My dad got this 1967 Buick Special in 1988 when I was 2. He's the 2nd owner. I drove it all through high school until the tranny went out. It's been sitting for almost for 16 years, 15 outside.
She is full of rust. FULL. Many body panels will need to be replaced, I understand that. Luckily I have space in the garage and can finally start to make her roadworthy.
The to do list:
-Replace the drums with power disc all the way around.
-Rechrome and/or Polish all trim & bumpers
-Paint or coat the frame and under carriage to mitigate further corrosion.
-Paint the body.
-New electrical and wiring harness.
Done so far:
-Engine/Tranny swap for Chevy 350 (Buick would be cooler but parts & power are cheaper).
-New Floor Plans.

I'm really not sure where to start on this thing. I'm not up for doing a body off restoration, but I'm not necessarily in a hurry or on a budget with the understanding it will take years. I know it's a rust bucket, but it's my rust bucket full of memories. Any thoughts or input?
Any way to prevent bare metal from flash rusting if I strip the panels myself before sending to the body shop?
If you've got an old car with sentimentle value, share a pic
Buick by Tim Reed, on Flickr

Get it running and driving and do the engine stuff you want to do first. It's REALLY hard to start a major car restoration start to finish, without driving and enjoying the car and becoming attached to it first. Would be best to paint the frame, and then engine bay before you plop the new engine in it. but then do the mechanicals, get it running driving, enjoy it, THEN do the body work and paint.

That quite the project you undertaking

Here is my sentimental car.

Some words of caution. The same rust that attacked the sheet metal will have also been attacking the frame. Because there are holes for access to various fasteners which let water in, frames can also rot from the inside. Check it very carefully, as well as the body mountings, before doing anything else.

fifteen years sitting outside does not bode well for the condition of the frame. However the condition of the bumpers is actually hopeful. Because if it had been sitting in a field exposed to growing grass those bumpers would look a lot worse. BTW, when you find out the cost to have all that chrome restored you'll decide painted trim is just fine. I'll also tell you the cost to do this properly will likely run to 20K plus if you paint the bumpers and over 40 for a complete restoration with chromed trim.

Suggestions:

Online sources AACA.org (Antique Auto Club of America), big Buick following there. also they have their own forum there also. Costs nothing to join the online group, get in there and start posting. I used to be pretty into that forum but have kind of gotten away as my Buick is hot rodded, a 55 on a later frame with a 455 Buick.

Buick Club of America, you can search them out and join that club, a big help to be in a club like that. They probably have a Indianapolis chapter, also good to network in chapters.

Car-part.com, an online locator for both professionals and regular customers like yourself.
That decklid (trunk) looks pretty rusty. I searched Car-part and found three of them, the closest one in Alabama will not ship, also the most reasonably priced at 125 The other two, one in California and the other in Washington are 200-and 300. They can probably arrange shipping if you go that way or you could try a Fastenal store, I understand that they will ship from store to store at what has been said a reasonable price,it has to be taken and picked up as they do not do door to door delivery, just another idea if you go that way.

On chroming bumpers, the last set I had done were for my 55 Buick, that was in 2002 and with a break on price as the car dealer I worked at did a lot of business with them, it cost me 1200 bucks. Six years before my 67 Pontiac 2+2 bumpers front and rear was 750. the Buick was a bit harder with more pieces too. I would guess today that both of those would be at least double the price if not more.

Another source:https://www.budsalvage.com/ I used them a couple of times, a bit slow but not a deal killer, took a couple of weeks for them to take the parts off two cars and ship and it was a small order. At least they filled it.

Another thing, this year is pretty much a washout but looking to the future some of the bigger hot rod meets like the NSRA or GoodGuys might be worthwhile. GoodGuys used to have an event in Indy but the swap meet was not all that great, the one in Columbus Ohio was much better, this is from the years I sold GM Performance Parts at these meets from 2011 through 2014. Another thing may be to find out where and when the Buick Club will have their national meet and if close enough go there. Also in Peyotone Illinois in early June each year was a one day meet, heavy on Chevy parts but some other stuff shows up too. At the fairgrounds, again don't know when or if it will happen this year but something to look into maybe?

This car is done, it started as a body shell sitting for ten years on a farm in New Mexico parked and partially stripped

https://www.flickr.com/photos/...m-72157602902595853/

Don't know how much help I can be but my email is in my profile.

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:

This car is done, it started as a body shell sitting for ten years on a farm in New Mexico parked and partially stripped

https://www.flickr.com/photos/...m-72157602902595853/

Error 403: You Need To Be Signed In To See This

Talk to anyone who has done it before, then talk to their wives before undertaking this project. If you're not willing to strip all the panels off and do frame properly it might not be worth doing at all.

Time to call the Garage Squad

This probably isn't what you want to hear …

I had a '66 2 Door Chevy Impala that I loved. But by the mid-80s, the frame rusted damn near in half. Not to mention all the other rust it had. Back in the '60s, GM made no effort whatsoever to keep 'em from rusting. Some would say GM wanted them to rust out to ensure future sales. So don't do anything until you KNOW the extent of the rust, particularly to the frame.

Back to my car: I realized how foolish it would be to undertake restoring such a common plain-Jane vehicle when I could have bought one in much better condition and saved a boat load of time and money.

I was told by others who did a complete restoration that they wished they'd never started it.
They said:
"However long you think it will take, double it. Then double it again. Then do the same for how much you think it will cost. Then don't do it!"

Click on the photo to enlarge. Sorry about the earlier link.

A restoration, not necessarily a full frame off, just a clean up, repair and basic restoration of major issues will be costly and will require quite a bit of commitment from you and your wallet. If you had to ask this question you probably shouldn't do it. My brother is about 50% complete of a full frame off restoration of a 1975 Triumph Spitfire. It's taken him 6 years and a lot of money to get to where he is. Taking into account that he and I grew up in the automotive service and repair business and have owned our own mechanic and body shops that's a lot of blood, sweat, tears and money for a car that even when completed will not bring in any where near what he will have invested.

This is a project that you do because you want; it brings you joy not associated with financial gain. Food for thought, don't let anyone unduly influence you in any way. Your money, time and effort.

Another thought I had. Put a bad ass motor in it and some nice wheels on it and leave the body exactly like it is. That's kind of in style these days anyways...……..

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:


Click on the photo to enlarge. Sorry about the earlier link.

. American racing or Keystone mags?

I inherited a ‘59 MG-A that I had fond memories of cruising around in as a little kid in the ‘70s. Unfortunately the car was parked and sat for 35+ years. My heart said restore it. I wasn’t looking for show quality, just something to drive on the weekend. My brain won out and I sold it. No room to work, tools, or skills was a big part of it. I could have made it work financially. The time sink was also an issue. My wife told me she didn’t want me to regret getting rid of the car. I realized I was much more likely to regret doing it when the cost and time doubled.

My biggest piece of advice is to not take it all apart at once. Find an area you want to fix/restore, and work on that area. Keep it running/driving at all times.

Parts from Buick/Olds/Pontiac (BOP) are interchangeable for the most part. Chevy stuff usually isn't.

I too would inspect the frame. The floor pans and body panels can be replaced, but the frame is very important.

Good luck!

As others have said, I definitely wouldn't underestimate the level of project this is. If there is that much rust I don't think it would be worth it personally. You would have to do a frame off which even takes experts months of 40-50 hrs a week of work. If you're not an expert without a professional shop, multiply that by 10 or more. I know a guy who completed a similar project on an old Dodge Charger and he calculated over 2500 man hours. Obviously took him several years and he did all the work himself.

You have to remember - rust is like cancer. You may initially find it in one spot, but after looking around it spread to several other areas.

1967Goat:
What's that on the hood, a tachometer? Fantastic car.

Back to the OP:
What's the interior like?

quote:

Originally posted by midwest guy:

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:


Click on the photo to enlarge. Sorry about the earlier link.

. American racing or Keystone mags?

American Racing Torque Thrust D. First time around I put the eight lug wheel/brake drum combination on it. A lot of people would say "Nice Bonneville", unfortunately it's a 2+2. Combine that with the drum liners getting thin and the lack of 14" tires sealed it's fate. When the car left the factory it was equipped with 15" steel wheels, I thought about using "dog dish" caps but those are getting hard to find also. Everybody uses Cragar S/S wheels, I always liked Torque Thrusts so that is how that went. I try to use true vintage parts but finding a decent set of four " wheels in a 5 on 5 pattern is pretty hard to do, so these are the new Americans.

Buy a 4 post lift, buddy has a Nova project going on, similar story, High School car, stored in a barn, now in his fathers huge garage, up on the lift makes under carriage work a snap, his rolls so he can move it into a corner and bring out to work

Whatever you do, have a plan, work from A to Z.

Things like interior, you can pull out, toss old carpet and head liner once you find replacements, dash pads etc,

Setup shelves, plastic bins, and buy lots and lots of sealing baggies, and sharpies. Bag n Tag, be specific on the tag as to the contents, sort in the bin that is appropriate.

Lots of these projects stall because the parts got tossed in a box and the owner who might have remembered what they were a week later, now 4 years later, has no clue.

Have fun, maybe leave the body as is, fix rust, fix the floors, and then shoot it with a satan flat finish to hold the patena since it's in, bump up the suspension, powertrain, EFI, power steering, ac, etc and do up the interior.