Rebuilding the 65 GS Post Coupe - Again !!

[Clatter]

You GO brother..! 

[Rollaround]

Tony, keep up your current pace of car repair and you’ll be driving the GS before the snow flys.

[option B9]

  Hi everyone, Had to clean up the shop today to make room so when I do start working I'm not tripping over things. Having a clean safe work area is very important to me, clutter can get you seriously injured or cause a fire. And at this point lets not ruin a good thing....
   Loren & I did speak a few days ago, and he is going to send me some needed parts and I did send an email out to a member that may have a driver side quarter panel, I'm waiting for his reply. There is another part that I will be needing It's the drivers side rocker molding. It was not damaged from the accident,  but damaged by the flatbed driver that a used a trolly jack that only had three wheels. He was attempting to raise the GS so I could put the left rear tire back on. The jack slipped and crushed the molding. You would think that authorized tow would at least have a working jack! I was already having a bad day and that sure didn't help.. So if anyone has one in really good condition that they are willing to sell please send me a PM..
   schlepcar suggested getting a Frame Tech to look at this GS. The body shops in my area (NYC) DO NOT want to work on vintage cars ! They claim that there is no money in it for them.. All they want to do insurance repair work. It took me over 2 years to find a shop that would take on my paint job. Then after 19 months I came 1 day away from loosing the car because the shop went out of business and the doors were chained by the county Marshall. And I lost $12,000. This GS and I have been thru the wringer the last 21 years, so I'm going to do my best in getting it back together and returning to my roots by painting it myself and be proud of my work and post photos so everyone can enjoy the ride.. Looking forward to Albany NY in 2026.
  More cutting tomorrow.
        Tony 

[Loren At 65GS]

Hey Tony, I'll look through the bunch of rocker moldings here and see what I have. I had five of them repaired where the screw hole is on the bottom front edge. That turned out to be an expensive day.

  Loren

[schlepcar]

 I forgot you were in the BIG town. I am not sure it is much different elsewhere as far as shops because of the insurance industry and the fact that modern cars cost what we paid for houses. You are likely more qualified to repair that frame than the guy paid to replace parts on new Teslas. Find a good Porta power and just push or pull until that whole rear section is square to itself again. Sometimes I bolt the bent bumper bracket back in place to pull from so you don?t distort the rail. I don?t think there is any reason to cut and weld on the frame once you see how and where to straighten it. They are a lot stronger in the front than they are in the back. A good flatbed tow driver would have been very handy by a large tree if you know such a character. It is not the way a shop would do it but results are what matters?.you don?t need a laser measurement system?.tape measures don?t lie??.lol.

[Jim]

Hi,glad to see yout back at it .I believe  the factory spec is plus minus 1/8 " so a quarter " to play with I'd put the car on a couple of 2x4 Sq tubing and block and jack from that don't put the quarter  solid until trunk lid is onyou probably  know all that already  good luck .jim

[option B9]

  Hi everyone,
      Loren, Steve answered my email, and he has a new rocker panel molding. He already sold the quarter panels so that stays on the wanted list.
 
      schlepcar, my friend is coming over on Thursday, and we are going to take chassis measurements just to make sure the chassis is square.

      Jim, Thanks for the info about the 1/8 of an inch. I'm going to take the trunk opening dimensions from the hardtop and go from there. I will be using Clecos & clamps to hold everything together. I  probably will weld in a few temporary braces too, until it's time to mig it all together.

      Chuck, It looks like the left rear road wheel can be used again. I'm going to have it high speed balanced just to be sure. The tire is scuffed up but I'm going to give it a good cleaning and I will see, If not I will purchase another.

       Tony 

         

[Loren At 65GS]

  Hi everyone,
      Loren, Steve answered my email, and he has a new rocker panel molding. He already sold the quarter panels so that stays on the wanted list.
 
         Tony 

         

 Bummer on the quarter panel. Steve has been trying to sell those for a long time and suddenly someone comes along to pick them up. I've been trying to buy that rocker panel for years.
 I will put those items away for you that we talked about.

  Loren

[option B9]

    Hi everyone, due to another project I did get a late start on the Red GS. As of 6PM I finished cutting out the
 accident damage, I'm not cutting any more sheet metal off until I can find a left rear quarter panel.

 See attached photos.

      Tony 

[option B9]

   Hi everyone, Late Spring is here and  I want to get the Red GS Rolling so I can back it out of the garage where its been sitting since last August. Last month I purchased a 3 gallon marine tank that I will use as a temporary gas tank, so fuel supply is not a problem then the left rear wheel was not turning with the replacement drum because the brake backing plate was bent. NOT due to the accident, but due to the  NYC flatbed truck driver that came rescue me after the accident having an inferior/broken trolly jack that he tried to raise the GS with, so I could put the tire back on because he was going to drag the GS on the flatbed without the tire !! I said "absolutely not" The jack had only 3 wheels and slipped twice..  dropping the GS on the backing plate. At that point I started yelling at him to get some wood to brace the faulty jack. He did and I got the wheel on without the brake drum. That was good enough to get it home without any further damage.
    I Purchased a universal backing plate from the parts place several weeks ago. When it arrived I was disappointed when I noticed the part was not USA made. But I would give it a shot and see if it would work without any major problems. I painted it according the original plate, then we went for a test fit and the center hole was too small so I used my die grinder with a rasp bit and made the hole larger. The axel and bearing went thru without a problem, so I installed the proper gaskets and the axel was installed. Next brakes ! I forget to check the hole for the emergency brake cable retainer to go thru... The hole was too small ! So I used my die grinder to open up the hole. But I made the hole too big and the clip fell out .. I went to open the spines on the clip and they broke off... At that point I stopped, went in the house had lunch and came back out with a clear head removed the axel and backing plate. I kindly placed the backing plate in the plastic/metal recycling bin then cleaned up my tools. Yes it was my fault for not checking the hole size, but I should have went with my original plan and asked my fellow GS owners if they had a used left rear backing plate that I could purchase and the installation would have been completed with correct parts.. Lesson learned...  Plan "A" post a Parts Wanted and see what happens. 
    The last post on this GS was August 21, 2024. In September 2024 (Steve) one of our fellow Skylark owners contacted me to say that he had some of the parts I needed to rebuild this GS. (Another Buick owner said he wanted the parts but never picked them up) So off to Boston I went and picked up some needed parts for this GS and the Code Z hardtop. Thanks go out to Steve for getting me one step closer to a complete GS..

       Tony 

[elagache]

Thanks Tony for the update!

Keep us posted!

Edouard