Words: Tommy Parry
Tim’s Skylark started life as a family car which was eventually put out to pasture once the motor coughed its last. Tim’s grandfather came across the Buick when looking to give his daughter a way to get around during her college days, and so he installed a replacement Buick 300 to help get to class. Then he had a skilled friend douse the car in another coat of paint.
Five headache-free years later, Tim’s mother sold the car to him. As a highschooler, Tim jumped at the opportunity; the machine was perfect for him — and the perfect chance to start hot rodding.
Through the following five years, he put the car through the ringer; “pretty much embodying the reason for high teenage male insurance rates” and getting his adolescent jollies. Eventually, life intervened and he put the car away in the garage, but 20 years later, he felt the need to revisit his adrenaline-soaked halcyon years and start tinkering on the Skylark again.
After a quick scrub, he wrote out a to-do list and started making the car safer, rust-free and modern. First, he snagged some ‘90s wheels and got to rolling.
Tim had put a ‘72 350 in it back in his hooligan heyday, then wired an electric fuel pump to a can of gas and got it to fire. Next, working through the body and frame, he realize the effect that time had had on it: a hole in the fuel tank, more rust on the floor and a frame broken at the upper control crossmember on the passenger side. It was time to remove the body from the frame.
After cleaning the frame, he welded the cracks and beefed up the weakened ends with ten-gauge steel. After some boxing, a coat of primer and then a coat of Rustoleum, Tim went for a few suspension modifications. Included in this short list were Aldan coilovers as well as swaybars, front and rear control arms, frame reinforcements and lowering springs from UMI. The cherry on top of this parts sundae: a set of 11” Wilwood Dynalite brakes. Surely Tim was feeling like a kid on Christmas when the boxes arrived.
Now considering bumping up some power, he replaced the aging rear end with a Chevelle posi 12-bolt and 3.73 gears. At the front, a ProForged steering kit helped ensure the front end would be as communicative as the retrofitted rear, which would have to be as strong as it was informative, since the powerplant on which he was planning would make somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 lb-ft of torque.
Tim played with the idea of an LS, but settled on a BBC. This Mark 4 454 block uses Mark 5 heads, a Scat Stroker crank, forged Icon pistons, forged rods, a Chevrolet Performance roller cam, Howards roller rockers and triple springs, an Air Gap manifold, a Thunder 800cfm carb and some 2" headers. Not only was this cheaper than the LS would’ve been, but it would produce the same sort of pavement-rippling torque he was after.
With a four-speed TCI streetfighter transmission and a TCI breakaway converter, he’d be able to make this beefy powerplant usable on trips to the supermarket. Though the gorgeous powerplant sat pretty, it also sat a little too low. As a result, he had to raise the car on a new set of springs to keep the headers from making a sparkshow when crossing over a speed bump.
The new exhaust—a 3” Pypes setup—was fitted with an x-pipe. After all, a BBC should be heard and appreciated by everyone — even those who don’t know they’re a fan yet. With such a staggering build list and an exhaust note to die for, Tim should have no problem converting the neighborhood into fans.
To keep tabs on the progress of this impressive build, you can view Tim’s thread here.