My 1985 Buick Skyhawk Restoration.
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This car was purchased back in 1994 and was eventually givin to me as a graduation gift from my father. This is the second car that I have ever owned. It has been beaten as bruised, but in the end I decided to restore it completely. To this day most people don't even know what kind of car that it is. These first five pictures are what it looked like when I first got it. Unfornately gravel roads played a role in ruining some of the paint. The car came original, it only had one previous owner. It came with a 1.8l OHC 4 cyl. Only had 84 hp. Not much of a get up and go vehicle.
The following pictures were taken over a two year span. It includes a complete restoration of the frame and body of the car. I had to replace both doors, trunk lid, front bumper, driver front fender, and hood. This was due to rust and the unfortunate run in with a few deer. Aw the joys of living out on gravel at the time. I had a good friend of mine do all of the body and paint work on the car. This explains the reason for a long time restoration. He just did this on the side. I am grateful for the job that he has done, and to the knowlegde of body and paint work that he taught me. Most of the body parts were purchased from a junk yard in Arizona. As you can see some of the interior was needing some work which is to be done.
The following pictures cover the restoration and addition of the upholstery, stereo, suspension, exhaust, tires, and rims. The uphostery was done by Frost Upholstery out of Des Moines, IA. The stereo was a compilation of components all by Pioneer. Rewired the car for DVD, TV, and Tuner. This was done by wiring under the seats for the processor units to control the stereo. Suspension and exhaust was purchased through Mantapart. Not the greatest in customer service, but they had the products that I needed to complete my car. Tires and rims were purchased through Joes Tire out of Des Moines, IA. The rims are 16" Viper Halo's and the tires are Nitto 455's. All restoration of suspension and component work of stereo and putting in upholstery was done by me.
After years of dealing with a slow engine, I decided to try and up the hp. I wanted to keep the original 1.8l so I had Mantapart custom build a 1.8 with forged flat pistons, a lightened crank, high volume oil pump, and a good top end to run it all. These are the pictures of putting the engine together and installing it.
Here are some pics of the completed restoration. Just after a clean job!
After countless upon countless times of working on the 1.8l engine. I finally got tired of it. Even after the improvements to the engine, it still did not have enough hp and leaked. So I decided to go a completely different route. I installed a 2.8l v6 into the car. The motor came out of a 88 z24 cavalier. Everything fit right into the car. The only readjustments that had to be made was to the dash wiring harness. Which had to be completely redone. But after 17 hours of rewiring the harness was done and back into the car. Now it has plenty of hp and works perfectly.
Summer '06. Well I have finished the car to what I want. I have added a Hypertech performance chip to it and am doing just regular maintenance to it. I am guessing that it has around 155 to 165hp.

Spring '07. I recently purchased an air intake setup from Chrome Intakes. Its purpose is to get rid of the restrictive air box and to give the intake tube a smooth surface to allow air to pass without restriction from the side walls. Below are the pics of it installed. I can tell that it has helped the throttle response and probably added 5hp.


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