G'day from Oz!! Bout a year ago I purchased a "complete 55 Buick" from a guy up north in Australia. He had imported it from the good ol USA!! I Had it inspected & was told it'd be running in a coupla weeks so I bought it. When I finally got it home it was a mess!! Lotsa bits missing, seized 264 nail, no brakes inside the drums, 2 bolts barely holding each bumper on, one bolt holding Trans onto the motor, basically a nightmare!! However one thing it did have going for it was the rust free body!! After few days of thinking what have I done I swallowed deep, imagined the fully built 55 Buick I've always wanted & ripped in to a total rebuild!! This is the story........
So after some planning on what I wanted the car to be, I cut floor pan out & started planning a 4 link conversion. Car will run 401nailhead, T700 auto for highway cruisin & a ford 9" diff. Brakes front & rear will be converted from late model Holden Commodore. Full Accuair Airide setup front & rear too. Slam bags front & rear.
Makin bag plates for lower front arms & also got rid of factory front mounts. Kinda wanted to start this thread as there's a lot of questions about putting a bigger nailhead in earlier buicks but not many pics of engine mounts, gearbox mounts etc etc. why not document it as I go.....? Hopefully will help another HAMB member down the track looking to do similar conversion....
The hubs have been machined out to upgrade a newer, better bearing setup inside them. Drums rivots obviously drilled out & bigger studs put in ready for disc brake conversion.....
Visited Mooneyes mid 2014 they hooked me up with some cool shit!! Purchased 6x2 Weiand dragstar manifold from Russ Martin however still hesitant to run it. Not keen to be tuning these fuckers every few weeks so at the moment the 401 sporting a standard 4 barrel manifold.... However I just couldn't resist some pics with manifold & carbs on there!!
Was trying to work on front end & engine mount design until I got sick of it & completely stripped everything off it!! The rabbit warren gets deeper, however access is much easier.....
Pulled out all the remaining "electrical spaghetti" & purchased a complete Painless wiring kit. Had few choices of wiring kits but went with painless & thus being colourblind it's fitting that every single wire in its kit it is labelled on the outer insulation......
First pics shows stock upper control arms cleaned ready for paint & new bushes etc. 2nd pics shows inside spring tower on front end with factory top plate to locate top of spring. This sucker is rivoted in & they need to be drilled & punched out from the top of the chassis. Later pics will show the plate I've made to bolt in its place......
Top bag locating plate bolted in. Used the old top spring plate as a template. Bag sitting in its future home!! Although lately been doing a lot of research whether to set up front end with airbag at relaxed height/preferred driving height or slammed position. Think the bag being at relaxed height as shown in pic will need a spacer or cup to nestle it in there. Watch this space!!
Engine mount almost done for one side. The 401 bit bigger than the little brother 264 so little concerned about exhaust clearance for steering box........
I'm running the 6 two set up on my 322 Nailhead, the center carbs are not functional, runs great. Russ has helped me a lot these last few years, good guy. My parents bought a new 55 Buick, same color as yours, cool car.
In the meantime we bagged my mates 54 Plymouth, learning a lot along the way..... Definitely gave me few ideas for my 55'
Thanks everyone for words of encouragement & damn 1927graham that looks tastey!! How's it go with 4 carbs? Functioning carbs?
Pic of the booster/master that goes with the late model commodore front & rear disc brake setup. I wanted to run this under the dash at a right angle but due to its size it may not work. Here in Australia if u even slightly modify your vehicle you basically need an engineer to sign off on your modification. Although it's a good idea & a safe one it can also be a royal pain in the ass. A mate of mine bought a set of big Outlaw front calipers & discs for his street machine from USA & the engineer wouldn't sign off on the modification as the calipers had no dust seals on the Pistons. Choose your engineer & modifications for that matter wisely!!
Despite what some ppl may say, you'll have to run a sump with a hump at the back. The 401 I bought came with a centre hump sump so I had to track one down. A mate had one from an earlier 364 which fits however the oil pickup is of a different type. I will be modifying the pickup tube in my 401 to suit the rear hump oil pan.
Researched a fair bit about engine/Trans angles when custom makin engine mounts. Been told between 2-3 degrees is perfect but also carb base on manifold must be completely flat!! So bought a digital spirit level gauge & with the carby base perfectly flat (after I leveled the chassis as I am building it to be parallel at ride height) it was reading 5 degrees. I thought this was rather excessive but after further research found that some motors actually sit in engine bays as much as 6 degrees. Can anyone elaborate on this.....? I've only tacked the chassis side of engine mounts in at this stage........
Standard exhaust manifold with the lack of clearance to the steering box. Bought some blockhuggers/extractors/headers & they fit a little bitter with a very small amount of clearance. At this stage I'm tossing up whether to modify them or just start from scratch .....
The Jalopy Journal
