Projects 1962 Buick Skylark . . . What to do

This weekend, I found one of my favorite vehicles. This Buick is all original, down to the paint. It runs like a top with the 4bbl, high compression 215. It isn't perfect by any means. You can see the carpet is completely faded, there is some rust in a couple of spots, and there's been some work done to the top of the right, front fender. The undercarriage is rust free, and amazingly clean.

The previous owner was collecting parts, including a replacement for that fender.

I'm struggling with what do with it. I kind of want to just maintain and drive it, while keeping it as original as possible. Maybe paint? Definitely a new carpet.

Couple of things I really would like to do:
- Electronic ignition
- Better wheels. Any suggestions? I'm planning on keeping the drum brakes, at least for now.
- Replace the generator with an alternator.

This is the first time I've dived into this era Buick. Anything to look out for?

IMG_20221029_153909_798 by Erkenbrand posted Oct 30, 2022 at 6:19 PM

IMG_20221029_153909_641 by Erkenbrand posted Oct 30, 2022 at 6:19 PM

313213846_489129839822637_1235366224194577571_n by Erkenbrand posted Oct 30, 2022 at 6:19 PM

IMG_20221029_153909_869 by Erkenbrand posted Oct 30, 2022 at 6:19 PM

More photos to come once I get some more time to document it.

 

You dont see many of these around my parts. Cool little cars.
Your pictures aren't showing.
You don't need no stinking electronic ignition. Just tune up the car. Plugs, points, check your advance and set the timing. Id stick with drum brakes for that little car.
A generator is perfect if its providing 13 volts to the battery during charge. Id try to sneak in slightly larger wheels under that thing.
Here's some ideas.....

 

If the generator and regulator are fresh and working correctly, and all the wiring and connections are bright and tight, your headlights shouldn't even dim at idle.

Congrats. Nice little car.

 

Great “60’s Compact Car” have fun with it. 15” wheels will look great and huge. If you want a alternator and electronic ignition.. do what you want. Same with disc brakes. If it’s not going to be a 100 point restoration feel free to upgrade as most of us have.

 

Drive, maintain, and enjoy it as it is. Looks pretty good to me.

 

Kevin O'Connor has a killer mild custom one that he built, his name on here may be Flatfoot?

his IG is kevinr.oconnor

im sure he has a build thread on here somewhere

 

Thanks - the drums brakes were all just refreshed, so I'm going to stick with those for now. I would like to find a set of 15s, but I'm not in a hurry. If I do decide to go 15s, then I'll also update to discs up front.

This isn't a concourse restoration. Just a nice driver.

I'm considering the alternator and going to electronic ignition because my ultimate goal is for this to be my cross-country and back car (Rte 66 here we come!). I need it to be reliable, and I don't want to be hunting for hard to find parts in the middle of the trip. While it's been maintained over the years I know nobody has touched the generator or related components in at least the last several years, probably not in decades.

 

That's a great looking Buick. I updated my photos permissions - I hope they're working now. If not, I'll load them somewhere else and then link back.

 

Nice car! Not my car , not my business but I can’t help but suggest you have a look underneath the carpet in the passenger footwell. Looks to me like water is getting in from the cowl area and the spare pass. fender kind of indicates there may have been damage to the cowl as well.

 

The pictures work.

If you're planning to "upgrade" the electric stuff just for the sake of doing something, then you probably shouldn't bother. If they don't work, then it might be easier to just fix what it came with. If you are sure that points and generators can't possibly function, then I don't know what to say...they do....although keeping a generator going can be more challenging than keeping an alternator going. And maintaining point ignition gets to be a drag if you put 30,000 miles a year on the car.

But as for other stuff to do to it, I don't know. They don't have a lot of hot rod potential without doing some serious cutting, but if you go that route (blown 401 nailhead?) it will be a great starting point, having a nice solid clean car like that. Have fun!

 

Thanks - I appreciate the advice. I'll take a look in detail.

There is some old body work near the center / top of the passenger fender. Looks like an old dent repair. That's why the additional fender. But I'll definitely take a look for any water getting in. It may be - the only rust I've found on the car is at the window seals. Most of the glass needs to come out so I can fix that. Which will probably lead to a full paint job in the end. There's nothing like starting to peel back the onion.

 

IIRC, those have a 4 bolt pattern wheel, so options will be limited unless you want to start changing hubs and/or re-drilling.

A friend of mine had a convertible version back in the 90's...and as carguys will do, we used to give him a pretty good ribbing about it...he would roll into a car event and someone would announce outloud, "hey, nice car...is it a Rambler?"...or some other nonsense. We were so cruel...but we all laughed a lot.

 

Fun car and seems to be in great survivor condition. As for road trip and worried about parts, just take a spare ignition kit with points, condenser, cap and rotor. The generator vs alternator, again you could have a spare generator. But your choice. The 215 is a great engine, shouldn't give you any problems.

For the car, if 4 lug then more limited wheel options. Even some taller tires on the stock wheels would look better. A couple inches suspension lowering will always look good. Fix the window rust, ensure it's sealed up from leaks. Most of all have fun driving something not so common on the road.

 

If your car is 14" 5 bolt, my buddy has a 4dr Skylark 63 or 64, with the factory mags, not mint, but hey? I will be down to his place this week and check.

 

63 and 64 Skylarks are completely different from each other. 63 is unibody, 64 is frame.

 

as far as the engine, english land rovers had them for years. also early '60s pontiac tempest, buick special and olds' F-85. the olds had a "jetfire" model that came with a turbocharger.

 

"It runs like a top"= treat it like a sore dick and don't fuck with it.

 

The classiest of the 'Compacts'.
As a bonus, larger than what most of the population drives today.
Good times for for you.

 

If you had some extras, I'd add a fourth VentiPort to each fender.
Like anybody will even notice . . .

 

Looks like a great car! Congrats! I am pretty sure I would keep it maintained and drive the wheels off it. I haven't ever had the Buick, but have had a 62 LeMans as well as a 63 Corvair with some similarities. Fun cars for sure. Maybe just start driving it a bunch to where you get comfortable with it. I have been driving my all original 50 Buick back and forth 30 miles each way to work somewhat regularly and will be ready for a cross-country trip soon.

 

Thanks, but this is 13" 4 bolt.

 

Sounds like a plan.

Just ordered new tires to replace the vintage, well weather-checked Bridgestones.

For now I'm keeping the spare as-is. I'm pretty sure it's the OEM spare. I'll probably just find another 13" wheel to mount a good spare so I can preserve the original.

 

I had a 61, coupe model not HT. Way back when, I think in 64-65.
They used steel shim head gaskets for an aluminum head/block engine. Caused me some work! But alternate design gaskets came out on the aftermarket and solved that. I did several for others too.
Wheels, if my memory is correct they could be had in 13 or 14 on the Olds and Buick versions of that body and 15 on the Tempest. None are really as wide as we would currently like to have but work ok with narrower tires. I think all of them were 4 bolt.

 

I had one for my first car. It was black with silver interior. Really sharp car. Drove it all through high school. You don't really need to do anything to it as far as upgrades for it to be reliable or keep up on today's roads. I got the jump on several Mustangs back in the day. Boy were they surprised when the little Buick pulled away from them.

I believe you can buy front disk kits from Scarebird. The wheels are 4 lug and studs are reverse thread on one side.

 

13" wheels were standard but there are optional 15" wheels made from the factory. They're a little rare but if you find a set, grab them, it's pretty much the only other steel wheel that fits these.

Put new carpets in it, dye the door panel bottoms red again so they match, fix the rusty spots. It really doesn't need anything else. If you feel the need to customize, shop around for 13" hubcaps, there were a lot of cool ones available in the early 60's. There are some Corvair wire basket caps with knock-off looking spinners that would look cool on this car with some whitewall tires, or something like that. You can always swap the original ones back on.

 

Vehicles with 4 x 4.5 wheels
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/aftermarket-wheels-for-my-1962-buick-special.513019/

If you can fit a 7" wide 14 or 15, use these as is or put some hubcaps on.

 

If they are 4 on 4.5" bolt circle, they are the same as Corvair 4 bolt wheels. I found some nice wheels on eBay for our Corvair, so there are some 4 bolt options if you look around. We scored these real '60s Minilites.
If you are intent on converting to an alternator, this place can help you get it right.
MadElectrical.com - Mad Enterprises
I got lazy and bought a kit from Clark's Corvair to convert our Corvair, it was easy. Factory type wiring, not a 1 wire. The kit would work on a little Buick I'm sure. May have to lengthen some wires. Our generator worked great, I just did it for weight. The generator is huge and weighed 35 lbs, the alternator was less than 15 lbs. In a car with 100 hp, it matters.
Congrats on the little Buick, we have a '62 Corvair and a '62 Tempest Lemans (project). Those little cars are a blast.

 

Based on my experience with my 64 Chrysler
Get the car mechanically sound first. Go through all the wiring connections and make sure they're clean and tight. Lube the rubber seals and weatherstrip with silicone spray (on a rag, not directly on the body) several times a season to soften the rubber. Make sure bearings, and suspension bushings are in good shape. Change battery wires if they're damaged or corroded.
Practice cleaning, changing and setting points - they're not so bad, the generator will be fine if the electrical system is properly maintained (that's the cleaning and tightening connections suggestion) and energizing it isn't hard to do either. Clean out your rad. Flush your brake system and transmission. Make sure brake lights are bright - paint inside of housing white if you have to, so you can be seen from distracted divers

Interior: Found a cheap solution to faded carpet: spray paint. my red door panel carpets were faded exactly like yours, I misted a metalic red spray paint similar color to the upholstery that I had sitting around onto the carpets in 2 or 3 very light coats (from slightly different angles to get even coverage) so paint wouldn't build up - and they turned out looking like new, and no smell after a day or 2. It's been 4 years since and no fading or other bad things.

Great looking car, get it reliable and go drive it

 

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I've been struggling with what to do with the door panel carpets. I can find the replacement, molded carpet, and had been thinking about ordering 2 so I can chop up one for the doors. I prefer the much cheaper 'paint them' option. I need to get some plastic paint for the replacement dash pad anyway, so I'll probably take the carpets back to the same maroon as the dash.

The brakes are all great. They were rebuilt front-to-back in the past year, and it stops incredibly well. At this point, discs are a far future option. I'd rather save that money and invest in good paint first.

At this point, I'm going to take everybody's advice and just drive it while making sure everything is tight. I've been through the wiring, and it's all sold with nothing hinky going on. I'll change the fluids so I know what's going on there.

It's strange getting into a car that doesn't really need much. I tend to pick up projects that need all of my time and money, but this one is pretty much a driver right now.

I'm going to keep an eye out for those minilites, and for some interesting hub caps to give it a little pizzazz.

 

Maybe hard to find but 1963-4 Chevy II Super Sports with 6 cylinder engines had 14” 4 bolt rims. Most today are changed to 5 lug. The 64 with the V8 ( first year) had 5 lugs.