Just Jumped Into a Project

[Rich Colangelo]

My son asked me to purchase my neighbors 1977 Buick Lesabre (13,000 Miles) for his first car. Hasn't been started for a couple of years, but I know enough to get it running. I can do the basic tune up, change standard parts, and maintenance stuff (and he'll have to do it with me), but if anyone can give me info on some things that are common issues to look for, it would be appreciated, especially electrical. 3.8L V6. He gets his permit next week, so I have a year to get it to a point where he is on his own driving it.

Any tips would be appreciated.

[Blue Bowtie]

Welcome Aboard!

A '77 231-inch Buick might have a 2GC or 2GE carburetor if it is original, or possibly a retrofit of some sort. The Rochester is likely to have a sintered bronze fuel filter at the carb inlet, and it would be prudent to install an inline filter upstream of that to catch anything the fuel tank may have hiding inside. An inline filter is also generally cheaper and a lot easier to service, as well as the fact that many of them are transparent and will make contamination pretty obvious.

Electrically, it will be switches and grounds that would be the most likely areas to check if any circuits have problems. The ignition is standard Delco HEI, which is just about bullet-proof, and insanely easy to repair if there ever is a problem.

As an aside, a '77 with only 13K on the clock is almost a collector car, and not necessarily a "throw-away" or demo-derby car for use without adult supervision, but I suspect you already knew that.