Buick Skylark 1965

[Reuhkapelti2]

I couldn't find a kit of '65 Buick Skylark 2d, so I took a '64 Pontiac GTO 1:24 Revell kit and started to make some changes. 

New side panels, new front bumper, modifications to the hood... still a lot of work, but that is the thing I like in this hobby. 

Under the flipping hood will sit a SBC, 400 cid as the real car has. This will be a model of a 1:1 car in Finland. 

[Beau Arthur]

What a great start, such skills needed to see how this is possible! Can't wait to see more

[rickcaps55]

Great work so far i will be watching this one no model company has ever made a 64 or 65 Skylark and that's to bad I have all ways liked both and wish they did put them in there yearly line up.

[Snake45]

Very VERY cool! I drove a '65 Special 2DS in high school, so I'll be watching. Drive on! 

[Reuhkapelti2]

Thanks. Maybe you have already noticed, that I have made a mistake with the hood. Some optical disturbance made me to modify the hood in the wrong way. Luckily I have another hood, so I will make another go.

[Kromolly]

Awesome job on that!  The body is looking great.  I had a '65 Skylark Gran Sport, with the 401 nailhead, in my senior year of high school.  I've always wanted to build a model of it.  I would love to see more details about the body modifications you make.

Edited April 2, 2021 by Kromolly

[charlie8575]

Watching with some interest. For a variety of reasons, I have interest in 194-'67 Buick A-bodies.

Charlie Larkin

[hedotwo]

Will follow closely.  These are the kind of projects I love watching and doing!

[espo]

I look forward to seeing how you modify the body on this. 

[TransAmMike]

Wow Ismo, thats quite an undertaking. Good luck and I'll be watching.

[bisc63]

Very cool, will follow this with MUCH interest, as I have been planning for a similar project although I had thought about basing mine on a 65 Chevelle just because I have an extra. I have reference photos and some measurements from a junker I have amassed. Too many other projects ahead of this one! PM me if my references can be of help to you.

The Buicks are greatly under-appreciated in the collector market, IMHO.

[Reuhkapelti2]

Thanks everybody, and Bisc63, thanks for the offer. I have some good photos of the real car by the present owner, and I found a short video clip. It was shot when the car was raced in the quarter mile track too. 

I have fought with the front end hours and hours. Buick has some interesting shapes on the bumper and the hood, that are quite different from Olds. 

'65 Chevelle could have been a bit easier starting body shell for this transformation to Buick, but all I could find were Chevelle Wagon kits for a big pile of money. 

Now I have a functional flip hood. The wheels sit where I want them to be. Nothing special in the chassis, just some small adjusting. 

Next I need to locate a decent 400cid SBC engine. 

Edited April 6, 2021 by Reuhkapelti2

[afx]

Nice looking project.

[bisc63]

You can't beat having an actual car handy to reference! You are off to a nice start here!

[slusher]

16 hours ago, afx said:

Nice looking project.

I agree

[Reuhkapelti2]

400 cid has landed into the engine bay. I swapped the manual transmission to automatic, that looks close enough TH400. I just added the oil pan to it. 

I also made the plastic headers, every tube is bent with a candle. 

[thomascoffey1959@gmail.com]

     wow. I mean, WOW !  

[Reuhkapelti2]

Thanks thomascoffey! 

Today I sprayed the first primer on the body, to see all the dents and scratches. Not too bad, needs some slight bondo here and there, but nothing major hickups. 

I put some heavily padded front seats in, the real car has seats from BMW 325, so those will do fine. All the interior will be black anyways. 

My big task will be the rear light combo, red light panel all the way corner to corner, and tight curves at the ends of it. I have a jar of Tamiya Clear red X27, that can be useful. 

Also I need to patch that fire wall, big holes were exposed when getting the hood and fenders to tilt up together. 

[Reuhkapelti2]

Silver first, then comes the other colour. 

[Snake45]

Amazing! My own '65 Special was a silver-gray color. Drive on! 

[Oldcarfan27]

This is awesome!

Show us a picture of the finished back end so we can see how you did it.

I've got a few junker GTOs like this, now I want to try my hand at one.

[Reuhkapelti2]

Yep the back end was modified with various narrow strings of Evergeen plastic, first one was flat then I glued maybe 4 or 5 thin strings where needed to get the shape of the deck lid look good enough. Very little bondo on top of them. Some filing was needed to the corners of the back end too. Also the bumper needed some small bits of plastic around the license plate hole. The deck lid was also carved where needed. I still wonder how to make the tail lights. 

Today I went to my spray booth and choose another silver, the first one was too bright. This has more gray in it, and when it was dry, I took the new can of metallic red, sprayed it and oh boy... it's too dark. I chose it from the paint tone slips or what you call it, well it looked ok there but not now. Respray is needed with a brighter tone. 

 

Edited April 10, 2021 by Reuhkapelti2

[ChrisBcritter]

Glad to see someone taking on this challenge! I had a '65 hardtop from '83-'85:

[Reuhkapelti2]

Great duo of Buicks, Chris. 

Today I went and got a new paint , this time it's more orange. Good enough. I put also clear laquer on it. There will be two narrow lines between those upper and lower tones, atleast I'll try to paint them. The mask will be black, and the bumpers will have Molotow chrome on them. 

[Oldcarfan27]

On 4/10/2021 at 10:53 AM, Reuhkapelti2 said:

 

That's looking great! Just make sure you get the "W" shape going for the back end.

Would 66 Riviera taillights help get the shape you're looking for?