Picking up the slack

Geez, it's been a long time since I posted here. Sorry about that but I lost all interest in the car when I couldn't get it through the DMV (Bilprovningen) inspection and get it street legal.

Still, I managed to get the engine in and done as seen in the picture to the right. I would have loved to do the AC unit properly as well but at the time I was still hoping that the company that sold me the car would pick up the bill for the restoration of it so I didnt touch it. As it stands now, I'm guessing I'll pay for it though.

On a somewhat brighter note I picked up my new TA Performance headers a couple of weeks ago that I ordered sometime in March if I recall correctly. Overseas shipping is a nightmare.

I've also decided to replace my Flowmatser 40 mufflers with the Dynomax Super Turbo's after checking with the V8Buick forum members. The 20" muffler was the recommendation but I can squeeze in the 16" at best so I'm still waiting on feedback on if that's an option.

I'll be tackling the interior this winter - or as much as I can afford at least as I'm running low on funds for various reasons. Shipping parts from the States is also an issue so I'll try and do as much as possible on my own.

Post frequency will still be a bit erratic in the next month or so until I get back to the garage mid November.

More pictures:

Even more painted

These posts all start to look alike but that's because there's a lot to be painted right now. Despite it taking time it's still fun to see everything coming together.

The latest stuff

Not a lot done done since the last post but that's mostly because cleaning and painting the engine parts takes time. Not to mention that removing the old lines took for ever.

I did get quite a few engine parts painted. I also got new brake lines to replace my old ones.

I'm hoping to replace all the sheet metal for the battery tray by tomorrow as well as shape and install the new brake lines.

Painting the engine

Long time since the last post - I've been busy though. :)

I've gotten most of the engine painted, although it needs another couple of coats to look the way I want it. I've run out of paint though so I'm waiting for that at the moment.

The hardest part when painting the engine has - of course - been getting it clean enough to paint. There are a lot of nooks and crannies in an engine and it's surrounding parts.

With the use of power tool wire brushes and generous use of brake cleaning fluid (as suggested by a member of the V8Buick.com forum) I got most of the parts clean enough to paint though.

The second hardest part of this is getting paint in all of these nooks and crannies, without getting too much paint on all the other parts of the engine. I still have a couple of places where I'll need to touch up with some more paint.

I had initially planned on painting all of the bolts for the engine in black but that proved to be too time consuming (putting the engine together, paint it, taking it apart, paint the bolts, put it back together once more) so I just painted the bolts for the intake as for now.

I might paint other bolts - for accessories and such - in red (as these parts are in black), all depending on how much time I have.

The single biggest problem I encountered was when the gasket for the oil pan crept out as I put on the oil pan. I didn't notice either so it sat like this for a day or two. I managed to reseat it pretty good though so it should stay tight.

Painting the firewall and cutting out rust

Yesterday I painted the firewall. There are some areas that are harder to reach than others but I think it'll be quite good when I'm done.

I also started cutting out rusted sheet metal from under the battery tray. I'm guessing it'll be a bit tricky to repair as the inner and outer fender overlap but I'll cut out the bad and keep as much good as possible and go from there.

More paint!

Well, not a lot to add besides the fact that I painted even more of the engine room as well as my old headers and a couple of engine accessories.

I'll try and get the firewall done today.

Time for paint

I finally got the engine room as clean as I can, given the time and money I have available, and started painting it yesterday.

I'm using a matte enamel acrylic paint that others in my garage has used with great success. You might wonder why I went with matte and not semi-gloss or even gloss and the sole reason is that there was no semi-gloss and I think that gloss is too shiny.

My reasoning is that with a matte engine room the engine will stand out even more (which, by the way, will be painted in proper Buick red and have semi-gloss black accessories). This might prove to be completely wrong but then I have a reason to do it again. :)

Unfortunately the paint for my engine didn't arrive yesterday and since it's Easter it won't arrive until next Tuesday at the earliest. I still have a couple of things to paint over at my brothers place (where they can dry in peace) and the engine room isn't finished either so it's not like I don't have anything to do.

Still, it'd be nice to get the engine back together. I have a pretty ambitious idea for how to paint the engine, we'll see how far I get when it comes to implementing it. ;)