Projects 1949 Buick Sedanette Mild Custom Build

The government gave my very own roadster for 6 years. Frank is a retired body man who lives in Denton,Texas just north of Dallas. He and my fell in a body shop when I was 11 years old to get my mothers ironing board brazed up. Asked about getting my bike painted. Ray said if I would help sand a car and sand my bicycle he would paint it for me. I did paint and heavy collision repair and built hot rods on the side. After 65 years I finally found my way out, yes I still have my Schwin bicycle. And he has a DD-214 also. If I was closer I would be glad to help. That's who Frank is.

 

@rockable I had been following this build early on and was impressed with your work. Somewhere along the line I failed to continue visiting your thread....until today. WOW!......incredible fabrication and thoughtful modifications throughout! Many notable specifics, but I particularly like the manner in which you handled the forward mounts for the four bar rear suspension.

All in all, a superb build you have going and applied to one of my most favorite Buick models!

Ray

 

Ray, you turned me on to the idea for the 4 bar mounts, if I recall correctly. I just fabricated the mounts. Having a cheap press brake to make the channel helped make it nice. The gussets were my idea and just reinforced the additional stress on the X member.

These press brake kits are worth their weight in gold if you are building a car and do much metal fab. https://www.swagoffroad.com/SWAG-20-TON-Press-Brake-Heavy-Duty-DIY-Builder-Kit-_p_42.html

 

The body is on the rotisserie and ready to go to media blasting. This is a really solid 70 year old car. Main repairs will be rockers and some small floor patches....unless the blaster uncovers something I'm not expecting.

This will keep me busy for a little while.

 

Dropped it off at Blastman to let @the flatlander strip and prime it.

 

First look. Floor is in really good shape. Rockers are junk.

 

Rockers, schmockers! That is one solid body and floor pan! .... Congrats!!

Ray

 

Great work! Lippy

 

First order of business was to clean up that nasty looking firewall. I lost count of how many holes I filled. Also, I reduced the depression for the transmission by about 1 1/2"- 2". That will give me extra room for the AC, plus it will look better with the engine in place.

 

Next, I decided to mount my batter in the hole where the heater was located beneath the front seat. I just made a box that fit it.

 

That's where I put mine also, don't forget to vent it to the outside.

 

The biggest part of the body work was the replacement of ALL the sheet metal below the door sill from front to rear on both sides. I made the rocker panels and hand fabbed the rear inner fender portions. This was very challenging but turned out pretty well.

One thing threw me a curve. The body mounts weren't in line. For some reason, they offset some of them and I didn't catch it that two of them were indented 1/4". That put a depression in my rocker that I will have to fill. I fixed it on the PS but the DS was done.

When I cut the rockers off, the DS rocker was full of acorns and cotton batting. It looks like it was there when they bondo'd over the rockers and "restored" the car. LOL.

 

You sir are a craftsman.

 

Great work Rock. Luckily my rockers were in good shape but I did have to replace most of the trunk. Would have thought it would be the opposite. Keep posting progress.

 

Very nice work.......

Ray

 

Craftsman plus! Big job this Buick Sedanette. I was surprised to see you hang this carefully on the rotisserie.
Especially appreciate the lead on the brake idea for my 20 ton press! Too cheap to build my self, thanks!

 

Can't wait to see more.

 

This is one big chunk of metal to hang on a rotisserie, for sure. Fortunately, we got it almost dead center on the first try, so it turns over easily. This is the only way to do this kind of work well, IMO.

Did you get that brake kit? Isn't that thing sweet? I use mine a lot for breaking thin metal and making brackets.

 

Missed this until now. Your sheet metal skills are first class! Beautiful car, great project. Keep rocking Jim!

 

You have mad metal fabrication skills. Looks great. With the battery under the seat how will you access it for a jump start or replacement? Snowman

 

The seat bottom lifts off. I guess they did that for service access to the heater.

 

I didnt get off scot free in the trunk, like I thought...but it wasnt bad.

 

The lower front corners of both rear fenders are rusted out, presumably due to mud caking up in there and holding moisture. Needless to say, these are not reproduced and finding new fenders is like finding gold hen's teeth. So, I made my own repair panels.

I used my two "English Stumps" and some mallets to beat these panels out and then smoothed them on my cheap HF planishing hammer. I think they turned out pretty well. I used the Gravel shield as a pattern to make them to. That saved some work. This is hard work pounding these out and not for the impatient. Hopefully, I dont screw up when I install them. I really don't want to make them again. Most of the challenging fab work should be behind me now.

 

Trying to figure out how to make this all flow together.

 

I just saw this thread - very impressed. I have a major soft spot for the '49 Buick and Caddy Sedanettes. I have followed a number of these builds on the HAMB including Fat47's and now I will be following this one.

This is a nice looking car and you are doing some excellent work. I can't wait to see you make more progress. Good work!

 

There is a big challenge to figuring out how this ought to be, before making it all fit. After coming up with a plan, I welded in the edge repair first then, carefully "sneaked up" on the fit of the compound curve. I'm very happy with how this turned out. Hopefully, the other side won't take as long.

 

Well done! Compound areas are always a big challenge. That came out nice.

 

damn fine work, rock, that complicated edge looks fantastic!

 

The second side is done and I'm very happy with the end result. Also, I hooked up the drain tube for the rebuilt well below the rear quarter windows.

I'm glad this part is in my rear view mirror. It was hard, nasty and time consuming work. You must stay patient to achieve good end results.

 

Impressive work Rock. Don't forget to set aside some time in August for the Frog Follies. You and Rocky would really enjoy it.