Wheels, Tires, Suspension and Frames, DYI

Upon shopping for parts for the 63 Buick skylark, I was disappointed by the popularity of wrong parts that are available for this car. Ultimately, I as a consumer get less, and the seller makes a profit. The aftermarket manufacturers of urethane and polyurethane sway bar bushings do not cater to the original design, instead they make their own with brackets($+$=$$). It forces you to buy them both and they lock in more profit. I recall repeatedly forcing the brackets to compress the wrong sized sway bar bracket bushings. I put my faith in the part being correct, but this was a mistake. Today, I can find youtube videos with people using clamps to compress sway bar bracket bushings. There is some normal compression taken up by the hold...

It has been challenging to finding shocks on the 63 skylark, along the way I have installed incorrect shocks and not much options to choose from. The vintage car market for parts has moved up to inflated prices including J-nuts for qty of 4 to $225. + $9. shipping on ebay. I decided to increase my choices, performance and make it more convenient and affordable to replace front shocks as well eliminating the predatory vintage car market. Of course, safety is concern, handling by 63 technology doesn't compare to today's vehicles' capabilities we have accustomed to. Shocks that can be fitted on 63 skylark are with an extended length of 15 in. and upper and lower with BP4(Gabriel) mountings. Except that I found you can take it wider on...

The Gabriel part listing for rear shocks on 61-63 buick special/skylark is 81495, it has the upper mounting S1, lower mount EB1, this is incorrect for the upper mount and the extended length of ~20 in. This mistake has been for more than 20 years. The correct mounting is ES9(.44" hole) or ES10(.44" hole) for upper and lower is EB1(5/8") and extended length ~24.5 in. The mount bolt hole on the chassis takes 7/16" (.4375") bolt so you would need a metal preferably steel cylindrical hollow spacer between the shock and bolt with 5/8" OD, and 7/16" ID to make a shock with an upper EB1/E1 mount to work. Using the wrong shock mount causes you to collapse the bracket on the chassis and difficult to remove and reinstall shocks for service and...