to BOSS 338's, 18x8 front, 18x9.5 rear. 😀 It still need to get the suspension transplanted to it yet too, so it'll be lower, same height as the Malibu Wagon I have.

 

[khan0165]

Re: 81 Century/GN Wagon build-up 56K beware!! update 2/21/1

I'm staying tuned to this thread!
Awesome build Mr. Liquid!

 

[-83MONTESS-]

Re: 81 Century/GN Wagon build-up 56K beware!! update 2/21/1

Man this project is moving fast! Keep up the good work man!

 

[liquidh8]

Re: 81 Century/GN Wagon build-up 56K beware!! update 2/21/1

Thanks. I have been trying to get out there and do some work each night. I don't wanna start slinging mud on the glass parts till the weather gets nicer, so I am not messing up my garage more then it is. But, it's perfect right now, I do 1-2 hours of work at night when I can, and since fiberglass is like that, ie, lay it and wait, it's moving along. I have some more pics to post up later tonight.

I am also gonna to make a new case for the car PC, I need it to fit under the passenger seat. So when i can start making a cardboard template, I'll post pics of that progress also.

 

[liquidh8]

Re: 81 Century/GN Wagon build-up 56K beware!! update 2/21/1

Here are a few more pics. The expanding foam, even though the can says it's poplyester based, still got ate up ny the polyester resin, so... the wheel flare ended up flattening out. No biggie, i have a fix. So I just kept trucking, I fitted it to the fender again, got all the fasteners where I wanted them, and added tabs to the front of the fender filler, ala Monte SS. This way it isn't flapping in the wind 😀 I layed 2 more layers of mat down over everything, laying it a little big, so i can trim and sand to exact size.

Here are just a few pics of when I was laying more glass to the fascia. I needed to incorporate the slots for the tabs, to keep it all locked together, I also need to build it up a bit, since the fascia was low where it met the fender filler. I could have used glass re-enforced filler, but that is the ghetto way out, I don't want a 1/2" of filler, like I have seen.

The prospective of the pics is a little off, the spoiler and filler, are as low as they were on a stock Malibu. But it'll all tie into the rockers and all in the future.
Oh, and the masking tape on the header by the grill, is an idea I have to push the grill opening forward to the front of the bumper, making the front a little more pointy, and not so flat. Kinda like a GP.

 

[liquidh8]

Re: 81 Century/GN Wagon build-up 56K beware!! update 3/16/1

I haven’t updated the thread in a bit. I have been busy getting all my personal stuff in order; I’ll be out of a job the end of next week. I have also been helping my Brother build his 2 car garage. But, I did get to do some work on my carPC and get started on the rear. As always, all the pics, and more, are on my cardomain site. I had a bit more progress on the front fascia too.

First, the fascia. I think I am going to carry the body line/bump, from the front bumper around to the side, I think it’ll look better. If you were to look down at the corner of the header/bumper, it doesn’t seem to flow right, but with the bump, it does. The tape near the headlight bucket, is something I think I am going to add, but in fiberglass, to smooth the front end out more. I think it will flow better.

With out

You can see I rough sander it all down, and got it rough fitted, should be ready for glass filler in a few weeks, I have more to do, but when I get laid off I can make some real headway. Here you can see the metal tabs I added to look the fender filler into the front fascia.

For now, that’s about all I got done on the fascia

I fabbed the intercooler scoop also, made it out of 7075-0, .63”thick aluminum. I drilled and tapper the panels to hold it all together with some 8-32 SS screws.

The carPC, if anyone is really interested in the specs, I can post them. But in a nut shell, I have a 7” touchscreen going in a new dash insert I’ll be building. And I have the PC part, going in the console. I had a case, but it was too big to put anywhere that looked good. I will have the engine ECM and WB and stereo, GPS, Bluetooth, etc, all tied in to the carpc.
View of the backside

Top view without the cables and all

Looking through the top of the console, under the radio area.

Bottom view

Another top

Hard drive mount, using rubber isolators.

Some cables and relays. One relay is for the main power switch, and the other is controlled by the DC-DC power supply, to soft start the amps and EQ’s

For the rear, I bought these seal inserts from member SLIMBO from MR. I have a QP housing I bought 5 years ago, never got to use it till now. But there are no seats for the axle seals; here is the fix, to install these adapters in the housing, under the bearing.

The problem I had is the axle tubes aren’t dead center of the centersection and the housing ends. Kind of like they put the end and center in the jig, and just let the tube lay to the bottom and called it good, WTF! :evil:

So, I had to file the seal adapters down to get them to fit in the axle tube, took a few hours with a flat file, but I got it done.

I took the disc brakes off of the 7.5” rear, and decided I wanted to go bigger. I had 10.5” rotors, and Eldorado calipers on it. I’ll be going to the 2 Local U-pull-its on Friday to try and get either the LS1 rear brakes, or the blazer rear brakes. I really only need the ebrake backing plates and calipers. I am going to use 12” rotors.

That’s it for the update. I’ll get more pictures as I get some more parts and supplies.

 

[liquidh8]

Re: 81 Century/GN Wagon build-up 56K beware!! update 3/16/1

Just a little progress over the weekend. I have been holding off on any further fiberglass or body work, it has been rainy and humid here, and I would rather finish the fiber glass work outside, instead of wearing a mask and doing it inside messing my shop up more. :| :|

I always had plans of upgrading the brakes to something larger, right now I have the stock 10.5” front discs, and a hybrid Camaro/Eldorado 10.5” rear disc set-up. After doing some reading, I figured I’d go with either the Blazer 11.6” rear discs or the LS1 12” rears. I wanted the drum style parking brake, and the aluminum PBR calipers. So, I hit the junk yards and found a 2000 Blazer 4wd rear disc set-up, I pull all the parts, other than the rotors, and brought then home. After 2 hours of welding and cutting and new hole drilling, I fit it onto my rear, and no go. I could't get the alignment right. I have a Ford 9”, and the 2.9” tall 2wd Blazer rotors would require me to put the bracket RIGHT where the axle flange already is. I could use 4wd rotors, but then the calipers would hit the frame, so I decided to source the LS1 Camaro rear set-up, at 2.5” tall, and a 12” rotors, now I can get the calipers closer to the wheel, and a bigger diameter. Lucky for me a member on the turbobuick boards had a front/rear set-up, and I bought the rears, another dude bought the fronts from him. I also got the front twin piston calipers and abutments from the Blazer. So I’ll be turning two stock, and I mean from the 1979, rotors down to make hubs to fit some 13 or 14 inch C5/C6 rotors on the front. I’ll be getting the rears in the mail in about a week.

The rotors look pretty big, my hand is laying on the rotor, just to reference size.

I also did some work on my adjustable coil spring cups. I bought them from Speedway a few years back, and have been running AFCO coils on the front and rear of the Malibu Wagon; it is all going on the Buick. The springs are 5 ½” in diameter, the rears are single pigtail, and the fronts are I think 9.5” tall. Anyway, the nut on the adjustable cups aren’t quite 5 ½” in diameter, and there was nothing on the adjuster to keep the spring located on center on it. The back ones would move around and was rubbing the threads. So, I took some 1” angle iron, cut a bunch of 1” pieces, and welded 4 of them to each adjuster. This keeps the coils located on center from the outside of the spring.

These are just the rears, when I get the fronts out of the Malibu Wagon I'll do those too. They may have changed the design since then, I don't know. But I would never go back. I love this set-up! Especially getting to adjust the ride height up/down 2 inches. 😀