2-1/2 years in the rebuilding and customising of wife's 55 Buick Super from beginning to end as told by my wife: Hi, Mrs. Bassfire here to tell the story of the adventures of building my own dreamcar. We first have to get an idea of where my mindset was on choosing this particular car. After working with Mr. Bassfire (Jerry aka Basses dad) for over 37 years, building and restoring countless cars during our marriage, the most recent: I figured it was time for him to help me build my own car. First a list of needs that My car should have: 1. Needs to be BIG, so I can pack stuff for trips and still have room to breathe and stretch my legs! 2. Needs to be something you don't see too many of at all the car shows. 3. Needs all the creature comforts that a gal has to have - like power windows, A/C, power windows, automatic, power steering and electric wipers. 4. Needs to be mildly customized to make it stand out from an original. With all these things in mind and no firmly decided make or model we set out to find my dream car. Didn't take long. On a return trip from Dallas to visit our son (the infamous Bass) we passed by a friends house not 10 miles from home. There out behind his garage sat a 55 Buick Super 2 dr. hardtop with a continental kit. Looked pretty good from the road. My husband made the comment that he thought the friends son owned the car and it might be for sale. I told him that I always liked the big ol' Buicks and I knew it would meet my needs #1 and #2. You see quite a few of the smaller mid 50's Buicks, not so many of the Roadmaster size. An inquiry was made and a price set a couple of weeks from the time I had first seen the car. It was too cheap to pass up, I figured the Continental Kit was worth that much. The car was delivered and our inspection started with just how much work would have to be done to get it to my specs. WOW! should of looked at it a little closer than from the distance of the road. Lots of rust in the floors, drip rail on passenger side was rusted off. Fenders full of rust holes. Looked like a plastic wrap factory had exploded in the inside, but no dead critters were under that stuff. Sway bar was broke in half. From the front of the body to the rear quarters everything from the bottom 7 inches up would have to be replaced. Best part was the seats and front and rear glass, no chips or cracks but a little smoked on front bottom edge. Hubby was about to back out on this one! but with a promise that I would be there by his side doing everything I could to make it easier, we started. This wasn't going to be easy, and I knew what I wanted, no rusty stuff anywhere. So it was going to have to be a body off restoration. Didn't care for the continental kit on the back as it made the car way too long. So off it came. Needed new back bumper now. Stripped off the 52 yr. old cracked, 2 or 3 layers of maroon paint. Lightened the body by taking off the doors, seats and trunk lid, so we could use the cherry picker to lift it onto a home made rotisseri. Hubby did the door sills and quarter panel repairs and I painted the inside of the floor with POR15. Worst part -scraping all the old undercoating off! You would think with all the undercoating Buick used nothing would ever rust! With the body off the frame we decided that we needed to update. Hmmm...looks like it will fit. Cut the frame in front of the springs and added a 72 Buick clip with 4 bar and drum brakes on the rear. Cut the front off and added a 71 Nova clip with disc brakes. Then re-attached the front and rear bumper holders. Painted all with POR 15. Time for motor and trans mounts, hubby fabricated them. Brake lines were run with the booster and mastercylinder mounted on the frame. We used the original brake pedal that comes up thru the floor. I decided I wanted to update from the Nailhead that came with the car to something with a little more power to pull the big Buick. A 455 in a 55 Buick has a nice ring to it! We just happened to have a 455 that we pulled out of a 71 Buick laying around, so off to the rebuilder. Mild cam? Balanced? rework the oil system to give it a boost? Edelbrock intake with a Quadrajet 4 brl? -----Yes please! Now was the time to decide on paint. I ran thru color combinations, at first thinking I wanted red over black. After trying them out on the car via Adobe Paintshop, I decided on Gold (Chrysler Inca Gold Pearlcoat) over PPG black. Kinda reminds me of Olds that Burt Reynolds drove in WW and the Dixie Dancekings. <IMG 57684381-painted%20top%20003.JPG? image www.yafh.com src-?http:> So with the colors in mind it was time to pull the ugly old dash and wiring and give it a new look. Old original steering wheel had to go. Wanted a tilt wheel so installed a 79 Chev. van column with a 59 Impala steering wheel painted to match. The holes in the horn ring remind me of the portholes in the fender. Took me a few days to get the cracks filled and sanded and hubby painted it. Ordered a new repo horn ring and have added a buick emblem in the middle. Turned the parking brake light on the dash into an idiot light for the alternator that will shine red when it's not charging. Sent all the bumpers, front end and interior chrome off to be re-chromed. Now on to the customising! well a little body work in between. Continued
Definately wanted to shave the hood and trunk emblems, wanted a sleek, low look to the car. So hubby shaved them. I said, since you're on a roll just take the door handles off too. So he did. Now I need those headlight rings (a Super had rings with turn signals mounted beneath the headlights) taken off and some 54 Mercury headlight rings grafted and the headlights frenched. New headlights installed with the turn signals inside. That made the front end look a lot beter to me. Now to the rear. Those Buick tail lights are UGLY (plus they needed rechromed if used and new lens). I want something to lighten the look of the rear end. Searched to find what I thought would look good and settled on 56 Chrysler tail lights. Now I need those frenched in too. He was not too happy with that chore And when you're done with that job could you please french my antenna too? Well that takes care of the outside. Under the hood I wanted a nice neat look so those huge air vent covers on the firewall will have to go. Replaced with flat panels that make it look a lot nicer, and since it's going to have air conditioning won't need them anyway. Hubby did a good job painting the car but I never got so tired of taping, sanding and color sanding. Maybe a Volkswagon Beetle would of been a better choice. Hubby said he'd never build another car that takes 2 cans of wax to wax! All the side windows had to be replaced. Picked up an original powerwindow set up from a wrecked Roadmaster near Dallas. Couldn't use the wiring but only had to buy one window motor to have power windows. Wired teh car with an American Wiring kit. Installed the electric door openers. I wanted the car to ride low. Thought maybe air bag it, but decided that would be a little too much for us to tackle. So hubby cut off one coil on the front springs and put some Chevelle springs in the back. Holy cow, it was low! Looked real good. Problem---couldn't get a jack under it without first putting a smaller jack to get it higher. Neither one of us could squeeze under it and it wouldn't go down the long gravel driveway without scraping all the way. I wanted a low rider not a road grader! Oh well, it looked good and low for a while. Raised the front up 2 in. with a set of Nova big block springs. Added some 68 Buick skylark springs to the back which raised it 2 inches. Now I can get it down the driveway. Insulated the inside of the car and installed the air conditioning unit with a console from a Mazda to hold the controls. The seats were in decent shape, so decided I would try and dye the red and black seats to white and black. Was surprised they turned out so well. Will have them recovered and the door panels and headliner done later. Installed new carpet. Just finished putting on the door seal rubber yesterday. All we like is getting the air conditioner charged and emergency brake cable put on to be on the road. It's been a long haul on a big, long car but I'm definately proud of the results! I owe it all to the best hubby ever! Now where did you hide my keys?
That is too Cool!! Been wondering when you were gonna do a post to show it off!!! Yall Done Good! Rusty
Love to see some back yard builds. Thats grass roots hot rodding at it's best. Congrats on a job well done!
thanks Rusty....we were gonna drive it to Billetproof but got sidetracked. Read your thread about the trip. But that's another story. Looks like you had a great time. Jerry
Very nice, I like the extra touches with the headlight rings and the tail lights too. <input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">
Spray can duplicolor vinyl dye.....be sure and use vinyl dye cleaner before spraying and put on several light coats to cover, it will flake if you do it heavy. (When cleaning be sure to wipe off residue till you have a clean cloth ) Bought the cleaner/prep at a paint store and you can buy the vinyl dye from paint store and they can mix it whatever color you want. Did it on a Corvette one time and it lasted several years. Had doubts about the red bleeding thru but turned out ok.
That is absolutely stunning. I really like the rear light treatment too. That is really original I dont think I have seen that before.
Thank you and thanks to everyone for the really nice reply's and compliments. I don't think I've seen the 56 Chrysler tail lights in a Buick either, glad you liked em, took me long enough to scrounge up a good pair! Scarcer than hens teeth. Mrs. Bassfire
The Jalopy Journal
