66 Buick Skylark - Ruth

[LEEVON]

Wow, that is some laser straight black paint! Red or Black you can't go wrong on the interior, but red does have a little bad boy to it.

[Bishops Trucks]

Originally Posted by LEEVON

Wow, that is some laser straight black paint! Red or Black you can't go wrong on the interior, but red does have a little bad boy to it.

I've always been partial to black with tan interior, just my opinion. That is a beautiful paintjob. Whatever color you choose for the inside will compliment well.

[Zoomin]

Originally Posted by Jonboy

cough* LS swap* cough

Strangest thing... For some reason I feel like an LS might be the way to go.

[Zoomin]

Originally Posted by LEEVON

Wow, that is some laser straight black paint! Red or Black you can't go wrong on the interior, but red does have a little bad boy to it.

Originally Posted by Bishops Trucks

I've always been partial to black with tan interior, just my opinion. That is a beautiful paintjob. Whatever color you choose for the inside will compliment well.

I agree with you guys. The paint is so good the blue just wasn't good enough. PUI is sending samples of their red and tan colors. I didn't know this, but they will make any of their door panels and seat covers to match these samples.

That's what you figure out when your painter also happens to be a PUI dealer.

[Zoomin]

More progress at the LBR shop....

[screaminchevypickup]

[mcbassin]

Awesome progress Kyle! Love all the upgrades Steve.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Kyle sure works fast and that car turned out great...

[Zoomin]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Awesome progress Kyle! Love all the upgrades Steve.

Thanks, Mike.

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Kyle sure works fast and that car turned out great...

If he didn't have to wait on me to get parts gathered up and make decisions it would probably be done already.

I posted the engine for sale on a Buick board and it's already been installed in a 65 Buick Special.

The new owner sent a pic of it's new home.



You get to meet some great people in this hobby.

[mcbassin]

Originally Posted by Zoomin

Thanks, Mike.



If he didn't have to wait on me to get parts gathered up and make decisions it would probably be done already.

I posted the engine for sale on a Buick board and it's already been installed in a 65 Buick Special.

The new owner sent a pic of it's new home.


You get to meet some great people in this hobby.

How cool is that? It's good to see the old iron being saved in another project.

[Zoomin]

The past few weeks have been spent figuring out what we needed for the conversion and waiting on stuff to arrive. The LS1 got sent out for a new cam, springs and lifters. Kyle added the new muscle car oil pan. We're using Dirty Dingo adapters, Chevelle SBC stands and mounts.





Look how compact the FrontRunner tucks all the accessories.



Here you can see the profile the GMPP oil pan provides...



Between that, the mounts and the adapters you can put the engine right where you want it.

[lolife99]

Front Runner set-up is sweet!
You are doing it right with this car.
Looking forward to the end results!

[mcbassin]

Hard not to be envious when I look at your builds Steve. Dang that is a saweet setup!
Love the LS power plant. Dig the paint on the engine and tranny too.

[Crash_OK]

very, very nice Steve... Looking forward to seeing it installed.

[Zoomin]

Originally Posted by lolife99

Front Runner set-up is sweet!
You are doing it right with this car.
Looking forward to the end results!

You and me both, man. The Front Runner is man candy.

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Hard not to be envious when I look at your builds Steve. Dang that is a saweet setup!
Love the LS power plant. Dig the paint on the engine and tranny too.

Thanks Mike!
I get envious when I see the neat pieces you dream up and make. That's way cool. I love to tinker on these things but my skill levels are not where Kyle's, Mark's, yours and lots of guys on this board. Fortunately I know when to get out of the way, but I wish I could do what you guys do.

Originally Posted by Crash_OK

very, very nice Steve... Looking forward to seeing it installed.

Well, you know how it is with Kyle, you never have to wait long.

[screaminchevypickup]

Very nice!

[Zoomin]

Well, slight set back. Tie rod and oil pan aren't playing well together. Trying to occupy the same space once the steering wheel gets turned a full revolution.




But the engine sure looks good.

[mcbassin]

Originally Posted by Zoomin

Well, slight set back. Tie rod and oil pan aren't playing well together. Trying to occupy the same space once the steering wheel gets turned a full revolution.

The engine does look great! So what is the plan for fixing the interference?

[Low Elco]

Wow, this is turning out nice.

[Zoomin]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

The engine does look great! So what is the plan for fixing the interference?

I'm buying a different pan that is shallower in front. Also it's made of steel rather than cast so it will be easier to modify.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Wow, this is turning out nice.

Thanks!

Kyle's doing a great job.

[Jonboy]

It's really coming together nicely Steve (and Kyle). Seeing stuff like this makes me want to tear mine all the way back down and start over. It's sooooo clean.

[Zoomin]

Originally Posted by Jonboy

It's really coming together nicely Steve (and Kyle). Seeing stuff like this makes me want to tear mine all the way back down and start over. It's sooooo clean.

Thanks Jonboy. This is a case of scope creep for sure. The idea was to fix the paint and just enjoy driving it and well, one thing led to another and now here we are.

In the last few weeks I sold one of my pickups - a really nice BB SWB that I really hated to see leave, but it's going to a great home. To make a long story short, a forum member pm'd me and asked if I would consider selling it, just out of the blue. So Yeller is now in his new home in AZ and getting a full blown resto with tons of NOS pieces. That frees up resources to go ahead and take Ruth up to the next level. Nice how things work out.

Here's a pic of the oil pan that I ordered from AutoKraft...



This is a really well built pan, not stamped steel. This has a big advantage over cast pans in that you can 'customize' it for additional clearance, which it turns out still needed to be done to clear the center link and tie rods.



The other advantage is that the kick outs at the deep part of the pan allow oil capacity and better road clearance than the LH8 pan I had tried to use before. But that makes it a much tighter fit when installing the engine/tranny. Just be aware that it does fit great once it's in, but the pan was fighting the cross member and the bellhousing was fighting the trans tunnel all at the same time.

Anyway, the engine is back in for good this time and the steering will now go lock to lock with no interference.



After spending last week waiting on parts we are moving back in the right direction again.

Got the Griffin radiator this week, along with the shroud and fan.



Went with a single 16" fan rather than two smaller fans as it turns out this will pull more CFM (3650) with less amps.

[mcbassin]

This ride just keeps getting cooler (no pun intended). Keep the updates coming.

[Zoomin]

Some updates...

The radiator support and the front of the right inner fender needed a small an=mount of rust repair because of the old battery leakage.




The speedometer on the Skylark is a long skinny rectangle which really limits the options for changing over to electronic. Dakota Digital makes a nice setup for the same year Chevelle, but it won't fit Ruth.

The smallest you can get most speedometers and tachs is 3-3/8. The height of Ruth's panel is 3-1/4 and I don't want to cut into the dash to rig something up.

Trying out some new gauges from Speed Hut. They have some gauges that are 2-5/8 that will fit, but of course the trade-off is that they are going to be harder to read. The neat thing about Speed Hut is they custom make the gauges stylistically - you can pick the face color, font, needle color, ring material, etc.





The speedometer is GPS based, so that's much easier than getting the typical feed from the harness to work.


The other alternative is to use a different transmission tailhousing which will drive the existing mechanical speedometer and still sends info via ESS to the computer. The tach and any other gauges will still require some head scratching. Ruth just has a gas gauge and idiot lights.

[screaminchevypickup]

You better make sure that all gets back in the box..