Customs 1949 Buick Sedanette build--Picture heavy

R,
Yes, notice the fan in the window behind the car. Wet down the floor after a good cleaning, cracked one of the big overhead doors, turned on the fan and painted away.

 

That's about how I do it...wet the floor and go at it...don't need no fancy booth for a good paint job...

R-

 

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As long as we had the front clip hung and were painting the body we went ahead with the hood, deck lid and the fenders. These pictures are just after base coat--clear coat. Nothing has been rubbed out yet.

 

Is that a "stock" color...??? Lookin' good...

R-

 

No, but it is close. It is called Verde Charo and is from a 2015 Fiat. I had an original paint sheet, somewhat faded by time, and this seemed to match up pretty well.

 

After a week, Max got out the buffer and the compound and went to work on the body. Meanwhile I unwrapped the bumpers and the grill which had been rechromed several years ago, made sure all the brackets got painted and set them up for installation. Then we got out the fender welting and bolted on the back fenders, set the deck lid in place, installed the front and rear splash pans and the grill and bumpers. Here is the result.

 

So, the next step was to start installing the glass and the various external pieces------headlights, wiper motor, tail lights, glass, etc.

 

I had and original set of skirts that were in pretty good shape so I used them. I rebuilt all the lights. Had to rewire everything to convert to 12 volt and dual filament bulb use in the tail lights and turn signals. The back up lights were the most trouble. They have a cylinder that holds the socket on the inside of the tail pan. One of the originals was good but the other was a beyond repair. And all the ones I could find were rusted so bad they were unuseable. I finally just made one using the one good one as a pattern.

You can see the skirts here and the new WSW motor from Newport.

 

A closer look at the wiper motor. Bolts into the same position as the original. The wipers are actually cable driven, with a pulley on each end with a tension spring, located on the underside of the cowl. This caused a bit of a problem when I was installing the Vintage Air unit under the dash.

 

As readers probably know the hoods on these Buicks opened from side to side rather than from the front. Each side is released via a cable pull with the handle located under each side of the dash and the cables exiting through the side of the cowl, snaking around a pulley, with the end attached to a rod that attaches to each hood release pin.




The original cables were shot so I ordered a new set from Bob's Buick along with the steel encased rubber guide for the side cowl exit. I disassembled the latch assemblies (the back one is shown in the picture) cleaned them up, painted them, lubed the mechanisms and bolted everything back up. Then the fun began. I thought front opening hoods could be difficult to adjust!!! Luckily I had the previously mentioned shop manual for 49's. After reading, rereading and reading again Max and I finally figured out what adjustments moved what where we were finally able to get the hood set. Oh, and we had squared the front clip before we tried this which also took some time.

 

Looks great, always liked those cars, you're doing good. That back end, shape of the fenders, taillights, and that sexy bumper are, to me, the most custom looking stock design. Everything on it really works well. Thanks for posting.

 

Here is the after picture.

 

Great work Walt. Thanks for sharing.

 

I do the same thing. Clean the shop real good, pull all the big stuff out and wet the floors the night before and if needed in the following morning too and throw a chain over the rear end and turn on the exhaust fan and crack 1 of the sliding door. Us little guys cant afford a paint booth. Mine turn out pretty good. Bruce.

 

Wish I were even halfway close to where you are on my '48 Cadillac Sedanet...!!!

R-

 

I pretty much wanted to keep the outside look of the Buick stock. The hood is an example. The stainless center strip was in good condition, as was the chrome hood ornament so I just polished them and reinstalled them. The Buick emblem was another story. I had to have the retainer re-chromed and the emblem, while solid, was missing most of the color. My wife does a lot of antique picture and frame restoration so I rifled through her stash of paints and found a silver for the letters, a red and a blue that matched the original and painted them from the back side. Turned out well so I was able to save the price of an after mkt emblem.

 

This is looking great....Keep it going as I want to be along for the ride on this build.

 

REMEMBER, YOU ARE NOW LOOKING AT WORK DONE THIS PAST WINTER. I am gradually catching you up to the current status.

So the chassis is now done, the engine and tranny are in and the body is painted and back together. It was time to move to the interior. Before I made any decisions with the dash, I needed to fit in the Vintage Air unit to make sure I wasn't going to have any issues. I had installed several of these units before in late 40's Chevy cars and PU's and space was always a problem. You almost always lose your glove box space. And, even thou the Buick has a big dash, the stock defrost duct work reduces the useable area, if you decide to use it, and I did. I will come back to that later. Actually you can see four things here: 1) the passenger side hood release, discussed in post 41 and 43, located in the stock place; 2) the AC unit centered behind where the original radio, speaker unit was housed; 3) the open area at the bottom left where the original tranny cover was located; and 4) the need to clean up some of the rust the beginning of rust on the toe board and kick panel.



The radio/speaker unit is huge in these cars, so removing it gives you quite a bit of needed space.

The AC unit has 3 attachment points one in the back and one at each end of the front. While I hated to do it the only viable way to attach the bracket on the back side was through the firewall. But I was able to drill a hole and insert a SS bolt through the firewall behind the WSW motor shown in post 40. It is on the left side behind the retaining plate so it is not visible. I made an attachment bracket for the front right mount that bolted to the former radio bracket ( there is a stud on the other side of the radio, just like the one at the 5" mark in the above photo that bolted to the original bracket). On the right side of the AC front I bolted the retaining strap to the underside of the defroster duct work. I have the dash and duct work out now so I will post a picture of that later.

 

Bruce,
You said "and throw a chain over the rear end".....why do you do that?
Paul

 

static electricity build-up ?

 

I have a 49 Sedanette. Make sure you have good rubber hood bumpers on each side. Even with good bumpers I have paint chipping from closing the hood.

 

I like where you're going with this! I have an original '41 Sedanette, survivor car, it was painted sometime during its lifetime, but the original color is Mermaid Green, somewhat like the color you have chosen for your Buick.

 

Oldpl8s,
I put all new rubber bumpers and stops in the cat. I have had the hood on and off several times and the gaps all seem good. I'll just have to wait and see what road time does to it.

41Owner,

That car looks to be in pretty decent shape. Reminds me of a 47 aerosedan I had for a long time.

 

Thanks it is in pretty good shape, but it has rust in the toe boards and trunk, the rest is solid. I had a '47 Aerosedan too, but I sold it in order to buy my home. Gotta be a grown up sometime!

 

FAT47 Your Buick is looking awesome and Roger I am glad to see you are building the Sedanet that you have saved for years. I am redoing my Desoto Airflow / Fleetline.A few body changes , paint and upholstery. Very time comsuming, LOL.

 

Great info. I just picked up a 49 Roadmaster sedanette in bad shape. I was hoping to fit a nailhead in it but was worried about it fitting . If you got a 455 in I should be able to get a nailhead in. Your car is coming out great.

 

nailedbuick,
Thanks for the compliment. I will post more pictures of the engine bay as the thread moves along.

 

I'd like to say that I planned to use the original tranny cover all the time and set the engine/turbo 400 in place to accommodate it, but the reality is I just lucked out. The cover plate was in pretty bad shape on one side (below the original gas pedal where a wet foot left water for 50 years) and usually I have to custom make a tranny cover so I didn't care. But here is another reason to always save every part until the car is on the road.


When I was ready to make a new cover I sat the old one in place to see how much I would have to raise the tunnel and low and behold it fit with enough clearance. So, I decided to try to repair the stock cover. If you look close you can see that the cover is actually a double layer of metal. First step was to cut away the bad stuff. I did the bottom layer first and then the top layer.


You can see that I had to cut away more of the top sheet. I had put it in the blast cabinet prior to cutting anything to make sure I could see all the bad metal. I had to be careful in cutting the rusted sections out so that I didn't cut into any good stuff on the layer above or below. I replaced it in the same order I cut it out. You can also see a large access hole on the right side. I made a plug for that also.



While I was at it I cut a plate to cover the brake pedal access. At the top I extended a section up into the steering column area to form the bottom of where the steering column will exit the floor boards.



I then made a second piece to overlap the top extension of the brake pedal plate so I would have two pieces that overlap at the center of the column hole where the bolts on either side are located. This would allow me to install the column or remove it without having to remove the pedal cover. More on that later.

 

Some pictures of the inner fender well trimming to fit the M-II front suspension.


The radiator support bracketry is the key to holding the front clip together. Yes, things are dusty in these pictures and the reflection of the camera flash makes it look like a shit paint job in places but it's not.



I added the bottom cross member on the radiator core support on the front side (pictures on next page) to stiffen it. In it's previous life it was part of an elevated dog bed. I always try to keep these types of parts around in case I need some scrap. Put it in a tubing bender to round the ends then welded a flange on each end so it could be bolted to the core support. The support at the top is original, but I had to make extended brackets on each side so it would clear the AC condenser in front of the Walker radiator.