Making do with what I have!

[sean Buick 76]

Hi, Sean Buick here.... I am a 31 year old Construction Worker that is married and expecting my first baby in September! I have decided that with the new family member on the way I would postpone building my dream shop and focus on making the best with what I have.. Next year I will re-evaluate building my big shop.

So here is my little attached garage:

 

[55cadillacking]

Calgary, guaranteed! Welcome and congrats on your coming addition. Pretty nice stable of rides.

 

[sean Buick 76]

A few more random pics of the garage:

















M next project is fitting this intercooler:

 

[NKlamerus]

Dude sub'd for the build for sure.
Seems like you living the fast life lol, stock truck as well other than lift?

 

[sean Buick 76]

Dude sub'd for the build for sure.
Seems like you living the fast life lol, stock truck as well other than lift?

Yeah just my work truck it is stock. It drives great and the BDS 6.5" lift was VERY impressive. The truck rides awesome and does great off road! I do want to add a turbocharger to the truck.

Yesterday I bought another toy but I will need to keep it my "little house" because I am out of room here. It is a 2001 Audi A4 with the All wheel drive, turbocharged and 5 speed! Should be a blast!

 

[jessdeluxe]

very nice , your doing good for yourself

 

[sean Buick 76]

very nice , your doing good for yourself

Thanks! I was dead broke 10 years ago but I moved to a location where there was plenty of work... It has been a long haul but it is starting to pay off!

This is my little house that is a 45 minute drive away from the big house. This is also the location where I will be building a big shop with a lift:

 

[Mach5]

Where is this (what state)?

 

[theoldwizard1]

Very nice !

Have you done anything to the carb to prevent air leakage while on boost ?

You might need a heat shield around your master cylinder.

Are those red hoses heat shrunk or have you not installed the clamps yet ?

 

[sean Buick 76]

Very nice !

Have you done anything to the carb to prevent air leakage while on boost ?

You might need a heat shield around your master cylinder.

Are those red hoses heat shrunk or have you not installed the clamps yet ?

Yes the carb has all the blow through mods done to it. It was custom calibrated for my combo and will be fine tuned on the chassis dyno. Should be a fun street car!

Here is the Skylark build:

http://www.canadianrodder.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17281


The red silicone connectors are just placed on there to see what it looks like while the system was being built. This was a custom fabricated turbo system so it had to be fitted together many times. We put a bare engine block in the car while building the system and will swap the good engine in when the car is ready. I have 12 engines for this car in case I damage one racing. There are special fittings, like hose clamps to seal both end when in use.

Yes there will be several heat shields under the hood for various areas we need to keep heat off of.

I am located in Alberta Canada

 

[sean Buick 76]

Here is a video of the Garage and please note I have a lot or organizing to do and I will post a new video in a month or so once I clean it up. So consider these the before videos:

In this video I show the little speaker stands that I converted into portable tool and parts stands that adjust up and down as needed:

 

[Ed Litsch]

Cool places. You should get a lot of enjoyment out of them.

 

[Bib Overalls]

If you find any gold coins don't tell the media. The tax man will be there before you can say "I'm so lucky." Your going to have some fun with that Buick.

 

[sean Buick 76]

Get a metal detector working on that old cabin shack,barn,whateva it is? pronto,maybe a coin or 2 waiting on u.pay for hot rod upgrades.

I have already found some pretty cool stuff at the acreage! Lots of bottles and tins as well as some vintage model a parts! I even got an olds sedan that has a Olds 455 in it! This came with the property.

There is an old house and a barn on the acreage here is a tour:

I stored my 75 regal in the barn and then took it out to turbocharge it...

 

[TexasT]

Nice work there. Get everything you can done. Children take a LOT of time(not to mention the money). Good Luck.

 

[sean Buick 76]

Nice work there. Get everything you can done. Children take a LOT of time(not to mention the money). Good Luck.

Thanks yes I am FLAT out working on my projects before the baby comes. My only saving grace is that I rent my little house to my best friend who is a mechanic so I often get him to do work on my cars and trucks in trade for rent. The other thing I have going for me is that I have collected my 4 cars and 3 trucks all before kids and I also have almost all the parts to compete the projects.

I just completed my 91 ext cab 4x4 GMC 2500 and it features a crate engine and new Trans, body lift and 32 inch tires. I just need to paint it now.

My 2005 GMC 1500 is done.

My 91 Dakota is done.

The mustang needs nothing except a supercharger kit.

The 2001 Audi A4 is almost done just needs a windshield and a dyno tune with the larger turbo I added.

The 75 Regal needs nothing it's done.

The Skylark needs a lot done but I have it all here including 11 engines for it.

I am doing a major re-do of the garage next week and converting the 12X12 shed in the backyard into the "dirty workshop" so all the woodwork, and metal grinding will be done out there and that will keep the garage clean. I am also moving a ton of parts into the basement to make more room in the garage for working.

Also once I get these 3 Buick 350s rebuilt I will drop one into the Skylark, and take the other two to my little house for storage.

 

[sean Buick 76]

I have a busy few weeks ahead of me! I am converting my back yard shed into a "metal work and woodwork" shop for all the messy work which will help keep the garage clean.

Then I need to take 3 completed Buick 350 engines out to my little house where I have an "engine shed" which is a 14X14 shop where I stockpile rebuilt engines and transmission as well as new parts, tires, rims ,etc to keep my at home garage less packed.

There is also a shed I store my ATV in and that one currently has a SBC, Buick 350, and 4L80E trans in there...

This weekend I am taking the SBC back to my big house, as well as the Buick 350, and trans... The trans sold for $2000 so I am using that $ to get the machine work started on the SBC and Buick 350 engines. Once I k now the bearing sizes and piston bores I will order rebuild kits and put them together.

I rent the little house to my best friend who is a mechanic and usually works off his rent by working on my cars and trucks....

Nothing special for a house but it is on 4 lots and it is only 10 minutes drive away from the Acreage that I posted pics of above..





Spare lot where I will build a small garage:





Once I get my dream shop built at the Acreage my friend will likely work out of my shop but one thing at a time...

The next project we are doing is my 91 GMC 2500 that we are adding a body lift, suspension lift, and paint... We have over the last 10 years done a crate SBC, new trans, rebuilt rearend, etc. Until I get my shop built we share this tractor shop with a few other friends:

 

[rixtrix1]

Factory heads on the turbo project? How much boost do you plan to run? Have you ever tried heads from T/A Performance here in Phoenix!

 

[rixtrix1]

Glad you like Buicks. My first car was a 1963 Skylark. I wish I still had it, especially knowing everything I've learned working on cars this past 4 decades. Crappy cell phone pic of an old snapshot( way before digital).

I like what you're doing with the garage( and vehicles) and the country acreage is awesome. Can't wait to see what you build there.

 

[sean Buick 76]

Factory heads on the turbo project? How much boost do you plan to run? Have you ever tried heads from T/A Performance here in Phoenix!

Hi Ric,

Yes factory heads are on all of the Buick 350s that are built for the Skylark. I plan to have 7 fully built and ready to swap in for in case I have an issue with one.

I have a publishing deal for a book I am writing called "Small Block Buick Performance Engines" which I have been working on since I was 18 years old. I hope to get some more dyno testing done here in 2014 because once I get those numbers the publisher will print the book.

I do not have a set amount of boost that I am planning to run. I will start at 7 PSI and slowly work up as I dial in the tune. Chassis dyno testing will be a really important part of getting things dialed in. The turbos are sized to give me lots of boost quick without any lag to speak of and they can produce about 25 PSI although not many engines will hold together long under that much pressure.

I feel the "safe" HP for a mild Iron headed Buick 350 with forged pistons is about 650 HP and it should only take about 8-12 PSI of boost depending on how well the head porting is done.

The iron heads flow well when ported well. Here is a Buick 350 project I was involved with. It made 420 HP without the power adder and just a few PSI bumped it to 630 HP.

As of now there are no Alum heads available for the Buick 350. The 455 Buick has heads available from Edelbrock and TA Performance. TA Performance is currently designing a new single plane intake and Alum heads for the Buick 350 and I already have my deposit down on a set of both. So I will be one of the first people to get the heads when they come out. I am having the heads shipped to a friend who does really nice porting and flow testing and he is going to really wake them up! Once he is done with them they are being shipped to me and I am going to build another Buick 350 around the heads. So far I have some rods that are good for about 1000 HP, a core block that sonic tested well, a block girdle, and on the "need" list is a custom aftermarket crank, and some other odds and ends.

So I am planning to make some serious power once the alum. heads come out. Shooting for 450 HP with a smooth idle like stock, and 800 HP under boost... Car is auto shifting, flat hood, and will drive around nice on the street.

And thanks for the compliments about the country acreage! it has Natural gas already, Power, and the Barn although rough it is a dry place to store vehicles...

 

[mistervelocity]

A bunch of cool stuff going on here. I've had a real appreciation for Buick power for several years. Underrated/underappreciated mills.

 

[rvhop]

Congratulations on the new addition. You have used some common sense in making useful tools.

 

[rixtrix1]

I have two friends who race 1970 Buicks. One has always had 455's and has used every iteration of Mike's heads from day one(along with all the growing pains ,additional machining, expense) and the new stuff is great, both in street and race configurations. Runs 9's at 2850# and also has a 69GS, 680 NA pump gas HP. The other guy is a lowbuck effort. He had run 350's from 1986 until 2002, eventually running low 11's at 2900#, using a lot of cast-offs from other racers, etc., so I can see the potential you are working with. He never blew an NA engine, just kept swapping partsaround until he found what worked best. When he went to a 455, he got a porous set of T/A street heads for almost nothing, had a friend in the ceramic business do some magic to them to stop the leaks, had them ported by a motorcycle guy and back to the ceramic guy and he runs just as fast as the first guy for a tenth the investment. Buicks were always great engines, but they don't work like a SBC. Too bad it has taken so long for the aftermarket to step up as they are getting hard to find in this area as most of the old cars here in the phoenix area were crushed about 15 years ago when junkyard land became more valuable fo rreal estate development. Glad you're keeping the faith. Good luck on your various projects, especially the Sept. one!

 

[sean Buick 76]

Thanks Ric!

Yes the 350 block is much stronger than the 455... I am having a lot of fun with the little 350s!

I have started collecting the 5.3 LS engines because that is what my truck has and WOW are they easy to make power with! Just a head, and cam swap and we can gain 200 HP over stock! Or leave the engine stock and add a turbocharger and get great low rpm power and good fuel mileage.

Thanks for the interest and stay posted!

 

[sean Buick 76]

I was about to button up one of my good Buick 350s when I decided I needed to take it back apart and improve some things first.

1. There are some sharp edges on the Custom Diamond pistons and I am pretty sure they would have caused some detonation which would have damaged the engine.

2. A few of the piston rings had sharp edges from where I had file fit them to the bores of the blocks.

I took the pistons out of the engine, removed the pistons from the rods (easy due to spiro lock retainers), and then removed the rings and numbered them so they could go back on the right pistons when I was done smoothing the pistons and smoothing the rings with a file.

Here are some pics of the pistons before and after smoothing them out. I still need to polish them but they are 100% better then they were:




The black marker was used to draw the areas I wanted to "roll over" to eliminate the sharp spots.




Someone "rudely interrupting" my progress by phoning me LOL. I used the cardboard box under the piston holder so that Leanne would let me bring it in the house as the piston holder was dirty.









I used the little stands again today as they are very handy... And I added some "art" to the walls.



Here is one completed piston, just needs to be polished:



All cleaned up and stuff moved so Leanne can park on her side:



That was yesterdays progress and I will post today's progress tmrw morning.

 

[sean Buick 76]

More work to all 8 completed:

 

[sean Buick 76]

Next is the project to convert my backyard shed into my cutting and grinding work area. I am adding a bench down the left side with a flush mounted radial chop saw, and at the back wall will be another deeper bench with two large vices, a small vice, bench grinder, and drill press.

I am setting up a "docking" station so that I can leave up to 10 of my electric tools plugged in and control them all with lighted switches. All the electric tools will have homes on the wall above the bench. Above the bench on the I am adding enclosed cabinets.

When I am not working in the shed then I will store the lawnmower, and other stuff in the shed but it will only take a minute to pull them out so I can work.

The reason I am doing all this is so that it will cut down on the mess, grinding dust, sawdust etc in my garage.

 

[HSpencer]

That is a great shed. I will be very interested to see how you set it up.

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

 

[WarrenJ]

Looking forward to the progress. Interested in the "docking station" setup.

 

[sean Buick 76]

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/seanbuick76/slideshow/Random Garage Pics?sort=4

 

[sean Buick 76]

 

[metalhead140]

Love it! Awesome Buick, and I love the fact that you're doing it all yourself.

 

[rixtrix1]

Cart looks really nice, but as you say it's a little pricey. I have not seen anything quite like it. Have you looked at Northern Tool? We get a lot of industrial material handling catalogs at work, so I'll look through the next one we get, too. I have a lot of AkroBins already. Hmmmmmm...

 

[GRN96WS6]

Where are the rest of your cars in your sig with that small garage and driveway they can't all be at the house I presume?

 

[sean Buick 76]

Where are the rest of your cars in your sig with that small garage and driveway they can't all be at the house I presume?

No I keep most of the vehicles at my little house which is about 45 minutes north east of where we live. There are pics of the little house in the first few pages of this thread. I am building a 3 car garage at the little house and then a huge shop out at my acreage which is between the big house and the little house. I rent the little house to my best friend who is a mechanic and he does a lot of work on my vehicles in trade for rent... Life is good when you have good friends!

 

[adam728]

Of all the cool stuff you have the trials bike caught my eye.

Sent via morse code

 

[sean Buick 76]

Of all the cool stuff you have the trials bike caught my eye.

Thanks! I was sponsored by GT bikes as a kid. Here is a video of me fooling around:

[/QUOTE]

 

[euro2fast4u]

That turbo manifold.

 

[rixtrix1]

Gary Turner is a neat guy. I knew him from drag racing. I had never seen anyone doing trials style riding on a bicycle; pretty gutsy.

 

[mistervelocity]

Nice!