Okay, so, my project begins with a lil irony. I got my hands on an 85 Regal last year. The car was free, but to put it bluntly, needed some work. I live in Ohio and this car has been dying in Ohio till I got my hands on it. Rotted quarter panels, rotted passenger door (which was stuck closed), and most likely rotted floor. On the plus side it had a perfect front clip, nice clean blue interior, nice dash and good running 3.8. So I was on the lookout for a donor car, which I could get some doors. I was pretty sure with the salty state of things in Ohio (pun) that I wouldn't find a good set of quarters and rockers so I was pretty much prepared with having to fabricate my own.
Then I came upon my donor car, an 85 Cutlass. Good doors, good body, solid floors, frame. Bad interior, slightly hit front fender (tow truck that towed it ended up backing into the car). The car was an Arizona car. It spent a couple years in Ohio (sitting not driving due to the owners unfortunate string of luck), so there were a few signs of surface rust, but nothing major. And $1,00o later it was mine.
So after some thinking, and brainstorming, I kept coming up with the same conundrum. Do I want to cut up a perfectly solid rust-free Cutlass to repair a less than perfect Regal? I am a pure Regal guy, 100%, but a clean Regal out here would be few and far between and a little outta my price range. Not really a Cutlass guy, no offense to those who are, I just never really liked the front ends. But always thought the Regal's were the sheet.
Does anyone see where this is going yet?
I've got two very similar cars both of the same general gene pool and the same year and each one makes up for the others weaknesses and vice-versa. Two identical motors and drive trains. No matter what breaks I've got the replacement part 10 feet away. Never had that kind of luck before.
So here's the game plan:
Take solid Cutlass as base for project. Remove sh!tty (and I DO mean sh!tty) interior. Replace with clean Regal interior and dash. Remove hit front end from Cutlass and replace with Regal. Body work, then paint, then move on to new powerplant. Acquiring a used 383 for some sidework down the road.
So what do ya think? A promising project? All I need is for the rain and snow to go away.
Then I came upon my donor car, an 85 Cutlass. Good doors, good body, solid floors, frame. Bad interior, slightly hit front fender (tow truck that towed it ended up backing into the car). The car was an Arizona car. It spent a couple years in Ohio (sitting not driving due to the owners unfortunate string of luck), so there were a few signs of surface rust, but nothing major. And $1,00o later it was mine.
So after some thinking, and brainstorming, I kept coming up with the same conundrum. Do I want to cut up a perfectly solid rust-free Cutlass to repair a less than perfect Regal? I am a pure Regal guy, 100%, but a clean Regal out here would be few and far between and a little outta my price range. Not really a Cutlass guy, no offense to those who are, I just never really liked the front ends. But always thought the Regal's were the sheet.
Does anyone see where this is going yet?
I've got two very similar cars both of the same general gene pool and the same year and each one makes up for the others weaknesses and vice-versa. Two identical motors and drive trains. No matter what breaks I've got the replacement part 10 feet away. Never had that kind of luck before.
So here's the game plan:
Take solid Cutlass as base for project. Remove sh!tty (and I DO mean sh!tty) interior. Replace with clean Regal interior and dash. Remove hit front end from Cutlass and replace with Regal. Body work, then paint, then move on to new powerplant. Acquiring a used 383 for some sidework down the road.
So what do ya think? A promising project? All I need is for the rain and snow to go away.
). It would be different, but I don't know if that's a good differnt, it will be tough to get it to look right. Will the tail half of the buick swap over to the cutlass (trunk, corners, fillers, tail lamps, etc?) that would help the flow a bit.
:lol: )
