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When I was in tech school a guy there called it "the tomato". Several years later I mention that to my then wife and she starts calling it "the tomato" along with everyone else. The next time I was going to paint it blue and have a fancy scroll on the rear of the car that said "La Tomate"
Did the Buick have the "adjustable dashboard" or did that come later?
I'm not sure what you mean by "adjustable dashboard" but it had some kind of wheel you could spin to raise or lower a mirror or some such thing to see the speedometer. I don't remember exactly how it worked. I thought it was kinda cool.
I'm not sure what you mean by "adjustable dashboard" but it had some kind of wheel you could spin to raise or lower a mirror or some such thing to see the speedometer. I don't remember exactly how it worked. I thought it was kinda cool.
It was a tilting mirror to adjust the speedometer view etc. to the driver's height. So everything was written in reverse lying flat and the mirror reflected what was there. I had to take a yellow Buick convertible in part in trade for a car I sold. I must have driven the car for a month before "what the hell is this?" occurred to me.
Buick's slogan was something like: "When better cars are built, Buick will build them!". I have to admit Roadmaster is a great name for a car.
My dad was a Buick guy.
I think my parents always had Buicks.
He just couldn’t understand why I wanted a 70 Chevelle rather than drive their 67 Riviera.
My dad was a Buick guy.
I think my parents always had Buicks.
He just couldn’t understand why I wanted a 70 Chevelle rather than drive their 67 Riviera.
My dad had a 67 Buick Wildcat. It was a 4 door but I was really impressed with it. Ever since a '67 Buick Wildcat 2 door is one of the 200 or so cars I've planned on buying when we win the lottery:
Buick OWNED the full size car aesthetic back then. And this is coming from a Mopar guy. Those mid-60's 'fastback' Wildcats and LeSabres, the 66-69 Rivieras... man i still want one. Gorgeous lines. I owned 10 67-70 Buicks before going Mopar. I think all but one ov them was goddamn gold. I still lust after a 68-9 Riviera GS. Ironically enough, back then, it was all about the infamous Buick 455. You could buy a 70 full-size for the engine and have a street sweeper for $500. Now, that 455 is more like $2000, IF you can find a runner, and makes as much power and torque as a Ford 4.6. I loved my Buicks... but i dont miss them. Couldn't stop without dropping an anchor, and you had to replace door handles every few months because they handled so bad. A black 69 Riviera GS with a modern 'big' V8 and a 6-speed stick would be too awesome...
Hey Priya what’s the progress on the build. I really like your visón. I have an 81 I’m trying to do the conversion myself.
Good luck with your conversionc3Tris4. My project is on hold until I finish and distribute my political essay, per my quote below:
Originally Posted by Priya
Hello everyone, it's been a couple of months since I last worked on the car and I don't know when I'll get back to it so I thought I'd post an update. I had really hoped to leave the headlight buckets in place as removing them and getting them re-aligned just sounds like way more fun than I was hoping to have but seeing as the header bar is separated from the hood surround removing the buckets is the only way to re-bond the header bar to the hood surround. I haven't been eager to jump into that so I started writing a blog post about (politics, edited) I expected that to be my typical one to two screenfuls in length but I kept thinking of things that would be good to add and it just kept getting longer and longer. I was wondering where to stop when I just decided I'm going to keep writing until I've said all I want to say and I'll see if I can/should shorten it up after that. I thought I was almost done when I'd written a little over half of what I have to date and I keep thinking of things I should add, so I really have no idea how much longer I'm going to be at it and in the meantime I won't be working on my Corvette - writing this essay is my highest priority right now. As I can only at best average about 2 hours/day on the computer without getting a long term headache and my brain doesn't work as well as it used (I have to think a lot to write a little) it's been pretty slow going. After 2 months I currently have what would be about 17 pages if printed on 8 & 1/2 by 11 paper at 60 lines per page. (Politics, edited)
There's not a lot to do to finish off this project but I don't know when I'll be back at it. (Edited). Of course I know I'd do far better selling it once it's done and there's not that much left to do so I'm not going to sell it for 10 cents on the dollar of what I've spent so far, which last time I added it up was 35K CDN (including the car), although that number may have been what I'd spent to date plus the cost of getting the aftermarket 69 front clip bought, delivered and glued on, I just don't remember . 35K spent though doesn't translate into 35k worth of stuff on the car as a significant amount of that money was spent on used parts that weren't up to snuff and I had to buy more, shipping costs and so on. The factory 225 hp L82 engine had bills for a complete rebuild when I bought the car with 60,000 miles but when I did a cold compression test the #1 cylinder was at 110 psi compared to 135 for all the others and the spark plug in #1 cylinder was heavily oil fouled unlike the rest of the spark plugs that were clean. The original oyster interior is in great shape but I have new silver door panels for it and new silver cloth covered seat cushions (I sold the oyster ones). I have pace car silver dye but it'd probably look fine with the silver door panels, seat covers and the remaining oyster coloured interior parts. It's got factory glass t-roof panels in nice shape, I have a Keisler remanufactured 5 speed manual trans, new clutch and pressure plate and all the conversion pieces needed to go from 4 to 5 speed that came with the kit. I have 2&1/2 inch oem style cast exhaust manifolds appearing new and a new complete 2 & 1/2 inch (quiet) exhaust system to fit them. I have new bare MerCruiser Vortec heads with 170 cc intake runners and 64 cc combustion chambers as well as a new Scroggins Dickey Vortec to Tuned Port Injection intake manifold, new Arizona Speed and Marine large tube intake runners. I have used TPI parts, wiring harness, fuel rails, throttle body, distributor, plenum and I don't remember what else. If I remember correctly the only things I don't have are the various TPI sensors and Vortec valve covers. I also have (as far as I know) all 68/69 Corvette front end parts less the fiberglass itself, some new aftermarket, some nice used. I have all three grills, NOS "hockey stick" grill trim, the higher cost aftermarket front bumper, the lower cost front bumperettes (which are very dull), used grill brackets, mostly new front bumper brackets although the centre horseshoe bracket needs the sheet metal triangles with the nuts welded to it replaced due to rust and front crossmember is a 68 with a couple of bolts broken off in it and a rust repair I did on it, the horseshow and front crossmember are far from as nice as the other new brackets I have but functional with a little work. I have 8 chrome 68/69 gill inserts although one is badly pitted the others are in driver condition. I have used rear 68-73 tail light housings, used rear 68-73 tail light lenses, driver quality rear bumpers, all 73 rear bumper brackets customized to adapt to 79 rear frame crossmember, new aftermarket license plate bezel.
I think it unlikely anyone is going to offer me enough to want to sell it but I know old Corvettes are selling at much higher prices than they were several years ago so on a lark I thought I'd tell you it's theoretically for sale.
Priya,
I am wondering if you finished your essay and will resume and hopefully finish the 'Vette this year ?
I wish you the best, you have been working on it for a while.
Has anyone heard from Priya ? It's been a year since anything was posted. I hope everything is ok. Hopefully she can get back soon ( weather permitting )
I wonder about her and her project from time to time..I hope everything is ok. A couple years ago I ordered her something from ecklers and had it shipped to her and not long after that she stopped posting
Without looking back into her thread, I could be wrong, but she said she would be selling her project and I don’t believe she had any plans to finish her project or return to the forum.
I also miss her updates and watching the work she was doing.
I remember she wrote something about maybe selling it if the price was right, but she wasn't sure anyone would offer enough to her. She wanted to write a blog that kept getting longer as she was writing ,and then everything stopped She was doing a fantastic job of modifying the rear end . It would be a shame not to see it through.
I wish her the best .
By the time I'm done with my 79 I'll have 35k or more in it but I think I'm going to be happier with it than a 69 charger. I really don't like the interior of 68-70 chargers and I like the interior of my 79 a great deal. Plus I'll have a 5 speed in it, a custom colour that appeals to me, the interior colour I wanted and so on. If I had bought a 69 charger not in need of work I wouldn't have had those things, it probably would have had an interior and exterior colour that weren't my favourites, and an auto or 4 speed transmission.
The 70 Charger R/T has a great interior with high back bucket seats and a killer pistol grip Hurst shifter!
