buick restoration possibly begins in late january

It’s been a while since I posted any Buick news, so here’s the scoop as to what’s going on.

BuickFreeSpirit.com

Scott sent me a ton of very useful stuff. Photos, info and so on – even an original invoice. I have yet to post this on the site. This is due to two things.

First, the site needs a redesign. Needs something a bit more spruced up.

Second, I need to organize the content better.

It’s the second point I’m going to speak on for a bit.

It turns out that my little Buick site is considered to be a very good source of information on the Free Spirit car(s). This is basically because I’m the only guy on the internet (that I know of) who actually took the time to collect and organize the available info in the first place. And why do I do it? Because I have a passion for the car. If I didn’t, the site wouldn’t exist.

The content I have, while decent and factually accurate as far as I’m aware, needs to be organized better. The site redesign is going to heavily reflect that.

I don’t know exactly when the redesign will be launched because it is a spare-time thing I do. But I’m pretty sure people will like it. :-)

One final note concerning the site:

The one question that will never be addressed is how much the car is worth. I’ve received communication here and there asking me how much money they could get for one.

My answer: Piss off. If you’re into Free Spirit Buicks just to make a quick buck, that’s the worst reason to own the car because you’re a money whore; you have absolutely no understanding of what the car is or represents. Go away.

Don’t ask me the “What’s it worth?” question. Bad move.

Restoration possibly begins this month

My immediate concern on my ‘75 is to tackle the mechanical issues first.

She starts okay and runs. The problem is that once the engine is off a massive gas smell happens. Really pungent and definitely not safe.

Either this month or next month I’m going to have her towed to a shop so they can inspect the fuel delivery system front-to-back, find out what’s wrong and replace whatever needs to be replaced – properly.

Once that’s taken care of, suspension and brakes will be next.

After that, an engine rebuild and transmission rebuild.

The engine when running actually sounds very good. It’s a standard GM 350 small-block with a 4-barrel carb.

Speaking of which, I’m 99% sure it’s a Rochester Quadra-Jet; a carb GM used in many of their cars. I don’t believe she needs replacement as there’s no sputtering, stalling or any of that. The carb will definitely be tuned, but not replaced as it doesn’t need to be.

In the interest of keeping matching numbers, I’m keeping the original block under the hood even though there’s a crapload of miles on it. No, I don’t plan on doing the balance/blueprint thing because she’s a cruiser and not a racer.

Concerning the transmission, the THM350 is, admittedly, not the best tranny offering from GM. It was created as a “light duty” version of the THM400. Basically speaking, you can’t romp on a THM350. If you do, it will break. This is why so many prefer the THM400. In the Buick’s application the THM350 is not a problem because I don’t plan on roasting the tires or performing any mad maneuvers with her.

The rest of the mechanicals on the car is fairly simple. It’s all standard “A” body GM stuff. But if there’s anything Buick-specific under there (which I doubt) I’ll make my best effort to keep it authentic.

Speaking of authenticity, there are a few things I’m going to do that will not follow original 1975 spec, one of which is the paint.

Let me tell you a small story:

I have a friend in Connecticut that builds and restores Dodge A-100’s. He was painting a CampWagon version of one and decided to go with the original green-white-green that was offered in the 60’s.

Using expensive PPG paint, he got exact replicas of the green and white.

The green was fine.

The white, sorry to say, just didn’t look white. Now I know the paint was mixed to exact 60’s specs, but white back then looked like “cream” color. That’s just the way it was.

The Buick’s 1975 hue for its white has the same issue. It’s white but not exactly white and I’m not exactly keen on it. So I’m not going to use the original 1975 white.

Instead I have another GM white I’m going to use from the late 90’s. Much whiter, much brighter and definitely better.

The car deserves the best striking white I can get as far as I’m concerned – and that’s what she’s going to get. :-)

So anyway, that’s my plans. More updates as they happen will be posted here.