Projects 1955 Buick special 4 door sedan. Series 41. Build thread.

Posted my "introduce yourself" thread a while back. Never really followed up on it.

I'm restoring a car identical to the one my father daily drove from 70s to 90s till it broke in half.
And swapping in a diesel. Which I can get I to here if anyone is interested but as I understand it's frowned upon for not being period correct? So I was just going to focus on the car.







Last few weeks I Finally got to really dig into my Buick.
All my engine and trans mounts have been basically wrapped up. And the frame has been knot he for the oil pan. So the drivetrain came back out for a regasket.
Kinda wish I never even took the engine apart lol.

Here's the mounts I fabbed up












Traded a 48 International I-4(basically a farmall H) that I did a mild restoration on for the engine. A 1989 12v cummins love it or hate it that's what's going in this car.
Anyway
70k miles drop it in and run it. Yadda yadda. Well it's not the case.
At the very least I need a hone job and crank polished. As well as having the head checked out.
So that's gonna set me back.

Here's the tractor I traded



And here's the engine inside the car. Followed by inside of the engine












While the engine sits I started doing some metal work.

Found brand new rockers on eBay.





Hammered out a patch for under the tail light and brazed it in







Then started on the drivers quarter by the rear door









I started to spot it in but I ha no mask and don't need that sandblasted face feeling tomorrow.

 

doing good on fab work but, drive train?

 

Thanks.
Drivetrain is a cummins 12v and an overdrive auto. Rear will be a 9"

 

As you know I love buicks but man I hate those torquk tubes, so you got rid of it? That's was a nice tractor .Was it a Farmall? Heres mine.Its old but does a good job on grading the drive way. Keep us updated on your work on the buick. .Thanks Bruce.

 

And the 56 buick station wagon.Bruce.

 

Yeah mine was an international I-4. Same platform as an H.

Torque tube is gone yes.
So I will be doing triangulated 4-link in the rear. With coil-overs.

Originally I was going to use a ford 8". But now I've decided to narrow down a truck 9". It has the heavier webbing in the axle housing and 31 spline axles.

The 8" is for sale. It's the exact width already. Just need to figure out ur suspension.

 

GOOD DEAL! Thanks Bruce.

 

A diesel in a 55 Buick? What part of Cuba are you located in?

 

Cuba Pennsylvania. Lol

Some backstory.

Trans blew twice.
Wasnt about to have the dynaflow fixed again.
Making a small nailhead somewhat more powerful and updating to a 700r4 would be probably 2x what I'll have in this.

Wasn't about to drop a sbc in it.

I'm a diesel fanatic
I'll be getting 20+ mpg and be able to melt the tires off on command.

I'm going to paint the cummins the original straight 8 Buick color to really put the icing on the cake.

Just made sense to me.

 

I'm seriously considering doing all the body work with lead.
I would love to be able to say there's no bondo on the car.

I was poking around the interwebs and eastwood makes a nice beginner set.

Anyway. I wrapped up a few small patches on my quarter.

 

Nothing to report but body work.
Rocker panel luvvv





They don't figure in the end. So I'll make it best I can.





Shaping up.

 

One side down on the rockers.









Found a ford 9 but it was rotted through from sitting in the mud.

 

Not much progress lately. But I got my chunk setup with the trutrac. And started narrowing down the rear. One side I can shorten. The other side needed a new tube bc it rotted through.






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Definitely a unique build. The 12V is a great motor and push that Buick around nicely. You gonna "roll coal" with it?

 

Thanks. And no. It will be turned up some. So it may smoke. But I don't want it where I can black out the road.

I'll properly tune the afc to eliminate extra smoke.

I'll be running stock injectors with the ve rotary pump. Probably drop in a fuel pin and gov spring. And a stock hx35 salad shooter.


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Fresh update on the Buick. Been killing the body work and I made a drivetrain decision.
Got an ls 5.3. Going to drop that in with a big turbo.


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Got all the doors. Trunk. Good and inner fenders media blasted.
















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sadly that bonnet looks similar to mine, keep at it, doing great.
Cheers,
Drewfus

 

I brazed all the holes shut on the hood. just to see if I could really. It didn't come out too bad I still might cut it all out and replace it though





Also Just ordered the truck-arm suspension from Hot Rods to Hell custom suspension shop. They're in Cali. The guy is very knowledgeable and really cool to talk to. The Buick is going to hook like a fackin drag car.




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Couldn't sleep last night over the brazed hood!! I cut it out and patched it proper.










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Is that galvanized?

 

No. That's what happens after a run through the planishing hammer.

 

I like the gas engine better.

 

It'll be nice and quiet. And make just as much power.

 

Other side of hood basically complete.

Banged out a quick patch and ran it through the planishing hammer.


























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Hot Rods to Hell Torque tube eliminator installed.






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Ive heard the terminology "A hot mess" used but never really seen it or knew really what it meant but now I think Ive seen it, I only say that jokingly because I somehow have a feeling you are gonna follow through with this and make something very cool out of it................so Rock on! I will be watching...........

 

Thanks. It's just how I work. I'm not very organized. But I know where everything is.
Plus I have other things going on.
I'm stubbing an Edsel with a 78 camaro subframe and a 454
Always tinkering on my 85 Fummins.
And I just wrapped up the tailgate on my IH.










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