Hey from the UK Recently got my hands on a '59 Buick Lesabre in need of tlc. Already in the UK, and the UK weather has made a impact for sure! Lots planned, but will be slow! Here she is, as purchased. Pretty original, some odd choices have been made - 2 door front bench, really badly fitting carpet & Missing door cards. Started things off by getting it running in the tank, and cleaning the Carb. Now running great. Next step is to address the lack of brakes. Turned up with Drums all round, and the fronts were empty. After having a look through parts at work it worked out that a set of complete front Hubs, spindle, disk & calipers from a camaro fit pretty well, without crazy mods needed. Old out, along with the springs New in, with some '59 Chevy lowering springs & the camaro disk setup. Now having Chevy front stud pattern, I can test the wheels & tyres im planning After a quick clean Next was to check the height of the car on the floor! And just like that, I'm over the moon with it! Final latest news was my fender skirts arrived! Any comments welcome! Rich
Usually these have the aluminum finned drums everyone wants on their hot rod. Never saw a full on spindle swap on one of these before.
Looks like the outside door handles went missing with your door cards LOL What size engine does it have? And I assume it's still got the Dynaslow trans?
Also surprised the spindles from the Camaro fit onto the Buick. Front seat doesn't look like a split bench, looks like a standard 4 door seat from what I can see. I like the wide whites but the wire wheels I'm not fond of. Pretty cars those '59 Buicks are.
Yer, it did have them front & rear. Sold the fronts as I've done this disk swap . I imagine not many people have tried this, as they've not had the parts lying around Yer, no exterior handles, just turn the key and the door pops . It's got the orginal 364 & dynaslow yer. Planning on changing to a st300\400 at some point, along with a 4 barrel swap It's not a split bench, but it still folds which I wasn't expecting, also looks too narrow for the space . It won't be to everyone's taste, and I've wanted wires & whites for quite a long time! And yet, these are stunning cars
Its 1st Gen hubs. Using the 59 buick ball joints, but the bottom one is flipped. I can do a tech article once its all sussed, still got some bits to solve. Got floors painted, and some sound deadening put down. Also got my wheel nuts, so got the front wheels on
'59s are wicked looking cars, four doors or not. I'd really like to see this without the skirts but it's your car. Good luck.
You need a roof over your head....Interesting car. Not fond of the front spokes. Maybe if they were chrome.