Projects Ever bit off more than you can chew?

'50 Buick Jetback. Purchased off cell phone pics. Shipped from MI to WA. I gotta say...a bit rougher than the pics let on. Like...major.
What can I say? It's mine now.... I guess I'll start at the bottom and work up. Have a '50 4 door with a dialed chassis and a new 401. Gunna swap bodies....someday. floors, inner and outer rockers, trunk, lower doors, all gone.
But...At least I'll have my dream car. I'm totally intimidated, over my head, but I have the other car as reference. Here we go. I have a welder, sheet metal, grinder, plasma cutter and bead roller. I'm sure most have you have done more with less. Or, at least just tell me you have. My only real complaint is why the hell do people insist on shooting the glass out of these cars? Kills me.

 

Well they don't call Michigan the center of the rust belt without lack of proof.
It looks like you have a lot of fixing to do before you ever swap it to the other chassis and I don't think many would falt you if you just got a proper wheel base GM chassis and floor pan donor and slipped your fast back over on the solid floor pan rather than repairing that one and then killing the more door. It's a custom, no one is supposed to have his ass sticking up in the air while he looks under it for things to nitpick anyhow.

77/84 Cad Devills have a 121.5 wheelbase. Your 50 Special has a 221.5 wheelbase. https://www.hometownbuick.com/1950-buick/1950-buick-specifications/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_de_Ville_series
It shouldn't be that hard to find a suitable Cad that can donate what you need that doesn't cost much. You just don't pay for what you don't need.


As for the "more than you can chew thing, I may be in the big middle of that with my 48 with the plans I have for it. I'd at least like to have it looking like a complete truck by late this year. I may have to build a smaller workshop than I had planned on just to have a place to work on it in out of the weather. The older I get the more my grand plans become less grand.

 

Well just about every day, got bad teeth to prove it

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I think most of us have felt that way in the past, I thought I was way over my head when I started the Ranch Wagon but 7 years and 119 patch panels I learned a lot of new skills. hang in there and be open minded and ready to try things you haven't experienced in the past. HRP

 

Thanks!

 

But now that Ranch Wagon was totally worth it , right ? You , personally have to have an immense sense of accomplishment with that one

 

What's the old joke, "How do you eat an elephant?" -- One bite at a time.
I've taken too big a bite on occasion, and probably will again in the future. Just start nibbling and keep at it until you're done.

 

Well at least it’s not carpentry, if you cut twice and it’s still too short you can still weld it back on….

 

Not often.
Just every project car I ever bought.

 

I did... I got them all finished, but I sure burnt out on the last one doing so. So I tell you my 2 cents worth and feel free to take it or not. Let the 2dr fastback sit for a while so you can check it out frequently and keep tinkering on it while you enjoy driving your good 4 dr... and after a time you´ll maybe come to the conclusion that it may not be worth the hassle to rip the 4dr apart. In this case you could just send the 2dr down the road. If you still think it´s a good idea to build it, do it. Either decision is the right one

 

You would be time and money ahead by finding a better car as a starting place. What you just bought is at best a "parts car".

 

I see you are a young man, that's gives you time and the energy. I'd stick with the 4 door till you can find a southwest car. That looks like a Huge project to me, IMO spend more up front for decent rust free car, they're out there, that looks like Years of work in your garage plus all the chrome, stainless, glass, etc, a small fortune involved. Your deal, your decision, do not want to rain on your parade, just my opinion worth the price you paid.

 

Cool car, ( the 2 door ). I can see the attraction over the 4 door.
Now it’s time get to work………

 

At my age almost all projects are more than I need. Just sold one, but still have one.

 

1 step at a time - it becomes a many smaller projects.
Agree that the car in the pic - is a large undertaking. If you can form some/ most of your own panels it's less intimidating, if you have to buy every single patch panels it's a rough go.
Make a plan and stick to it
- does the 4 door become a parts car ?
- does the 4 door stay running and driving so you have a cruiser
- what's your chassis swap candidate, are there better options than the 4 door.
- buying things twice or letting a part hold up progress kills momentum.

 

I’d say with shipping the car what, 2500 miles? And the cost of it, may as well make it a learning experience. Start with things you feel you’re up for and can handle, or those if you screw them up a bit and they are still functional you won’t be doing double work.
Ie the floor pan. So what it it comes out a bit goofy? Assume you’ll put a carpet in it. Can’t see goofy then. Same with the trunk. Heck, even if you don’t carpet it, you probably won’t be parking it with the lid open.
By then you’ll have a pretty good idea of what you feel you can do, learning from a few “oops” that no one will ever see. Just don’t burn yourself out on it. Otherwise it becomes a job you need to get done and won’t be enjoying it.
So what you thought might be a 6 month project turns out to be a two/three year project.
What else ya gonna do? Watch TV?
I know many say “time is money “. Well, I don’t have a side gig, so unless I turn down OT at work, my time at home in the shop is not money, it’s just time.
Case in point, I spent my last two weekends off work my tired as off building a set of rear wheels from hoops for my tractor. I could have spent 1200 bucks for a pair that I could just bolt my inners to, or buy a pair of bare hoops for 300 bucks.
I probably worked for minimum wage to complete them (would have been more but I deducted beer cost) If I was called in to work, they’d have sat another day.
Thing is, now you have that car away from the rust belt, probably not a lot of lookers for it near by, may as well do something with it now that you own it.

 

It can be done . I’ve seen way worse brought back to life .

only advise I can give is do it in “small bites “ amd see every little project through to completion.

I did a 50 fleetline years ago , what started as a 5sp and open diff conversion ended up encompassing the entire car.

I had a young family, was in the middle of renovating my home and working full time.

At the 7 year mark I had it to a point of being able to drive it around the neighbourhood but no where near completion .

and all those “ little things” to me had become a million thorns stuck in my side and I ended up
Hating the car !

the fast backs , torpedo backs , fast backs what ever you want to call them are in my top 5 of cars I want to own again . And yours is a very sexy body style!

drive the 4 door have fun with it, start doing small stuff to the 2 door and get a proper plan all sorted out.
That was another one with me I kind of jumped into my fleetline project without a clear plan and ended up redoing a bunch of things over and over which I’m sure led to my burn out .

good luck with it and keep us posted , and don’t give up on finding something better for a good price .

a similar car popped up on my local classifieds a year or so ago , complete , rust free all original and “ yard driving “ for under $3000 grand

good luck

 

Committing to the project is key..are you of the mind set to stay focused?
As stated, take on each step one at a time, not to be overwhelmed by its entirety.
Valuable learning potential.

 

It was $3k in total, after shipping. I am under water so bad in the 4 door, at this point, it's way past $$ investment. I don't really care about return on investment. The 4 door has a Jag clip, 401, st400, etc ,etc. I'm in it around 20k. I found an old school hot rod guy out here and convinced him to let me help every day and do a ton of the work with his supervision, and I'd pay him his normal rate. The whole job took a month, and I paid him around 14k, but....that's crazy cheap compared to any other school out there and I walked away with a crazy amount of knowledge...plus a bad ass car to drive. I can't afford to do the same with the body on this one, but luckily there's a ton of amazing resources out there. I've always wanted to be able to do body fab. Luckily all the hard body lines are in good shape. I'm going to make everything I can expect the rockers. I have a dry shop, and a lift on the way. I'd I get discouraged, I just have to look at the back of the car, and that killer shape going towards the front. I'll get pumped again right away.
I'll have questions for sure, I can always ask.

 

The 4

The 4 door chassis is mint and new and this will bolt right on it. New 401, clipped, etc. The 4 door will be driver until its time to swap them. I want to use it as reference on how things go together. There's so much missing in this one, it will be good to have more than pics online. I'll rob some pieces off the 4 door, like seats, etc once the 2 door body is on. I'll try and make 90% of the sheet metal. I'll buy rockers, so I have a good pattern to go off of to replace behind them. I may be able to get the wheel well pieces from Texas, which would help.

 

I'll side with the folks that say to just jump in and start. I had NO idea how much I was going to have to do to make the Studebaker a driver and it suffered much of the same rust damage as you have described, floors, door bottoms etc and although there is repro metal for much of it .......there was lots of damage where it was home made patch a little at a time. I was past 70 when I started the Stude, you have plenty of time Good Luck!!
The suggestion to consider using a newer chassis under your body is a good one in this case.

 

Well and truly bitten off more than I can chew , but only in the way of having to many that I am starting to realise I’ll not get to all of them.

 

I've never bought a car without looking at it personally, but I have purchased projects that were more work than I thought. And my last build is a car I always wanted, so I was looking at it through rose colored glasses. I knew it needed a lot of rust repair, and metal replaced, but it was overwhelming when I got into it and discovered truly how much.
Just keep nibbling away at it a day at a time and after awhile you'll look back and wonder why it was intimidating at the beginning. Mine was much worse than what I see on your Buick.

 

Just chew slowly.......

 

So, now that it's light out and I can see...I have zero floor. Rocker to rocker is gone. Now I'm officially intimidated. I can deal with pans, but this is more than I've ever encountered. So, my question is, where to start? Inner rockers, then outer rockers, then floors?

 

At one time or another we have ALL been in over our heads with our projects. Some put the projects on hold until skills improve. Some just don’t have the confidence to start. Some put together a TEAM of their friends to help them and finish their projects. Some hire professionals. And some just move their projects along to the next guy. And even some come up with some really inventive solutions to their problems. The point is when skinning a cat there are many ways to do it. You just have to figure out a way the cat likes best! As said earlier what ever choice you make will be the right one. Sometimes when you are up to your ass in alligators trying to drain the swamp you just have to keep swimming! I will say I like the solution of putting it on a Modern Caddy chassis and floor.

 

Dude, this is the perfect donor car to make your 4 door into a 2 door sedan, just like those photoshops I did a while back. You've got all of the hard to find 2 door pieces to make it work, you'll end up with a one of a kind car that no one else will have (since the factory didn't make one), it'll be about 1/100th of the work of actually fixing the 2 door, and if you plan to swap chassis anyway, you're going to end up with one 2 door Buick either way.

I've done a bunch of these conversions (never on one of these Buicks but that wouldn't stop me) and it's not that hard. I could walk you through it. It would be one of one. This could be real, and it wouldn't even take the car off of the road for very long.

 

You could definitely do this. It's not that hard, I've done tons of them. I'll help. Seriously consider it.

 

While still in high school and without a drivers license, I bought a nice '50 Buick 2 dr H.T. Needed a fuel pump and a valve job. Didn't have any money but had a 303 Olds sitting in the garage so decided to pull the straght 8 and dynaflow. After getting it apart I realized it wasn't a drop-in conversion. The car ultimately ended up in the junk yard.

 

I'm 100% down. I really, really love the fastback, and would rather fix this somehow than loose the fast back. The 4 door needs floors too, but at least I have rockers in that one. How do we hook up?