New here...from NE Iowa

[cwmcobra]

They are hoping to have as many wagons as possible to celebrate the new buick wagon coming out this year. Anyone have a wagon on here? It?s only 1800 miles give or take from California. See you there. Bill

LOL! Not sure the wagon has ever been out of Cali - it's high time!

Mark

Maybe it should start by being lovingly transported to Arizona where it could be reunited with it's engine!  It might be a challenge to get her back together in time for the July meet in Cedar Rapids!   

Just kidding Edouard!  I hope Biquette is back on the road long before that!  And if she is, and if you're in the mood for a road trip, Iowa is really nice in the summer!  And with the potential of meeting some of your friends from this hangout, what more incentive could there be????

 

Chuck

[9er3delta]

Hi John, You and I talked some time ago. I think you were looking for a 64/65 skylark body for the one in the wreck. I just saw what looked like a fair 64 on Atlanta cl. Anyway good to hear from you again. The heartland regionals are in Cedar Rapids July 19-21. I may see you there. They are hoping to have as many wagons as possible to celebrate the new buick wagon coming out this year. Anyone have a wagon on here? It?s only 1800 miles give or take from California. See you there. Bill

Hi Bill!  I do recall talking with you some time back.  Truly a pleasure.  Attached is one more photo of the black hardtop from 1984, just after I got it back from the towing company's impound lot after the accident.  That old Buick saved our lives.  Not sure why I was "stuck" and unable to deal with the car all these years.  It wasn't the car's or our fault to begin with.  Somehow I finally got past all that and the car is on its way back to life.  It will soon see the highways again, but...not until I get the rest of the parts located.

I still haven't found the right donor car for my project yet and continue to monitor CL/eBay/local sources.  The California car was supposed to by our parts car, until we found the build sheet and discovered its past.  We have since found a frame for the black hot rod and are only in need of the shell (with a clean/straight back half) now. 

Looking forward to CR in July.  We'll be there, and maybe we'll bring the drop-top if the weather is decent.  I need to tell another friend about the Buick show too.  He's building a wicked cool custom Skylark out near Des Moines. I know he'd make the trip if it was ready for travel. 

[elagache]

Dear John, Bill, Mark, Chuck, and mid-60s Buicks that have had an adventurous life,

LOL! Not sure the wagon has ever been out of Cali - it's high time!

Biquette has never left the West, but she has roamed a bit in that region.  She has been to 4 states: Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington state.  She also made a very brief expedition to visit an orphanage in Mexico.  The roads were very rough!

The heartland regionals are in Cedar Rapids July 19-21. I may see you there. They are hoping to have as many wagons as possible to celebrate the new buick wagon coming out this year. Anyone have a wagon on here? It?s only 1800 miles give or take from California. See you there. Bill

Alas the string of hard luck continues for my once trusty wagon.  Still no word when her engine will return from TA-Performance.  Even the teething problems with this new drive-train, I don't think she'll be traveling very far anytime soon.

Oh well, . . . . Edouard

[9er3delta]

Dear John, Bill, Mark, Chuck, and mid-60s Buicks that have had an adventurous life,

LOL! Not sure the wagon has ever been out of Cali - it's high time!

Biquette has never left the West, but she has roamed a bit in that region.  She has been to 4 states: Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington state.  She also made a very brief expedition to visit an orphanage in Mexico.  The roads were very rough!

The heartland regionals are in Cedar Rapids July 19-21. I may see you there. They are hoping to have as many wagons as possible to celebrate the new buick wagon coming out this year. Anyone have a wagon on here? It?s only 1800 miles give or take from California. See you there. Bill

Alas the string of hard luck continues for my once trusty wagon.  Still no word when her engine will return from TA-Performance.  Even the teething problems with this new drive-train, I don't think she'll be traveling very far anytime soon.

Oh well, . . . . Edouard

Edouard, I recently bought a custom-ground roller camshaft and lifters for our 355 from TA.  Before I go any further, the camshaft/lifters look to be of good quality and the lobes miked out fine.  That said, my brother and I had to double team them to keep their attention on our custom grind project, after they'd accepted the job and we'd planned/scheduled it out.  I had already begun discussions with another camshaft grinder when they finally got with my brother and delivered on their promise.  I suspect this other grinder actually did the camshaft behind the scenes, and perhaps that is part of the reason TA got with the program. 

I'm sure they are very busy, but since they are specialists that largely serve the Buick community, it would be nice if they were a little more honest with their customers about their bandwidth and realistic about their schedule.  Again, the parts looked fine and are installed in the engine and life is good...but I understand.

Janet and I have driven most of the Route 66 path, it was an amazing journey.  One of our future plans is to drive Highway 20 all the way to the west coast, since we only live a couple miles south of it, here in NE Iowa.  I'd think either would be a blast to follow coming out to Iowa for the Buick show, be it in an old Buick or anything else. 

Janet and I are getting pretty stoked about the Buick show, as I know a couple others I told about it are too. 

John

[elagache]

Dear John and mid-60s Buick owners who aren't simply drag racers,

Edouard, I recently bought a custom-ground roller camshaft and lifters for our 355 from TA.  Before I go any further, the camshaft/lifters look to be of good quality and the lobes miked out fine.  That said, my brother and I had to double team them to keep their attention on our custom grind project, after they'd accepted the job and we'd planned/scheduled it out.   . . . .

Unfortunately, there is more to the story of my trusty wagon's engine than TA-Performance.  I wanted an engine specifically designed to pull heavy loads as my dream is to use my wagon to pull a vintage travel trailer.  Alas, based on advice I got on the V-8 Buick forum, I choose an original engine builder who simply wasn't interested in what was trying to do.  As a result, the engine's first incarnation was as a racing engine and it was utterly unsatisfactory for my needs.  Eventually a bearing failed and I had nothing but a broken engine.  In desperation, I asked Mike Tomaszewski and TA-Performance to see if they could rescue this engine.  However, it wasn't designed for the task and significant changes were required.  It came back in the Autumn of 2015 and was working well for all of 2016.  In early 2017 it developed a mysterious valve train noise and I sent it back to TA-Performance to see what the problem was.  They completely dismantled the engine and put it back together.  They also changed the lifters because the brand of lifter previously installed were prone to noise.  Alas, there is still some sort of mysterious noise in the valve train.  So Mike is still trying figure out what is going on.

As you say, they are very busy over there, so this engine only gets attention where there is a bit of free time.  Clearly this project hasn't gone as hoped, but what can you do?  In life you need to reel from the punches and move on.

I'm sure you know as well as I do the most important faculty to have as a classic car owner is - patience! . . .

Cheers, Edouard

[elagache]

Dear John and mid-60s Buick owners,

Sorry to hijack the thread but since this was asked recently.  I just got an email from Mike Tomaszewski on the latest status of the engine for my trusty wagon.  He checked with the manufacturer of the roller valve lifters.  They recommended simply replacing the lifters and seeing if that would eliminate the noise.  He has managed to replace the lifters and just needs to secure the intake manifold to make another engine test.  So at least some good news I hope!

Cheers, Edouard 

P.S. I also sent the exhaust headers to Jet-Hot, so I'll see the quality of work that outfit can do.

[9er3delta]

Dear John and mid-60s Buick owners,

Sorry to hijack the thread but since this was asked recently.  I just got an email from Mike Tomaszewski on the latest status of the engine for my trusty wagon.  He checked with the manufacturer of the roller valve lifters.  They recommended simply replacing the lifters and seeing if that would eliminate the noise.  He has managed to replace the lifters and just needs to secure the intake manifold to make another engine test.  So at least some good news I hope!

Cheers, Edouard 

P.S. I also sent the exhaust headers to Jet-Hot, so I'll see the quality of work that outfit can do.

Great news!  I hope the trend continues for you!  Btw, what are you running in the wagon?  Just curious.  My brother rebuilds Rover engines for fun.  Since one of their iteration's  internals is the same as the 300, he purchases a lot of new cams and lifters.  He's had at least one issue with noisy lifters in the past few months.  Just an FYI.

[Rollaround]

Wishing you the best of luck. Hopefully he’s got it and you have many miles of motoring ahead.

[TrunkMonkey]

 Hoping the Biskit  is back on her feet soon!

[elagache]

Dear John, Kevin, Michael, and mid-60s Buick with greater aspirations than . . . . clear planning . . . . 

Great news!  I hope the trend continues for you!  Btw, what are you running in the wagon?  Just curious. 

The engine is a stroker version of the Buick 430 which has the same block as the Buick 400 that was in the 1967 Buick Gran Sport.  The idea (which was started all the way back in 2011,) was to take the big-block Buick and equip it with as many modern components as were available.  So this engine has a hydraulic roller cam, roller rockers, ported Stage-2 heads, electronic fuel injection, etc.  The idea was build as close as possible to a Buick LS-1.  Without taking away from my wagon her Buick heart, giving her all the modern advantages that improved technology had to offer.

Well it seemed like a good idea at the time and I'm still confident it can be done.  Alas I started out this project very much loving my wagon, but not knowing a lot about this sort of a technology.  If I could start over, things would be much better!  Given that I made some really bad choices I need to make the best of what I can under the circumstances.

All this in the hope of towing a vintage travel traveler and I haven't even started really looking into that! . . . 

As the cartoon character Sylvester once said: "So now you know how to catch a bird . . . . . S-s-s-s-simple! . . . . isn't it! . . . " 

Oh well, . . . . Edouard

[TrunkMonkey]

Edouard,

You have great patience and I always enjoy your posts and your style of humor.

The Billy-goat is a beautiful car, and that you have had it in the family (except for the "kid" napping)since she came to be, is a testament to your commitment to see a thing through to completion.

I do hope that when you get the travel trailer, and on the road, that we will be able to meet somewhere.
I'll drive a pretty good bit to do so, and treat you to a meal! That's a standing offer.

 

Michael

[elagache]

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

The Billy-goat is a beautiful car, and that you have had it in the family (except for the "kid" napping)since she came to be, is a testament to your commitment to see a thing through to completion.

Thanks! 

This has been a painful journey in part because it was an attempt to give this car her dignity back.  Like all these cars started out, she was just a daily driver and was treated as such.  She was a member of the family, but still just a car.  So for example when we rebuilt the engine in 1979, we put up with the engine being painted Chevy blue:



My Dad felt bad about that and I was unable to correct the engine color until 2013!  Finally she has an engine which is nailhead green:



Upgrading the engine came out of discussions my Dad and had back in the early 1980s when we were dissatisfied with Biquette's towing capacity and wanted her to able to tow something like a cabin sailboat.  At the time we talked about upgrading her with an overdrive transmission.  It wouldn't happen until now.

I do hope that when you get the travel trailer, and on the road, that we will be able to meet somewhere.

Thanks for the offer!  We'll just have to see about that trailer!

Cheers, Edouard 

P.S. Sorry John for hijacking your thread, but I hope that you can enjoy a story of a Buick that really was a member of the family since 1968!

[9er3delta]

Wow, that is a beautiful motor, and a great story to go with it and your car!!  You are correct, I am big on the stories of the people who owned these cars.  In many cases, I've traced the histories of most of my cars back to the originating dealer. 

In one case, I actually have talked to the former owner of the dealership (no longer in existence), the same person who actually ordered my car from GM and handed the keys to a customer.  It isn't a Buick, so that story, I suppose would have to be told elsewhere, but the history is very important to me.  The restoration or preservation is only part of the project.  The past is the other part. 

For you, it is a car you've had for a long time...dare I say a part of the family.  Nothing better. 

John

[TrunkMonkey]

... The restoration or preservation is only part of the project.  The past is the other part.    ...

Amen.

And a great reason we are in this scene.

 

[elagache]

Dear John, Michael, and mid-60s Buick owners interested in colorful history,

Wow, that is a beautiful motor, and a great story to go with it and your car!! 

Thanks!   My wagon's new engine is a bit showy, but this car has had a very long and colorful if difficult life.  There is over 270,000 miles on this car!  She has been mechanically restored, repainted, and reupholstered, but she hasn't really been restored.  The frame and body are on the same mounts that were installed in 1965!  After a life like this, I thought she deserved an engine with some eye-candy!

You are correct, I am big on the stories of the people who owned these cars.  In many cases, I've traced the histories of most of my cars back to the originating dealer. 

That's great that you research your cars with such care!  It must be something of race to retrieve that history before it disappears.

For you, it is a car you've had for a long time...dare I say a part of the family. 

Yes indeed, it was a long struggle.  She was so much a part of the family that she got a name almost from the beginning: Biquette.  It is a French bit of slang which roughly translates to billy-goat.  She has gone from lows like being stolen from July to September 1986, to highs like being included in my PhD as I reported in this posting:

http://65gs.com/board/index.php?topic=3827.msg26889#msg26889

This most definitely isn't a "run of the mill" car from GMs Fremont plant!

Thanks for sharing the stories of your cars!

Cheers, Edouard