Da' further adventures of da' trusty billy-goat wagon!

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick owners who don't get any respect from them modern performance vehicles owners,

Our region has been overrun by a "Yuppie" type of affluent parents drawn by an overrated reputation of our local schools.  As a result, there are a lot of European performance cars and SUVs.  The vehicle of choice for this type of "soccer mom" is the Euro-performance SUV.  Of course this is something a sort of sore-point for a station wagon of the 1960s.  After all, a station wagon was a perfectly acceptable family vehicle back then - what's wrong with a wagon now?

Of course it helps to be a wagon with a few performance enhancements of her own - doesn't it! 

I've taken to the habit of accelerating a bit fast from a stop light simply to impress those around me what Biquette can do.  The demonstration does impress!  I've noticed after a demonstration like this, drivers behind me give Biquette some extra distance.  That suits me just fine since after all she is 53 year old.  Yesterday, I had a Volvo SUV tailgating me until we reached a stop-light.  When the light turned green, just a little extra gas and I lost my tailgater in a hurry.  Even after Biquette had reached the speed limit, the woman in the SUV gave us plenty of distance.

Shortly after that, I had a similar scenario with a BMW SUV.  This time the road widened to two lanes and the woman attempted to pass to the left.  Just for fun I decided to open up the throttle just a bit and Biquette easily stayed ahead.  At the next light, the BMW SUV once more approached the stop very timidly!

That'll lurn d'em Yuppie women and their "off-the-rack" performance SUVs!  Station wagons are not extinct and at least one isn't going to be pushed around by a soccer mom could be 1/2 Biquette's age!

Cheers, Edouard 

[TrunkMonkey]

Billy-goats can be ornery, aggressive and quick to dominate when challenged.

Those unfamiliar with them are often quick to back down when confronted with a particularly pesky critter.

 

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick owners who are always careful to keep your car healthy,

Well, it happened again.  My trusty wagon developed another case of da' dreaded green pox!



It is Autumn and I started to pick the fruit off of our Granny Smith apple tree.  After washing I need a place for the fruit to dry and obviously inside!  So I pile it in front of Biquette:



You've gotta admit, that's one shiny bumper to serve as such a good mirror! 

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick owners who are also a fan of a certain rascally wagon,

There was one last upgrade needed to get Biquette "finished" at least as far as the drive train was concerned.  Biquette had lost her OEM axle in 2010 and it has been replaced by one from a 1964 Pontiac Tempest from a junkyard.  Obviously, that axle wasn't going to take the torque of a Buick big-block for much longer, so something had to be done.  There are a number of options when it comes to crate axles.  There is of course the Chevy 10 bolt and 12 bolt.  However, Greg at Orinda Classic Car is a big fan of the Ford 9" crate axle.  Such adoration seems like folly since how are you going to fit a Ford axle on to a GM vehicle.  Step in Currie Enterprises and their Ford 9" crate axle for 1964-72 GM applications:

https://www.currieenterprises.com/64-72-a-body-crate-rearends

At first, I wasn't very enthusiastic about this suggestion.  After all, a Ford axle on a very proud Buick?  I also was displeased that there were only two rear and ratio options on the small side: 3.00:1 or 3.20:1.  Since the tires would be bigger, basically I had no choice to go with 3.20:1 which was increasing the engine RPM by 12%. 

Still, I did some research and I had to agree with Greg that the Ford 9" had the best reputation.  In addition, this poor car has plenty of Chevy parts.  Why should I stick Chevy for an axle?  So I was eventually convinced.

One downside to the Currie product is that you'd better not be in a hurry to get one.  It takes about 3 months to have one fabricated.  However, eventually one such axle found it way to Orinda Classic Car:



As you can see, these axles come with your choice of brakes so Biquette has become the first car in the family with 4-wheel disc brakes.

It wasn't too much of a problem to install the axle as can be seen here:



The new axle fit nicely with all the previous suspension upgrades.  However, those brakes . . . . . .



Nice and shiny all right.  Alas, they required more fluid than the existing master brake cylinder could deliver.  So a larger master brake cylinder and a different design of proportioning valve was required.  Also, there was a problem getting transmission gears to match the speedometer to the new tires and rear end ratio.  However, eventually this was all straightened out.  Today, Biquette was finally able to come home on her beautiful new Diamond-back white wall tires.  For comparison, here is a photo taken a few weeks back with her 14" rim and old tires:



There was a beautiful sunshine, but you can see now "ordinary" those old tires were.  Alas today was a cloudy day, but here is the comparison photo:



You can see how much larger the new tires are.  The white-walls are also larger and nicer looking (at least in my opinion.)  Here is another angle:



Better still, Biquette's beauty most definitely isn't only skin deep!  She is performing much better on just about any parameter you can imagine.  With the 3.20:1 rear end ratio, she is accelerating better.  However to my amazement, nonetheless she is actually quieter!  Moving the engine RPM up seems to put it in a better "sweet spot."  She is actually easier to control and the transmission is shifting much more smoothly than at the 2.78:1 rear end ratio.  The brakes are performing very well.  I had the misfortune of getting stuck in some 1-way traffic caused by some communication cable upgrades.  The car sat for 10-15 minutes without a sweat.  I'm definitely very pleased!   We have some of those digital speed limit signs that report your speed.  I checked the speedometer against those and it does look spot on.  So at last I can know what my speed is and can finally start tracking gas mileage.

As always there are still a few details to be settled, but at least Biquette is in large measure "finished" at least as far a the drive-train is concerned!

Thanks for your support!   

Cheers, Edouard 

[TrunkMonkey]

Yeah. You keep this sort of "modifications" going, I suspect we will see this billy goat wagon with it's front paws in the air clawing and pawing toward the far end of the 1320 in the rutting spring season, seeking a 12 second time...

 


(...with a camper in trail.)

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick owners who like their cars to be spick and span,

As someone who is constantly struggling to keep up all the things I need to do, it should be no surprise that I didn't manage to give my trusty wagon her fall wash and wax until this past Monday.  It is certainly the latest I've finished up with the cars.  I use a foaming sprayer as a pretreatment.  Somehow it reminds of me of how a dog looks utterly miserable when washed.  Here is Biquette from the front:



Here is the foam rolling off the tailgate:



It was cloudy on Monday and the weather was bad until today when the sun finally came out.  At last I was able to photograph the fruits of my labors:



Here is the passenger side of the tailgate:



Here is the driver's side front:



Finally the driver's side view of the tailgate:



However late it was, Biquette did turn out very nicely! 

Cheers, Edouard 

P.S. If anybody is curious about the techniques and products I'm using I'll be glad to share, but I certainly don't want to bore the community with any nitpicking details.

[cwmcobra]

She looks very nice, Edouard.  I'm going to hold that thought until about May here in Michigan....

 

Chuck

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick owners who's cars are members of the family,

It has been unusually cold here in Northern California and the birds responded with their usual enthusiasm.  They devoured even more bird seed!  So my trusty wagon got the call to fetch some more:



At least the sun came out to make for a decent picture.

Cheers, Edouard 

[option B9]

     Is that bird seed on the roof ? or is it something on the other side of the Buick.... hard to tell.. Its great that you get to drive your Buick this time of year. Last year we had a warm fall so i drove my Buick's till the second week in December, but not this year ! All my Buick's are in hibernation until March or April whenever the Spring rains wash off all the rock salt from the city streets. That's life in the rust belt Big City... Snow showers again tomorrow 

                                                               Tony

[TrunkMonkey]

-Edouard ,

Good to see the rascally billy-goat wagon thinking of the small feathered Special Skylarks and such fast flying friends....

May you and yours have a Merry Christmas!

[elagache]

Dear Tony, Michael, and mid-60s Buick lovers, 

     Is that bird seed on the roof ? or is it something on the other side of the Buick.... hard to tell..

Actually that is a pallet of bird seed stacked on a terrace behind my trusty wagon.  This store gets pallets of seed on Wednesdays.  I don't know how much seed these folks sell a week but it is a lot!

Its great that you get to drive your Buick this time of year. Last year we had a warm fall so i drove my Buick's till the second week in December, but not this year ! All my Buick's are in hibernation until March or April whenever the Spring rains wash off all the rock salt from the city streets. That's life in the rust belt Big City... Snow showers again tomorrow 

Sorry to hear that the bad weather closed in on you so quickly.  Let's hope for an early spring!

Good to see the rascally billy-goat wagon thinking of the small feathered Special Skylarks and such fast flying friends....

. . . . Funny . . . I thought Skylarks were like Specials and they fueled up on gasoline - not bird seed! . . . .

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick owners who keep their cars inside when the weather is unfriendly,

The weather is supposed to turn wet starting tonight and rain on and off through most of next week.  Yesterday looked like the last chance for my trusty wagon to run a simple grocery errand before heading inside to wait for the weather to improve.  We have been socked in with low clouds and fog.  It is unusual cold and dreary for coastal California.  I wasn't planning on taking a picture, but the background presented itself so I took my best shot:



All I had was my iPhone, but I managed to line up the tree very nicely behind Biquette.  The effect is very much the feel of wintertime in California.  With the Winter Solstice happening tomorrow it is a timely photo before even a California Buick needs to hibernate for a little bit.

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick caregivers,

Times can be tough for 1965 rascally wagons.  Biquette is different, but very few people have any idea of how old she actually is.  She can attract some puzzling stares, but most people ignore her.  The muscle car crowd can get excited when they hear her exhaust, but these are also very rare these days.

Still sometimes I can drive into a random spot and get all sorts of people excited.  Today, I made our monthly run to get bird seed and somehow all sorts of people noticed Biquette!  It was a nice sunny day, so the chrome and shiny paint here especially at their best.  Still, I was just lucky.  A fellow who was also buying seed nonetheless was clearly a car guy and very impressed!  Other people couldn't help noticing as well and complimented how nice Biquette looked.

So when the weather permits, definitely get your pride and joy out on the road!  There are people out there who will appreciate your car! 

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick owner who enjoy the exploits of a certain rascally wagon, . . . . .

California has been unusually wet this winter, sufficiently so that we have had some flooding on local rivers.  That has made it difficult for a certain 1965 Buick Special wagon to get out for some exercise.  Today we are between a series of storms so it was now or never.  I just made a quick grocery run, but that was good enough to take a picture of Biquette with some bare wintery trees:



It isn't the frozen tundra that some of you are suffering in, but after all this is California.  Hopefully, the photo is a change of scene and a reminder that all classic Buicks will eventually get out from hibernation and enjoy some fresh air!

Cheers, Edouard 

[Loren At 65GS]

  As usual Eduard, Biquette is looking mighty fine. No matter the season.

  Loren