In the magazine biz, I’m a tech head, which in turn, means I write about things of a technical nature. No secret to this crowd, I’m sure. But what some of you don’t know is I live pretty much fifteen miles from nowhere on Vancouver Island. Black bears (a bunch of them) and cougars (the cat variety, not the other) are my close neighbors. In order to write about things and obviously, to make a living, I work on a project car. Bits and pieces of the build become magazine articles. My current project, which is drawing to an end, is a 1986 Buick T-Type. It’s a neat car and although not anywhere near a classic musclecar, I think it might interest a few of you.
What I started with is a really clean, 18,750-mile original paint car. It was a garage queen, living in a couple of collections, surviving (from what I’ve picked up) a divorce or two, and eventually ended up in the hands of a young guy in Florida. I bought it sight unseen (but I did have a good appraiser go through it with a fine tooth comb). From a geographic point of view, it was in the wrong end of the country. None-the-less, I had it shipped to Blaine, Washington where I picked it up and took it home.
Once I jumped through all of the hoops and had it licensed and registered in BC. My wife and I drove the car to a little place called Cowichan Bay, a few miles from our house, shot some photos and drove home. In the process, I melted a few hundred miles off the back tires (once it got on the boost, it actually did a decent burnout). Immediately after that I ran “Buford” into the garage, and began the disassembly process.
Today (and a chunk of magazine articles later), this is what the Buick looks like (less the engine and transmission):
Briefly, the car was stripped to a bare chassis (the body never came off). The undercarriage was scrubbed and detailed. The frame rails were notched at the seam at the rear end. A slightly narrowed, braced 9-inch Ford filled with Mark Williams best pieces brings up the rear with fully adjustable suspension bits from TRZ Motorsports. This a very nice setup that uses stock mounting points for all suspension hardware. All except two of the mounting points are on Aurora aircraft rod ends. I also included a very cool weld-in anti-roll bar from TRZ. The anti roll bar is really the key to making coil sprung GM cars hook without a ton of body roll. Like the other suspension components, it’s completely adjustable, and the tubular mount that welds between the frame rails doubles as a reinforcement for the notched frame. The frame notch and the narrowed Ford allowed me to fit 15X10 Billet Specialties wheels (3-1/2-inch backspace) on the rear, wrapped with P325-50R15 M&H Racemaster D.O.T. drag radials. This rolling stock fits within the OEM wheel wells (tubs). On the nose, the car has an equally adjustable front end, primarily filled with hardware from Auto Fab Race Cars. Shocks are adjustable jobs from Strange Engineering. Up front, the car wears 15X3.5 Billet Specialties wheels along with M&H radial front-runners.
The fuel delivery system is all from the folks at MagnaFuel – the pump is a flow-through model, with large pre and after filters. I reworked a new Turbo Buick replacement gas tank with a pair of welded bulkheads hidden at the leading edge of the tank. From these bulkheads, fuel is picked up inside the sump within the tank. A second bulkhead directs fuel that’s bypassed by the pump. The fuel line is inside the framerail channel and exits by way of another bulkhead fitting located on the right front inner fender (which is setup to lead to the fuel pressure regulator on the engine).
The finicky Buick hydro boost setup was swapped for a Lamb Components (modified) Mopar master cylinder installed by way of a billet adapter from the folks at TRZ. Under it is a Hurst roll control. I plumbed the entire brake system with hand formed 3/16-inch stainless steel hard-line and 37-degree AN fittings. This is a “fun” job. You should see my “mistake drawer”!
There’s all sorts of neat stuff included in the mix: A huge aluminum rad from Ron Davis Racing Radiators, a manual steering conversion from Borgensen, a Precision Performance Products shifter (the Competition Eliminator guys love ‘em and once you fondle it, you’ll know why), a glove box full of MSD digital ignition bits and so on.
Right now, I have the instrument cluster apart. I’m putting a GNX style cluster together using new Revolution gauges from a company called “Speed Hut”. Speed Hut is owned by a young fellow named Aaron Westberg. His grandfather started a little company called AutoMeter. You might have heard about it <g>. Anyway, the parts are awesome.
So what’s next? I’m going to sell the car as a roller and move on (I have a home built 572-inch big block Chevy in pieces that I planned to use, but I’m sure I’ll build it and sell it separately). The truth is I have a huge desire to begin an online magazine that focuses on little guy drag racing in the heyday of the musclecar. Day 2 cars and the technology that supported them is really my fervor. I’m in my late fifties, and in this stage of my life, I’m positive I should pursue my passions sooner than later. I’m sure many of you understand!
I hope you enjoyed looking at Buford the Buick. It’s a neat (albeit pricey) car. I have a ton of blood, sweat and dollars invested. And you know that old saying about no job is worth doing unless you do it twice? They must have been talking about me <g>. Thanks for indulging me!
Wayne Scraba
