I started out last fall by buying a '37 Buick Special four door. I didn't mean to buy it, it kind of found me. Long story short, I went to help a friend haul a car home and the Buick was sitting in front of the car he was picking up. I didn't want it, he nagged me to buy it, didn't want to but after my wife saw pictures she said she liked it and I should buy it. I don't like arguing with the little lady so I went back and bought it. I got it for a decent price, $550. It seemed solid and was complete and I figured it was worth more than $550 in parts and scrap. I get it home to find out the engine and tranny are junk. So I get a "new" engine and tranny. Before mounting it on the rotesseri I have to rebuild the entire trunk: The first problem I found was when I had my kid jack the front end up to pull the front sheet metal. The car went up 12" and came down 9". The front crossmember was completely rotted out so I found a '40 Buick crossmember and modified it to fit: I blasted the frame and body and found more rust damage but I figure I can fix it, I like doing metal work. In the mean time I found a '37 Limited parts car on CL for cheap. "Great" I thought, now I have a parts car. I then found that the Roadmasters and Limiteds of the same years are completely different than the smaller Centuries and Specials and most parts can't be used. I got lucky and contacted a Buick expert who traded the Limited for all of the parts I needed for my Special. While the Buick guy was in my shop, looking over my Special, he offered to sell me a solid, or at least a lot better, body and frame for dirt cheap. I couldn't refuse the offer so I ended up taking a trip to MN to pick up the "new" body. The floors have surface rust but a very solid and the door posts are complete and rust free. These areas in the original car are really gone and would need a lot of work to repair. The trunk in the "new" body has been hacked up and will need some major patching and the rear roll pan is rotted out, that's a bummer because I did all this work in the original body. Out of original car I will be using the front clip and rear fenders. The Buick guy also supplied me with a set of four really nice doors so the original rusted out doors will be going. I will only be using about 20% of the original car. I look at it like I bought the parts car first and the main later. Kind of ass backwards but that's how the old car hobby is some times. You take on path only to back up and take another route. BTW, during the night I was thinking of a use for the old body so it wouldn't feel like a total waste of time. I might cut the back 1/3 of the car off and use it for a matching trailer. Here is a picture I photochopped of my idea, what do you think?
I just showed the trailer idea to my wife. She wanted to know why we'd need a trailer when we'll have a car with a cab the size of our living room. Women!!
Most of my cars end up being 6 cars pieced together. Sometimes, that's just the best way to get the job done. Should be a worthwhile build.
The title to this thread reminds me of Nailhead Terry on here.....he buys cars to go with his rim/tires. haha. Anyway, awesome idea. I think it looks great!
Two parts cars=one solid project car. very nice effort on your part. That'll be a great looking gangster sedan-especially if painted black. dig the trailer!
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