83 Buick Regal Estate Wagon 5.3 LS, bagged

Longroof79 · Jun 28, 2017

The car looks great, man.
I figured it would blow some minds of people walking by and looking at the engine compartment.
Thanks for sharing the pics...and keep up the good work. I envy you that you started out with a nice clean survivor.

zdeckich · Nov 16, 2017

Any more progress?

vandall · Nov 17, 2017

Well, not forward progress.. I've had some issue with the trans dipstick not being completely seated which led to my overfilling it and it puking fluid at one point. I need to pull the tube, re-bend it a little to clear the firewall and reinstall it securely. My major problem is when I was driving the wagon to the tuner it felt weird when I gave it throttle in 3rd gear it just revved with no movement at all.. it would be OK in the lower gears, or at least driveable. Well, I decided to turn back and thankfully so - when I checked the fluid I found the dreaded milkshake. A bunch of water had found it's way in there. Checked the Champion radiator with a pressure tester and it appears to be holding pressure fine. I am at a loss how so much water got in the transmission fluid. Hopefully I can get to it this weekend - I need to flush the system out thoroughly and re-fit the dipstick.

I hope to update soon with some good news! Thanks for checking in

87 elcojoe · Nov 24, 2017

You are an inspiration to us all.. awesome wagon . The fit and finish under the hood is clean.,, nice job!

vandall · Aug 6, 2018

Hi, thanks for all the replies and kind words! It makes this car seem more worth while knowing people appreciate it. Quick update, it had sat during the past winter in the shop just waiting to be worked on. I discovered (I am 99% sure) the transmission 3/4 clutches are toast.. which makes sense but I didn't realize the clutch material would make the fluid look milkshake colored. Really quick recap, I installed the new dipstick grommet (no idea why that would have been missing in the first place), then tested the trans cooler circuit in the radiator by putting pressure on it and letting it sit.. then flushed with gallons of trans fluid to get what I thought was watery fluid out.. and now it still has the color and the high gears are like being in neutral, but 1 and 2 are very snappy. The other issues I have to fix are the air lines still have a slow leak somewhere, and the body harness circuits need to be traced and fixed where necessary. Otherwise it's a fun car. Can't wait for it to be sorted..

Here's a pic of it and.. ooh, a peek at the next project coming up quick!

Longroof79 · Aug 6, 2018

The car still looks good, man.
Hope you get the trans sorted out. Don't be a stranger.😀

CaliWagon83 · Aug 6, 2018

vandall, sweet ride! You sure haven’t wasted any time tearing into it! Here’s mine. Still at mom’s (since she has the garage space) but just bought a new house with a little more space, so hoping to bring it down soon. I also am eventually planning an LS swap (probably an LS3 E-Rod, since I live in Commiefornia). In terms of gauges, have you checked out the Dakota Digital VHX cluster? It does require an ‘84-‘87 housing, but other than that, looks pretty slick, IMHO.