Hey folks, Lookin for a little input on the best way to retrofit my '55 buick special to an open driveline. Yeah, before it all starts up, I used the search button and it looks like most people in my boat went ahead and retrofitted a 61-64 open drive center section in and fabbed up some sort of a four link. Not that I want to buck that trend, but this is my first project car and fabbing a four link or ladder bar is probably a little out of the realm of something I could do on my own and more than likely out of the range of what I'd want to pay someone else to do. Will the rear from another tri-five car work under the special? I found a guy who'll sell me a '57 Pontiac rear with leaf springs for $125, and if the frames are the same/reasonably similar I'd think that'd be a heck of a lot easier and less expensive to work up for a guy with a one car garage and a little 120v Lincoln MIG. How bout a similar era Olds diff? I realize doing a torque-tube Buick as your first rod is probably akin to tackling the great wall of China as a novice bricklayer, but man... $400 for a straight Oklahoma car - I just couldn't resist it. Anyway, enough of my prattling. Any help or suggestions you fellas could lay out would be most greatly appreciated. -Tsume-
I got one too, have not ever seenor heard of an easy way. I think the pontiac frame would be closer to a chevy frame, and those appear to be a lot stouter than the buick frame. You would probably have to strengthen the mounting points for the leafs. Hope you get a good answer, as this obviously ain't it.
man, i've been playing around with this and doing research for like over a year. i have a 55 century, there are a lot of things you can do unfortunately they pretty much all take fabrication, lots o time, and money! yeah, dynaflo transmissions are lame and the only way to get out of it is to swap everything out or get an adapter for a modern tranny and then fab everything else to the back. you should pm brad he knows about buicks. hope this helps man. _T
I converted my '55 Special to open drive shaft, installed a 401, Super T-10 4-speed and kept the stock rear end. Did it about 5 years ago. I don't have the time to write it all up in detail right now, but will try to do so tonight or tomorrow am.
Ive Been Driving My 55 Buick For 11 Yrs .. 322 Nail Head W/ A Dyna Flow ... Closed Drive Type.. Runs Great ,.. Why Are You Wanting To Change It .. ? I Kinda Just Scannned What Ya Typed ..is It A Runner ? Or Can It Be
hey pocket, is your buick lowered? or is it bagged? i've still been trying to figure it out if you lower it if it will screw with the transmission. hope that made sense. _T
Well, the main reason for wanting to convert it all is that the ol 264 is present but not exactly anything near mission capable right now. It's been sitting for more than a minute, missing key parts, crank won't turn etc. Even if it was a runner, 264 cubes and a one barrel isn't enough motor to be hefting a 4 door steel buick around with the verve I'd like. I've got a free SBC and TH350 sitting around that I'd like to put in for now just to have it driveable. (yeah, I know, boo bellybutton motor, hooray Nailhead!) Long term plans involve a SBB or a 401 with a ST-10. When I get more dough, the dynaslush and 264 will get rebuilt later on and stowed for safekeeping. Back to the topic though, been looking through JEGS at the ladder bar kits, and some of them look reasonably doable. Gonna knock back a Coors and ponder the problem for a while.
My 55 special now runs a 454, t400 and 4 link 9" set up. Cause these baby's ran coil rear's, pretty much any swap will need some fabing work. But its well worth the effort and $$. I've racked up thousands of miles without a dramma.
a look at mine, had the dynaflow in it 4 years reverse went did open drive what tagman did works good , but I used my stock rear and 264 with a 350 trans, but go with a 200r4 you need the overdrive with the stock rearend and the more I say the more I think I should of just put a 350-350, chevy rearend and just drive it, good luck you will have fun driving this thing
Width wise for the rearend I grabbed a chevy 10 bolt out of a 76 Firebird, it's only 1 inch narrower WMS to WMS (1/2" each side) and there are TONS of em in wrecking yards, hell, you could even get lucky and find a posi. Mines a 3.08. I have a 350/th350 in my Roadmaster. I thought it was a whole lot easier to do the rearend then anticipated. Mines hung with Chris Alston Ladder bars my buddy had lying around, which mate up perfectly with the "X" frame. Doesn't have a ton of miles on it, but I've driven it quite a bit, everyday for 3 months solid a while back with no problems. The only problem I've ever heard of is people like to mount the shocks to the crossmember above the rearend. My friend had his get all bent to hell & had to replace it. (He had 454/th400, 9" in a 55 Century)
I recently got a 55 Special also. (How's it going Travez? Where are the pics, man??? lol) I have done a bunch of research on this and found basically the same thing... i.e. it's gonna be a lot of work to swap it out. But, last night I started the complete brake job and replacing all four springs and after being under there and looking it all over, it's all bolted together real basically. Hell, my girlfriend pulled the rear springs out with almost no help at all! I don't see a rear with leaf springs fittin in too good though due to the shape of the frame rails. I would have to say as much fab work would have to be done to do that as you would have to do if you just got a 83-92 trans/maro/bird rear. Feel free to keep me posted on what you guys have done with yer Buicks... I'm always looking for ideas.
I used the stock '55 Special rear with 3.36 gears. I removed the torque tube & drive shaft, 264" motor & 3-speed tranny. In went t a 401" (fabricated new motor mounts and Super T-10 4-speed. Since the original clutch pedal pivoted of the engine, I fabricated an outboard pivot which was bolted to the frame - works the tits! I cut off the flange and about 3" of torque tube and bolted the stubby flange onto the rear end. I used it only to protect the pinion seal. I took the stock drive shaft to a local place that repairs / makes drive shafts (FleetPride) and they cut off the rear splinned section and made up a u-joint for the rear. They also made up a drive shaft to my specs and supplied a front U-joint. To keep everything in alignment, I decided to use ladder bars, replacing the two lower solid rod ends with polyurethane insert rod ends from Speedway, to allow a little 'gice' and prevent cracking fo the ladder bar mounts. If I was to do it over, I'd probably use a 4-bar set-up. As of now, I'm using the stock rear shocks, but I'm planning on changing over to tube shocks this winter. So far, I have about 5-years and 15k-20k miles on it, with no problems. Here's a couple of pics.......................
You're the man, TagMan... The pic showing how you mounted the bars to the frame was most helpful. I do, however, have a couple questions about your setup. 1.) did you have to have the rear end pulled apart and checked out for warping when you welded up the ladder bars to the housing? 2.) you mentioned that if you had it to do over again, you'd go 4 link with it as opposed to ladder bars - any particular reason? In any case, thanks again for the pics and the writeup. Once I get mine underway I'll start with the pictures. -Tsume-
1. I tacked the ladder bar mounting plates in place and had an expert welder tig 'em for me. I put a 3/11" strip around the side opposite the plates and had everything welded. He welded on one side a little, then the other and back & forth. I didn't see any bind in the axle shafts when he was finished and haven't had any problems in all the miles I've put on it. 2. I think the 4-bar set up would be a lot more forgiving of stress on the axle. When I first put it together, I used the solid rod ends, upper & lower, that came with the ladder bars. The axle housing cracked a little from the stress. An Engineer/drag racing friend did some calculations and determined the stresses would be greatly reduced with the poly-insert rod ends on the lower mounts, so I pulled the axle, welded up the small cracks, installed the poly-insert rod ends and put it back together. Never had any other problems, but I check it closely several times a season, just to make sure.
one of my customers has a '55 (Century ?) that he swapped in the motor, trans, rear, out of a '62 (LeSabre ?). He used a Chassis Engineering universal leaf spring kit in the rear- worked out REALLY slick- looks like it was made for the car.
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