Need an overhaul

Hey guys, I am about to pull my hair out here. Last year I bought my 1990 Buick Estate Wagon and I love this car I drove it from Washington state to The Grand Canyon then to Oklahoma City, that is where I am at now. Anyways I have been all over the internet and have called and visited service shops in my local area with no avail. I can't find anyone that can or wants to rebuild and restore this car for me. The classic car shops say its not old enough and the service centers all just want me to buy a new engine and new parts and hope that will make it new again. Also where the heck can I go to get new vinyl and trim? The body shops can't get the trim and can't do the wood grain. The vinyl shops can do the wood grain but wont touch the trim molding. Where are the all in one shops? What happened to passion for original? I see on the internet and TV shows shops in California and a few other places take Camaros, Mustangs, and other popular cars a custom shop to ground up restore them and hot rod them. Please for the love of all that is holy can someone that has experience working and maintaining the Buick Estate series wagons please respond and help me. I know that restoring a car is not cheap and I know that information is not free. I just would like someone that does not have a turn key wagon to talk with. I have done some maintenance on this car to keep it running and she has not let me down yet, and I feel like it is my obligation to bring this Buick back to former glory. I want people to remember the 90s and the big Detroit build cars. I need some help here people. I am willing to drive this car half way across the country if I have to to find a shop that can make this thing beautiful daily driver again. Thank you all for any advice and or references that you provide.

 

What all does she need to have done? That is the big question. What engine is in her now? I am guessing she is a 307 Oldsmobile engine. If so, you may really want to think about the new engine idea. A good 350, especially a Buick 350, will give you the same, or better, fuel economy, while give the wagon a LOT more torque so she feels much more alive. Just have the transmission rebuilt properly to be able to handle the torque and you are good to go.

I know there are a lot of those box wagons around here. I'm sure that there are lots of answers out there for you. These guys are terrific at helping ensure the survival of a wagon when the owner is determined to save it.

I don't know about the wood grain but one thing to remember is that body panels are common amongst the cars. It is the trim that is different between the models. If you are needing doors, for example, 77 through 89 all the G.M. brands used the same doors. The difference is for the 90s, which had the front seat belts mounted on the doors. You might want to consider moving them to the B-pillar where the are more effective, and then you have the option of using doors of many more donor cars. All you will need is the seat belt assembly off the doors you have, and the mounting hardware and B-pillar interior trim off the donor car. The hard point mounts will be built into the existing structure of the B-pillar since G.M. did not re-engineer the pillar for the one year.

 

I feel your pain. It seems that this is one instance where the number of years that determine what is classic is taken as gospel. We have a restorer in the area who is said to be the best around but he won't touch anything newer than the 60's. When I took my '94 Roadmaster to a local body shop for some rust repair, they made no mention of only being good at collision work. At one point they had fixed a rust hole in my rear wheel well by welding a panel over top of the rust on the inside of the car and leaving the hole and rust exposed in the well! Another body shop told me outright that they only do collision work and their crews work on only one non-collision car per year...just to stay in practice. I'm not sure what they're practicing for if they don't actually perform that kind of work!

It seems that the folks who are interested in keeping cars like ours on the road are few and far between. I have several more repairs to undertake that will require the services of folks much smarter/more experienced than I and I don't know where to find them. I'm dreading the day when I need an engine rebuild. Hopefully it won't be until my car is legitimately a classic.

 

I've a friend with a shop near O'Hare airport, that'll restore anything!
He recently bought 2 Rmw's for himself, restored them, and is now driving them!
He has connections in California + Arizona where he finds parts, or they find them for him. He also has before and after pictures of hundreds of cars he's done.
He's more than reasonable, and his crew is more than able. He does collision work also, but doesn't 'overload' the shop - just get's them done!
P.M. me for more info.

 

Thanks for ranting with me Cyber, I am still very surprised at the lack of interest in as far as auto shops. Well as Mike suggests I came to talk more details. The car is is in very good shape and runs quite well for her age. I took it Thursday to a local service shop for a (sleep over) haha, they called me yesterday to say was a few leaks of oil and they didn't find anything wrong. As reliving as that is I still want to have either the engine and transmission torn down and rebuilt keeping as original as possible. Although I didn't know that Buick made a 350 I am going to have to research this, I do like the idea of more power without lossing the ECM system and rewiring the whole dash if this is possible. The body is rust free and only a couple of little dings in the paint. The bumper plastics are starting to deteriorate and the wood grain has many flaked off spots. So the car really doesn't need much body work just a refresh and the engine is good so I hate to dump it but if a shop could do a hot rod package deal I would love that, what I mean is I drop it off they put a bigger motor, trans, and rear dif, update the suspension and make it all work right. I know it sounds lazy of me but I want my car to be a turn key hot rod and in its current condition I feel that would be fairly easy if I could just find the right person or shop.

 

I own a 87 Estate and have a good running 307 in it, a lot of people out rite hate the engine but I have yet to experience any problems. They are no power house but I've never had lack of power in the mountains. That said though, if and when it comes time for major engine work I will toss the 307, IMO they are a good engine but not worth dumping serious $ into

Buick did make a 350, but they are harder to come by than a Chevy 350. I can't say for certain but I believe 1980 was the last year for Buick 350's.....maybe 1981??

 

as for the woodgrain trim pieces you could always look into hydro dipping them, i'm not real up to par on explaining it but check it out on youtube. a simple process and i think you can buy the design sheets on ebay. or there may be a shop in your area that does it. best of luck

 

I'm with you there also. I was just talking about that some time ago, with a good friend of mine. Things aren't the way they use to be. There IS no passion any more in building cars, at least not to me. Well, if you have deep pockets(which I don't)you CAN get your car built. My same friend had a guy "give him a deal" on painting his car for $5,000! Car was totally stripped, had about 8 "spots" of filler, ruffed, and paint. When I was in my teens and 20's, guys/shops were looking to help you build your car. A few hundreds, 4 or 5 cases, and all you can eat fast food, you had a legit hot rod, and friends for life! Now it seems like all they want is your money and a referral.

 

Not to be the bad guy here but have you looked at the price of everything these days? I do understand your frustration but I too remember when you made friends with the local shop and could pop in and even help fix things on your car. We live in different times now. We have quite a few members here that own or have owned shops, myself included and insurance is outrageous and everyone working in the shop must be covered.
The good thing is you know it is expensive to restore a car as you stated but are you sure you have a realistic grasp on what it is going to cost? I did find a body shop that let me help them do the paint and bodywork on my '55 Bel air. My dad and I did all the mechanical and helped disassemble the car and reassemble. We agreed on a dollar amount per hour and he worked on it with us for actual time so there was no turning in hours of work we didn't know about. We had a pretty good idea of what it cost but in the end it was a lot more...I do wish you luck but remember, shops are at the mercy of suppliers and have to charge enough to cover all the fees placed on them by their city, state, province, county or parish plus make a living.
Hate to say it but small business is becoming a thing of the past, support and treasure the ones you have left in your area because most small business owners are the most passionate about their trade!

 

Turn-key "hotrod" 1990 Buick Estate wagon..... How much do you want to spend? Are looking for a resto-mod set up (Looks basicaly stock, but with modern performance), or a factory stock re-fresh?

Replacement wood grain is getting easier to find, but you'll more than likely going to have to replace all of it because of fading, and grain patterns. That is no easy task, it takes a bit of time, and you have to remove all the stainless trim, braking a lot of the plastic retainers while doing so. Good luck finding replacements.

An Olds 350 would be a more straight forward and cheaper engine replacement for the Olds 307, but the Buick would be so much cooler if you have the cash/patients. Might as well go for a 455 Buick at that point.

There are plenty of shops/people in the auto industry that have passion.
The bottom line for a shop is that they need to make a profit, and enough of one to make taking on a project worth it.

Grow your passion, learn how to do some of this stuff yourself, then you will see why you're getting the reactions you're getting from a few shops.

Mike

 

This is part of my posting all this. I want to know from you guys that have experience to tell me if it is realistic to rebuild the the old 307 and keep my great MPG or if it is better to say screw it and change out have some monster engine, trans, and rear put in there. I have been told, to put a different engine in would take new dash, gauges, wiring, EMC, and redoing a lot of things that might not need replacing. I would love to do some of the work myself if I had a home, garage, and tools. But I don't have any of those well I have a few tools for keeping the car running but not a break down and rebuild. So guys I appreciate the advice to save money and do the work myself. But I am using a little logic here and willing to spend the money with a shop or individual that knows what the hell they are doing. Hell 200OZ I can't estimate cause I don't even know what I am talking about here. Let me just throw a random amount out there, how about $10,000 total restoration budget. I am using my GI bill to go college and I live in an apartment. The alternative your suggesting is me spending thousands of dollars in tools finding a storage unit to contain this work and then me possibly destroying a currently functioning vehicle. I am sorry, I will not put myself through the hassle of breaking or destroying something just for the sake of "doing it myself", same reason I don't do my own dental work, just common sense. So let me redirect my post with this, I would appreciate anyone that can recommend an individual or company that has experience working on or building up a Buick Station wagon. Preferably person or shop be close to OKC but I would be willing to drive the vehicle to location for drop off and pick up when done. Just to be clear I am not trying to do the work myself. Thank you all again for you responses I am hopeful this conversation will lead me in the direction I am seeking.

 

Quick question: What is the "Sooner State". Many of us here re not Americans, and I have no idea where in the U.S. you are to be found. Were you in California, I would suggest talking with "Elegache" on here, since he is in the middle of a rebuild of a 67 Buick wagon, and the shop he uses fixes everything.

 

Non American? I am confused I was under the assumption this was all U.S. here. Are there really American Station wagons in other countries. I guess that sounds dumb of me to say, I didn't know they sold them anywhere else. Sooner State is Oklahoma, Sooners are one of the big time college football teams.

 

I don't want you to estimate the cost of your adventure, just what your budget is, $10,000 would be a bit on the low side for what your wanting imo.

I don't know of anyone that has done a restore on a GM wagon of that era, but a good body shop could do it. The question is do they want to, keep looking around, someone will do it.
FYI, Don't let body guys do mechanical work, and vise versa, unless you find a reputable do it all "Hot Rod" shop.

Just keep in mind if you sink 10gs into that Buick you will never get that kinda cash back out of it, this must be done for love.

Keep us up to date if you go through with it.

Mike

 

We see lots of folks from all over. I have seen quite of few examples of great American Iron preserved by our friends in Sweden, Netherlands, Germany and others. Warms the heart to see it.

mike