Since the car made an appearance at the summer Michigan Meet, I figured it was time to let the cat out of the bag.

After the major holes were found in the Buick's front frame rails, I almost gave up on the whole thing until a conversation with my girlfriend made me start thinking about a body donor. I put out feelers almost nationwide looking for a car that needed work for a reasonable price. Of course a Buick came across the radar but it fell through quickly. But a fellow forum member posted something about wanting to downsize his collection about the same time. One thing led to another and about a month later, I towed my new project over 1700 miles to its new home.





The first thing attended to was the floppy suspension, the front struts and springs were found to be original to the car. The Sensatrac / Moog cargo spring combo was finally been pressed into action and the front sway bar was swapped in.

So stay tuned, and much work will finally happen which has been years in the making.

_________________
1990 Oldsmobile 88 Royale: The Phoenix
Mods: F41 Swap, Delco II Swap, Full Debadge, Series II (L36) Swap, More to come.
2008 Chevy Silverado 1500 Crew Cab W/T: The War Horse
Mods: Tonneau, Partial Debadge, K2xx Alloy Rims, AFM Hardware Delete, TSP Cam, BBP tune.
1999 Pontiac Bonneville SE: The Organ Donor
1990 Buick Lesabre Custom: Cancer Victim

*Subscribed*

Here's hoping you don't get waist deep into it, only to find a bunch of hidden rust all over again.

I would be terrified of that possibility if I lived up there.

Did you snag Matt's winter beater?

_________________
~Randall~


1993 Buick Park Avenue - 197k - Some odds and ends done - Simply won't die
1994 Buick Regal - 78k - Bone stock - Always ready for a good kicking
1990 Oldsmobile 88 - Gone to a better place

And I know what you mean by floppy suspension. If it's anything like my Olds was, it's so bad that the suspension can't even keep up with the 16" wheels/tires I put on it.

Can't wait to see pics, and to find out what it is, and how many doors too!

Really hoping for a 2 door!

_________________
~Randall~


1993 Buick Park Avenue - 197k - Some odds and ends done - Simply won't die
1994 Buick Regal - 78k - Bone stock - Always ready for a good kicking
1990 Oldsmobile 88 - Gone to a better place

I took a leap of faith with this one.. So far the worst has been surface rust.

_________________
1990 Oldsmobile 88 Royale: The Phoenix
Mods: F41 Swap, Delco II Swap, Full Debadge, Series II (L36) Swap, More to come.
2008 Chevy Silverado 1500 Crew Cab W/T: The War Horse
Mods: Tonneau, Partial Debadge, K2xx Alloy Rims, AFM Hardware Delete, TSP Cam, BBP tune.
1999 Pontiac Bonneville SE: The Organ Donor
1990 Buick Lesabre Custom: Cancer Victim

I will be watching this too.

_________________
Boost addict


The Fleet:
'93 SSEi - Twincharged + manual Build thread
'97 Camaro - Top swap
'05 STS - V8, AWD, her DD
'92 Trofeo - Fair weather DD
'99 Montana - top swap 3800
'04 Sierra 2500HD - LLY Duramax

Current project:
Something cool, trust me.

Upcoming projects:
'92 Bonneville SSE
'87 LeSabre T-type
'67 LeSabre

Gone to greener pastures:
'84 Sierra Classic - Twin turbo 3800
'97 LeSabre - Top swap

RIP:
'86 LeSabre - pictures
'93 SE - L67

Matt, You'll be seeing it at the meet

_________________
1990 Oldsmobile 88 Royale: The Phoenix
Mods: F41 Swap, Delco II Swap, Full Debadge, Series II (L36) Swap, More to come.
2008 Chevy Silverado 1500 Crew Cab W/T: The War Horse
Mods: Tonneau, Partial Debadge, K2xx Alloy Rims, AFM Hardware Delete, TSP Cam, BBP tune.
1999 Pontiac Bonneville SE: The Organ Donor
1990 Buick Lesabre Custom: Cancer Victim

The car has had a couple of drivability issues that I traced to leaking vacuum lines in the evap system. They looked fairly nice at first glance but had a lot of cracks in them upon closer inspection. Along with this, I threw in the fuel filter that was so graciously sent with the car. I think it was needed.





Also at this point, I have already reached the end of my patience with the factory radio that had a sense of humor.
The speaker that it played out of was the driver side front, and then turning it up added the rears, and finally the passenger side front. This is before randomly turning itself down for no reason.



I wonder why this sounded so bad, lol.

_________________
1990 Oldsmobile 88 Royale: The Phoenix
Mods: F41 Swap, Delco II Swap, Full Debadge, Series II (L36) Swap, More to come.
2008 Chevy Silverado 1500 Crew Cab W/T: The War Horse
Mods: Tonneau, Partial Debadge, K2xx Alloy Rims, AFM Hardware Delete, TSP Cam, BBP tune.
1999 Pontiac Bonneville SE: The Organ Donor
1990 Buick Lesabre Custom: Cancer Victim

Got the new suspension pieces in the car and even before the alignment, it is like a whole different car. Hopefully, the alignment will allow me to give the old tires one last trial by fire before they get replaced next year.







One interesting thing that i have found between this car and my Buick even though they are technically sisters is the rear sway bar. The Buick had one equipped even though it had FE1. This one did not :/





These got pulled out of storage to rectify at least one of these issues. F41 Sways

_________________
1990 Oldsmobile 88 Royale: The Phoenix
Mods: F41 Swap, Delco II Swap, Full Debadge, Series II (L36) Swap, More to come.
2008 Chevy Silverado 1500 Crew Cab W/T: The War Horse
Mods: Tonneau, Partial Debadge, K2xx Alloy Rims, AFM Hardware Delete, TSP Cam, BBP tune.
1999 Pontiac Bonneville SE: The Organ Donor
1990 Buick Lesabre Custom: Cancer Victim

Hopefully there is some 16"+ rims lined up for the new tires, that will probably make that much more difference too. The 14/15" stock rims that come with FE1 are really good at roasting rubber mighty quickly, especially when you really get up on the wheel and do naughty things. I find I am driving on my sidewalls more often then I care to admit.

_________________
~Randall~


1993 Buick Park Avenue - 197k - Some odds and ends done - Simply won't die
1994 Buick Regal - 78k - Bone stock - Always ready for a good kicking
1990 Oldsmobile 88 - Gone to a better place

I have 2 sets of 16" wheels even though the nice set has some iffy tires. That will end up being a winter project.

_________________
1990 Oldsmobile 88 Royale: The Phoenix
Mods: F41 Swap, Delco II Swap, Full Debadge, Series II (L36) Swap, More to come.
2008 Chevy Silverado 1500 Crew Cab W/T: The War Horse
Mods: Tonneau, Partial Debadge, K2xx Alloy Rims, AFM Hardware Delete, TSP Cam, BBP tune.
1999 Pontiac Bonneville SE: The Organ Donor
1990 Buick Lesabre Custom: Cancer Victim

I still have some 18" Mustang wheels that would look good on whatever this mystery car may be...

_________________
Ryan

2003 Bonneville SSEi - The Black Mirror SOLD!
2002 Bonneville SE - The Mutt Complete 2004 SLE interior, drivetrain, and body harness swap, ECC swap, HUD swap, black GXP wheels, GXP headlights and tinted tails - SOLD
2003 BMW 540i M Sport, 2001 BMW X5 4.4i, 2010 GMC Acadia, 2017 Grand Design Imagine 3150BH
1982 Cutlass Supreme - The fun one

You don't realize how enticing that sounds.

_________________
1990 Oldsmobile 88 Royale: The Phoenix
Mods: F41 Swap, Delco II Swap, Full Debadge, Series II (L36) Swap, More to come.
2008 Chevy Silverado 1500 Crew Cab W/T: The War Horse
Mods: Tonneau, Partial Debadge, K2xx Alloy Rims, AFM Hardware Delete, TSP Cam, BBP tune.
1999 Pontiac Bonneville SE: The Organ Donor
1990 Buick Lesabre Custom: Cancer Victim

Catching up. After this weekend and reading a couple threads...everything makes sense now lol

_________________

-Nick
'95 Grand Prix SE coupe 'Black Betty' gone but not forgotten- my 1st love
'99 Olds Alero GX Coupe the get me by beater- sold
'03 Bonneville SSEi 'Gina' Feb. '16 COTM | 35% tint | smoked tail lights | boat roller mount | carbon fiber accents | Silverline exhaust tips
Ziebart rust protection & undercoating | CompuStar Accustart | LED interior lighting
Intense shift kit | Intense FWI | 3" ZZP downpipe | RDI headers | 3.4 MPS | Autolite 104s | 180 deg t-stat | custom tune | ZZP high flow fuel filter | alum coolant elbows and LIM gaskets | much more to come…hopefully
'15 Buick Regal 2.0 Turbo AWD 259 HP | 10k miles | 2-way remote start | undercoating and window tint to come
'98 GMC Sierra SLE Z71 4x4 | 112k miles | S&B intake | garage ornament | more to come

Pretty funny to read this now

_________________


2009 Chevy Silverado 2500HD crew cab, 6.0, Z71. The project mover.
2002 Regal GS: 3.4 pulley, E85, and quicker than my old 99
1982 Pontiac Grand Prix L67, T56, GT45, T56, Holley EFI; It's pretty quick Mod list here

BonnieBoy08 & bs009: I'm glad that you found it humorous which was a bit of the intent.

_________________
1990 Oldsmobile 88 Royale: The Phoenix
Mods: F41 Swap, Delco II Swap, Full Debadge, Series II (L36) Swap, More to come.
2008 Chevy Silverado 1500 Crew Cab W/T: The War Horse
Mods: Tonneau, Partial Debadge, K2xx Alloy Rims, AFM Hardware Delete, TSP Cam, BBP tune.
1999 Pontiac Bonneville SE: The Organ Donor
1990 Buick Lesabre Custom: Cancer Victim

Welp, now that the cat has finally been debagged, I will chime in on this. It has been very interesting getting covert status updates while the project was under wraps. I am glad it went to a good home, you deserve it!

_________________
~Randall~


1993 Buick Park Avenue - 197k - Some odds and ends done - Simply won't die
1994 Buick Regal - 78k - Bone stock - Always ready for a good kicking
1990 Oldsmobile 88 - Gone to a better place

Since I haven't posted a proper update in a while, the car has been pressed into summer daily driver duties which was part of the plan. It has so far covered 3600 miles and except for some suspension noises and other random knocks it has been going well.

I have been working on swapping in a set of leather buckets that I had laying around for the Lazarus build. So far everything but the power controls are working although my console still needs some tweaking.

_________________
1990 Oldsmobile 88 Royale: The Phoenix
Mods: F41 Swap, Delco II Swap, Full Debadge, Series II (L36) Swap, More to come.
2008 Chevy Silverado 1500 Crew Cab W/T: The War Horse
Mods: Tonneau, Partial Debadge, K2xx Alloy Rims, AFM Hardware Delete, TSP Cam, BBP tune.
1999 Pontiac Bonneville SE: The Organ Donor
1990 Buick Lesabre Custom: Cancer Victim

hi

_________________


2003 SSEi - 240hp of stock supercharged, grocery getting, kid carting, weekend vacationing, daily driving light bronze mist excitement.

hi

_________________
1990 Oldsmobile 88 Royale: The Phoenix
Mods: F41 Swap, Delco II Swap, Full Debadge, Series II (L36) Swap, More to come.
2008 Chevy Silverado 1500 Crew Cab W/T: The War Horse
Mods: Tonneau, Partial Debadge, K2xx Alloy Rims, AFM Hardware Delete, TSP Cam, BBP tune.
1999 Pontiac Bonneville SE: The Organ Donor
1990 Buick Lesabre Custom: Cancer Victim

Since the meet ended, I have been slowly been working on adding things to the car. I had a 92-99 exhaust pipe laying around that finally made its way on to the car. Sadly the tailpipes were a bit too long, since they were designed for an early SSEi. Barring the typical exhaust leaks, and the new clunks which i am thinking is due to a lot of failing bushings.

_________________
1990 Oldsmobile 88 Royale: The Phoenix
Mods: F41 Swap, Delco II Swap, Full Debadge, Series II (L36) Swap, More to come.
2008 Chevy Silverado 1500 Crew Cab W/T: The War Horse
Mods: Tonneau, Partial Debadge, K2xx Alloy Rims, AFM Hardware Delete, TSP Cam, BBP tune.
1999 Pontiac Bonneville SE: The Organ Donor
1990 Buick Lesabre Custom: Cancer Victim