New Buick: Baldwin Motion 69 Skylark GS

[DoctorLarry]

Having just finished a Buick Pace Car, I had a number of new possibilities to start. Cleaning up some old magazines (at one point I had 18 boxes of car magazines) I found an old Musclecar Review article about one of two Buicks known to have been modified at Joel Rosen's Baldwin-Motion shop.  It was fully restored and is a beautiful car.  I had bought a 3D printed 69 Skylark on EBAY and thought that would be a good use for it.  The Revell 68 Chevelle is my donor, it has the same wheelbase. I will start with a Monogram GSX engine but at 1/24 scale it might look too big (that was true in the last build). The Motion car has Hurst wheels on it and just so happens that Jay's Resin just introduced them in 20/21 diameter. I emailed him and asked if he could do them in 17 and he did! They look awesome. Original car had 14" wheels but I'm stretching things a little. I started making the interior (the 3D print had one but it was all wrong) from the Chevelle parts and sheet plastic. I'll get my paint guy to mix up the paint. No decals this time so it should go faster (I hope). Thanks for looking.

[TransAmMike]

Wow, that's amazing about Baldwin, had to idea.

Will be a very cool build Larry!

[DoctorLarry]

I think so, too.

[Can-Con]

Larry, just a FYI, I have a set of Stage-1 455 valve covers hanging in the garage and compared the measurements to the AMT '69 Riviera valve covers and they scale out about right so the 430 in the Riv is scaled correctly. Not great on detail though. 

 

[DoctorLarry]

I think I bought one of those kits to test the size of the engine. As I recall it had a hole in it for a metal axle and as you said not much detail. I will check it out. Thanks for the tip!

[TopherMcGinnis]

That's why we keep all those magazines around! 

Supper cool build. I had never heard of a Baldwin Buick either. 

[bobss396]

I went to auto school in 1973 with a guy who worked at Motion. The V8 Vega was hot at the time.

They sold a bunch in the middle east and they were driven hard. One rich kid blew the 12 bolt rear in his Vega and this guy was flown out to Saudi Arabia with tools, a couple helpers and a fresh rear in the cargo hold.

[DoctorLarry]

In my hometown, we had a v8 Vega wagon someone did (it was not by Motion). They had shortened the axles on the rear end and evidently either welded them back together or destroyed the heat treating so of course there was a minor explosion one time when the hammer was dropped!

[DoctorLarry]

Evidently there were two Motion-prepped Buicks.  The other one was a yellow GSX. I have ordered parts to do that one, too. It will be easy because the kit already exists. Ladder bars, 12 bolt Chevy rear, Motion under hood stuff and Keystone mags with Motion spinners.

[kelson]

I bought one of those 3d printed Buicks to do the exact same car,but i couldn't find much in the way of reference material.

[lordairgtar]

I have to say something about your 3D printed hood. It doesn't

look right. The creases in the hood should angle wider towards the rear of the hood. Yours appears straight front to back. I'm sure this could be fixed with putty or sheet plastic. Look at the pic of the real car and compare. My grandpa had a new 69 Skylark and I owned a 69 Special coupe (same bodies) and am quite familiar with that car.

[DoctorLarry]

I did not do the print but it did come with a different color resin than the rest. I also have a Robert Burns Skylark wagon so I have something to compare to. Thanks for the tip!

[DoctorLarry]

Curtis, I have tons of reference material on the car so if you want pictures PM me. Larry

[charger74]

I remember that article in musclecar review (I miss that magazine) thats a really cool project you have going on

[bobss396]

23 hours ago, DoctorLarry said:

In my hometown, we had a v8 Vega wagon someone did (it was not by Motion). They had shortened the axles on the rear end and evidently either welded them back together or destroyed the heat treating so of course there was a minor explosion one time when the hammer was dropped!

In town, there was a very hot Vega wagon built by Ted Dzus, of the Dzus fastener family. It was called Plain Brown Wrapper and was in at least one car magazine.

The car was kept in one of the garages on the factory compound. I would go past and see it once in a while. I never found out what happened to it.

I would run into Ted now and then at a Chevy dealer parts counter around 1975.

The Dzus facility was a hotbed of controversy. It was a Super Fund clean up site and deemed responsible for a number of serious cancers due to groundwater contamination.

The site was razed maybe 8 years ago. Now it is a 7-11 with a gas station, a plates studio, a failed taco shop and a few un-rented stores.

[DoctorLarry]

One of my good friends bought the wagon. He lived around the corner. I don't remember what happened to it after the rear end self destructed.

[DoctorLarry]

Went to the paint store yesterday and got two colors: 1969 Code 53 Crystal Blue for the 69 Skylark GS project and 1970 Code 52 Saturn Yellow for the 70 GSX project. I also finished the rough-in of the 69 GS interior. The seats have a lot of detail in them-hard to replicate in scale. I will probably make molds and resin cast them. The 3D print seats and door panels were all wrong so I made new ones. The dash should work with some modifications. I still have to build the "consolette" for the four speed in the car. I am going to use the 69 Riviera engine as a base. I will need to fabricate a new intake and chrome the valve covers. I have a Fireball Holley double pumper and the "fly eye" air cleaner from the Baldwin-Motion 70 Camaro. The 71 Olds 442 will donate the finned rear differential cover and I ordered resin Mallory coils. I have MSD boxes that I can modify for the Motion Capacitative Discharge unit. I still will need to fabricate exhaust headers and Thrush mufflers, but things are coming together. I will also need to figure the black vinyl top out.

[Moparman18064]

VCG Resins has the thrush mufflers

[DoctorLarry]

Thanks, Rich!

[Zippi]

That's going to be a nice build Larry.

[DoctorLarry]

Thanks. I think it will, too. It is coming along nicely.

[DoctorLarry]

Ordered some Thrush mufflers and fly eye velocity stack air cleaners from VGC Resins today so I think that's the last of the special parts for this one. I still need some Lakewood ladder bars for the 70 yellow car. There is someone with them on EBAY but priced in a ridiculous way. Anybody know of a kit I can pirate for them?

[Geno]

Man, that is going to be way cool.💯😎👍

[spkgibsonfirebird]

How does someone go about ordering one of these? This is another one of my favorite cars, Buicks have always been a big part of my life. My late father worked in Plant 36 from 1965 until 2004, he retired that year after 39 years. 

[DoctorLarry]

Stephen, this was a 3D print version that I found on EBAY. It was not a good experience. I ordered and paid and then nothing. It went on for awhile and I kept communicating. Got a couple of "ready to ship" notices and one stating it was being shipped but nothing. More time passed and I finally filed a claim with EBAY and PayPal. It finally shipped after several weeks had passed. As you can see from the picture it has different resin colors and one of the other members said the hood is wrong. Robert Burns is supposed to do them but he has put them on hold for awhile. There is another European seller on EBAY that has a kit of the 69 and Robert Burns does a nice 69 GS wagon. So all I can say is good luck. The interior in the 3D print kit is a base interior, not the custom/GS one so I had to make my own seats and door panels and console. I hope the dash will work. I will probably cast them in resin just to have them and I will also do ones for the wagon.