made my decision; the shoebox will have a carson top. i know its still ways away from any body modifications but its nice to have a plan. want to keep it simple and traditional. also want to build this up quickly cause the sooner i get this into driver status the sooner i can take my Buick off the road for its make over. day it arrived: i had aquired a 283 SBC off a 61 Nomad with supposed 84K original miles. i seen the motor run in the Nomad and it was quite not smoking or knocking. so my plans are to clean up the motor, find some valve covers that dont say Chevrolet on them and take care of some essential. plan to not use the power steering or the a/c, keeping it generator though. SBC 283: some parts i will use some i wont: well, progress wont be fast cause i cant afford to take too much time off from work, but i will squeeze in a few hours every night i can till i see my vision come true
the ball started rolling today on this project! getting it into the shop turned out to be quite a feat on its own. 4 dollies and pulling it with my shop truck then a couple hands to push it up the ramp. once in, the body was immediately removed. the frame was being built for air bag but i dont want to spend the extra cash to go that route, so a couple coil springs were put up front and for now a leaf spring and s-10 rear end hung out back. i know the rear end is about 2" too short but with the 1" spacer / bolt pattern change i will be just fine. i will also be doing a basic 2-link system to get the back even lower and put coils back there too. the frame was already notched by the previous owner. being that the floors were so hacked up already, i decided to remove them all together and start fresh. i know rockers inner and outer will need work so this will allow me to better repair them. also figured that while i was redoing all the floors front to back i should channel the body. i dont want to loose too much cabin space so i only pinch channeled it. front firewall remains in stock height, while trunk body mounts are raised about 3" maybe 4". so i can have more "suspension" and a nice rake tail-dragger of course. crappy pic, but the front frame area has been cleaned up and sprayed in black, the body is sitting where i want it on the frame and its a roller now! this week's forecast shows there will be some new rocker work early in the week, with some scattered floor pan work towards the end of the week going into the weekend.
i want custom tail-lights, didnt want to delete the wind split on the body, so remembered my 51 Buick lights were still on the shelf. ill use them horizontal as opposed to factory vertical and ill French them cause the headlights will get Frenched too. first things first is the frame template, used 2 round pipes welded to the table, then heat and wrapped some 5/16 solid round bar... welded the joint and blended, now i can work them onto the back of the car...
ive been focused on the rear of the car. over the weekend and some late nights, i got both taillights grafted in, shaved the trunk lid and molded the rear splash pan to the body. here you can compare the 51 Buick lights Frenched in vs the stock lights...
today wrapped up the rear modifications by removing the factory fender seam... then moved up front to work on the firewall... tomorrow ill blend the welds on the firewall and possibly take a short break, but then again maybe not.
thanks for all the kind words! im really into this project and motivated to "get there". there is a lot to do before the big chop happens and i am just trying to enjoy the process as much as the final product. hopefully everything keeps flowing. today the firewall was blended and primered and the dash too got filled blended and primered... here you can see the stock holes on the dash, lots of knobs and in the center a radio... i dont have the original radio nor will i pony up to get one or a delete plate, i opt to just smooth it out along with key hole, vent knob, interior light knob and a few other knobs and holes that looked a bit random... barely visible but to the left of the speedo only 3 holes remain... from left to right... push button start... headlight knob... key hole. there will be no wipers or hazards or any of that, i still might fill the push button start and leave only key and headlights and yes i am aware that the key is on the left, just like a 59 Ford Fairlane...
rear of the car is almost finished! the last thing i will need to do other than body work and final adjustments is the license plate mount. want to put it on the bumper with a guard frame, so ill be looking for something from a Kaiser or front 50 Chevy frame guard... keeping things "affordable" simple bumper blades cost less to re-chrome than those with bumper guards, so i opt to shave the bumpers smooth even of the bolts: brackets have been welded to the back side and bolt holes filled and smoothed: taillights are installed, bumper too it has 4" clearance i think that will be fine: bumper required a couple plate extentions because the body is 4" lower than stock so that would put the bumper exiting just under the trunk:
I have a 49 & a 50 Tudor . I am going to sell the 49 and keep the 50 . I really like how your tail lights turned out . The sides look smooth along with the top fender welds that were removed . I like that idea and made the back look very smooth and clean ! I will be running a 289 or 302 in mine with a 3 speed top loader to keep the "3 on the tree" ! I will pull the bumpers in closer and leave the dash alone since I have a good working radio . I can't lower mine too much since I live in Pa and the roads really suck ! I am going to leave my top alone since I don't know how to chop the top and can't afford to pay someone to do it . Will have no side trim or door handles . I want mine very smooth & clean . I have toyed with the tail light idea but haven't found any I like yet . I thought about a 3 piece tail light somewhat like yours if I can find some small ones or maybe a Frenched flat tail light . Yours turned out very nice but I don't want to steal your idea . I will only have a few kustum things done to mine since I am working on about 1/2 a shoe string budget ! Mostly work with what I have ! Keep up the good work and the pictures coming ! Retro Jim
thanks guys! so last night my pal wanted some therapy, how better to clear your mind than by working on that car you cant wait to see going down the road... plans were to simply finish the driver rocker panel, the outside skin was already welded in. so only the inner rocker needed to be installed. being that the roof will come completely off we thought it would be wise to beef up the inner rocker. how about some 4" x 1/4" x 6'??? 4" hieght was perfect from top to bottom of rocker and the 6' length put us from front body mount to rear wheel well. this should help keep the body from sagging when it looses some roof structure. off this plate i will later fab 6 body mounts to the frame, 3 on each side. that plus the 2 on the firewall and 4 in the trunk should keep this thing firmly planted. we test fit the doors for gabs and fit so everything will line up nice needless to say, the driver side was just not enough for one night. the passenger side got outer and inner rockers installed! so that means floor work can commence this weekend?
fabricated 6 body mounts from 3/16" steel off the 1/4" inner rockers to the factory chassis extensions. sorry for the crappy pic but you get the idea a flat plate for the mount and a triangle for strength. mounts are fabbed "solid" so that later rubber insulators will installed in between for vibrations. then the front floor work began using 2 sheets of 10' x 4' 18 gauge steel. maybe today or weeknights the notch and trunk will be completed, the driveshaft tunnel will happen once the motor/trans are in place.
thanks! im excited too! look forward to working on this car every chance i get. work continues on the shoebox. Sunday wrapped up some welding on the 2 floor pan halfs and made the notch flooring. its again 18 gauge with some bead rolling and all that is left is to add 3 bends and set it in place... today i got my transmission, its a rebuilt Corvette 700r4. same deal i got in the Buick basically, only this 700 will be keeping my 283 SBC happy on the highway when overdrive kicks in and i cruise 70+ mph... motor and trans set in place. this is for mock up purposes only. the motor will come back out this weekend to get freshened up, this will allow me to finish the trans hump and tunnel...
very cool and interesting thanks for the detailed pics now i better understand what im gonna have to do to replace the floor (stock pans) in my 50
remember i am fabing these floors to suit my needs (pinch body drop) so your stock pans will most likely be different. so the mailman arrived yesterday and i could not help but get right to it... first i had to trim a little off the top bar: then the inside of the bullet required torching off a bracket and opening it up for exhaust exit. 1 bullet was dented on the tip even though the plan was to run exhaust out of them already: so after a lot of profile grinding the 50's Kaiser rear gaurd looks right at home on my 50 Shoebox. the bullets will get fully welded to the top bar and blended. the exhaust too will be welded flush to the bullet cut out and the exhaust pipe connection will happen behind the bumper for a cleaner exit:
Too cool... I have a kaiser guard for my rear 51' ford bumper if I ever get around to it? Looks great!
would love to see how your going fasten the kaiser guard to the bumper, or are you gonna weld it and chrome it as one piece or bolt it to bumper and keep it removeable? lookn forward to some more pics
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