Hot Rods Lookit what followed me home...

On a trailer.
Just picked up this 55 Buford special-not so special...yet.
Got ALOT of work to do. But it's all mostly there. Has the orig nailhead that spins freely with 70k orig miles.
Needs a complete interior, has some orig pieces though.
Most all the orig glass is there.
Need a drivers side door window though.
Anybody know where I can get acouple quarter panels for it??????

 

Cool project! What are your plans? I have seen a couple of these cars as gassers that look pretty cool! Best to get rid of those rims fast!
J

 

Yeah, the rims were on it when I got it-not crazy about em.
Itll be probably be running torq's maybe smoothies.
My plans aren't crazy, fix what needs to be fixed then figure out paint and drive the piss out of her.

 

I don't think anyone makes quarters for these (I have a '56) but the sheetmetal is so flat, not even a lip on the wheel opening, it should be real easy to make patch panels.

 

Toss those wheels and "tires" on C/List in your area - someone will suck them right up.

 

Dayton 22"s, I don't see the appeal myself. I was thinking of throwing em on Ebag or CL as well.
I've been looking for quarters but haven't had any luck so I was afraid of that (no one makes repop quarters) there's bondo in spots, I may have to just make my own patch panels.

 

Window glass is same as tri-five chevy

 

Good to know-thanks
Do any other parts interchange with the Tri-five chev's?

 

Thats a nice start. Maybe on CL you could trade for some smoothies or even a set of steel wheels with new tires. Do you have a color or colors in mind?

 

Anybody that trades a set of smoothies for those had better go see a shrink!

 

Orig Color is that mint green.
I haven't decided on colors yet. One of my buddies suggested burnt orange above the trim and Gray or silver below the trim. It sounds good but I have body work to do before I get there.
Need to fire the nailhead first see what I'm working with.

 

I was thinking the same thing. I know Daytons are stupidly expensive so maybe I could swap em for what I want.

 

I would imagine that some of the tri5 sheetmetal panels would come close to what you need. It does not look far from 55 or 56 Chevy quarter panels.

 

Nice start , try your sheet metal work first , might be harder to find a donor.
x13 on ditchin the wheels.

 

That's what I thought as well, I'd have to alter the tailight housing, other than that I think I'd be close-anybody done this?

I notice there's a butt load (I don't know the scientific measure of a butt load, but there's alot) of Tri5 chev aftermarket support. I'm assuming (you know what that means) that the frame, suspension, brakes etc etc are the same on all the GM's (1955-57(?))
Is this correct?
Would s

 

This is a good question man! It would be really interesting if someone can answer this. Get some more pics up. This is a pretty cool car and would be worth documneting the changes that you make.
J

 

Thanks and I plan on a build thread once I get into her.
I'd like to know the answer as well.
I'm assuming 54-56 olds and Buick are close not sure about Pontiac? 54-56 or 55-57? But I think they'd all be built on the same platform-brakes, frame, suspension etc

 

I agree. Granted someone thought this was a good look on a Buick in the first place. Thankfully you will probably trade em quick. But if that car is stock like my 53, its got the funky buick bolt pattern. Best confirm if its a stock Buick pattern or has been modded

 

Hit up teambuick.com. the guys on their are a good resource

 

Pontiac glass is the same as Chevy, Buick is NOT. Your Buick Special side glass will interchange with Olds 88 but not with Chevy.

And the quarter panels will be off by a mile, not worth the expense of buying Chevy quarters to cut up. I have a '56 Special and a '56 Chevy 210 parked right outside my door right now. They don't share any glass or sheetmetal.

 

Don't expect anything Chevy to work for suspension, brakes, driveline, Etc to Work. Wish I'd done a little more homework before puchasing my '55 Pontiac. I thought "I know tri-five Chevies, this will be easy." It would have if it had been a Candian built car. And Pontiacs are closer to Chevies than the others.

 

A 55 buick special followed you home... A buford is a ford with a nailhead engine..

 

I know where a parts car is in a local junkyard,

 

I love 55 Buicks! I had a special and that car always treated me right. Just throw some shorter coils in the rear and 30 minutes later it will have major custom appeal. Nice score!

 

I think I used some caprice springs rather than cutting up the stockers. It was back when my age still ended with teen.

 

Buford is also the name of a friends COE Ford he's building!

 

Yeah, me and my buddies have always called buicks, bufords. Not sure why, but we were at the high school drags back in the late 80's and there was a really nice OT Buick GS and my uncle said "that's a fast buford" and it stuck-

 

Like Squablo and Rusty Heaps said, there is NO suspetion or glass interchange with Chevys on the Buick. A little Olds and Caddy, but not a lot. Probably Olds doors and windshields, (sedan to sedan, 2 or 4 door doesn't matter, at least for Chevys, as long as they are sedans, maybe Century/Special to 88, Roadmaster/Super to 98 as well). You either have to live with the Buick suspension, or do a significant change to either end you are changing, but there is some good info on the HAMB for that. I loved my 55 Century, but they are thier own animals. Best of luck.

 

Thanks very much for the info guys! I was curious about suspension etc because I noticed many companies offer disc brake conversions, complete 4 link rear end set ups, coil over and A-arm kits etc etc for the Tri5 chev's and wondered if they'd work on Buicks. I need to replace my radiator and I was going to just buy an aftermarket unit for a Tri5 chev and paint it black-but now I'm not sure if the radiator would even work-