Projects Winter Project:1956 Buick Hardtop TONS OF PICS

Im a dirty girl!

Hopefully Ill have some buick updates for all of my adoring fans very soon.

 

time for an update? haha.

 

Lookin good!

 

I can dig it!

 

Finally made a little more progress!!!!!! About time!

My dad mad this nice contraption to hold the front sheet metal up after we cut the front of the frame off. The braces kind of hold everything together. Also the flat stock on the bottom is exactly where the motor mounts are, and where the new ones will go on the sub frame. He put a 2x4 in the attic and hung the chains from them which will hold up the front clip.








Dad cut the bottoms of the inner fenderwell out to make room for the 65 riviera sub frame. After the new front suspension is on, we will put the inner fenderwells back in.






All of our measurments and marks are made where to cut the frame off. We will cut it in front of those those to give us some room to play with until we get the sub frame in there to mock it up and take more measurments and make sure we know where everything has to go.




Rivi is cut with a torch.





All but the bottom of the 56 frame is cut with a torch then we finished it off with a sawsall.



Next we rolled the sub frame under there before we called it a night.

 

looks like a great start Dirty Girl

 

I am running a Bendstens Transmission adapter in my 56 Special Wagon. It was an easy install, trans cleared every thing. We just made up a simple square tube crossmember for the rear mount. 3000 trouble free miles on the 700r4 so far. Great project, your gonna enjoy driving it a lot.

 

Good to know! We got our Bendtsens adapter sitting on the shelf waiting patiently! Your wagon looks good! Does it have a 322 in it?

 

Yes, my wagon is still sporting its 322 Nailhead.

 

WOW, Nick. What a cool project. I know about keeping the Buick but I couldn't resist putting a BBC (427/454 maybe, and a 4L80E) in there. That and a generous lowering about a 3.50 rear, some tall radials, sway bars both ends, some stiff shocks and go "highway hunting". I've always been a top end sort of guy and the vision of having some muscle car roll up beside you and having a top end go from 70 mph brings a smile to my face. Can you imagine what would go through the mind of a Chevelle, GTO, Fairlane, or Charger owner coming along side "an old granny/granpa Buick and wonder what happened when you started to pull away at 120mph + ? Just the thought brings back memories of my '66 Chevelle SS that was set up the same (only manual trans). All of the guys back then were drag racing and most GTO's were 3.90 rearend cars. Good for about 110 or so tops. Keep along side until they didn't have any more, nail it and watch thier headlights get smaller in the rear view mirror.

Frank

 

Yeah, that would be awesome Frank!!!! I think this ones just gonna be a nice highway cruiser though. I couldn't bare putting a chevy in it! If went with your plan i would just put a 425 nailhead in it.

 

Just figured out that we have 94 days to build this car to drive it to the Lonestar Round Up. That is if we work on it every single day that we have a chance to. Looks like the next few months are gonna be busy.

 

great work lets keep her goin

 

Made some progress yesterday. 53dodgekustom came over to help. It was awesome having an extra set of hands to help us. Thanks Tom! Ran into a problem but we got it fixed. You can see below what we found.

First couple pics are for Mr. Gambino. He is helping us figure out what we need for air ride.

Front Driver side


Front Driver side


We flipped the front stub over to study it and figure out our airbags and found that the passenger side (left one in this pic) stabilizer bar and bracket are bent real bad. Must have been hit right there and not fixed properly.


After some carefull assesment and lots of measurments and cross checking we decided that the damage was only to that one bar and bracket. My dad was a body man in the 70's and 80's. He was bummed to see it bent but I think he was happy to put his skills to use.

He used the duckbill on the porta power to bend it up a little bit. Then we used alot of heat with the torch and alot of hammering to get it back in shape. After it was in shape we heated it in different places and tweaked it straight with a monkey wrench. Then i welded all the tabs back on and added a couple more welds to the existing ones in case they got weak from being bent.

BEFORE


AFTER


Next my dad cut the springs with a torch. We don't have a spring compressor and didnt feel like getting killed. We don't need them anyways so we just cut them. They popped hard but were contained in the control arms.

Then we slide the stub under the car. Got it exactly where we wanted it (but lower) and marked each frame where we wanted to cut it.



The 56 frame had these plates inside of it. Turned out that our cuts were going to be made right in front of those. We trimmed it off in front of those and welded the plates in a little better.


My dad made the cuts on the stub leaving a flange on the inside and upper part of the frame to use when we weld it on.

 

Wow, lotsa work and rust dust. Keep us posted. Looking good!

 

yes see yas in austin

 

oh ya did i say you guys are kickin ass

 

very cool proyect Nick....much more cool that we got to talk for a bit on the phone 2day.....

 

Hey Dave,

My dad said it was great talking with you today. Im kind of the internet guy and he is the phone guy. Thanks for all the info and help! Your car is bad ass!

 

Oh and Gambino, thanks again for all the help too. As soon as we get everything figured out we will be buying from you.

Time to go work on this thing.

 

Looks good! Call if you need help.
DD

 

Thanks John!

We borrowed some G78 tires from Monsterflake and are gonna put them on to see if they look like the right size. The 6.70-15's where way too small. We are also gonna figure out our back spacing so we can order some wheels from RallyAmerica and then finally order our airbag stuff from good ol Gambino.

 

NIck or anyone for that matter,

I dragged this back up as I remembered seeing your first post with the rust on the side of the rear quarter, a dirty great hole. I noticed on my Olds the other day I have the start of a bubble in exactly the same spot!

I know you fixed yours, but did you ever find out what caused it to happen? as eventually it will happen again. Just thought if I can sort out where the water is comming from and why its sitting there then can divert it or stop it from happening so I'm not fixing the same problem in 5-10 years again.

given the Olds and Buicks are basically the same body, thought I would ask.

 

That is a good point FlatOz. I never really considered it happening again. Your right though, fixing the symptons wont fix the problem. Ill look into it. If I remember right there is a little ledge inside and Im guessing water drips down the window channel and sits there.

We have been making some progress lately. We finally got the subframe put in place. Its welded together but we are going to plate all 4 sides of it to make sure its very beefy and strong.

My dad got the motor mounts put in place and welded up. He made this jig thing that mounted to the fenders to know exactly where the mounts were on the 56 frame. Once the 65 frame was on it was super easy to know where the motor mounts had to go.






While he was building the motor mounts I put the inner fender wells back in.






I cut an angle on this so I could make the filler piece more simple.








After my dad was done with the motor mounts he spliced the front frame section of the 56 to the 65 subframe. We now have perfect stock mounting points for our bumper. Before we cut the 56 frame, he made a cardboard pattern to know exactly where this peice had to go.

 

Really enjoy seeing the updates on this...clipping a car is a far cry from clipping a truck, I can relate to and respect the undertaking (I did a nova/camaro clip on our '60 El Camino)...the Riviera clip is an interesting pick, should drive beautifully...I loved mine...

Keep the updates coming, it's looking great!

 

bad ass keep it up

 

Thanks. Why do you say that clipping a car is different than a truck? I would think it would be about the same.

 

Going to be one nice looking and riding ride when you are done Nick!

Larry

 

I should have been more specific...most trucks that get clipped are ladder-frames with an I-beam. Pretty straightforward If you know how to read a measuring tape, understand finished ride height & basic geometry, and are a competent welder.

Installing a different IFS, where one was originally residing is a different task all together, evidenced by the mods to the fenderwells, engine mounts etc.

Just giving you kudos, as it's a much more challenging process than most sub-frame jobs on ladder frame trucks...

 

Looking good, Nick! I hope to see you driving this car at an event this summer...




Malcolm