Rare on Air

Reach for the moon and you might land on the stars…like many who catch the car bug early in life we dream big of the cars featured in posters on our childhood walls. For Jason Gorman he dreamed in classic American muscle and specifically one of the most iconic of the 70’s street beast, the 1970 Chevelle…must be a thing with Jasons (insert pic of me with my Chevelle). At age 14 Jason worked as a landscaper and while he was ballin as a 14 year old, no one was willing give him a deal on a Chevelle nor were his parents going to help him. However, his Dad mentioned that a coworker had a vehicle that Jason might be interested in. The coworkers mother in law was looking to sell her classic car that was sitting at a transmission shop a 1971 Buick Skylark…you know every 14 year olds dream car!!! After going home and doing some research Jason saw the big brother of the Skylark the Buick GS and the scarier bigger brother the Buick GSX. “The spoiler, stripes and different hoods,” sold him on the spot. Armed with the knowledge of what the car could possibly be Jason purchased it for $900 and brought home a clean low mileage Skylark.

While the car was low mileage, it was also 40+ years old and did have its short comings. The car was owned by the lady since brand new and drove it through Pittsburgh winters with sandbags in the trunk so there was bound to be some rust. This is also a good time to explain the original color combo Jason’s Skylark came in, bamboo cream, brown interior, brown vinyl top, steel wheels and as Jason puts it, “ugly.”

Fortunately the undercarriage, frame and suspension were spotless and rust free, a great start to the project. However the quarters and lower front fenders were rotted and needed to be replaced. Good problem to have as Jason comes from a family of car guys which lead him into the auto body industry. This car is how he cut his teeth with his father on some old school muscle car body restoration. By the time he graduated high school Jason was daily driving phase one of the Skylark with the 350/350 combo, rust free body, fiberglass hood and factory 15” wheels with raised white tires.

Jason started by replacing the quarters because as most of the muscle car guys know, the vinyl top is prone to holding in water and rusting under, luckily it was only at the bottom trim area. The top was spotless fortunately, however the lower fenders needed to be patched. The car was then stripped by hand with aircraft stripper and found the driver door had been wrecked and needed to be patched and replaced. Jason then put down a fantastic paint job at 17 years old, with the original Buick GSX Saturn Yellow and all of the correct striping to go along with it.

It’s worth noting that anything that you think is a decal on the car is hand painted by Jason, a testament to his painting skills. The only difference is the gloss black stripe on the hood compared to the original flat black stripe the GSX would have some with and the hood scoops painted black. The fender badges and trim have all been shaved to create that smooth flow down the body, the GS rocker panels and wheel well trim have been added to create a finished look the lower portion of the body and makes the wheels pop. By the time he graduated high school Jason was daily driving phase one of the Skylark with the 350/350 combo, rust free body, fiberglass hood and factory 15” wheels with raised white tires.

The reason I really like the car in general is the front end on the 71 models. Similar to the Monte Carlo from the same year, the grill was inset more than the typical A-bodies and gave a more aggressive look. From the front it looks like it could swallow you whole through that big opening. Jason really accentuated this part of the car by keeping the smooth clean Skylark grill and the thinner sleeker bumper from the Skylark over the GS. The massive hood scoops on the now steel hood, continue the aggressive front end all topped off with the quintessential 70’s hood tach that lets you know this gentleman hotrod means business!

In the back is where Buick distanced itself from other A-bodies of the era with that tastefully large rear wing complete with wrap around graphics. The rear bumper is also specific to this car with the long sleek taillights that run almost the full length of the tail similar to the Shelby Mustangs of the era. Jason has a sequential led light kit to install to give it that extra custom touch when the blinkers come on…who said GM guys can’t borrow some technology from the Ford boys…The GS Sport side mirrors round out the GS tribute.

When Jason purchased the Skylark it had a super clean factory brown interior with bench seat. The front seat only had a small rip and in phase one of the build was the only thing that was fixed. About 4 years ago Jason started updating the interior and swapping everything to black including the door cards, carpet and accessories. Jason took out the factory dash pad and dyed it black and painted the dash to match with a walnut steering wheel. Jason’s brother is a stereo geek and helped him swap the factory system to a Retro Audio head unit complete with custom kicker speakers and 8” sub hidden under the split bench seat. He still needs to recover the headliner, rear seat and front bench, which he intends to keep, to finish off the full black swap.

The suspension and wheel setup is what takes this classic Buick to the next level and stays with the classic look with a modern touch. Jason told himself that he would go all out on the suspension and decided, “what better than air ride?” On the beat up western PA roads you can’t ride low all the time as the pothole situation is similar to a Proactive commercial in the early 2000’s (please research public bus being swallowed by pothole in downtown Pittsburgh). The adjustability of air allows Jason to give it the aggressive stance when he’s cruising and the ability to go full 4x4 mode when pothole crawling.

The full Ridetech air system, all tubular arms along with the upgraded sway bars allow for this big muscle car to handle on rails. The tank and compressor are nicely tucked into the trunk underneath the package tray and in custom painter style don, “GSX,” and “Ridetech,” ensuring you that only quality parts went into this build. The wheels are 17x9s in the front, 17x10 in the rear and will be upgraded to a larger sidewall in the back to fill the rear tub a little more. As a stroke of luck he found a set of modern Buick center caps while cleaning out the dealership that he painted for that just so happened to snap into place to give it the final custom touch.

Under the big hood scoops sit the somewhat forgotten beast of a motor, the legendary 455. As stated earlier the Skylark came with a SB 350 and Jason knew he needed more muscle to match the aggressive GS/GSX exterior. This came in the from of a 1975 Buick Electra 455 that was built by an older gentleman which just so happen to be the last motor he built before retiring…no warranties here. The reason for going with the 1975 motor was simple, 455 Buicks pre 75 were known to have thin cylinder walls and small oil passages and were prone to overheat. These later “blue blocks” fixed all of the problems when Buick swapped to a GM mold and are the choice for guys building a modified big block Buick. Jason wanted reliability so horsepower was an after thought and told the engine builder he wanted to, “just hop in it and drive to Florida.”

The block is bored .30 over with upgraded Edelbrock heads that needed to be worked over quite a bit to get the valves to seat. The long tube Hooker headers with full 2” exhaust and dual snorkel ram air cleaner round out the power adders, keeping with the reliability theme. The functional scoop feeds the ram air cleaner from a 1972 with painted on factory markings, rather than a 71 GS air cleaner that Jason reports is ultra rare, “so buy one if you find one.”

Like many of us Jason creation is never finished! Next up Jason wants to put a posi and get rid of the one wheel peel granny rear end that is great in snow but bad for smoky burnouts! Since he is a painter he wants to add a few details to make sure everyone knows what car this is. The first is to mask off the rear wing and paint a GSX logo facing the car behind him to ensure they know what they are looking at. The second, a GSX badge airbrushed on rear quarter to replace the original and give it a custom touch. On the interior he would like to build a custom bracket for air ride controller built into the arm rest to hide the system. Some of these projects are on the back burner as Jason is currently waiting for a heart transplant, something that we spoke about in depth after the podcast.

Outside the box thinking, hard work and honing his skills has afforded Jason to drive around one of the most unique Buick Skylarks around. When we talked numbers Jason estimates phase one of the car costing around $3K all in, and as it sits now $25-$30K. In these current times you’ll be hard pressed to buy a car for that money that will perform and turn as many heads as this yellow beast. I can’t wait to see what phase three brings (maybe an LS) and see what he does next to elevate his masterpiece after the transplant. If you have any questions or want to follow Jason’s journey with the Buick give him a follow on instagram @jgorm71 or on Facebook at Jason Gorman. If you’re out in Pittsburgh and see a one of a kind Saturn yellow Buick flying low down the interstate give him some room and enjoy every angle of one of the best forgotten muscle cars of the 70s.