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Thread: 1967 Buick GS 400 Restoration

  1. #1
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    1967 Buick GS 400 Restoration

    Hey guys and girls, I figured at least a few of you out there may like to watch the progress I make as I restore this car. There is a very, very long story that goes with this car, but I'll keep it short and give you some background on it. My dad bartered one of his 80's chevy trucks for this car when I was pretty young (he bought it for me so he could restore it and give it to me after I graduated high school). If i remember correctly i was probably about 5 years old (I'm 21 now). It was a running driving car with only 57,000 original miles... The issue was that the original owner was an older gentleman and he literally hit EVERYTHING but the lottery; the car had a minimum of one dent on every body panel, and not just little dents. We drove the car for about a year or so as it was and then my dad decided it was time to restore it.
    The car was driven into one of my dad's good friends garage (an amazing body guy) and the car was completely disassembled. Slowly all of the body got done after endless hours he had to spent to save all of the original panels. Unfortunately my dads good friend died suddenly just after all of the body work was done, and the car had to be moved. We took the body, frame, and what we thought were all the parts and moved it all to where the car sits today. That was probably about 10 or 12 years ago now. Ever since the day we moved the car in here it wasn't touched again. My dad ran out of time to be down working on it, but over the years when he had the money he'd order parts he knew he needed for the restoration. I always wanted to finish this car but never had the motivation because of the sole fact that I didn't take it apart; I learn by taking things apart and putting them back together, not by getting handed a pile of parts and putting together someone elses unorganized pile of parts.
    One day about a month ago I went down to my dads shop to grab a tool I needed and looked at the car sitting there, and something dawned on me. Well that night I started from where my dad left off. Since that night I have completely stripped the engine (to inspect and re-gasket), completely stripped the frame, cleaned, de-greased and painted the frame, spent over 25 hours sitting behind the sand blast cabinet sandblasting chassis parts, ordered a ton of parts and supplies I knew i was going to need, and spent hours sorting through most of the boxes of parts that were unorganized.
    This is a fully numbers matching car, I am keeping it 95% original. Obviously frame paint is not the correct color (only because I personally like the gloss black look), but everything else from the original body color, interior, engine, and the rest of the chassis will be correct.
    There are a few pictures attached of my progress so far and it will continue to progress as i have literally been working on this car EVERY night since the first day I started.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  2. #2
    Lookin' good. Don't get discouraged, just as you have started, one little project at a time


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  3. #3
    nice.
    The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
    Vladimir Lenin

    Government schooling is about "the perfect organization of the hive."
    H.H. Goddard, Human Efficiency (1920)

  4. #4
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    So after sorting through everything, and digging and through all my dad's gm and ford parts sections in his garage. The ONLY thing that seems to have been lost when we moved the car to is the driveshaft. My Hollander interchange says it doesn't interchange to any other vehicle.... my buddy works at desert Valley auto in Arizona, I gave him a call but there are no 67 gs's in the yard... anyone have one or know if I could have one made? Or what my options are...?

  5. #5
    OP there are many people that make driveshafts. Some are on line Like the Driveshaft Shop or there may be a local machine shop in your area that will make and balance a shaft for you. I would look through the yellow pagers under driveshaft, under specialty machine shops or possibly truck parts/repair. There is a place local to me that is called Associated Truck Parts that sells truck parts and provides some services. They made my last shaft at a very reasonable price.
    Steve B.



    67 GS 525 Buick Stage IV
    66 GS Convertible
    65 GS HT
    63 Riv
    02 Subaru WRX Turbo
    03 Ford Cobra Convertible (Factory Supercharged)

  6. #6
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    Another question.

    Thanks steve. I'll be looking into having one made in a month or so. Every spare penny I have right now is going to other parts to actually get the car together....

    One more question. I was thinking painting the rear diff a satin black or a gloss black to match the frame, but I can't decide. What was the factory color of the rear differential?

  7. #7
    The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
    Vladimir Lenin

    Government schooling is about "the perfect organization of the hive."
    H.H. Goddard, Human Efficiency (1920)

  8. #8
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    Hey guys,

    I havent't posted any updates yet, but ive been very very busy with car. It's become an addiction and i've been working on this car every single spare second i have. It's been a one man show since the beginning, from start to where i am now.... I even put the body on the frame completely by myself. I am very excited about how far i have come in just 3 months. let me know what you think
    Attached Images Attached Images

  9. #9
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    What happened with this old build thread

    Did you ever finish the car? You were doing an amazing job!

  10. #10
    yeah, it looked like he was making such fantastic progress too.

    anyway, i guess i should mention that Buick was REAL big on their smooth ride ( a large part of the reason why they saddled 50s cars with Dynaslush transmissions ), the probable reason why the driveshaft doesn't match up with any other GM A-body is because i bet Buick uses 1 or 2 Constant Velocity joints instead of U joints.

    i know the early 70s Electras used two CVs and if you pull one off and substitute a standard U-joint, it's almost the perfect set back on the drive shaft length so you can use the forward engine mount holes on the block. of course, you still have to slide the transmission crossmember and modify a couple of lever arms. and you might want to whack the firewall with a sledge hammer once or twice.

    but when you're done, it looks like it belongs there. and that ~3" really helps with weight balance.

    i believe the A-body installations used the forward ( means the engine sits as far behind the front cross member as possible ) engine mount holes already ( there are 3 on each side of the block, only 2 are ever in use ) so this trick probably isn't going to work for him.
    The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
    Vladimir Lenin

    Government schooling is about "the perfect organization of the hive."
    H.H. Goddard, Human Efficiency (1920)

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