Projects 62 Buick Special, My attempt at a mild custom

Well after a lot longer than I expected my car is back home and there is a solid floor. All in all it was a HUGE learning experience, didn't turn out as nice as I would have hoped but I have to keep things in perspective. I have never done any floor pans before let alone had to make the pans myself. I would do things different if I had to do it again but that's what this car is all about.

I owe a HUGE THANK YOU to my friend Jason (Customs by Jason). This guy helped me a ton and put in a bunch of hours on this project. I think we both learned a lot from it. I will pay you back whenever you get your car!







Gotta finish a little bit of welding, seam seal it and then spray on some bedliner. Next I need to spruce up the interior a little bit. It is just too ugly in there. After that I have a tail light swap I am thinking about

 

Nice solid floors, Flat. Between paint/undercoat and carpet, the only one that will have an opinion on the floors will be you!

 

Thanks Brett I appreciate it. It was definitely a good experience. I think next time around I will be much better prepared.

 

It looks good to me! Keep up the good work!

 

Hey Kev-Man those patch panels look damn respectable! Looking forward to getting a ride (maybe in the Spring?)

 

Hey Uncle Rob! thanks, pictures do it justice.

Today I finished them up and I am glad to report that seam sealer, por-15 and raptorliner definitely helped it look a lot better.

seam sealed

por-15 (that stuff is great, but good lord it is messy)

and finally I waited for the POR to tack up and hit it with the Raptor liner.


I did the same thing on the bottom. So glad to be done

 

Hey Kev that looks nice, no more problems for that floor, ever again!

I am going to shoot bedliner in the wheelwells on my car, I'm not sure about the belly of the car due to having a lot of exhaust heat to deal with in my case. How did you like shooting the raptor liner? Did you also buy the spatter gun (or did it come w/the kit?)

Yes POR-15 is some tough and nasty stuff. Good call (I think?) on shooting the raptor liner onto it while it was still tacky, maybe that will help the two materials stick to each other even better.

 

Thanks, there better not be any more problems with the floor! The gun came with the kit and it was really easy to shoot. I set the compressor at about 40 psi and that gave a good texture. It is supposed to adhere fine to the POR15 as long as its tacky. We will see how it holds up but I imagine it will be ok.

 

Looks great. Are you going to throw down some hushmat/dynamat/whatever? That stuff really works wonders...

Let me know if there is anything that you need to find for this car Kev.

You should come out to Vegas this year and meet me @SEMA I can get you in if you need a pass

 

Nice work on those floors! Shouldn't have any issues with rust now.

Saw your thread on the Buick HAMBer Social Group!

 

Havent done too much lately . Made some quick door panels and hit some interior parts with a rattle can.





I also took another 3/4 of a coil out of the back to get it a little lower than the front. I ended up having to put a glasspack on as my old muffler would have hit on every bump. I think the car sits a lot better now.



as soon as I can get my hands on a welder again I will shave the mirrors and the door handles.

 

Lookin really good! I have had a soft spot for these cars since 3 of us shared a 62 Special in the USMC in early 70s. Great car for cruisin around Hawaii in!

 

I see you put new carpet in,where did you get the carpet from, I need a carpet kit for mine I made one to just get by and it shows too. Great job on yours

 

hey kid ,nice job on the buick...i know its kinda hard to be objective when you do the work yourself, but IMO you did a real good job on that floor for a first timer..keep up the good work ill be watching from afar

 

Original Parts Group sells a carpet for it in the skylark catalog. The red one was in the car when I bought it. I painted it black recently with that duplicolor vynil and fabric paint and it came out pretty good. I will buy a new one when I do the interior for real.

Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate it.

 

A short little update

I pretty much drove the crap out of it like this for the summer and fall.


I had a lot of fun with it. I wrestled with possibly trying to sell it because a bunch of my friends have car ADD it started to rub off on me. For now I am going to keep going on it and see it through.......maybe

Started on a few little things this month. I recently got a welder and the first thing I did was shave the door handles. It came out pretty good



Started working on my grill the other day, more on that soon.

 

What kind of MPG do you get with this bad boy? Curious to know what to expect.

 

Honestly I have no idea. My fuel gauge has never worked and I haven't got around to fixing it.

Also, my car has the 198 v6 not the 215 like yours. Glad to see your build thread, good luck with it.

 

Here's the stock grill before

I was on the fence about whether to do a tube grill or the drawer knobs, I decided the knobs were a better fit for the car.
The section between the headlights was a little too small for the knobs to fit right so I made some aluminum inserts and later polished them up a bit.




I cut the bars out of the middle of the grill and placed in some expanded metal that I scored off a buddy for free! In this pic I was trying out different placements of the knobs.



And here it is all finished up. I got a set of half moon headlight covers to finish it off. I really like the way it turned out.



For now the fun stuff will have to stop while I find and fix some significant leaks.

 

Kevin, That looks incredible! Good job man

 

KEV, That looks good, looks like your getting more and more equiptment in your garage. Your DAD came over for a while today. See you over the Holidays, H.

 

Very very nice build you are doing.
That is one cool ride!
Good for you, and glad you are driving and enjoying it...
Cheers.........

 

You did a real nice job!

 

Dude that looks incredible!! Love everything so far and Really nice execution!

Love that car!

 

Ok, looks like "mantaparts" is making a new website, and here is the link below. They carry (or used to anyway) 215 parts and adapters for 215s to fit modern tansmissions, incl 5 spd manuals. They also carry the parts to mount a quad 4 longitudinally (front to rear, not sidways)! A quad4 with a 5spd or a 200R4 would be pretty cool in a 62, and pretty peppy too. Definately have a WOW factor! Something to think about.

http://www.mantapart.com/about.html



(3 of us shared a 62 Special in Hawaii in the early 70s in USMC. it even had a rock top! That V6 ran great on jeep gas!! LOL)

 

Wow, Thanks so much guys! I really appreciate all the kind words.

Energy, my car has the v6 although I may swap in a 215 someday.

 

Working on getting my door poppers to work right. Got a set of Bellflowers for Christmas too!

Up next is exhaust and new tires. Finally gonna use the set of 15" steelies I have been sitting on for a while now. Need to come up with a good hubcap. I want something different than the bullet cap/lugs.

 

Car looks awesome! I really like what you did with the grille... In case you ever do decide to go with the 215, D&D Fabrications has every thing you need. Check out their website @ aluminumv8.com. I have bought a few things from them.

 

I need to know... what vehicle did your 15" steelies come from? Ive been looking for some different wheels but havnt come up with anything. I really want to go with the bullet caps and lugs, I just want something a little bigger than stock.

 

Kev,

I missed the latest update....Grill is spot on! So are the shaved doors! Nice stuff!