I made a short trip down to Charlotte last night and got to meet James Scarboro (blueaggie on this board) and see his '65 GS. Had a really great time meeting him and his wife and working on his car with him.
He has a great car that has been in his family since new--his dad ordered it new from the dealer in the Henderson, NC area. His car has a really unique combo of options on it worth mentioning:
-4-speed
-manual steering
-manual brakes
-console with tach
-single speed wipers with no washer
-clock/convenience group
-radio with rear seat speaker option
It is also a late production car--built the 1st week of July 1965. Does anyone know what week/month they quit building '65s? That leads into a question I have about the engine in his car. We check the numbers and it is the original LR code engine and the serial number matches the VIN on the car. What is odd though is that it has '66 valve covers on it--the pcv valve is angled toward the rear, the oil fill cap is in the center of the drivers side cover and it has the rubber plug in the front corner of the drivers side cover. Has anyone ever seen a '65 GS with these valve covers? I was guessing that since it was a late production model that Buick may have already switched over to the '66 style covers by then.
The next question is about the alternator bracket. There is a mounting issue with it and it has the cast aluminum bracket that mounts to the front two head bolts. There are studed head bolts in those two locations, but the stud portion of the head bolt isn't long enough to reach through the cast bracket and put nuts on , so it is sitting on there loose and being held on by a support bracket that reaches down to the engine mount. My first thought is the car may have originally come with the stamped steel bracket (like on the AC cars, but without the compressor mounting tabs on top). Which non-AC alternator bracket is correct for a '65 GS and if the aluminum one is correct, are there supposed to be longer studed head bolts for the bracket? I am going to help him get all that fixed correctly, but I am only familiar with AC cars and am not sure how the alternator is supposed to mount on a non-AC car.