i just took a little break from some of the forums for a bit. I kept meaning to pop back in when i had some progress to show, but with how long the engine was at the machine shop for, buick motivation dropped a bit and life gets in the way. Putting the intake and header back on and mocking it up did alot though, then Fitchburg swap meet was over the weekend, and im feeling motivated! Of course its right when i committed to starting another project thats arriving this weekend, so we'll see how my time management is. Its a few years off topic, but its for a good friend of mine and im glad to be a part of it. 69 chevelle ss 396, that her father bought as a teenager, and who passed last year. Its been off the road 20+yrs with a possibly blown engine/definite cam ate a lifter and wiped out a lobe, so im going to be getting that back up and running for her. Hopefully not a real long project, just back up and running and refreshing some of it, and that will be my good deed for the year
That's a nice side project to take on. I was at Fitchburg too! Did you score anything cool? My biggie was a Fenton dual for the EAC flathead I just acquired.
I had passed by this thread so many times but spent over 2 hours today soaking up every word and picture. @Stooge, your metal work is amazing, and has motivated me to get going on my Buicks. Keep the updates coming!
Heyy alright! I dont know why you would skip over it, it has all the enticing words to draw people in, a SLOW moving project done with a POOR budget! i really appreciate the kind words! And glad that any of my ramblings and work has given someone some motivation to work on their stuff! Glad to hear it and glad to have you here! luckily i spent the last week or so stripping, disconnecting and organizing everything chevelle related to make things easier for when reassembly starts, (meticulously bagging all the hardware and labelling stuff, im finally learning!) and pulled the engine sunday and got the trans seperated last night, so happy to get the messy hard parts done for the most part. I'll put it on a stand this week and drop the pan to see if its full of glitter and go from what we find Big ol' 396 Fitchburg is always great! I wasnt looking for anything really specific, i did find some big flat glass headlights for cheap for a hypothetical future speedster project though! I ended up with another buick straight 8 and 2 pretty rare factory 1941 dual carb intakes and exhaust manifolds, that i dont know what to do with, so the obvious answer is start a low buck speedster after some of the other cars are driving and i can free up a garage spot. I might try and sell one of the intakes, and use the other one for this hypothetical project. One has Stromberg Aerotypes and the other has Carter WCD's. Even has the original Y pipe and dual carb air cleaners
Those intakes are a rare find and to have two of them is even more so. I have most of a 248 that I am contemplating for the second coupe, going Nailhead in the first one.
A few semi interesting goings ons lately Sent out the front Delco Lovejoy shocks to be rebuilt and got them back within a couple of weeks from Apply Hydraulics so i was able to put the front end back together on the Buick and get it on it's wheels for the first time in atleast a year. I still need new inner tie rod ends and to freshen up the front sway bar, but good to see it on the ground again Got the Edsel back up on stands to finish the exhaust, its a little tight trying to fit a 3" pipe around the leaf springs and gas tank back there, but it will eventually fit with some futzing around. Its just about done from the manifolds back, tucked up pretty tight to the floor since the wagon sits so low and for being so big, theres not a ton of space to play with underneath with how low the rear floor footwells go down Put my little C10 that i built years ago to work moving the big block for the Chevelle im doing for a friend of mine, to the machine shop. It's in good hands, he's a long time engine builder and also has several nostalgia nitro cars and a 12k horsepower funny car they finished building last year and have started campaigning this year Raised bed floor and a very low truck makes the 396 look huge! Now for the interesting stuff! A buddy's cousin unfortunately passed earlier this year, both are long time hot rodders, and as such, he's been tasked with cleaning out the horde, as well as being gifted the last car the cousin was building, a 28/29 tudor sedan. It was in the basement, and had yard drove at some point, still has some finishing up details, but a very cool car. Im not a Ford/ Model A expert so i dont know what the suspension and steering is from, but got it back to the garage and tucked it in the corner. Im really digging the all white interior And to do my part in helping clean up the property, i took home a 28/29 roadster body. There is all the parts to do a complete'ish car, but the frame that was there is a little janky, plus i have plans, but there is a complete rear axle and transverse leafs, several front ends, a 59a-b flathead and trans, some banjo wheels/ columns, a bunch of solid front axles, and a shed full of cowl gas tanks and what looks like a 1937 ford truck all disassembled. got the body home last night and into the backroom of the home garage and started imagining! I always thought a big straight 6 would be cool in a roadster, so by that rational, a free dual carb straight 8 is even cooler? theres a handful of projects i need to finish before i can start doing anything with this, but its never too early to start collecting parts! Possibly a T5 to adapt to the baby buick 248 straight 8, and i've always thought quarter elipticals were cool, and i need some front suspension to handle the weight. Im going to try and keep this pretty low buck, and so far a free body, free engine, and atleast free rear suspension is off to a good start
See Jonathan W, on You Tube , for inspiration. Also, with a little work to the bell housing the T 5 will bolt up. Ben
At first i was thinking it was a cut down coupe, but the rear belt line/ lip didnt look right, but the windshield stanchions and the rectangular holes, didnt look like other roadster cowls i had seen either. Im fine with cutting/ reworking the holes and windshield posts if i dont come across the correct cowl Yeah, thats what i was thinking with the T5. Bendtsens/ speedgems has an adapter for late 80s/ early 90s S10 t5's, so injust need to find one with a cable driven speedometer instead of the electronic ones. I need to get some other projects finished before i really start anything on this, but doesnt hurt to start keeping your eyes peeled for parts
after a few days of thinking it over, i've wanted a full fendered roadster for years now, and full fenders and hood means flathead V8, so i trucked home a 59A-B and transmission yesterday morning. I still need to drag the front and rear axles, with the wishbones, springs, steering, etc. but i wanted to get the engine home since that would be the biggest thing to move first. This might not be the engine i end up using, but for free, it will be fine atleast for mockup when i start doing anything serious with this project. My little white C10 earning it's keep yesterday morning! Coilovers and drag radials and a heavy flathead, a little precarious, but it was fine and im sure was funny to see driving by at 8am on a sunday of course i had to roll it over infront of the body when i got home to get the imagination going! Also wrestled the fenders back on to the Buick, both to free up some floor space, and figure out a spacing/ alignment. Not the funnest thing to do without an extra set of hands, but its on. i need to figure out what to use for a radiator support. When i brought it home, there was an old alternator pulley acting as the spacer, so i put that back in saturday, but i'd like to think of a more permanent solution. And got the Tudor running! it sounds like it had been a few years since it was last started, but just drained the gas and replaced with some fresh stuff, new battery and fired right off. Sounded good, i think its a pair of cherry bombs/ some other red glasspacks under there. The oil pressure gauge wasnt reading anything, theres definitely oil, but add it to the list of things to look into, and give it a good once over.
Whoops, didnt realize it had been since August! I've been keeping busy, i freshened up a '69 Chevelle SS 396 for a friend of mine, who inherited it when her dad passed away in 2023, but he had owned the car since he was a teenager in the 70s. It had been off the road for 20+ yrs with a wiped out cam. Engine rebuilt, (not by me), new gas tank, carb, distributor i stole off one of my other cars, fuel lines, trans lines, fuel pump, radiator, inner fenders, cleaned up wiring, new shocks, some new brakes, sway bar bushings and links and probably a bunch more, but got it starting driving and stopping for them. Plugging away on the Buick and Edsel and freshening up my C10 since it sat most of the year and started running a little rich. Carb look ok, but there was a bunch of junk in the inlet port so im guessing some stuff got pushed through and gummed things up. i had a new one on the shelf i tossed that on and will rebuild the other one when i get the chance. Also got the tires, firestone bias ply 7.00-15 in for the Buick. i almost didnt buy the trim rings for the Wheelsmith smooth wheels, but surprise to myself, i like them better with the ring. Working on getting the pedal to work a little smoother with the dual carbs on the straight 8. Cut up a Summit aluminum underfloor pedal and adapted it to work with a 3/16 rod and used a heim joint at the pedal instead of the cable. It was kind of herky jerky, but i removed the return springs off of the Strombergs and that made it a little more fluid, but i still need a return spring, so i might cobble something together at the pedal end of things. Also found some banjo fuel fittings from Nystrom Performance that solve my issue of the fuel lines occupying the same space as the hood sides, and still use 5/16 hardline. I'll figure out a way to attach a more stock looking pedal in place of the cut up aluminum chunk there now Im thinking i might try to space the end of the pedal bracket over a little bit to both move the rod away from the header and also maybe try using a clevis shackle to see if that makes things smoother. i have a bin of that stuff that i'll dig through a try a few things out this weekend Im starting to hunt down all of the brake stuff im missing on the buick, theres a shop, (Then and Now Automotive for those in the South Shore Ma area) next town over that supposedly has the drums in their warehouse, but im missing some of the specific bars for the rears that i'll have to search for. Getting the stock Edsel pedal to work with the later 460 big block is going easier than i was expecting. i had to weld shut and redrill one of the pedal bracket holes to fit the intake mounts, and then just bent and threaded a short piece of 3/16 and found some quick release ball joints. I have a set of pulleys for the crank, waterpump and alternator coming in tomorrow after dicking around with old pulleys i had scavenged around. CVF Racing had a set of scratch & dent ones on their ebay page for a little over $100 for the 3 piece single groove pulley set, so i grabbed those. Next will be pulling the exhaust back out to fully weld up and make a few hangers, then start figuring out what changes with the wiring need to happen with the 1 wire alternator and pertronix distributor. Ive read a few posts on here about it, but need to go and map it out with the car infront of me I havent hooked up the original kickdown rod yet to see if that will fit the C6, but hopefully thats not too far off that something cant be micky moused together I went to the end of the year New England Dragway swap meet in October? and found some good front fenders, and some odds and ends for my pile of parts that is starting to resemble a model A. there was some figuring out what that car started as, it didnt look like a cut down coupester, but the body lines were different than a roadster, and the cowl wasnt a roadster. Some detective work leads me to think it was originally a Leatherback Coupe, which explains the cowl/ windshield stanchions, the rear trunk panel to bodyline, etc. Im fine with it, its going to be a simple little full fendered hot rod. i have $150 into this pile of stuff with the body, 59A and trans, front and rear '40 axles and suspension, a handful of steering columns, clutch and brake pedal, front fenders, roadster windshield stanchions, crate of headlights, extra cowl tank, even the little running board luggage rack and a bunch more stuff. Its going to be pretty low buck and i am trying to hold off "starting" on it until some other stuff is further along, but its nice to be able to go to a swap meet and find parts for a change. The Buick and Edsel are always slim pickins! The other '29 tudor sedan seems to have a problem with the rear end so that will get pulled and theres a handful of other things that need a good once over. and a little off topic, but what occupied half of this year
A weekend of successes! Ive had the flathead since the summer, i got it for free with the model a stuff, but was taped shut under a tarp, under a porch. Supposedly was a good running engine at the time that my friend's cousin got in trade, but ive been avoiding it. Pulled the plugs friday night, no rust and came out easy, and dumped some marvel mystery down the cylinders. Saturday it spun over first try with a ratchet on the crank and goes really easy. I'll pull the heads and pan at some point, but im staying optimistic since its atleast not frozen. I cant do another expensive full engine rebuild after the buick's engine, so if i can get away with a cleaning and regasket, replace as needed, would be good for this car's plans I havent really looked up the casting numbers, but 59A-B, rebuilt at some point Holley 94 Got in a set of pulleys from CVF Racing for thr 460 in the '58 Edsel wagon. Ive bought from them a few times before, and they have some good budget minded sets and made in the USA. I had been trying to put a set together out of stuff i was coming across, but then the set i was looking for popped up on their ebay store as scratch and dent for $119 and they look perfect just an old belt i cut and taped to make sure the belt lined up and i'll use it to measure for a new one And cut some length off of the throttle rod in the Buick, swapped out the heim joint for a shackle clevis and made a little threaded piece to mount it just to prove the idea. I'll make it a little nicer/ more permanent next. Some adjusting to get it right and its working just how it should now. Put the stromberg arm springs back in so i didnt have to reinvent a throttle return set up and its all nice and snappy. I want to remake the stock flat plate that i mounted the pedal to, and that the clutch and brake pedals go through. Maybe make the new one out of 1/8 or 3/16 plate and try and use the stock threaded holes in the floor. Feel motivated now!
I like your projects. I'm still grinding away on my '37. It's been over 5 years. Your comment on parts is so true. I just went through a struggle for headlight parts. Lenses etc. are getting really hard to find. I hope yours are complete.
Yeah! still love this car, but i definitely underestimated it, or at least shifted what i was building towards, and it definitely got a little nicer/ fancier than i think i was originally planning. Kind of moved toward more roadtrip/ touring car that i can get in and drive a few states away than low, loud, scrappy hot rod. Still trying to keep it all stuff that would have been available in the 50s So the roadster, im going to actually try and keep low buck and simple hot rod ..... i have said that for the last 2 full build personal cars and they both snowballed alot Building the chevelle was a pain, but what a nice difference it was to be able to just go online and have options to order whatever i needed and have it in a few days! Between the Buick Century, an amalgamation of senior series cars and junior cars, and alot of 1 year only stuff, and the Edsel, a 2 year only car brand, and again, an amalgamation of ford's different cars/ brands, trying to find some things can turn into looking for months or years. I have 1 side of the needed brake pieces, so better than nothing if i have to cobble something together or find something similar to work. I'll put a list together and call Dave in Minnesota to see if he has what i need. The headlights, i have most of the parts i think. i was planning on doing a sealed beam swap at one point, but i might try and just go with the original stuff if i can make it work. I took them apart to paint a few years ago and put the headlight guts in a box, so hopefully the box is still somewhere on the shelf and hasnt disappeared into the void. Trying to ride this burst of motivation and get some stuff done, so hopefully some good progress made in the next few months
The Jalopy Journal
