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Projects another Buick barn find and build...we hope

Discussion in 'Traditional Customs' started by IROC100, May 17, 2015.

  1. raven
    Joined: Aug 19, 2002
    Posts: 4,698

    raven
    Member

    I have to say, when I first saw what you were doing with this car, I was hesitant. Now, I am speechless. It's beautiful.
    Good job.
    r
     
  2. shadams
    Joined: Mar 16, 2011
    Posts: 1,492

    shadams
    Member

    Wow! Love the changes, cant wait to see more. Must be nice to have the vision and the skill to see it through...nice job.
     
  3. Enjoying your build. Love, love, love the Plymouth tail lights!!
     
  4. 69supercj
    Joined: Apr 5, 2010
    Posts: 356

    69supercj
    Member

    Looking really good.
     
  5. hacknwhack
    Joined: Jan 25, 2006
    Posts: 481

    hacknwhack
    Member
    from mass

    I'm interested in what gene Winfield has to say about the frames.
    Looking forward to your updates.
     
  6. Kinky6
    Joined: May 11, 2003
    Posts: 1,765

    Kinky6
    Member

    Yeah, just read through this entire thread. Very nice work on this custom, you've got a good eye for modifying old sheet metal. Someone suggested going w/ the Packard tail lights, but they're almost old hat compared to trying something different like you have. K6
     
  7. IROC100
    Joined: Nov 1, 2010
    Posts: 39

    IROC100
    Member
    from NY

    Well it's been awhile since I've been working on the car, been doing some small quick jobs on the side to get some cash for this. So now it's time to start back up for now. The Buick came back in and I figured I should get some steering on this thing and since I didn't have a column I should find one that would work. There was one in it but it was all worn out and didn't fit the way it should have, So I spent some time running around looking and buying a couple and got one that I've had all laid out and hooked up until I realized that it might not work with my dash plans, so out it came along with the stock dash. Now comes the fun part, installing a 57 Olds dash. I wasn't sure how this was going to look but I had to try it. I've had this dash for a couple of years now and was worried about cutting it up and ruining it and didn't even know if this was something that I would even be able to do, But I jumped in and here is what 've got as of last night. It's going to take some work but I think it might be ok. What's you're thoughts, should I go on with it or just go with the stock dash? firewall&dash1 (12).JPG firewall&dash1 (13).JPG
     
    Surfcityrocker, hacknwhack and 'Mo like this.
  8. I like it!!! Those mid 50's Olds dashes are some of the nicest looking ever in my opinion. Great choice!!
     
  9. Can't recall what the Buick dash looks like.
     
  10. Blue One
    Joined: Feb 6, 2010
    Posts: 11,459

    Blue One
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Alberta

    o_O Bare with you :confused: Why is it you guys keep wanting us to get naked with you ? :D:D:D:D
     
  11. desotot
    Joined: Jan 29, 2008
    Posts: 2,036

    desotot
    Member

    Looking awesome! I like the Plymouth tail lights and I like the olds dash.
     
  12. Love the olds dash! Looks awesome!
     
  13. froghawk
    Joined: May 9, 2008
    Posts: 857

    froghawk
    Member

    One of the great dashboards of the '50s! As I recall the steering wheel is pretty cool, also.

    [​IMG]

    Just wondering, in the side shot looking along the top of the dash, it looks like it might be angled down a bit too far. Does it need to be angled up some toward the driver?
     
    Surfcityrocker likes this.
  14. Okie Pete
    Joined: Oct 29, 2008
    Posts: 4,968

    Okie Pete
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Like the dash idea, love the profile of the your car , but toss out the Caddie steering column and find something stock or traditional .
     
  15. Fabber McGee
    Joined: Nov 22, 2013
    Posts: 1,286

    Fabber McGee
    Member

    Great job and that dash is my favorite of all the 50's dashes I've seen. Maybe it's just an illusion from the photo, but I agree with froghawk, it looks like it's tilted down too much. Iff'n it was mine, which it ain't, I'd put the speedo lens 90 degrees to my line of sight. Course, then if it's a daily driver you run the risk of having junk piled all over the dash most of the time. Have you got the little grill that goes up by the windshield? That has a very Buick look about it with all those vertical bars.
     
  16. woodbutcher
    Joined: Apr 25, 2012
    Posts: 3,310

    woodbutcher
    Member

    :D Looking good.Keep the updates coming.
    Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
    Leo
     
  17. IROC100
    Joined: Nov 1, 2010
    Posts: 39

    IROC100
    Member
    from NY

    I can't believe it's been a month since I posted pics of the Olds dash just sitting in the car and it's been that long to get done what I've got done. This dash change turned out not to be so easy and I'm still not done. Anyway here's what needed to be done in order to make this work. First off I wanted to put a dash in a car that was at least 6" narrower than the one I wanted to put in. It took a lot of trimming to get it right so it would fit in between the a pillers and still match the 53 dash. Since the 53 dash bolted in I decided to marry the two dashes together, that was fun, since both dashes were shaped totally different. Here's a couple pics to show the difference. the first one is the 53 and I'm trying to decide how much to cut off and then, the next one after the cut and bolted down, you can see the curve of it. the pic of the Olds dash shows how flat it is. The Olds dash also rolled back towards the windshield making it even more of a space between the two. Not wanting to screw either of these dashes I just took my time and trimmed and fit a little at a time, which wasn't easy when you are by yourself and could really use a hand since the olds dash was or is really heavy. I got to the point that I felt like it was going to work, but I still had a pretty good gap between the two pieces, so I took the 53 and ran it thru my English wheel a couple of times to give it a radis to match the Olds and it fit almost perfect. I will post the rest later today.
     
  18. IROC100
    Joined: Nov 1, 2010
    Posts: 39

    IROC100
    Member
    from NY

    I 've been trying to load pictures but am having some problems loading multiples, so here's where I am now dash1 (12) (640x480).jpg
     
  19. Fabber McGee
    Joined: Nov 22, 2013
    Posts: 1,286

    Fabber McGee
    Member

    I'm diggin' it. Some cool shit goin' on there man. Have you got the matching steering wheel?
     
  20. IROC100
    Joined: Nov 1, 2010
    Posts: 39

    IROC100
    Member
    from NY

    Before I go any farther, I just want to thank everyone for their comments and answer a couple of questions. As far as the steering wheel goes, I do have the Olds wheel, however it is in such ruff shape that I'm not sure if I can fix it. I plan on trying but we will have to wait and see. Fabber , as far as the dash lean down, you where right, that picture was just a test fix and to see if I was out of my mind to try this. Since then you can see that it has been raised up and moved back and the gage cluster is at a 90 degree to the seat. A friend of mine talked to Gene Winfield when he was in Syracuse about what to do and Gene said to either weld them or screw them together, I was hoping for a better answer, but I did find a 53 on the web and the vent windows were cut down and the owner had his contact number listed so I took a chance and called him. He was real nice and answered all of my questions. He told me that he had them welded and if I would like I could send mine out to him and he would take them to his friend and have them done for me, so now I'm getting an extra pair, don't want to send the only ones I've got, just in case they don't make it back. I will making a trip over to a yard Hacknwack told me about, to get the windows and a bunch of other stuff that I thought I had but don't. I didn't take this car apart and wasn't really sure if I had all the parts.
    So here goes my attempt to post a couple of dash pics again, found out I had to reduce them. The first one will be the 53 dash, deciding where to cut it. The rest is explained in above post.
    firewall&dash1 (640x480).jpg firewall&dash1 (31188387) (640x480).jpg firewall&dash1 (12) (640x480).jpg dash1 (9) (640x480).jpg
    So after getting to this point I had to make some more cuts to the 53 dash so I could build the hump to match the 57 dash and heres the results.
    dash1 (17) (640x480).jpg dash1 (16) (640x480).jpg
    now my next step is to do the garnish molding on the doors to line up with the dash.
     
  21. Fabber McGee
    Joined: Nov 22, 2013
    Posts: 1,286

    Fabber McGee
    Member

    Very nice, I'm anxious to see more.
     
  22. raidmagic
    Joined: Dec 10, 2007
    Posts: 1,440

    raidmagic
    Member

    Nice work. I like the new dash.
     
  23. hacknwhack
    Joined: Jan 25, 2006
    Posts: 481

    hacknwhack
    Member
    from mass

  24. Johnnee D.
    Joined: Aug 16, 2005
    Posts: 244

    Johnnee D.
    Member

    wow, that was a good read...congrats, keep us posted...
     
  25. IROC100
    Joined: Nov 1, 2010
    Posts: 39

    IROC100
    Member
    from NY

    Woo, can't believe it's been since October since I posted last. Well I have been working on the Buick again since I got some money jobs out of the way over the winter, so I will try to get caught up on here. I have made some progress, even if it has been slow progress. I have welded up 52 holes on the firewall, that took forever, most were small holes left by the rivets from the wire hold down clips. After that, I moved inside and hung my steering coloum, located my brake pedal and set my gas peddle. I will post some pics of what I've done. I haven't to good at taking pictures this time around, after Iget down with what I'm working on is when I think about it. But in the meantime I did send my dash pieces out for chroming, not knowing if they could be done or not since they are pot metal and were pitted really bad and when I say bad I mean bad. here are a couple of pics of the dash pieces, they came out awesome.
     

    Attached Files:

    kidcampbell71 and hacknwhack like this.
  26. Nice to see your back at it. I've been thinking about your project its going in a cool directions. You do outstanding work.
     
  27. IROC100
    Joined: Nov 1, 2010
    Posts: 39

    IROC100
    Member
    from NY

    here's some pics of the firewall before than after. more to come 0127161232.jpg firewall&dash1 (1).JPG
     
    kidcampbell71 and 59IMPALER like this.
  28. Iroc100 I thought I was good just because I could paint a car but your hands are magic!!!!Bruce.
     
  29. IROC100
    Joined: Nov 1, 2010
    Posts: 39

    IROC100
    Member
    from NY

    After I got the firewall done or at least in primer I got the steering hooked up and the brake pedal hung( I didn't get any pictures of that, I had to modify a GMC brake pedal bracket to fit under the dash of the Buick) I decided to set the engine and tranny in to see how everything fit. It didn't, when I set it down on the caddy mounts the engine sat about 1 1/2 ft off of the firewall, so I had to fab up some mounting plates in order to move it back where it belonged and let me say that getting the engine where it should be was no easy task by yourself with trying to center, level and get the height and angle right, however I prevailed and after awhile I got it all just right and was able to get it all welded up. again I didn't get any pictures except a couple with the engine in the way , which is posted below. GEDC0026.JPG
     
  30. xpletiv
    Joined: Jul 9, 2008
    Posts: 938

    xpletiv
    Member
    from chiburbs

    Nice to see it moving along and great design!
     

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