I made a purchase and...

[TexasT]

So, I made a purchase and she is NOT happy about it. I probably should have consulted her more but I didn't. She saw my son and my self loading up the chassis so I made the assumption,(I know, never assume) she knew what I was up to. She knew when her and I went to look at it 2 yrs ago and I told her I wanted it that, well, I wanted it.
I've been figuring how to go get it for two yrs. It was essentially a bunch of parts. And no drivetrain. Moving a body isn't easy. And my city is not keen on having things left on the trailer. So it had to be unloaded too.


Here it is in all it's glory when we went to take a look at it way back when . A body sitting on a stack of pallets.

[slip knot]

She’ll get over it. I hope 😄

What are the plans for it now?

[TexasT]

I certainly hope she will, as we have been married upwards of three decades and I'm not starting over with a different one. She acts like we are destitute and wont be able to pay the bills because I took some of the money the insurance paid out after a lady rammed into the back of my og car. As some may recall I am a Buick kinda guy. I like all brands and am a car guy, motor head and enjoy wrenching on stuff in general.

As far as the plan goes, I hope to reassemble it and be able to have it run and drive. The unit checks off two boxes on the bucket list. It is rosewood color, check. And it is a Limited, check. In the hierarchy of Buick Turbo Regal production the Limited with the LC2 turbo engine was produced in 1987 and only 1035 were produced. GNX was rarer at 547 produced and the WE4 was 1547 produced. The OG car I have happens to be a WE4 so I have that covered.

I have several transmissions and short block engines. I also have a 1986 TType we bought a couple years ago as a roller. It has a rear end and I was going to pull the body off the frame and use that to go get this Rosewood car.

White 1986 TType one of 1921 so it isn't exactly plentiful either.

Went to Kansas and brought it home and stuck it in the garage. Wife not pleased but not over the top yet.

Then last yr a guy I kinda know was looking to get rid of a roller, or more like his wife wanted it out of her back yard. This unit was also an 87 Turbo Regal, and possibly a WE4 but not much was left of it and he didn't know. Here nor there at this point as I figures this one woulf be a great donor for the quarter I need for the OG we4, some floor pan pieces for that white 86 and a chassis to go get this Rosewood car.



A couple decent quarters and the chassis.

[TexasT]

So, as it sits I kinda have three of these Turbo Regals, my 1970 GS455, a couple obs suburbans and we purchased a 2018 Ram CTD 2500 cc. This was an approved purchase and we traded off the 2003 K2500 and her 2000 Malibu with the trans starting to slip. She was on board and doesn't need a car but I guess now she is having second thoughts and "wants" a car. She quit her job and keeps our grand daughter four days a week and I think that is great so the grand daughter doesn't need to go to some strangers at some day care.

Maybe too many vehicles that don't run and drive I guess, so the next big acquisition will be some kind of daily driver for her to also sit in the driveway as she doesn't go anywhere. First world problems for sure.

Back to the acquisition.
We loaded up on sat am. Son came over to come along and a couple of my car buddies came also. One has a real nice trailer with a winch. This was a welcome addition. He actually was the one who came with to get the Kansas roller also.

This is the Ram we bought. Drives like a dream compared to the one we traded and it was no slouch. Gets 16 mpg hand calculated and 19 mpg if you believe the dash thing. Pulls a trailer like no bodies business.


Came with a set of wheels with center caps.


The chassis. It was zip tied to the wall. Not sure why people take things apart. I believe the guy who took it apart was going to LS swap the car and lost interest. According to the seller/building owner the guy pretty much skipped town on him.


Body on the stack of pallets. Seller was nice enough to let us use his pallet jack and two post lift to unite this body with my rolling chassis. This was a big help.


We brought the body over and got it lined up and lifted up with the lift.


Took a couple tries to get it lined up and picked up.


Rolled the chassis in.

[TexasT]

Last tagged on 2003.


Lowered the body onto the chassis.


From the back.


The ac was still charged so we tied that compressor up for the trip back to the house.

 
Got the trailer lined up and the car saw day light for the first time in upwards of two decades.

[TexasT]

Got the winch attached and car lined up with the ramps.







getting her strapped down for the ride.

Now the exciting part where I get to rearrange everything to get things situated and I can assemble an engine, trans and get them into the car.

Probably going to take the original chassis and reassemble it with the front end components that came with it. Swap that 86 axle to that chassis and swap it to this body. This will retain the original chassis to that body. Not real important I guess but will allow me to paint the chassis and make it nice.

[jabberwoki]

As a Buick guy i thoroughly approve.

[Lookin4_67GalaxieConv]

When I clicked on your first picture, this is what came up and I thought, holy shit, is that your wife?!??   

 

[TexasT]

Not the wife unless she is looking out the door back there.

[john k]

Good thing, putting the pieces back together.  Getting the original chassis under it is a real smart move, as some little difference pops up.  Sure like those wheels.

[slip knot]

I always liked that body style. Always wanted to sleeper a plain jane Regal.

[goodfellow]

I always liked that body style. Always wanted to sleeper a plain jane Regal.

+1 - love that model and year. Congrats on the new project, and would love to see the progress.


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[DeadNutz]

Wishing you luck on completing your projects. I always liked the looks of the Regals but really liked the the Grand Nationals and the GNX was really nice but the prices were out of sight for those. My mom had a couple of Monte Carlo SS's during that time period.

[goodfellow]

Wishing you luck on completing your projects. I always liked the looks of the Regals but really liked the the Grand Nationals and the GNX was really nice but the prices were out of sight for those. My mom had a couple of Monte Carlo SS's during that time period.

Wow - mom must have been pretty cool drivin’ a MC-SS. Most of my mom’s generation were station wagon queens- LOL


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[DeadNutz]

Wishing you luck on completing your projects. I always liked the looks of the Regals but really liked the the Grand Nationals and the GNX was really nice but the prices were out of sight for those. My mom had a couple of Monte Carlo SS's during that time period.

Wow - mom must have been pretty cool drivin’ a MC-SS. Most of my mom’s generation were station wagon queens- LOL


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When I was in high school she bought a 72 Chevelle SS and that was what I took my driving test in. Her SS days ended when she traded in her last MC SS for a Caprice since she wanted a bigger car to haul the grandkid. Every single time she took the SS in for service the salesmen begged her to trade it in. One day a salesman approached and said he had a buyer wanting an SS in that color and was willing to pay top dollar since they had been discontinued. She gave them a little money and left with the new Caprice.

[muddy]

The wife will get over it or leave..... The cars not going anywhere!

Sent from the twisted mind of the mudman

[goodfellow]

Wishing you luck on completing your projects. I always liked the looks of the Regals but really liked the the Grand Nationals and the GNX was really nice but the prices were out of sight for those. My mom had a couple of Monte Carlo SS's during that time period.

Wow - mom must have been pretty cool drivin’ a MC-SS. Most of my mom’s generation were station wagon queens- LOL


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

When I was in high school she bought a 72 Chevelle SS and that was what I took my driving test in. Her SS days ended when she traded in her last MC SS for a Caprice since she wanted a bigger car to haul the grandkid. Every single time she took the SS in for service the salesmen begged her to trade it in. One day a salesman approached and said he had a buyer wanting an SS in that color and was willing to pay top dollar since they had been discontinued. She gave them a little money and left with the new Caprice.

Way to go mom! Pretty cool having a mom that understood horsepower and styling.

Thanks for sharing that story.


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[pep]

My question, how many cars are you going to put together . Cannot figure out the direction of the

 build/builds.

 I did something similar with a 32 Ford truck. 4 years later wife was driving it . Pretty sure the wife would not complain if progress in being made. Buying an storing waiting on a round_to_it, not helping

[pep]

Hot_Rod lady.... First start & drive.  The locals snap the head seeing the driver, funny as hell. 

Grind, weld and assemble on,

[TexasT]

Direction ? Well, I want to do the rosewood and get it running and driving to kinda take the place of the black one that got wrecked. I love driving one and this one will have all the creature comforts of the late eighties. Would want to be able to do powertour and dragweek type events and be able to drive it to/from the local track to run it. It will be fed e85 and probably have an aftermarket ECU to be able to tune it.

The white one will become a parts donor really. It has an 8.5 rear and good interior pieces I can use for the black one that has spent its days in the Texas sun and the interior shows it.

The black one will get the frame pulled and plated where it was kinked to strengthen it and be put back together with the new/used quarter. It is pretty low option car so it is kinda odd. I bought it new and it is my first new car so it will be with me as long as I can have it.

Nice truck. Lots of fab work I'm sure. I don't think mine will require so much fab as I have most of the pieces and can get other things I might not have. I did order a floor pan to replace the rusted Dr side one in the rosewood car. Story was the guy took it to Indiana one winter and had salt on his boots and it soaked the carpet and ate the floor. Not sure but it is rusty so out it comes .

If a buyer comes along for the white one, down the road it goes. Other wise I guess it is paid for so it can sit and wait.

[TexasT]

As far as progress, I've been working six days a week and that one day trying to get her honey dos done. She had been wanting a walkway from the side walk to the driveway as the path gets muddy. So we bought some flat stone and did that.

As we were getting the fill between the flat rocks



Then she wanted some gabion walls. These were quite the energy expender.

Bought two big white bags like this and one full of river rock and the other riprap to fill the inner part.






I think they turned out well. Do have some more work to do on the backyard fence but it can wait with the price of lumber where it is.

[jabberwoki]

I like the wall good idea.

[TexasT]

Managed to get the chassis up and off the trailer today.











Slipped the bumpers into the frame to get them out of the way. Next up the steering box, front suspension, fuel and brake lines. Then swap the rear end from the roller so I can swap this frame back under its original body.

[jabberwoki]

Nice , love seeing progress.

[TexasT]

Been picking away at stuff. Work has slowed some and they did away with my four ten hr day shift and I'm back to m-f. This gives two days in a row off pretty much every weekend. So I got the steering box and links on, and the upper and lower front a arms hung on there. The outer tie rods were missing nuts so I ordered up some castle nuts for those. The ball joints were also missing nuts so those were ordered as well. Was going to replace em but the uppers have nuts n bolts so they have already been replaced and the mileage on the dash is only mid eighty thousand so they can't be that old and I'm going to send em. Gotta dig up the springs and compressor as the floor jack ain't gonna work without an engine.

crank with the rolled fillets on the journals. Factory did this to the factory turbo cranks so I guess it adds steangth. I'd love a new forged unit of chinesium but with work slowing I'm going to run with this unit. Maybe for the next one.






Built up a stand for the crank so I could measure and give it a polish. I hope I can find some .001 over bearings if it can go with those. Otherwise I might have to take and have it turned down. Time will tell. Definitely a budget build.

[TexasT]

Got the block onto the stand and the main caps torqued down with some bearings in there.

Torque wrench the son bought me a few Christmases' back. I've been using the old beam type but he thinks it is junk.

Got the micrometer out and did the standard in there, "just to make sure". and measured up the main journals on the crank.

Got the chinse one out too.

The starret one came in this cool wood box


I bought this cool dial bore gauge. It is a fowler, though it is a chinesium unit. Could have doubled or tripled the entry price and got the Mitutoyo but I just could see it .
I've been looking at youtube vids and it doesn't look that hard to do the measuring. We are certainly going to find out.
I did get some cam bearings, some rod and main bearings and a nifty set of hyper eutectic pistons. Would have liked some forged pistons but as my dad used to say, wish in one hand and crap in the other and see which one fills up first. Gotta round up some rods. I know I have several sets but so far have only located a set of five and a bluetooth sixth rod probably won't work out.

[TexasT]

So, with the bare frame, doing the floor jack on the lower wasn't going to work. I got my two spring compressors out but saw one of these single type units on the ebay. For $22 shipped I invested in the chinesium. As with any, I was scared to give it the full crush but it worked out so I was able to get the two front springs in.

I got the castle nuts for the ball joint and tie rod end so those worked out. Gotta see about some cotter pins. small steps are better than none.

Hope everyone is well.

[john k]

Progress is always good.  You got such a mix of parts I can barely keep it straight.  Everything I have is froze down, or covered up for the winter.  Did walk out back and looked over the 55 Pontiac parts car I bought last month.  Monday was real nice, but got snow again last night.  Was told by an instructor in tech school years back, the beam type torque wrench would hold its accuracy longer than the snap type. 

[TexasT]

I tend to be doing several things at a time and am easily side tracked. I think that is the main reason my son won't come help me any more. He gets frustrated.
I like wood work type stuff and the welding/cutting is also pretty fun. Waiting for paint or other finish to dry , or a glue up to dry I get off on other things. I have a four wheel gravely tractor and my 70 GS455 I want to do some things to and get them useable. And of course the og 87 Regal that got hit. Lots of plans. And the wife has her own list of things she wants too.

[john k]

Know what you mean.  Have 1 JD tractor ready to run come spring, already painted.  A IHC 460 tractor running and paint to finish.  2 more big JD farm tractor to get back to.  4 JD riding mowers to finish.  1931 FordAA truck,runs but needs lots.  1941 Studebaker Commander to finish.  1949 Studebaker pickup to put an engine in.  2- 1956 Pontiac sedans to get running.  1958 Chevy Apache 1/2t.  Still working over the 1906 house, one room at a time.  Some more stuff, got to keep busy when retired.  Going to a big farm machinery sale tomorrow.  If it doesnt snow too much.