A little recap for those that missed the opening post over at the TD&H forum... Got this rotten '27 Buick held together with wire for a good price...
Spent last weekend removing 15 gallons of animal bones and waste, stripping it down and selling off parts I don't need. The body will only be as wide as the frame at most so all those brake rods and big springs will be out in the open to see. It's even got brakes up front so thats going to rock running exposed.
That's a neat setup on the rear suspension. Front looks good too. Looks like you have a good start!!!!
You need to search for some lever shocks though. Looks like you could have a lot of roll in the rear. It would be hard to put a sway bar on the rear to look right but shocks help.
I'm in for the longhaul on this one. Good to see another one of the "old race car" look speedsters going together. You can probably find some photos of Buick based Indy cars from that time period for ideas.
Looks pretty cool. What model buick is it? Some are worth some serious coin. You might check if you haven't already. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
It was a 27-27 standard sedan, they made 40,000+ that year. Pretty low on the value list, otherwise I wouldn't have gone wild with strip down. I had one eye open waiting for just the right car to pop up... not too nice to cut up but not so bad I couldn't salvage anything to cover the cost of the frame.
Nice project! Check out early 1920's Rolls-Royce they used the same rear spring setup, not race cars, but worth a look for details. Bob
am i the only one wanting to know what you are doing with that cool engine? and i want to hear it tho...
The engine is outta here... It was missing a few parts but I was surprised how nice it was on the inside when I pulled the head. It would cost $3-4k to rebuild it so i'm not going that route... i'll pop a straight 8 something or other in there instead. The engine is headed to some 20's Buick folks who need the parts.
If you are considering something 'vintage' looking, (but 'serviceable') consider a Pontiac straight eight, '41-'54. Easy switch, and they are FLATHEADS! But the same year Buicks would also do...straight eight OHV, will run 200,000 miles. Roadmasters had dual carbs...All of them (Pont/Buick) are Cad/LaSalle trans friendly. An old timer said the big Buick straight eights would "Pass anything but a gas station!"
If you're not using the engine, I'd be interested in the Generator/Distributor- my casting is cracked!
hey hey , got a 40,000 mile 1941 olds 98 flathead straight eight with hydromatic,,,runs excellent , different for sure.....speedster....speedster....yowza
Houston, we have a power plant... '39 Nash dual plug inline eight... can I get a "hell yeah"? Headed down state this AM to meet up with a rightious hamber and brought back this old girl. We got her to fire pretty easy after it had been sitting in his garage for a few years. Condition is excellent it's just a little dusty from an extended slumber.
wow ive never seen one of those engine s , that will make a very cool speedster mill , im digging this build ,
I'm going to streamline the engine by placing whatever I can on the firewall... coils, oil filter, etc... I want it to be clean. I'll also repaint it a 1920's olive green with black trim and add some brass/copper to make it pop. Gotta make it look about 15 years younger! As far as the exhaust manifold goes i'm thinking 4 straight pipes. There is no true exhaust manifold, its basically 5 ports in the head with plain old exhaust pipe clamped on. I'll weld up 4 pipes off of the main pipe, no problems with heating the intake or having to fabricate flanges.
I only see 8 plugs, but 16 (+/-) plug wires. How does that work? Also if you can make a custom five into one exhaust header it would be quite different and perhaps cool.
The other 8 are under the exhaust manifold, they run though some tubing around to the other side of the block. The rotor in the distributor has two arms at 180 degrees so both plugs in each cylinder are fired at once. Two sets of points and condensers, two coils, 16 plugs and a whole lotta fun!
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