1971 Skylark Convertible

DeeVeeEight said:
I would have kept the Monte interior but the back seat was too tall and too wide. I talked to the local upholstery shop about cutting the seat down to make it work but it was co prohibitive. I almost went that route until I saw the Chevelle 'vert seat on ebay.

I am considering cannabilizing the 6 way power seat mechanism from the Monte drivers seat and grafting it into the Strato bucket. Has anyone else tried this yet?
Click to expand...

That's a damn shame, oh well.....on that power seat thing, you gotta watch the vertical clearance on lotsa that stuff, even from larger cars....BTDT back when I gave up the effort for that reason...I need more than average head room so a inch higher on the seats for most vehicles is not happening for ME.....

:gurney::crap:
 
mrvette said:
DeeVeeEight said:
I would have kept the Monte interior but the back seat was too tall and too wide. I talked to the local upholstery shop about cutting the seat down to make it work but it was co prohibitive. I almost went that route until I saw the Chevelle 'vert seat on ebay.

I am considering cannabilizing the 6 way power seat mechanism from the Monte drivers seat and grafting it into the Strato bucket. Has anyone else tried this yet?
Click to expand...

That's a damn shame, oh well.....on that power seat thing, you gotta watch the vertical clearance on lotsa that stuff, even from larger cars....BTDT back when I gave up the effort for that reason...I need more than average head room so a inch higher on the seats for most vehicles is not happening for ME.....

:gurney::crap:
Click to expand...

Yeah Gene,
I tried to put a power seat in my 79 Vette but I looked like JAWS from the old James Bond movies - my head was halfway above the roof line.
 
Hehe..the Jaws look! I feel a little like that sometimes when I riding in my 70. And I'm just six foot.

Is that a for sale sign in the window? Pic must be from when you bought it.
 
I have full power tracks off a 2005 C6 if anybody is interested and brave enough to try to fit this stuff under the seat in a C3..... IMO...it can be done but you have to lower the floor....

About the Skylark interior: man, that did look great, not perfect as it was too "modern" but almost like it belonged in there....

Good thing you got all the parts to make it 'fit" and functional.... :thumbs:
 
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Knock Knock.....

Who's there?

Rod.

Rod who?

Rod Knock.

Shit! :rain:

I thought I had an exhaust leak, there was a slight ticking noise. 200 miles later I know for sure.... knock knock.... There's a connecting rod that's not so happy.

This is a good opportunity to get a little porting work done and wake this baby up a little bit! :smash: I just wish $$$$ wasn't so tight right now.
 
DeeVeeEight said:
Knock Knock.....

Who's there?

Rod.

Rod who?

Rod Knock.

Shit! :rain:

I thought I had an exhaust leak, there was a slight ticking noise. 200 miles later I know for sure.... knock knock.... There's a connecting rod that's not so happy.

This is a good opportunity to get a little porting work done and wake this baby up a little bit! :smash: I just wish $$$$ wasn't so tight right now.
Click to expand...

Yeh man $$ are tighter than whale pussy, and that's waterproof......:rofl::tomato:
 
Here's the plan....

Rebuild the engine, install a slightly more aggressive cam, do a mild port job on the heads and tweak the dizzy. That should provide plenty of fun while still keeping things reasonable. :thankyou:
 
Nice ride! You might try looking for a Buick 455, if I remember right they weight about the same as a small block but with all the torque you'll ever need.
 
js292 said:
Nice ride! You might try looking for a Buick 455, if I remember right they weight about the same as a small block but with all the torque you'll ever need.
Click to expand...

I thought Buicks weren't defined as big block or small block?
 
I believe the 400 403 430 455 were the BB Buicks. Pontiac is the one that technically doesn't have a small block, although I'm not sure what they classify the 326 as.
 
Update

Of course it took 3 times longer than expected but I finally got the car back from the shop. The 350 has been rebuilt, there were some minor snags after it was reinstalled.... the machine shop left out 2 threaded plugs at the bottom rear of the block - coolant leaking out. After fixing that the old Quadrajet decided to take a dump, long story short we took the easy way out and put on a new Edelbrock 750. The car now runs nice and is back home where it belongs.
 
Ups and downs.......

A few weeks ago, before all this shit weather hit, I took the convertible out of the garage and saw some red drips on the floor. The new power steering box has a slight leak. I also have a lazy lifter (on the newly rebuilt 350) that collapses over night, resulting in tapping on start up. I have been not blipping the gas on cold starts and leaving the auto choke open to let the starter crank the motor until it builds oil pressure, then blipping the gas so she catches. If the weather allows she will be heading back to the shop later this week to have these issues resolved.:crap: Hopefully I can get all of this shit taken care of in time for spring....

QUESTION - Is it possible that the lazy lifter is doing cam damage?
 
Seat project

I have been in the process of trying to restore the interior. I have been looking into the GM Strato Bucket Seats that were original to these cars. A restored pair sells on ebay for $1400.00, worn out seat cores sell for about $200.00 a pair. I first found a pair of seats from a 1969 GTO, these are the black ones in the pictures, purchased for $200.00. A few months later I found the white pair from a 1969 Chevelle for $200 as well but they did not come with head rests. I decided to work with what I had and swap the headrests & trim parts from the GTO seats to the Chevelle seats and to dye everything black. I have one seat completed and the second is not far behind. All I did was separate the upper & lower seat frames so I could clean them & paint them with Duplicolor Vinyl & Carpet dye. I cleaned the plastic trim pieces and coated them with Duplicolor spray on Chrome, it isn't perfect but it looks OK for my needs. Here are the before and after pics.

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