Bernadine: 1978 Buick Regal Restoration/Build

[78Regal350]

Update, June 28, 2023: I got back home Monday night from a week-long family vacation, and last night started getting my ducks in a row so I could spray some high build primer today. I’m absolutely exhausted, but I was able to get 2 nice coats of high build on the body, trunk lid, and both doors. Over the next couple nights I plan to hang the doors back on the body to free up space in my “paint booth”, and hopefully this weekend I can get epoxy primer & high build on the fenders.

 

[78Regal350]

Update, July 2, 2023: I’ve got the trunk lid & doors mounted back on the body, but all of them still need final alignment adjustments before I end up doing any blocking.

 

[clean8485]

Looking good. Nice to see them when they're going back together, looking fresh.

 

[78Regal350]

Looking good. Nice to see them when they're going back together, looking fresh.

It’s definitely nice looking at the pictures of my progress, because it’s a great distraction from thinking about how much more still needs to be done. haha

 

[78Regal350]

Update, July 5, 2023: Another successful Wednesday thrash day is in the books. I started the day by getting the fenders in epoxy primer. After that I spent a considerable amount of time getting the doors/door hinges adjusted to what seemed to be right. Next I got a couple coats of high build on the fenders. I haven’t restored the core support yet, but I installed it next so I could rehang the fenders. After adequate drying time I got the inner fenders (also not yet restored) mounted back on the fenders and got them mounted on the car.

The passenger side door & fender seem to be aligned pretty well. They’re not ‘street rod of the year’ perfect, but they’re as good as they were when it was new, and that’s pretty much my goal. The driver side is definitely gonna need some more adjusting, so that’ll be added to the docket of things to get done in the next several days.

 

[old80cs]

Looking really good! Are you going to keep the factory wheels on it?

 

[78Regal350]

Looking really good! Are you going to keep the factory wheels on it?

Thanks!

It originally came with 14” steel wheels/standard Regal hubcaps, but I swapped to these 14” Buick Rally wheels when I was in high school. The plan I’ve had for a very long time was to do 15” (or maybe 14”) body-colored steel wheels with period-correct Buick dog dish caps, but lately I’ve been contemplating going back to the factory Regal hubcaps. Either choice would entail slightly wider wheels and probably a 275 tire in the rear & 235 tire in the front.

 

[78Regal350]

Update, July 13, 2023: Yesterday wasn’t as much of a thrash day as the other Wednesdays this summer, but I was able to get several necessary tasks completed.

I did some more adjusting to the driver door, and it’s now just about perfect for “factory fit/gaps”.

I also got the header panel hung back on the car. My original header panel was cracked, so I picked up this one about 10 or so years ago. It’ll take a little bit of adjusting, but considering it’s not original to the car the overall fit is really good.

The tail light extensions are original to the car, but I seemed to remember their fitment wasn’t the best. Turns out my memory was correct, cause they look pretty bad. The left extension will need a fair amount of work, but the right one is gonna need some serious manipulation.

The last task of the day involved the hood. The one I’m using is also not original to the car, and though it’s not rusted or bent up, it’ll end up needing a decent amount of time to be “perfect”.

Header panel and tail light extensions installed, doors, fenders, and trunk lid adjusted pretty damn close.

Poor-fitting left tail light extension, terrible-fitting right tail light extension.

All the original NVH rubber ‘glops’ from the hood. They had all separated from the underside of the hood skin, so I scraped them off the hood brace and applied new 3M NVH.

 

[78Regal350]

I almost forgot: I also put the front bench seat back in the car, because a) I wanted to sit in the car, and b) I wanted the seat off my garage floor.

But the best part of having the seat back in was getting to see my kids sit in the car for the first time ever.