1970 Buick Estate Restoration

Hi Guys, I joined this forum awhile back looking for advice on woodgrain for my estate wagon. Been meaning to share my build on here for a long time but have never got around to it.

I am a New Zealander living in Australia, I am part of the team over at www.oldschool.co.nz. we are a small forum catering for any old cars and we have a strong group of wagon lovers on the forum. I will be copying my build over from there as its almost complete now.

I will try to tidy up the original build thread and make it easier to follow, probably a few colloquialisms and chat that doesnt make any sense! Seems a few of my pictures have died also. Anyway I have a few beers so lets see how this goes

 

So i bought this wagon site unseen off Australian eBay. The price was right and I do love a good wagon. It ticked all boxes for me, big block and a 3rd row seat

 

So I went to pick the Buick up last week, kind of went well but got stuffed around in the end over some trivial paper work stuff.

Basically we showed up on Sunday to work on the car, it was in a pretty sad state, contrary to what I had been told the car had been sitting outside for 2 years. This really pissed me off as the tropical Queensland climate means it was sitting in the beating sun and rain. Needless to say it had developed some rust but nothing too concerning. The vinyl roof is shagged and the wood grain is faded, this was pretty much expected but things were made allot worse by the car sitting outside.

So anyway Sam and I set about tackling all the problems that would stop it getting a roadworthy (basically a safety certificate) so we could register it and drive it home. The electric windows were not going at all, same for the wipers and a bunch of bulbs were blown. These were probably the worst problems as some idiot had been under the dash and cut wires everywhere. We ended up with a quick visit to a auto sparky to point us in the right direction. By the end of the week most stuff was sorted bar some stuffed switches for the central locking, but these are available repro as they are reasonable GM generic

irst off it has a undersized square bore Holley adapted to the factory spread bore manifold which is less than ideal, I’ll be tracking down a factory Q-jet at some stage. The coolant was gross and smelled like the engine had been hot, so we we’re pretty concerned of a BHG. But a solid compression test, some fresh coolant and a few decent drives it was doing all the right things so a BHG was ruled out. We chucked some new plugs at it gave it a oil change and a host of other small things which got it running allot better. A new water pump and dizzy are a must in the near future

So Friday came and it was time to register it and drive it back to Sydney, we rolled the Buick down to the guy’s workshop only to find out that he had the wrong import approval paperwork. So he was frantically trying to track down the correct paperwork from his colleague in the U.S but to no avail. The RTA isn’t open in the weekend and I had to be back at work Monday so our whole mission was ruined by the idiot who sold it to me.

All of the problems aside the car is pretty solid and the motor is a good runner. We borrowed the guys dealer plates and put some decent miles on it and it’s a blast to drive. Sam is up in QLD now so he will have it registered for me hopefully soon

Some crap pics to combat the wall of txt

 

Well I have done a bunch to this thing since the last update, but I fail and never take pics of anything, but here goes with a few snaps from my phone.

I had basically just been enjoying this thing and driving it to work, as with any old car that has been sitting a long time of small problems arose the more I used it.

Firstly it was running progressively worse when cold and had developed a small leak from the accelerator pump diaphragm, this quickly turned into a full blown leak.



That’s a 670 Holley street avenger with a leaky accelerator pump, it will be replaced with the factory Rochester soon. Anyway the local Autobarn is really well stocked and carry Holley parts so for $10 I picked up a new diaphragm and base gasket. Once the carb was off I noticed one of the vacuum ports still had a factory blanking boot on it, this was torn and creating a massive vacuum leak. Once fixed this sorted my cold and general rough running issues, stoked, I would have never found this with the carb on as its tucked up under one of the bowls
Also of concern was that the engine was blowing allot of oil into the air cleaner which was soaked in oil and stuffed. While the carb was off I noticed the PCV system was hooked up to the wrong port on the carb and that the PCV valve was blocked (they usually are, people never replace them). With this blocked crankcase pressure is pushed out the rocker cover instead of sucking the crap into the intake. Once a new valve was in I ran a temporary catch can setup to check that the oil blow-by was just the faulty PCV system and not super excessive, this ran clean so it was installed back to stock.

Things were now going good, car ran allot better, until on my way home from work I noticed the brake light flash on under hard braking, later combined with the oil light coming on at idle when hot, stink.

I checked out the cylinders for leaks, and drove it some more, the pedal progressively got softer and the problem was narrowed down to a faulty master. Which luckily is easily available GM part, this was ordered from the states and replaced.

Turns out the oil light issue is very common on these motors, the alloy housing the oil pump gears sit in wears over time and creates excessive end clearance. This was giving me around 4psi at idle, but healthy pressure when revved. The only proper way to fix this is a new timing cover so I ordered a TA performance unit, which are pretty much the only option out there. This arrived on my desk earlier in the week, they have many improvements over stock.



Along the way I acquired another 455 from a work mate who happened to have one, its from a 70 Electra and is a strong runner with good compression (I was able to see it run). It came with some nice bits like a Edelbrock B4B alloy manifold, full gasket set, a rebuilt th400 and the factory Q-jet. Plan is to chuck the new timing cover and a whole bunch of new parts I have (Mallory dizzy, timing chain, mild cam etc) at the spare motor and drop it in. Then I can slowly rebuild the original matching numbers block with some good bits
It also has some rust from sitting outside, worst bit being the dickie seat foot-well below



Luckily these things have thick steel, and most of it cleaned up OK, there’s a few small holes to fix but it’s all ground back and POR15’d until I get a welder. The reason so much water has got in is this leaking rear quarter window, the old calking is dried out and water pours in, rust is also starting at the base of the window. This will be fixed once the aforementioned welder arrives and I get some paint matched up to hide the repair. The photo is **** but that rust needs a patch



This next shot is shows how faded the wood grain vinyl is



I don’t have a picture yet but the car now rides on a set of new Kumho thin whitewalls, these were a steal at $130 each and make the car look so much better.

 

Finally my box of goodies arrived from the states! I have a whole bunch of other parts on the way but these are the engine bits, box includes:

* Mallory electronic distributor, matching coil, HEI style leads, and full adjustable advance kit
* New oil pump gears, booster plate, shim kit and adjustable relief valve
* New timing chain and gears
* 'stage 1' mechanical fuel pump
* new waterpump
* bunch of gaskets, rubber rear main to eliminate the rope one, plus other odds and ends

I also have pretty much stripped the interior looking for rust, Found a bunch of surface stuff but nothing major. Worst bit is some dork had sporadically stuck down some sticky sound dampening material and stuck it over rust and wires. Anyway I spent the whole weekend scraping this tar out along with the factory seam sealer. the whole floor has been ground back, sanded with 80 grit and ready for the metal ready/POR15 treatment. Next step when I have time is the front windscreen and dash

Also rolling to a sweet hotrod/rockabilly show called greazefest this weekend, I'll try getting some decent pics

 

I ran this out of gas on the way home from work the other day, which in any old car is not a good move!

The carb had developed a hesitation off idle but after I ran it out of gas the problem was 10 times worse



So I picked up a cheap rebuild kit for the Holley, i would have liked to get the Rochester on there but I'm still waiting for parts. Below is the carb stripped and being soaked in degreaser, the carb had some rusty gunk in it and both the brass filters on the intakes were fairly dirty.



Below is the carb all cleaned up, blown out with air and going back together



And done



While I was at it I decided to, do the timing chain and chuck on the TA timing cover. I had previously fixed my low oil pressure issues by installing a booster plate to the oil pump to restore the end clearance on the pump but this was a band aid method as It still had the old pump gears and worn housings.

Radiator out ready to rock


old housing removed and new timing chain in place



And boom new timing cover and water pump in place, oil pump was set to the proper .002" clearance using a shim kit.



So got it all back together and set the float levels on the Holley, timed it up properly with the new Mallory electronic dizzy and it runs mint. While I was rebuilding the carb I also set-up the cam for the accelerator pump to give a bigger shot, this made a huge difference to how crisp it revs now.

Drove it to work this morning and it holds oil and water which is good, it runs so much better now its not funny. Has so much more power and throttle response, I plan to chuck a new set of plugs at it tonight and put some more timing into it and I'm sure it will go better again.

Next on the to-do list is to whip out the trans and fix up some major leaks it has from both ends, that plus about a million other things

 

So long time no update! been chipping away at this thing fairly regularly, lost half the photos, so we only have the mess below

Since the last update first thing I did was play with the Holley, from the rebuild I knew the jets were to small for this gas guzzler so went up 4 sizes on the primary and secondaries. car went allot better! crazy to think this is the same POS engine we picked up at the start of the year. Still haven't received the correct Q-jet for it (he sent me a Holden one) but I am assured its on the way, I know with the q-jet modified and a wide-band I'll get it running super crisp

Next was the leaky TH400, it was getting to the point where is was pouring oil out and It had developed a shudder shifting into second under load so it was time to whip it out. I had received a spare box with the spare engine which was supposededly pretty fresh so I took the risk and decided to chuck it in. I whipped it apart for inspection, threw a filter and external seal kit at it to be safe

The box was super clean, and had definitely been apart recently, I was replacing pretty fresh seals

Back together ready to go in



Hydra-Matic fool

Heres me fixing the ****ed spare engine

Then the other day I went abit mental and pulled out all the interior, the rising heat from the floor was driving me nuts. i also know from sitting outside here that it would need some serious attention before it ****ed out with rust. This shots mid way through pulling the factory paper/fibre/tar board from the roof worst **** ever! seriously took a week of nights after work. Thinners and a paint scraper on a stick worked best in the end

Interior rust. These photos make it look way worse than it all of this rust just sanded back nicely, gotta love the thick steel on these things



Firewall rust/dash mounted intercooler

these holes would be for foot vents on lower spec models without AC, on mine they are just blanked (again its not as bad as it looks in there). I've bought a fairly sweet sound system and some small speaker enclosures will be going in these massive holes, it will still tuck behind the factory kick panels though


And that's about it, I have purchased tons of POR 15, sikaflex, cavity wax, dynamat, insulation etc etc so hopefully I will stop al this surface rust and have allot cooler car when I'm done.

 

BOOM, shiney roof, paint is still wet in this shot but finally got a coat of paint on it. The prep I had to undertake on this roof was insane probably 20+ hours haha, that tar **** they put on the roof is terrible.



Anyway next step is using one of these:



To get rust converter and some kind of paint/sealant/wax in all the cavities. Don't really want to start on the floors just yet as that **** will make a mess everywhere

 

New welding rig below



Lays out some pretty sweet welds



These are the rear seat and dickie seat backing steel, they are ****ing insanely heavy one of them would be pushing 30kg. Anyway they are back from the basters now and exopy primered ready for paint soon. Rest of the interior trim is with the blaster aswell



Finally pulled off the vinyl top, this really had to happen as it was stuffed, new one is on the way.



Bare-metaled the roof, pretty much rust free bar a few willtle bubbles, stoked. It was tempting to delete the vinyl but I CBF after taking it off, the roof is pretty bent up from the factory. Where they punch the holes for the roof racks they absolutely **** the roof, huge low spots around each hole. Add to this that the seams are finished real **** I was sold on sealing it up and new vinyl.



Had some pretty serious rust going on in the rear quater window sils. started chopping it out and I'm getting this piece folded up by the local sheet metal guy.




Rust on the other side, not so bad



Heres my new roof paint, all sealed up



**** house vinyl top, I had to measure it up to make sure the guys in the states had the correct pattern. Since this thing is the same basic body as a Impala/Kingswood wagon turns out they do and in the correct crappy brown colour

 

K so heres the tops of the front seat after a re-trim, my seats were shot so had to do something. Not sure if I dig the smooth tan vinyl it but its done now haha



And all my interior bits back from the blaster and exopy primered. Now to decide on a colour! needs to match or contrast the seats, I'll figure something out

 

Another sad phone pic update

So 3 big boxes of parts arrived from the states, mostly hard parts like 4 new brake cylinders, shoes, hardware & lines. Also got some gaskets so I can change the intake over to the edlebrock intake. At the same time I am keen to check out the condition and clean/replace the hydraulic lifters, plus check the condition of the rocker gear & valve height. Probably a good time for a lazy small cam upgrade

Included in the shippment was this:


Its a full interior bolt kit for a Impala of the same year as the wags. It's super complete, every bolt or clip inside the cabin is included, right down to new factory stereo knob nuts


Started attacking the rusty rear window sills, patches close to being ready here

and zapped into place, gutted that there are a few high spots from abit to much heat but you can get a dolly in there so when I buy the correct one I'll tap it down



Also hit the other side with the grinder and spot weld drill, this side is way better than the passenger side. Still nasty **** though, this whole seam is pretty gross and rusty. Obviously going to patch where there was holes then seal the seam up the best I can with POR15 and maybe cavity wax or something. Its really all I can do unless you dip the thing I guess



Also finally got into the back and finished stripping the interior, piant over easter I hope


Sam recently scored us a awesome compressor 15A 3.5hp, the biggest we can go on single phase. This makes me pretty keen to paint the car from home. The paint job it has now is terrible, wasnt blocked properly and the clear looks wavy as ****, hmmm more work and time off the road though

 

OK so I went mental and stripped this back, I was sick of the wavy paint and by the time I had patched the rust it would have looked like **** anyway. This is a pretty condensed down version as every time I type a novel I end up losing it

So first 2 shots here the car is completely stripped of everything that bolts off, then atacked with wire wheels and stripping disks



Below is the rear quater panel seam, this was full of lead. Its generally a good idea to remove all the lead, the way the factory layed it in usually means some acid was trapped in there.


Its not so easy to see but below as its cleaned up but thats rust that was under the lead, there are about 10 leaded seams on this car which I have pulled out, I woudl say 8 of them had some rust starting. IAfter this I weld the seam, fill it with 3M 1838 epoxy putty (amazing ****) sand them a skim of filler, it wont crack



For some reason another shot of my repair along the rear quarter window sill. Still have a little to do there



The next few shots are just random snaps of rust I uncovered that will be patched as soon as I have put exopy primer on this thing










Boring stuff! so now this side has been fully sanded and rubbed down with a scotch-brite pad using wax and grease remover as a lube, preps the surface real well



Started masking it up



In the shed tonight all ready to go, I would be painting right now but it started raining and i didn't want to push it outside to setup my plastic booth.



Got all my gear cleaned and ready compressor drained so hopefully I'll get half the car primered tomorrow, exciting



So yea ****s got serious, once it is all exopy primered I will move onto bodywork and stripping down the bolt on panels.

 

So Saturday was written off by bad painting weather so I got stuck into the worst bit of rust. This is the lower plenum where the water runs off the windscreen, it had about 3 inches of dust in the bottom which completely blocked any water escaping. Sorry the pics are a little close to see what is going on



Shot from the passender side footwell, there is about 4 skins of steel all tightly packed together in this reigon, joy.



So I actually got all the patches made to fix this but they came out to dark, update tomorrow when I close it up

So the Sunday came and the weather was pretty reasonable, so painted camels steels with epoxy



and while I did that I got one side of the car done!




Nothing like wet paint to show up all the dents! but stoked to get it sealed up



So this week if the weather holds up I predict I will have it all in primer. Then more rust work

 

Ok so I slowed down progress by deciding POR15 is ****, I only used it on my floors and roof because I had no spray gear, I also had no idea that I was going to this extent. Basically it had a weird reaction with the sikaflex I installed on the floor, it lifted real easy where ever I put sika, but was stuck solid everywhere else. So I thought **** this time to use normal industry proven paint systems, you never hear anyone saying there epoxy primer peeled off in sheets.

Anyway as I have smoko the car sits lie this, epoxy will go on once I finish masking and cleaning.

 

Still chugging away at this, got this panel into epoxy Monday, had a few small patches to do up here, so took awhile to get this far



Tonight I got home abit late to do any hard out grinding/paint removal. So decided to tackle a rusty seam in the front passenger foot well. Cut it out, there are 3 skins here where it moulds to the firewall, bottom skin is fairly solid so stays. I hate cutting up sills always makes me crings what other stuff is hiding around the car but **** it keep trucking



Wire brushed and hit with some rust converter/primer stuff


And welded in with my minimal welding skills,



Got some satin black 2K so hopefully the firewall and inner floor will get done this weekend