1957 Buick Special - California Dreamin'

When you like a particular car, you like it. In the end that's what makes hot rodding so much fun; for every rodder there is a different list of likes and dislikes. Bill Saylors who lives in Southern California has always had a lifelong affinity for Buicks and when he found his latest ride, a 1957 Buick Special, outside of Lake Tahoe the next project was born. Jason Pecikonis and his crew at Timeless Kustoms of Camarillo, California gets the nod for building this beauty.

The only thing left of this Buick Special's original chassis are the main framerails. Timeless Kustoms crafted their own rear section that hangs an Air Ride Technologies triangulated four bar with Firestone air bags and QA-1 shocks all wrapped around a Ford 9-inch rearend. The differential is fitted with Strange axles, 3.23 gears and a Detroit Locker. The centersection of the chassis has been fabricated to mount the center carrier bearing for the two-piece driveshaft. All of this comes to a halt via Wilwood (Camarillo, CA) disc brakes; six-piston front calipers with four-piston rear calipers mated to 14-inch rotors all operated by a Wilwood 7/8-inch bore master cylinder coupled with a portioning valve and all pressed into service via a fabricated pedal assembly. The front suspension starts with Timeless Kustoms kicked 'rails holding a Scotts Hot Rods Mustang II-based independent front suspension, again with Firestone bags, with power rack-and-pinion, and QA1 double adjustable shocks. At the corners you will find Nitto tires rolled around Billet Specialties (La Grange, IL) wheels holding the coupe "just barely" above the road. The front features a combo of 8.5 x 20-inch wheels with 245R35/20 tires and in the rear 10.5 x 22-inch wheels are dressed with 295R30/22 rubber.

Once the chassis work was done Timeless Kustoms fabricated the firewall, trans tunnel, and everything rear of the front seats to move everything up and in to achieve the "in the weeds look." The power comes from what else--a venerable vintage 425 cube Nailhead (385 hp and 400 lb-ft) topped off with a factory dual-quad intake, a pair of Edelbrock (Torrance, CA) 500cfm four-barrels, and a Billet Specialties air cleaner. Fire is provided by a Pertronix (San Dimas, CA) ignition system through Taylor wires; the spent gases are exited by smoothed factory exhaust manifolds while the 2-inch mandrel bent exhaust tubing was fabricated by Timeless Kustoms then Jet-Hot coated and run through Borla (Oxnard, CA) stainless mufflers. (Note how the exhaust exits through the modified rocker panels just in front of the rear tires.) Another noteworthy feature of the Nailhead is the V-belt system fabricated by Timeless Kustoms. It utilizes a Sanden 509 mini A/C compressor, MSD single wire alternator and a gen2 power steering pump. Power is hustled via a TH400 to the rearend.

The Buick Special body is bathed in DeBeers True Black paint sprayed on by Jason of Timeless Kustoms. Body mods include the removal of all emblems from the grille; exhaust openings within the rear bumper were removed and the bumper brightwork was handled by Bumpers Unlimited.

Ok, stay with us on this next step--the interior of the '57 Buick features a dashboard from a '57 Olds! Yep, Oldsmobile. All of the Olds features are retained, such as the dash, insert, and gauges. To this interior, modern hot rod touches include a Vintage Air (San Antonio, TX) HVAC unit and controls with Billet Specialties vents. The supporting electrical system is a Ron Francis Wiring (Chester, PA) system put into place by Jason at Timeless Kustoms. The insulation is Accumat and is a product of Scosche (Oxnard, CA). Seating is by way of a Lexus SC400 and covered in bright red leather along with the custom center console all by Conejo Upholstery.