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1972 Buick Skylark

gonefishin said:
I love this project. I saw a buick skylark gs at a car show a year or so ago and fell in love. I'd love to have a 70-72 skylark gs with the 455. It's probably going to be one of the next cars I buy if I find a good deal on one.... I love the body style and I've always been a fan of the 455 anyway... Add a t56 instead of the turbo 400 and it would be perfect for me.
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Unfortunately they are popular enough that good deals are hard to find. I've been searching Craigslist and Facebook for Buick parts so I come across 2-door Skylarks and they are usually around $8k or higher. Last one I saw was $13K and the body wasn't much better than this one we bought. Actually it had one spot with rust worse than anything on this car.

Technically I haven't seen any other 4 doors for sale since we bought this one.
 
We're still taking the car for occasional short drives. It seems to be running just fine. The transmission shifts a little soft for my taste, but I think it's shifting like it's supposed to for a comfortable, 4-door, passenger car.

We weren't sure if it had a limited slip, so we checked the easy/fun way.

2021-06-26 16.48.42.jpg

I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with the torquey reputation of the Buick engines. The only performance mod you could claim on this engine is having the exhaust cut off 3 feet from the merge and it will get up and go really well.
 
82355 said:
Keeping your eyes open for a 455?

Martin
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Yes, for the crew cab. Haha

I get on craigslist and facebook and search for all applicable Buick stuff including engines. Haven't seen much local that's promising. Still would like to see how well this engine seems to run. I'd also kinda like for my son to really want to do the engine upgrade so he's motivated to earn money to do it.
 
This thing is still driving around fine. The more I discover about the Buick 350, the more I wish they were more available.

I've always liked the distributor in the front. Yesterday I was scoping out the spark plug wire situation and they are super open. And headers wouldn't even be an issue for spark plug access.

20211030_144301.jpg

I was checking out the exhaust situation.

20211030_142028.jpg

That's what is left of the crappy home brew exhaust that was drug off when loading on the trailer. I think I'm going to put dual exhaust in it. I have 2 good mufflers I just pulled off the 66 C20. The other option is to cut the exhaust above at the Y, and weld in 3" pipe.

That exhaust that's there is in good shape and I almost hate not using it. But I kinda dislike having the crossover right under the oil pan.

Another cool Buick thing is the connection to the exhaust manifolds is a ball and socket set up with no gasket needed.

I'm sure I'll learn about negatives to them, but for now I think the Buick 350 is pretty good.
 
Just remember: Don't rev them like a 350 Chevy! They have a smaller bore, than a 283 chevy, and a larger stroke, than a 400 sbc. Embrace the torque!
 
I can definitely feel the torque even with our boggy 2 barrel carb. His grandma bought him a 4 barrel intake for his birthday, but we're just halfway into an 8 week wait. We'll use the Street Demon carb I had on the C10 before the PF4.

Grandma also bought him brackets to convert the bench seat to buckets. This weekend we pulled seats out of a 2005 Chevy Cobalt.

2021-10-30 14.00.23.jpg

The bench seat is so broke down, he can barely see past the hood. He also wants to do a floor shifter, so we'll look into that along with some sort of console.

I was looking at the provisions for factory exhaust hangers and what might still be in the car. I was impressed to see it has a triangulated 4-link rear suspension.

2021-11-01 10.36.25.jpg

2021-11-01 10.35.16.jpg

2021-11-01 10.34.57.jpg

Maybe I'm only impressed because I'm a truck guy, but I thought it was neat.

I think this is the remnant of a previous owner using the factory hangers in a bastardized fashion for the exhaust we ripped off.

2021-11-01 10.33.37.jpg

They use these kinda funky hangers:

6872gmmufflerhangers-1.jpg

That should be bolted up on the crossmember just above the rear axle.

2021-11-01-10.34.57-2.jpg

After looking over the muffler location options, I'm probably going with a single 3" exhaust. For the time being I want to keep it simple with a dump out in front of the rear axle so I don't have to mess with tail pipes up and over the axle and around the fuel tank. Down the road we can do a nice dual exhaust setup if he's going to get more invested in the car and want to keep it. For now I really need something down and dirty simple just so we can drive the car around without loud-ass exhaust. I'd like to be able to hear if anything is going on we should know about.
 
mrk5 said:
I can definitely feel the torque even with our boggy 2 barrel carb. His grandma bought him a 4 barrel intake for his birthday, but we're just halfway into an 8 week wait. We'll use the Street Demon carb I had on the C10 before the PF4.

Grandma also bought him brackets to convert the bench seat to buckets. This weekend we pulled seats out of a 2005 Chevy Cobalt.

View attachment 394490

The bench seat is so broke down, he can barely see past the hood. He also wants to do a floor shifter, so we'll look into that along with some sort of console.

I was looking at the provisions for factory exhaust hangers and what might still be in the car. I was impressed to see it has a triangulated 4-link rear suspension.

View attachment 394494

View attachment 394493

View attachment 394492

Maybe I'm only impressed because I'm a truck guy, but I thought it was neat.

I think this is the remnant of a previous owner using the factory hangers in a bastardized fashion for the exhaust we ripped off.

View attachment 394491

They use these kinda funky hangers:

View attachment 394496

That should be bolted up on the crossmember just above the rear axle.

View attachment 394495

After looking over the muffler location options, I'm probably going with a single 3" exhaust. For the time being I want to keep it simple with a dump out in front of the rear axle so I don't have to mess with tail pipes up and over the axle and around the fuel tank. Down the road we can do a nice dual exhaust setup if he's going to get more invested in the car and want to keep it. For now I really need something down and dirty simple just so we can drive the car around without loud-ass exhaust. I'd like to be able to hear if anything is going on we should know about.
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All a-bodies and full size cars from '65 and up had that suspension. The big cars from '58-'64 had a similar setup but with only one upper link.

The good news for any budding hot rodder is all the go fast suspension goodies for a Chevelle fit the Buford.
 
ZooMad75 said:
All a-bodies and full size cars from '65 and up had that suspension. The big cars from '58-'64 had a similar setup but with only one upper link.

The good news for any budding hot rodder is all the go fast suspension goodies for a Chevelle fit the Buford.
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Yeah, it looks like we should be able to use a lot of general GM A-body parts. And the Skylark shares a lot of stuff with the more popular GS cars so that helps with availability.


tRustyK5 said:
Here is a good read.

www.jalopyjournal.com

Technical - MOTOR, Dang! The secret is out...BUICK 350 engines!

This one is for C9 and the maybe three other folks here who already know about the unsung lightweight hero of the smog motor era...the Buick 350. (And...
www.jalopyjournal.com www.jalopyjournal.com
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It is and I'm glad you posted it. There are a couple of tidbits in there that could come in useful for sure. Sounds like this engine should be perfect for a fun cruiser.

I was surprised to see it's 125 pounds lighter than a Chevy 350. I'm also interested now in seeing if we can come across a 200r4 from an 80's BOP.
 
200r4's were a staple in the g-body cars. Cutlass and Regals being the most common. B-body full size too from Olds and Buick.

Any are getting hard to find in boneyards though.
 
ZooMad75 said:
200r4's were a staple in the g-body cars. Cutlass and Regals being the most common. B-body full size too from Olds and Buick.

Any are getting hard to find in boneyards though.
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Like everything these days.
 
Single 3" out the pass side in front of the tire. Could even get and fancy and do that oval pipe where you go under the frame and out.
 
mrk5 said:
I can definitely feel the torque even with our boggy 2 barrel carb. His grandma bought him a 4 barrel intake for his birthday, but we're just halfway into an 8 week wait. We'll use the Street Demon carb I had on the C10 before the PF4.

Grandma also bought him brackets to convert the bench seat to buckets. This weekend we pulled seats out of a 2005 Chevy Cobalt.
Click to expand...

Grandma sounds pretty cool :cool:
 
mrk5 said:
Yeah, it looks like we should be able to use a lot of general GM A-body parts. And the Skylark shares a lot of stuff with the more popular GS cars so that helps with availability.



It is and I'm glad you posted it. There are a couple of tidbits in there that could come in useful for sure. Sounds like this engine should be perfect for a fun cruiser.

I was surprised to see it's 125 pounds lighter than a Chevy 350. I'm also interested now in seeing if we can come across a 200r4 from an 80's BOP.
Click to expand...
Too bad I gave one away 2 years ago.
The 200r4 that is.
 
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