Tomorrow I will be very happy. You see tomorrow my 1969 Buick Skylark will be making it's way via flatbed tow truck to Philadelphia to have it's transmission rebuilt.
This has been a long time in the works. Although I've had the car for going on 14 years, it's had it's share of ups and downs. When I first purchased it in 1990 it had 50,142 original miles on it. It was the ultimate in granny mobiles. I'm not kidding. I bought it off of my friend who had it left to him from his grandmother in her will. You know the story of the woman who only drove it to church on sundays. This was her. It was puke green and had ugly rims. An AM only radio that didn't work. Air conditioning that didn't work, but it was fast. Fast as hell. And that's what matters to a kid just out of High School.
It was my second project car. The first was a 1971 Pontiac GTO that just really wasn't in the condition to be restored, so after 2 grand I gave up and bought this car for $1800. My brother told me I was insane, because the GTO was more of a collector's item and this was, well, a granny mobile. Not to mention the GTO had been a project of his and he wanted to see it finished.
For the first few years I drove the car it was great. Never gave me a lick of trouble. But in 1992 I got hit in the rear quarter panel and that started a slippery slide down hill. The motor started having problems. Burning oil and over heating in the summer. This actually stemmed from the car having such low milage for it's age. The valve seals wore out from lack of lubrication. I ended up taking the car off the road for a year and tried to figure out the best plan of attack to start in on customizing and restoring it.
Once I had the money together the first thing I did was had the car lowered 4 inches and bought the wire wheels for it. I tracked down a few estimates for the body work and paint and finally got that started. Once she came back from being painted it was time to focus on the engine. Buick was always know for it's high torque motors and when this car was in it's prime it was strong. I wanted that back and more. We decided on switching it from a two barrel 350 to a four barrel, with a bigger cam, and added dual exhust. All that was left to do with this car now was the interior, or so I thought.
Without even putting on 6000 miles to the rebuilt motor I blew the transmission. I'd barely had a chance to break the thing in. So for the last 2 years she's been sitting and awaiting this day. It's taken so long for a number of reasons. Mostly financial. I had also gotten a little beater car for free to get around in the mean time and ended up putting about $2000 worth of work into that. A small price to pay for it in the end really cause it got me to work and back and was a fun car to drive, but nowhere near as fun as the Buick. And doesn't get any of the attention that the old classic does.
So tomorrow she'll be passed along to the trusted and faithful hands of Stiles who is going to whip her back into the best shape of her life. He's a good man and that's the reason she's going all the way down to have him work on her.
I can't wait to turn that key when she's done. That is going to be heaven to me.
UPDATE
So we got the Buick to Philly in one piece and despite her looking in rough shape and being on the back of a flatbed, she still gets as much attention as ever. Even the toll booth collector asked, "Oh, what year is that?"
It made me think back to this one date I had some years back. First time taking this girl out on a serious date and things went pretty well. So I'm driving her home in the morning and we stop at a red light. Everyone in the other cars are staring at us. Next red light same thing. And the one after. She asks, "Why is everyone staring at me this morning?" To which I replied, "Sorry doll, it's not you. It's the car they are staring at." Yeah, the last I heard from her was when I dropped her off.
This has been a long time in the works. Although I've had the car for going on 14 years, it's had it's share of ups and downs. When I first purchased it in 1990 it had 50,142 original miles on it. It was the ultimate in granny mobiles. I'm not kidding. I bought it off of my friend who had it left to him from his grandmother in her will. You know the story of the woman who only drove it to church on sundays. This was her. It was puke green and had ugly rims. An AM only radio that didn't work. Air conditioning that didn't work, but it was fast. Fast as hell. And that's what matters to a kid just out of High School.
It was my second project car. The first was a 1971 Pontiac GTO that just really wasn't in the condition to be restored, so after 2 grand I gave up and bought this car for $1800. My brother told me I was insane, because the GTO was more of a collector's item and this was, well, a granny mobile. Not to mention the GTO had been a project of his and he wanted to see it finished.
For the first few years I drove the car it was great. Never gave me a lick of trouble. But in 1992 I got hit in the rear quarter panel and that started a slippery slide down hill. The motor started having problems. Burning oil and over heating in the summer. This actually stemmed from the car having such low milage for it's age. The valve seals wore out from lack of lubrication. I ended up taking the car off the road for a year and tried to figure out the best plan of attack to start in on customizing and restoring it.
Once I had the money together the first thing I did was had the car lowered 4 inches and bought the wire wheels for it. I tracked down a few estimates for the body work and paint and finally got that started. Once she came back from being painted it was time to focus on the engine. Buick was always know for it's high torque motors and when this car was in it's prime it was strong. I wanted that back and more. We decided on switching it from a two barrel 350 to a four barrel, with a bigger cam, and added dual exhust. All that was left to do with this car now was the interior, or so I thought.
Without even putting on 6000 miles to the rebuilt motor I blew the transmission. I'd barely had a chance to break the thing in. So for the last 2 years she's been sitting and awaiting this day. It's taken so long for a number of reasons. Mostly financial. I had also gotten a little beater car for free to get around in the mean time and ended up putting about $2000 worth of work into that. A small price to pay for it in the end really cause it got me to work and back and was a fun car to drive, but nowhere near as fun as the Buick. And doesn't get any of the attention that the old classic does.
So tomorrow she'll be passed along to the trusted and faithful hands of Stiles who is going to whip her back into the best shape of her life. He's a good man and that's the reason she's going all the way down to have him work on her.
I can't wait to turn that key when she's done. That is going to be heaven to me.
UPDATE
So we got the Buick to Philly in one piece and despite her looking in rough shape and being on the back of a flatbed, she still gets as much attention as ever. Even the toll booth collector asked, "Oh, what year is that?"
It made me think back to this one date I had some years back. First time taking this girl out on a serious date and things went pretty well. So I'm driving her home in the morning and we stop at a red light. Everyone in the other cars are staring at us. Next red light same thing. And the one after. She asks, "Why is everyone staring at me this morning?" To which I replied, "Sorry doll, it's not you. It's the car they are staring at." Yeah, the last I heard from her was when I dropped her off.
VIEW 17 of 17 COMMENTS
[Edited on Mar 20, 2005 8:42PM]
can't wait to see this thing when she is done. it will be awesome