Customs 1949 Buick Sedanette build--Picture heavy

I did get around to finishing the sunken battery box in the trunk. Actually, the hardest part was getting the insulation/sound deadening back off the trunk floor where I wanted to put the box.

I am using a side post battery and after setting it in the old Porter Cable tool box I had a couple of inches excess height so I squared up the box and cut down into the four corners one inch. Bent the edges over and shot a coat of self etching. The rod in the picture is used to hang the box for paint. I will close off the holes I drilled when I was going to set the box above the floor later.

I marked the trunk location for the box drop in, cut the hole 3" smaller on each side, angle cut out to the edge of the box size markings and bent each side down do I had extra support on the side. I will spot weld these to the sides of the box as well as the tabs on the box to the floor. This may seem like overkill but the battery weighs 50 lbs. so better safe than sorry.

Drilled new cable holes in the front end of the box, dropped it in and spot welded it in place.

Plugged the original bottom cable holes by adding two straps on the underside for added support and added another coat of primer. Then I glued a 1/2" piece of insulating rubber along the eventual terminal side to prevent arcing.

The box had a 1/8" lip on three sides at the top so when I bent it over I had a retainer for the top I made out of 16 gauge. I thought about putting a couple of beads in the top but it seemed pretty strong so I left it. A sheet metal screw in two of the corners should hold it in place.

 

That's a really good idea. I will file that one back for when I do my build.

 

Ordered a throttle cable, cable bracket, electronic kickdown switch and pedal assembly from Speedway yesterday. Had a coupon that needed to be used. Should be here by Tue. and I can hook up the Quadrajet. I picked up an electric choke conversion kit a week or so ago from "Carb Junkie". Great people to deal with. They mistakenly sent the wrong kit but corrected the error immediately when I called them. Will try to get all this installed next week.

 

Tried to take the wrinkles out of the headliner yesterday. Watched a lot of "how to's" on the internet and followed suggestions made her on HAMB. Used steamer and heat gun as directed. While Max and I were able to get some of the wrinkles out the end result was disappointing. Probably going to have to find a new upholstery shop and start over.

I think I will just step away from the project for a week or so then back to the wiring and front brake lines. The more I am around the headliner fiasco the more pissed I get at the upholsterer.

 

Mine tightened up a bit when it sat out in the summer sun, if you can wait too see..

 

Walt, thanks for documenting this build so well. It will help me with my build, which is going to start very soon. I'm finishing up the last 2% of my 41 Plymouth build in the next 2 weeks and have already ordered a Fat Man stub.

On the inner fender, did you just keep those so that you could have fresh air? You did away with the under seat heater. Correct? I am also going to have a 455 but am planning to use a 200-4R with a lower rear gear. I am also planning to use the stock steering column, unless there is a reason I should avoid that.

Thanks!
Rock

 

Rock,
Yes, I kept the fresh air tunnels. Did away with the under seat heater since I installed a Vintage Air set up. This takes up a lot of under dash space and reduces the glove box area to a couple of inches in depth.
I ditched the original column in favor of a keyless one out of a GMC cab over delivery. I have converted an original column before(see 33 Dodge coupe build here on HAMB) and so far it works fine. Unless you use a floor shifter the biggest issue will be mating the original shifter to the tranny but there are threads here on HAMB that show how others have done this.

I haven't posted any updates in a month or so but I should finish wiring in the next week and then on to the front brake lines.

 

Thanks! Would you snap a picture of your shop manual, please. I have one but it's not very good and would like to have one that describes setting up the front clip sheet metal and hood.

 

Haven't posted in a while. I slowed way down in March and April. Some health, some just taking a brake. I am almost done with the wiring. Using a heat gun on the headliner has helped but still a ways to go. Installed the gas pedal yesterday---minor progress----and started trying to figure out how to hook up the emergency brake using the stock front cable and the 80's Caprice police car rear. Worked on it this morning, made some L brackets to hold the outer cable housings in place. Now I will have to make a piece to join the three cables that can be adjusted. I will take some pictures when I get it figured out.

 

So, after rummaging around several scrap piles and drawers I found enough parts to fashion the emergency brake set up. I think I mentioned previously that I had a late 80's early 90's Caprice rear end with drum brakes which I had rebuilt a couple of years back. I had put new emergency brake cables in at that time. I just had to figure out how to mate them to the original 49 EB foot activated cable. I found a small pulley in one pile, some angle iron, round tubing and 1" square tubing in another pile. I cut off a couple of inch and a half wide pieces from the angle iron for cable stays (I'll come back to that), a 6" piece of the round tubing for a guide for the original threaded EB cable end and a short piece of the box tubing to use with the pulley.
I drilled a hole in the pieces of angle iron the same size as the cable stay ends and welded them to the X member on each side to hold the rear cable housings in place and allow for tension to be applied to the inner cable.

Then I drilled a hole through the short piece of box tubing to run the threaded rod on the end of the original EB cable through and bolted it to the pulley. By connecting the cables from the rear drums and wrapping them around the pulley and then putting tension on the rear cables by running up the nuts on the threaded cable from the foot pedal I could adjust the EB.

I had cut another piece of angle iron to make a stay bracket for the original EB cable (you can see the push keeper that holds the cable to the bracket) and then welded (not my best work) a piece of tubing to a cross member to act as a guide for the threaded end of the EB cable that allows for adjustment in the tension. You can see the pulley and adjusting nuts at the far right.


A little better picture of the adjuster and you can see an aluminum keeper I added to hold the rear cables to the pulley.



Since the original EB cable that hooks to the foot petal was to long and I couldn't cut off the threaded adjuster end shown above, I had to cut the cable at the foot pedal end and make a cable stay that slides over the cable and is held there with a couple of set screws.

 

I did get the lines run to the front disc brakes. I already had the back drum lines in place. Because of all the stuff on the left (drivers) side of the frame: gas line and return line, steering shaft, eventual exhaust pipe, and a sway bar mounted on the back side of the A-arms, I routed the line from the MC to the front brakes on the right side frame, crossing over the top of the X member and up the frame rail placing a T fitting forward of the A-arms with a line going across to the left side caliper.

This is a view from the rear end. The line to the rear was bent to go up and over the eventual exhaust pipe on the left side. The brake pressure valve was plumbed on the line going forward to the calipers. You can see the access hole above the MC.

This is what it looks like from the top side. Not a great picture because of the flash back from the reflective floor insulation. Remember, from earlier posts, that the MC sits back a ways so I could access it from behind the front seat.
After a lot of bleeding and tightening the various line connections I have brakes.

 

Keep up the good work. Love that Fiat green.


Walt
Outsiders CC

 

It's good to catch a break every now and then

 

OK, it's been a long six months since last posting. Sold our house, downsizing, move all taking time from the shop. New house didn't have a shop. Luckily buyer let me rent back majority of shop till June 1, 2020 while I build one at the new house. Picture of old shop.

Sold the wagon, so down to three. 33 Dodge couple is running but needed to get the 50 Ford ready to move by the June 1 deadline so recent effort directed there. Spending two mornings a week working on 50 and back on the Buick wiring one morning a week. Rest of time on new house and shop build.

 

You have been busy. I hope our paths cross soon.

John

 

Hey Walt, let me know if you could use another pair of hands down there for a day or so.

 

Appreciate the offer Charlie. Progress is slow but steady and I think I can make the time deadlines..........but if it gets to crunch time I may have to give you a call.

 

As mentioned previously, most of my time now is devoted to work on new house, getting ready to build new shop and getting the 50 Ford project back together enough to move. I have been taking pictures of the 50 Ford progress and will start a different thread on that later.

Please, no questions or comments on this thread about the Ford.

I am getting a little time in on the Sedanette wiring. I am pretty anal on grounding so I wired up a lot of ground wires. Based on a great suggestion from Rich, who used to own Affordable Street Rods in Kansas I run a 12 gauge wire from either the frame ground from the battery or the engine ground to a 1/4" bolt under the dash or high up in the kick panel and then run all the dash grounds to it. Similar 1/4" bolt set up at the radiator frame channel for all the front lights.

With all the grounding completed I moved on to completing the under dash wiring, including the key last Friday. I will wire in a switch for an electric fan, in case I decide to have one for idling in slow traffic cooling next time at the old shop and finish the AC wiring. A few wiring things to finish in the engine bay and I should be ready to try to start the 455.

I also hooked up an antenna for the custom auto sound. Put it in the trunk along the rear fender well. Made a mounting bracket and then a couple of rubber lined wire holders to keep it in place.
View attachment 4593317

 

Everything is halted. Was making good progress on finishing the wiring and Indiana went to lockdown mode on Tue. Old shop is 25 miles from new house so can't make the trip. Builder of new shop has also had to suspend work. So, I'm in limbo and it's understandable. Hope we find a cure for this virus, not because of the shop work but because of humanity.

Stay safe guys.

 

Good luck to you, Walt. NC went into shutdown mode, as well. Unfortunately, I've finished just about all the metal fab I can do, for now. It's going to be harder for me to stay busy. This is not what I was planning on when I was doing all that work this winter. I figured I would be spending more time going to shows and cruise in's........but alas. This too shall pass......eventually. Take care.

 

Which Vintage Air unit do you put in? I need to get one for my 49.

 

BJR I'd have to look at my receipt folder, which of course is at the shop, for a list of the parts I bought. I had a compressor and some other items and won a coupon at one of the Goodguys shows so I piece together an order. I did use the Gen-II unit if that helps. It was the biggest one they made at the time and, even with the size of the Buick dash it was a tight fit. Figure you will lose almost all of your glove compartment. and it's a tight fit getting the hoses through to the unit. I can eventually take some pictures of the under dash area if the ones on this thread aren't enough. In retrospect I might have given more thought to an under seat unit from a van. Install it where the original under seat heater was.

 

Do the A.C. vent connections come off the top or the D'S end of the unit? If off the top, you likely have Gen II Super. If off the end, you have a Magnum. I am interested to know how well a Super works, because a Magnum is a PITA to route the venting hoses. I have one on my Tin Woody and had to redo all the routing to hopefully get it to cool that wagon adequately. If a Super will do it, and I think it will, I would rather go that route. I had a Super in my 54 Chevy 210 and it was great.

 

I was looking at the Gen II compact with heat and defrost. You must have gotten the Gen II Super.

 

We should start a 49 Buick social forum.

 

Rock, The vent connections do come off the top, which makes it difficult to run the duct hoses, but, as you know, there is a lot of cabin space to cool so I went with the larger unit.

BJR, I can't remember what the Vintage alternatives were but, as mentioned above I went with the highest cooling capacity at the time to make sure I had plenty of air flow.

As an aside, to use the $200 prize from Vintage I won I had to spend $1,000. When I totaled up the stuff I wanted it came to $986 and they wouldn't budge off the $1,000 so I had to buy some item I didn't need to get up over a grand and use the prize.

 

Finally finished the wiring. As mentioned earlier it's been slow progress with the move and building a new shop.


A lot smaller than the old one but the days of 4 or 5 projects going at the same time is probably behind me.
Anyway, will try to start the Buick in the next week or so and report results then. Thanks to all who have been following this thread.

 

Started the 455 today. Gas into the new tank, hook the battery up and turn the key. As always with a first start up had to deal with some small problems. At first tried to run but backfire. Then realized some the gas line connections needed tightening. Timing light indicated that it was right on the mark. So, either I put the dist. in 180 off or I had the spark plug wires started at the wrong place. So, brought the #1 cylinder to the top , pulled the HEI cap, checked the rotor and moved the plug wires accordingly. Started immediately, first time in 25 years. Who says you need a new crate engine?

Interesting issue with an in line fuse in the main power wire from the starter to the fuse panel. I install this instead of fuseable link so if something happens on the road I don't have to be caring another link wire. After shutting down the engine it would blow. I have a 90 amp alternator but was using a 30 amp fuse. Happened several times. So, I am going to try a 40 amp fuse tomorrow and if that doesn't work I will install an inline 50 amp breaker.

Drove the 33 Dodge coupe to the new shop last Thur. Will move the Buick and a 50 Ford chop top project down this Wed. Tools to follow and interior work on the new shop and machinery set up should keep me busy the rest of the Summer.

Still a number of finishing touches to do on the Buick but with all the rod run and show cancellations should be plenty of time to work out the bugs this Summer.

 

Glad the 455 fired up and ran ok. Excellent build.

 

Hello Fat47, did you have a problem with your frame setting level? looks like the left rear side is lower than than the right .