What to do? '51 Buick Dynaflow / Part out or Customize it?

I just bought this car for the running straight 8, tranny and rear axle and some other miscellaneous items. After getting the car home and looking at it I'm torn. The wife and some friends say fix it up and others say 4 doors aren't worth it. I like the car but it would need extensive amount of work and money. The car is about 90% complete.

What would you guys do?











Thanks for any comments.


BloodyKnuckles

 

How much cash do you have into it at this point?

 

$550


BloodyKnuckles

 

Maybe you could cut it off at the beltline and make a roadster out of it.

Seriously though, what are you going to use the straight 8 in? Maybe you could buy a rotted out '77 Electra for $200 and throw the 350/auto/rearend in this '51 to cruise around in and still have your straight 8 to play with.

If you can sell ALL the good parts off of the car before it gets crushed, I'd say you could part it out if you want to. But if you're just going to take the drivetrain, sell off a few odd bits and crush the rest, It would be a real shame. Four door or not, we shouldn't be crushing good restorable cars just to get a few good parts off of them. You could always use some two door sedan parts to make it a two door if the four doors really bother you.

 

With the way that floor is, yeah, it ain't worth fixing. On the other hand it's a shame to lose a complete (kind of) car. But probably the best thing to do would be to part it out. The body looks reasonably solid and the chrome shiny...

 

This is sometheing I haven't considered. I think a roadster would be interesting.

BloodyKnuckles

 

As rusty as that floor is, you're inviting a lot of structural problems if you cut the roof off. But what the hell!

 

Part it and make your $550 back then you wont feel so bad about crushing what dont sell!

 

Are floors not replaceable in a 51?

 

Tex Smith's How To Build Custom Cars illustrates a '52 Special 4dr turned into a 2-door, carson topped, full on custom, with a late frame clip and the works.

You can have some fun with it for $550 - it ran and moved, right? No sense squashing that, there are plenty that the frames are in pieces on that can go in it's place.

 

Were it in my driveway, I'd patch up the floors and run it. I've parted out a lot of cars over the years, and I can't see where you'd find enough on a '51 Buick 4 door to make parting it worth while. If it runs and the slushbox still works, make a driveable car out of it. If you lose interest in it after that, at least you can sell it to someone else and let it be their project--people like cars better when they are in licenseable condition.