BUILD THREAD Saved from scrap. My new 87 Regal project.

[Cauterize]

Ive crossed everything off the bench top list and the car is booked in for its safety inspection on Friday.
Over the weekend I pulled the column apart and tightened the sloppy tilt. Only 1 of the 4 bolts was even threaded in.


Last night after work I dropped the transmission pan and removed the old filter and crusty gasket.
Today I put a new Wix filter/gasket in and filled it back up.

Pulled the car out of the garage and gave it a quick wash before a lap around the Crescent.
With my camper van in storage Ive got a lot more driveway space.

Tomorrow Ill clean the actual driveway up and probably wash and detail the Xtreme. Its gotten pretty grungy the last few weeks.

 

[Cauterize]

I guess it's time for a proof of life/update on the Regal.
To update my last post I did take the car in for it's safety inspection that following Friday. Car ran and drove great that morning when I dropped it off the mechanic.
The wife even snuck a photo of it while I ran into the store.

My coworker was off that day and stopped by the shop who did the safety inspection. He also sent me a photo.

This is the last photo of the 1/4 panel looking like this.
After picking the car up from the safety inspection with just a few minor non-fail issues I was excited to get the car home and get the insurance and registration finalized so I could cruise it when Rktpwrd would be down for Street Wheeler's the following weekend.
I made it a total of about 4 blocks from the shop before the rear driver side wheel came off. It damaged the 1/4 and rocker and slammed the car down onto the pavement. There was no shake or any sense of a loose wheel until the car suddenly reared up when I hit the brakes to slow down for a stop sign.
Called the mechanic to ask what in the actual fu*k. He immediately sent his kid out with a jack so we could get the car off the ground and the wheel and brake drum back on. Unfortunately the wheel cylinder blew a piston out and the car had to come home on the hook.
I'm just incredibly happy this happened in the industrial park and not on the highway on the way back to my house. As crappy as this is, if this were to happen anywhere else on my drive home it could have been so much worse.


Apparently he never even took the wheels off for this so called "safety" inspection. I call BS. He had no interest in making it right let alone taking any responsibility for what had happened. I had been a customer for years and refered many other customers to his shop.
The following day I did put one of my spare wheel cylinder's in and put the car back into the garage where it would sit for months before I installed my spare brake shoes, drum and give it a bleed.

The entire debacle kind of soured me on the car for the rest of the summer. It got relegated to the Garage. While the Xtreme entered a few car shows and was enjoyed all summer as my weekend golf club hauler and cruiser.
I have knocked a bit of the dent out of the 1/4 and have found a body shop that will try and make time in the spring to give a pull on the rocker and wheel arch.

Thats all for now. I do have some more posts to make to catch up on what i've been working on. But that's for another day.

 

[Rktpwrd]

That was a raw deal for sure brother.
But you’ve persevered and put it behind you, now you can move on to bigger and better things. The quarter looks much better already just with the little bit you’ve already done. I have faith that a lot of it should come back into shape once they give it a good pull on the frame rack.

Looking forward to you continuing to update us all on the build!

 

[Longroof79]

That sucks about the wheel coming off like that. Like you said, fortunately you were still in the industrial park when it occurred.
All in all, it could've been a lot worse. You ironed out most of the 1/4. With a little fine tuning hammer and dolly work, it should be like it never happened.
So much for safety inspections, eh?
Nice solid car.

 

[Cauterize]

That sucks about the wheel coming off like that. Like you said, fortunately you were still in the industrial park when it occurred.
All in all, it could've been a lot worse. You ironed out most of the 1/4. With a little fine tuning hammer and dolly work, it should be like it never happened.
So much for safety inspections, eh?
Nice solid car.

Thanks man.
Kind of a crap situation, but may as well make the best of it.
Hope to have some more updates written up when I get back from my hunting trip next week.

 

[SoFloG]

Great looking car! We share the same blue tones

 

[Ugly1]

Have a coat of clear over the original paint to leave the patina and enjoy. Sweet saving it from the crusher.

 

[Cauterize]

I guess it's time for an update. On post #26 I had a bit of a sneak peek at an engine my Father in Law acquired for me. It's a Gen 4 6.0 L96 it was sitting in the box of a truck his neighbor had bought at an auction. He picked it up for $400 for me but refused to accept any payment and said merry early birthday.

Once I pulled off the Manifolds I had 3 broken bolts, 2 twisted out with just vice grips. The 3rd fought me pretty hard. After welding multiple nuts to the broken off bolt it twisted off well below the bolt hole.


What finally worked was building up some weld on the broken off bolt and twisting it out with the vice grips while red hot.
I was finally ready to get into this thing to see what I actually have. I drained the oil and it looked good not too dirty.

When I got the engine the passenger side valve cover was off and the engine spun nice and freely. BUT...
The push rods and rockers were missing. So I had a set of exhaust rockers from my LQ4 and ordered up some intake rockers. Slapped them on... and it only spins about 3/4 of a turn and binds up.
So we dig in.


Very clean on the inside, and I start to get some insight on why it was pulled.



Ruh Roh.

Once I pulled the cam gear I found my issue. A broken cam pin. Apparently this is common with these engines and there was even a service bulletin put out for them

The rest of the engine looked pretty good. Main bearings all looked nearly new. 1 rod bearing had a scratch in it but the crank was still very smooth..

 

[doood]

what the hell with the wheel coming off? That mechanic deserves retaliation.