Hot rodding is about evolution and like evolution in people it is a bunch of small stuff that ends up leading to big changes to the species. That’s kind of the story with this great looking 1964 Buick Skylark called Project Angry Bird on ProTouring.com. The car has evolved from a lowered stocker into a full tilt pro touring build that uses chassis and engine components from some of the biggest names in the go-fast industry to ultimately transform the car from something that looked good, to something that drove ok, to something that can be run hard in a competitive environment. While the purist in us gets sad when we see a nicely done Nailhead yanked in favor of an LS engine, that’s the way of the world today and when’s the last time you saw a Nailhead powered anything competing outside of the nostalgia drags?
The reality is that when you set out of build a car like this you have two options. You can (a) forge a trail into the jungle and engineer yourself a car that no one saw coming. You’ll spend years in the process and end up with something that may work better than what’s out there but may also be behind the curve by the time you actually show up to an autocross with it or you can (b) take advantage of the incredible array of products that exist to build a solid, proven, pro touring combo and hit the asphalt hard with it. That’s what the owner of this Buick decided to do and we applaud the fact that he dove in with both feet and there seems to be lots of photos showing his son wrenching on the car with his as well. That’s a double win. If our dad had a Buick this cool in the shop we’d be out there with him every waking minute as well.
While we’ll always have a place in our heart for ratty and tattered looking cars and trucks there’s something about a car like this Buick that is being finished to a high standard that we fully admire. We can’t wait to continue following this thread to see how the finished product plays out. Sweet car!
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE BUILD THREAD FOR PROJECT ANGRY BIRD ON PRO-TOURING.COM
That’s not a nailhead, that’s a 300 ci motor that was the replacement for the 215 aluminum block. That particular motor, the 64, had aluminum heads whereas 65 up were all cast iron.
Neat car, not a budget build, however… I must be getting old, though, I was disappointed to see an LS not a Buick though, it does make a lot of sense to use it.
Where did you find the motor mounts to swap from a nailhead to the ls motor or did you fab them. I’m about to do a ls swap in place of the nailhead this week