1971 Skylark Convertible, Inherited a rust bucket? Pictures attached

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kellyh7896

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I am not a car guy, far from it. Just a girl who loved her Grandfather so. And I loved his passions. One of which, his 1971 Buick Skylark. My grandfather passed away in December and I jumped at the opportunity to get my hands on his car. I knew I would be looking at a couple thousand dollars, to get it running again, its been sitting in his garage for about 8 years. I acquired the title and had someone pick it up on a flat bed and get it into a storage unit for me. The tow driver told me my frame is rotted and despite its pretty exterior, I've bit off more than i can chew. I haven't had it towed to a garage yet, because I assume most garages will see a little woman walking in and take advantage of the situation. So, i was hoping someone here could offer me some advice.
 

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Well, sad to hear you lost your grandfather. And hurray to you for keeping some of that passion for the car. It is a nice looking car.

frames can be an issue, but you do need to figure out what the situation is. Convertible frames are different than coupe frames. My convertible had rust in the rear frame area, but after cleaning and treating with POR 15, it was fine to keep going. May could also just repair sections of frames.

i would suggest asking for good reputable people in your area that would take a look at it for you. If you go to a shop, I suggest going without the car and talking to the owner about what you have. You can possibly tell how they would treat you. And then ask if they would provide a free estimate for the repair. And get two or three free estimates and compare.

I hope it all works out good for you, and you enjoy a nice drive with the top down!
 
There's got to be someone on one of the various Buick ONLY sites that may live in your area & can do a general inspection for you, without it being towed or moved from it's storage area. They would have of course bring a floor jack & jack-stand & there are others. Of course this site as well as www.V8buick.com comes to mind as well as www.teambuick.com
If I was closer I would offer my time.
Good LUCK. I hope it's not as bad as you were told. Sometimes someone is looking to take advantage.
Just my thoughts.


Tom T.
 
Thanks for the tips. I'm so afraid I've bitten off more than I can chew. I originally assumed a few thousand dollars and I would be behind the wheel with the top down, feeling my grandfathers spirit again. Ugh. So, worse case scenario is im finding a donor frame, any idea of an average cost to get that done? Best case scenario some parts of the frame would be bad and I could have those sections repaired, yes? What would Something like that cost me? I really would like to walk into this sounding somewhat knowledgeable so that I don't get taken advantage of.

Thank you all again for your time. Greatly appreciated.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
critical areas for the frame are between the control arm mounts for the front and rear. this is structural integrity for the whole car / steering / suspension / etc.

if you've had major rot out in this area i would seriously consider a new-to-you frame from someplace down south. if you have patience, you can probably pick up an entire parts car for less than $1000. ( the way this kind of thing normally goes, you'll go months and never see anything and then as soon as you buy something you'll see a half dozen :clonk: :D )


IF the is in the front or rear frame horns, that's no big deal. that's primarily just holding up sheet metal and bumpers. welding a patch plate in over that is perfectly acceptable.

the concern about trying to patch the frame between the axles is that you really can't see how much other damage is inside the frame rails and you have no idea which other sections may be ready to rust through.

considering that this is usually due to road salt, that's a pretty big risk to be taking when you know you've already got at least one rust through.

obvious places to keep an eye out for a donor car:
* the classifieds here
* www.racingjunk.com
* http://www.searchcraigslist.org/
* AACA forums
* V8Buick.com


of course, a frame swap is going to require complete disassembly of the car so unless you can find somebody ( family or friend or something ) to help you do this for beer ... this is probably going to be way outside of your budget simply on labor costs.
 
although, now that i think on it, a high school / tech school shop class would probably be thrilled to have that as a project.

you just have to be able to trust that the instructor is good.

Leechburg PA? hah, i know the Shaffers up in Adrian.
 
While I am not in this car to resale it, for me its mostly sentiment, at what point should I say that the restoration is well beyond what the car is worth. While it is a labor of love for me, unfortunately I don't have the capacity to do the work myself, so an occasional tinkering and using the money as i get it to put it into the car probably isn't as much of an option as it would be for people who are good with repairing vehicles. It is a numbers matching car. Everything is original, including the paint job. I do know if I decide to swap frames my value is going to drop significantly.

Im going to head over to the garage this weekend and get under it. I'm not sure exactly what I am looking for, maybe I'll bring a hammer and bang around the frame ...
 
Adrian is a little north of me, nice area though!



bob k. mando said:
although, now that i think on it, a high school / tech school shop class would probably be thrilled to have that as a project.

you just have to be able to trust that the instructor is good.

Leechburg PA? hah, i know the Shaffers up in Adrian.
Click to expand...
 
You know Kelly that these cars for the most part are pretty simple as far as normal/routine maintenance goes. No better time to start a NEW learning process & acquire some skills as a positive incentive. The learning process CAN be fun if you look at it in a positive way. Then in the future it would be harder for someone to take advantage of a situation.
Just more of my thoughts.


Tom T.
 
at what point should I say that the restoration is well beyond what the car is worth.


that's completely up to you and your finances.

you need to be aware that the vast, VAST majority of restorations never come close to recouping any significant portion of the money plowed into it. yeah, i know, you see Barrett-Jackson on tv all the time. so what?

an extensive, full frame resto with engine rebuild, repaint and upholstery can easily be north of $70k.

now the bad news;
Buicks don't get much traffic in the resale market.

yeah, if you've got some hot rod Dodge or small production run Camaro or something you might see bids over 100k. unless you've got a Stage 1 Gran Sport, i highly doubt you'll manage to sell it for +50.

heck, Rick Henderson ( of NASCAR ) sold a top of the line resto modded Buick at one of those auctions and i think he only got something like 60 grand. and that was for a beautiful car with a Buick 455 built by his Cup engine shop.


that's why i'm suggesting a shop class for this. you'll only be on the hook for materials at a school.

heck, if you send it to a tech school, you can sign up for the class and do a lot of the work yourself!
 
X2 on what Bob has said. A Vocational/Tech school would be a vary doable option & you'd be able to learn at the same time.
More thoughts.


Tom T.
 
For me, the value of the car will be when I turn the key and hear the engine roar, the vibration of the car underneath me and the wind in my hair, knowing that somehow I brought back to life a part of my grandfather by restoring his car.

I'll start with finding someone to take a solid look at it and tell me what all I need to fix. Suppose I will search around, visit a few garages. I know alot of people, some car guys- should I be looking for someone who specializes in antique cars?

Then, I'll start looking through the classifieds. Have to find the parts I will need... I'm hoping the list won't be extensive. But who knows, maybe I will luck out and find a donor car....

AND I'm going to look into tech schools. And taking a class for myself... If anything, I'll leave the class feeling like less of the unknowing woman and be able to make some solid decisions and choices for my grandfather's car.... my car, in the future.

Thanks guys for all the information and support. Suppose you will be seeing me around a bit more, considering I'm going to take on a project of the unknown.
 
should I be looking for someone who specializes in antique cars?


you definitely need to find somebody who specializes in Buick type engines. Buicks have various quirks that are likely to trip up somebody who is used to Chevys. as a fer instance, Buicks like much tighter tolerances on the bearing clearances and if you have a Chevy guy build a Buick motor you've got a good chance of spinning a bearing <10k miles after rebuild.

a Buick v6 turbo guy would be able to handle your v8.

in a pinch, a Land Rover v8 guy ( all Rover v8s from 1966-2004 are the original Buick small block design, just in metric ) should also have a pretty good handle on it. he'll just be used to dealing with an aluminum block instead of cast iron.


also, the AACA is based in PA and has their museum over in Hershey, just down the road from Hershey Park.

http://aaca.com/

to get an idea on resale value i did a search ... looks like the collector car bubble has burst. lots of Gran Sports around for ~30,000.

http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/carsforsale/buick/gran_sport
 
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