My '56 Buick build *or* How to completely destroy a car

Dude you are doing a great job! I'll be subscribed for future updates.

 

Any news or updates???

 

Ugh, man, i just wrote this long-ass reply and the board decided to log me out and eat it. So here's a shorter version, with the same info.

Sorry i've been gone for a bit. Things have been...intense here. I have good news and bad news, i'll jump into the good news first.

I've been on the hunt for a machine shop to replace the bushings in my spindles, and to reassemble my spindles and supports with a kit that i had bought. Every machine shop i went to turned me down, and the local restoration shop wanted $200 to reassemble them. I was getting ready to go that route when my buddy Paul spoke up and said he worked at a machine shop now. Not an automotive machine shop, but a shop that had a press and tools that we could use to get the job done. So i packed everything up and headed down to Richmond.

Paul's press. Not a huge piece of machinery, but damn was it helpful.


The old bushings pressed right out, and we used a bench vice to press the new ones in, being careful to line up the holes with the holes for the zerk fittings. After that, Paul honed out the bushings some, until we could tap in the new king pins. Then we pressed in the king pin locks and the expansion plugs.

New bushings.


Once all that was done, we got ourselves an impact gun and took off the old bushings (?) in the lower part of the spindle support. Once we replaced them with the new ones, we were all finished.

Old hardware


New stuff


In the end, it took us about 2 hours of slowly figuring out what we were doing, but everything came together pretty nicely and it moves smoothly. I'm going to replace the old grease fittings, then i'll lube it all up.

Complete


Upside down


So now i'm just waiting on my Jamco springs (it's been about 7 weeks, they're gonna get a call from me soon), and the Scarebird disc brake kit i'll order this week, along with a master cylinder from their recommendations. Then i'll be ready to put the front end back together.


And now the bad news: in the middle of last week, i was laid off.

And now i'm kinda unsure of how to proceed. I got a small severance pay package, along with the 230 hours of PTO i had built up paid for. I'll be moving back to Richmond sometime soon, and i feel like the best course of action might be to speed up my timeline.

I'm thinking that i will just dump some money into getting the engine machined and rebuilt, buying a new electric fuel pump and new radiator, and having the transmission cleaned and freshened up too, so i can put them back in the car. After that, i can hopefully hand it over to a shop to do some wiring done and possibly also some new exhaust. After that, i should be pretty ready to drive it down to Richmond. Or at least most of the way ready. Either way, i've got to get it ready to move, and possibly within a month. What do you guys think about my plan?

 

Glad you're making some progress. Even if it's just a piece at a time.
And having a friend with a machine shop always helps.
I'm luck enough, that the place I'm working at has a lot of machinery that I can use.

Now to the second part: man that sucks. Hope you'll make it alright, and find another job soon.

Anyways, I'd like to donate a barely used fuel pump to the cause, if you want it.

Just let me know and keep your chin up!

 

Chris Things look good. Glad you could get the spindles done. The good part is it didn't cost you anything but time. Friends are good to have.

Sorry about your job. Good luck on finding a new one. Times are tough out there. Just keep plugging along and I am sure things will work out for the best.

 

Sorry to hear about you being laid off. I'm sure everything will turn out well in the end.

I'd also like to say that I've been following your thread for a while and think you're doing excellent work. Thanks for sharing your progress with us and look forward to seeing more.

 

Gotta love having access to a machine shop if you need it! As for the time line it sounds like you would probably be pushing it too much to get it all done in a month. Most engine shops I've talked to wouldn't even turn the engine around that fast. I'd get it rolling, and stopping as much as possible, and rent a trailer to get it to Richmond. But if you could pull it off that would be cool. I'd just be affraid of cutting corners to get stuff done when you seem to be doing stuff the right way! As far as wiring I know it can seem intimidating but you would be money ahead to get a Rebel kit from a vendor right here on the hamb and wire it your self! Its really not that bad!

 

That sucks about the job thing man. Keep positive, good things will happen.

 

You're probably right. The more i think about it, the more i think i should just get it rolling and stopping, maybe get the transmission refreshed since i have a line on a place up here to do it, and then just try to finish everything out in Richmond.

 

Thanks, fuxl, i really appreciate the offer, and i might just take you up on that. I just need to figure out how long it's gonna take me to get a new job.

 

No problem, when you need it, just send me a PM with your address, and I'll send it out to you.
Or if you're already down in Richmond, maybe you'll join us for one of our breakfasts.

 

Chris, sorry about the job! I've enjoyed following along your journey here and look forward to more. Stick with it and best of luck with the upcoming move and (hopefully) a new job!

 

Can I come get that Nail head

 

Sweet Christmas, Jamco has got to be the absolute worst company i have ever bought anything from.

It's been roughly 11 weeks, and i haven't seen anything from them. Not a package, not a shipping or progress update, nothing. I've been calling and emailing them for two weeks now, trying to figure out if their front end kit will get here before i need to move, and nobody has gotten back in touch with me. At this point, i'm going to put my old springs back in, and go to my bank about reversing the charge.

I know i didn't exactly drop a ton of money with them, only about $300, but still, this is ridiculous. I should have had this front end back together long before now.

 

Thats not the first complaint I have heard about them lately...good to know because I wanted to check into springs from them!

 

Alright, well it's crunch time for me. I'm moving on Sunday, and i have to get the Buick ready to tow by then. Front end is still off, but tomorrow should fix that.

The guys at Scarebird really helped me out, i paid them extra to overnight my disc brake kit when they were short a couple spacers thanks to their machinist being out. I went through my bank to dispute the transaction with Jamco, as it's been over 12 weeks now with no word from them, despite me contacting them multiple times.

I'm going to put the old springs back in, and put on the disc brake kit tomorrow, with the help of my good buddy Roberto. Whatever can't get done tomorrow, i'll do on Saturday in between loading up the moving van. We'll see what happens.

 

VICTORY!

The Buick rolls, and is ready to be moved! Roberto came up yesterday and we got to work. Thanks to Jamco being terrible, i just spraypainted and reused the old springs. They worked fine.

Spray bombed, also with some metal shims i had a machine shop nearby make up.


I also got my Scarebird kit in hand the night before, and started with putting the caliper bracket onto the spindles, to minimize the amount of small work we'd have to do. It went on super easy.



Control arms went on easy with new bolts from Fastenal, and then it was time for the toughest part of the day, compressing the springs so that we could attach the lower control arm to the spindle. This was a real beast. We tried a spring compressor, but when it was on the springs wouldn't seat in the control arms properly. So we figured that we'd place the springs, and then jack up the lower control arm to compress them. Brilliant, except we had no weight on the frame since the engine and transmission are out.

So to solve this problem, Berto stood on the frame while i jacked the control arm up. It worked for a bit, then he wasn't heavy enough. So i joined him on the frame, and with our 450-ish combined pounds, we compressed the spring enough to attach the spindle to the lower control arm. Repeat the process for the other side, but with even more weight needed. So we added 2 toolboxes and 2 tires.

I don't recommend anyone ever do this. It was really dumb and we were probably going to die. But we've done a lot of dumb stuff over the years, so it was pretty par for the course for us.

Here we are all connected. That jack was the only support on the front of the car.


And another angle.


That really was the toughest thing. I hope i never have to mess with springs ever again on this car. But once we were through that, the rest was crazy easy. We put the Scarebird spacers on, packed the bearings full of grease, and everything went into place easy. It took us probably less than 20 minutes to put both rotors in place, tighten down retaining nuts, and put the dust caps on. To be fair, we didn't put the calipers on, but that's only because i don't need it to stop right now, just roll. I don't think those will take long either, and i'll put them on when i get down to Richmond. I've got to replace all the brake line and get a new master cylinder anyway.

Here's a shot of it all finished and shiny.


After that, Berto had to split. It's a haul back to Richmond, and it was looking like rain. I spent probably another 30 minutes or so putting the center link back in so the steering would work.





And with that, i'm pretty much done getting the Buick ready to move. Once it's back in Richmond, i'll get some shocks and replacement lower control arm bumpers, put the sway bar back in, put the calipers on and replace brake lines and master cylinder. And that should really do it for rebuilding the front end. Maybe another half day's worth of work in that?

 

Great job Chris. Good luck in Richmond on both the Buick and job fronts.

 

Hi Chris.Enjoying the build.Sorry to hear about the job.BTDT.It sucks.
Have a safe trip.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

You work well under pressure!

 

Any updates?

On another note, do you remember what size you reamed the king pin bushings to?
My king pins measure Ø0.8615 and I it looks like the right size for the bushing is Ø0.863.
But I can't find anybody that sells a Ø0.863 reamer.

Thanks, Martin

 

Just joined, been reading many posts tonight, this has been a good one very interesting, alot of work. I have a suggestion for the future when working with the coil springs. When I took my 55 apart to convert to ball joints, I used a threaded rod and some angle iron to remove and reassemble the suspension. I used a 24" long piece of 1/2" threaded rod (it's along spring), I ran it thru the coil spring and the shock mounting holes. A block on either end, i used 2 pieces of 1.5"x1.5"x1/4 angle iron over the access holes with centered 1/2" holes drilled in them. 2 flat washers under the nut you intend on turning (top for instance) a little less friction that way. Turn the nut tight, loosen or remove the a-arm connection bolts, loosen the nut on the rod. the coil tension releases under complete control. To reassemble just reverse the sequence. no one gets hurt the spring is always under control and can't get loose. Less than 10 bucks and no cussing or new scars ..

 

Phosphoric acid (Commonly used in soda and to etch concrete.) and some scotch bright pads will work miracles on that rust under the car. Just make sure you wash it down and dry it good when you get done or your might get a permanent white crust on everything like mine has now. (Looks like it just came from the salt flats in certain places.)

 

Hey guys, sorry not a ton to report. Money's been real tight, so i haven't been able to get anything done with the Buick. The good news is that i think i found a new gig, so hopefully we'll be back flush soon and i can start working again. Also, i think we'll be using a little of my tax return to do some work. If all goes as well as it could, i might be back on the road by sometime in late summer. Cross your fingers.

 

Sorry, i sure don't. I know we had to hone and re-hone the space where the bushings go, so i'm sure that we wound up with some odd size anyway. Wish i were more help, man.

 

Good to see you back on here Chris, hope everything works out for you, and post some updates if/when you get back on the car.

 

No problem, I got it figured out now.

You are down in Richmond now, right?
Come join us for the Asphalt Angels show and breakfast on February 9th!

 

Yessir, i'm down here now. Yeah, i'll be down for that. Is the info in the Virginia HAMB group?

 

Yes, it's right here:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/group.php?do=discuss&group=&discussionid=36474

Looking forward to meeting you!
I'll probably be in my Olds.

 

Finally some good news. I've landed a (for now) freelance gig with a local company, and it's going to pay pretty decently. Add to that the semi decent tax refund i'll be getting, and i think i can finally move forward with some work. I went to the Asphalt Angels show and breakfast with a bunch of the VA HAMB guys, and not only was it awesome to meet so many people with so much knowledge, but i really got extra motivated to get the Buick done!

So i need to ask some opinions: right now, i've got the disassembled block on a stand, and it's stored outside covered in a tarp. Not the ideal place, i know, but it's all i've got for now. The next thing i want to get done is taking the block to the machine shop, get the cylinders honed, the block and heads cleaned and new freeze plugs installed. After that, finish rebuilding the engine with whatever new parts and gaskets are necessary.

My question is: should i order parts first and then get the machine work done, so as to avoid having a freshly machined block sitting outside? Or will it be semi-safe to leave it covered outside while i wait to get parts for the rebuild? I'm planning to paint the block after it's cleaned, i don't know if that will be much help.