1965 Buick Skylark

[Crispy]

So heres some back story as to why I bought yet another vehicle:

I got married in July of 2017 and had purchased a 1964 Skylark to fix up and drive to ceremony since the venue was just a few miles from my house. Things got tight financially with the wedding as time drew closer and I decided to sell it and all of the parts I had accumulated for it (wheels, tires, refreshed 350 sbc, LS1 brake swap).

I really wanted to have the car built and keep it as a memento of our wedding, so did she. Being the addict I am, I was always searching for one in decent body shape since they dont make any exterior replacement panels for it and at a decent price. Well, pick one was the phrase of this search. They were all seemingly overpriced or missing too much metal.

Fast forward to April 2019 and I find this Skylark out in Yuma, AZ. Cali built car, west coast its whole life, only 2 previous owners and its calling my name. Screaming it actually. So I called the owner up and asked if she would be interested in doing a long distance transaction. After a few phone calls we both felt confident in dealing with eachother. I drafted up a sales agreement that was signed by both of us and arranged for vehicle pick up.

The car belonged to her uncle who had it since the mid 90's and unfortunately passed away recently. She was happy the vehicle went to someone who would appreciate it.

Since the car wasnt at her house, arranging the pickup hinged on her availbility, which wasnt a problem for me since my yard was still pretty muddy in April. I ended up getting the car delivered on Memorial Day weekend and started tinkering right away.

The car came equipped with a dead battery and leaky carb. Rat poop, sun dried interior, and desert sand rounded out the list of extras. It also came with a trunk full of parts. One being a carb rebuild kit...cool.

I rebuilt the carb, set the choke, idle, and fuel mixture and now she starts and idles great. Also had a spare battery laying around that I recharged with my Noco genie and slapped in the Skylark. I had ordered seat covers and a falsa blanket for the vintage look. I have no plans on doing the interior any time soon so this will do.

After a bunch of vacuuming and some time with my Bissell Spot Clean the interior smelt nice and looked presentable. Time for a cruise around the neighborhood!

Now for what all you rabid dogs came here for...pictarz

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...and a video...

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[Crispy]

So far, I've replaced the burnt out speedometer bulbs with leds I had laying around and added a Bosch tach.

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The plans for this one are to go ground up on the resto.

Starting with wheels and tires to accomodate the 4th gen f body disc brake system. Then new bushings, lowering springs, shocks, and sway bars. See you when my wallet allows.

I am leaning towards taking the molding off, sanding, priming, and painting the car flat black in my yard to keep the body from starting the decay process. The rust you see is from the sanding the previous owner did.

 

[CoggedBelt75]

Nice plans for a nice car. Hope everything goes well for you.

 

[Preston]

Nice find hope you the best with this project, I like the way it looks now

 

[Old77]

cool project! I was just thinking you needed another project car

 

[Crispy]

I'm pretty excited about this one since its not a swap project (yet) or engine rebuild. I can tinker with it and drive it for some instant gratification.

I have a set of floor mats and buick logo key chain coming. Going to replace the glove box liner since its cardboard was no match for the hungry mice. Also have a set of matching keys and locks on order since a few cylinders were replaced. The trunk is a later model GM and the glovebox doesnt lock. I know its little stuff but those things drive me crazy.

cool project! I was just thinking you needed another project car

My wife agrees that project cars are better hobby than drugs or adultery haha.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Sucks you had to get rid of the old one, but you found a good one to replace it with. It's a nice car.

I too got married in 2017, May 6th was our date, congrats.

There's a '53 Buick down the road from us, it has all the chrome, I like to drive by it once in a while.

 

[Old77]

My wife agrees that project cars are better hobby than drugs or adultery haha.

My wife feels the same way LOL

 

[CorvairGeek]

Love the '65. My Dad had a '65 Skylark with original buckets seats, 225 V6 and a manual 3 speed on the column!

 

[Crispy]

Sucks you had to get rid of the old one, but you found a good one to replace it with. It's a nice car.

I too got married in 2017, May 6th was our date, congrats.

There's a '53 Buick down the road from us, it has all the chrome, I like to drive by it once in a while.

Congrats to you as well, may you guys have long happy lives together. Our date was 7/7. We kept a few extra Save The Date invites which were magnets made to look like license plates. We have one in the burb and now one in the Skylark.

The car is REALLY solid. Tiny rust holes on the pass side quarter at the bottom. So small they can be weld filled and ground smooth. The roof is the biggest issue. It was a vinyl top car and some of the roof is actually gone plus a few small holes around the perimeter. I'm going to experiment with a few different repair methods.

The previous owner laid fiberglass to cover the roof holes. I think I'm going to use patch panel from the inside then body fill. I'm more than likely going with a vinyl top again as it would be the cheaper route over replacing the whole roof panel.

 

[Crispy]

Love the '65. My Dad had a '65 Skylark with original buckets seats, 225 V6 and a manual 3 speed on the column!

Those odd fire engines have a pretty cool sound to them. Buckets wouldve been nice. What color was the Skylark?

 

[CorvairGeek]

Those odd fire engines have a pretty cool sound to them. Buckets wouldve been nice. What color was the Skylark?

Dark metallic green with a black vinyl interior. Had PS and an AM radio. The V6 needed timing chains regularly, but it was sold past 250k miles!

 

[DoubleDingo]

Congrats to you as well, may you guys have long happy lives together. Our date was 7/7. We kept a few extra Save The Date invites which were magnets made to look like license plates. We have one in the burb and now one in the Skylark.

The car is REALLY solid. Tiny rust holes on the pass side quarter at the bottom. So small they can be weld filled and ground smooth. The roof is the biggest issue. It was a vinyl top car and some of the roof is actually gone plus a few small holes around the perimeter. I'm going to experiment with a few different repair methods.

The previous owner laid fiberglass to cover the roof holes. I think I'm going to use patch panel from the inside then body fill. I'm more than likely going with a vinyl top again as it would be the cheaper route over replacing the whole roof panel.

7/7 reminds me of 2007. I'd played golf with some friends, one of them is a member at the nice country club. Anyhow, we were finishing up and there an extravagant wedding being setup inside and outside the giant banquet room. The mother and daughter reserved 07/07/07 as the daughter's wedding date, but the daughter hadn't got engaged yet when they made the arrangements. I've always wondered if that bride and groom have been successful thus far...lol...

I pray you two have a long happy marriage too. Ours was low-key, low-budget, and that was okay with me and her dad, since it saved him money.

A few small rust holes isn't bad. That roof sounds like a challenge, but you have good plan of attack. As soon as I get caught-up on stuff I need to buy a small welder to do some rust patches.

 

[DoubleDingo]

I had to do some reading on the odd-fire v6, very interesting how GM did that, then sold it to Kaiser-Jeep to be used in the jeeps, and then bought it back from AMC to be used again in GM cars.

 

[75Monza]

I liked the odd fire, had a newer one that was the 231 with HEI, headers, an edelbrock performer and a holley 390 on it in a '60 willys cj5. Was definitely fun, although it ate through 3 speeds pretty quick, lol.