New Owner of a '62 Skylark (Oxford, MI)

[Tim_D]

Hello All -

After many years and cars - all Chevy - I recently purchased a 1962 Skylark that I'll be driving as I work on it. It has a solid body (albiet pretty BAD paint), and a Saginaw 4-speed.

Other interesting things include significant tunnel surgery for the 1-piece driveshaft conversion. One of the previous owners has added a large tunnel and done a pretty good job at tying cross-car support back together. I think I need to add one more cross-car near the lower control arm mounts, which I plan to do with a driveshaft hoop/loop. It'll also require a custom carpet due to the size of that tunnel.

The rear axle is currently in a sad state. What appears to be a '62-'63 Chevy II drop-out 10 bolt was transplanted, but with very poorly executed upper control arm mounts. The upper arms were actually tweaked at different angles due to the poor placement of the home-made mounts welded to the axle housing. And a broken rear spring. And I missed it during inspection (ouch).

Anyhow, I sourced a stock rearend from a donor '62 (along with the upper control arms) and will be installing that in short order. While the driveline is out, I'll do some adjustment on the clutch fork engagement angle, as the pedal sits way to close to the floor currently. I also have a T5 from an 80s Camaro I'm considering.

Anyway, can't wait to get started, and I'm sure I'll be leaning on this board a lot.

[Buickspec6231]

Welcome to the board. I have a '62 Special SW that I am working on. Lots of knowledge on here to harvest from. Post up some pictures and let us know if you need anything.

~Dan

[raycow]

Welcome aboard, Tim. It sounds like you found a good one there.

You were lucky to find a stock rear end for it. Those rears and their parts are getting so scarce that we have people asking what other rears can be substituted with the least amount of disruption. 4 bolt Chevy II rears are getting scarce too, so those wanting to keep the stock bolt pattern usually go with one from a 4 bolt Falcon, Comet or Mustang.

If it's not too much trouble, could you please post some pics of the driveshaft conversion?. As this is a unibody car, any cutting of the body metal could require some well-thought-out reinforcement, and I would very much like to see how it was done.

Ray

[Tim_D]

Here are a few photos:

DSCN3561.jpgDSCN3560.jpg

I'm in the process of getting the old axle out, as well as some interior cleanup. So please pardon the mess.

[raycow]

If that paint is bad, it doesn't show up in your pics. I think the car looks pretty good.

Ray