Buick Nailhead: How to Rebuild & Modify

Weldon, Gary: - Gary grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and had a 46-year career working in coke ovens at a local steel mill and then as a construction heater rebuilding coke ovens. Even before that he had purchased his first Buick motor, a 322 inch Nailhead in 1962 to install in a hot rod project. He became infatuated with the Nailhead motors. He did his first Nailhead rebuild on a 364 aided by a lot of mentoring from fellow car club members. He added a turbocharger and installed it in a 1930 Model A Ford that took the Weldon family on their annual vacation to the Street Rod Nationals for several years. Starting in 1981, he made an annual pilgrimage driving that hot rod to Speed Week. This led to building a Nailhead-powered roadster with his friend Harold Watson that they used to compete in land speed racing from North Carolina to Utah for 20 years. Gary was inducted into the Canadian Street Rodding Hall of Fame 2011 and became a member of the Hall of Fame steering committee two years later. Gary has built over a dozen performance Nailheads over the years and still works on them to this day.