tech post: 56 buick lee bubble lenses into 53 belair

well, the chevy is laid up temporarily,,,,turns out the guy i bought the engine from was a total liar,,,he said "ran great when pulled"....took the head off and found a basically shattered intake valve on top of piston #1,,,so while the head is being done, i decided to work on my taillights today....i had planned on using 56 packard lenses frenched in, but i felt it was too common, and it looked a little out of proportion to the chevy's lines in my opinion...i had a pair of lee bubble lenses for a 56 buick that i kept looking at and thinking hhhmmm,,,i've never seen that done before,,,(probably has, but i havent seen it)anyway, heres the results in pictures:

first i bent up some 1/4" brake line to the shape of the lens,,,tacked it together,,,,,next a built a "skeleton" to attach the sheetmetal to. i cut out some sheetmetal, worked it a bit on the english wheel to get my compound curves,,,,then i tacked the pieces below the lens to form the bottom contour. i then made a template for the top piece and duplicated it in sheetmetal and tacked it to the top,,this is the piece that will bridge the quarter panel and the new lens housing,,,i welded three mounting bolts to the back to hold the lens in,,,,,it is now ready to weld to the car,,,,thats as far as i got with it,,,ill post some more progress pics as i go...

 

What's the story on that coupe with the ply bumper?

 

it belongs to my friend vic,,,,its a 47 merc...he and chopolds just finished fixing a poor chop,,,i think there are some more pics posted on the hamb somewhere

 

seymour....if you want to see some "in progress" pics of that merc, do a search of chopolds posts,,,,there are some additional pics there

 

Thanks for taking the time to do a realy cool and tasty tech tip! Can't wait to see it smoothed and painted one color. Update to this post when you get more progress shots, will ya?

 

jim,

sorry to hear about the bad head! maybe vic can fix you up.


ed

 

great tech - I am starting a 53 chevy, changing the original taillights is high on my list, would love to see finished photos.

 

yeah,,,those stock 53 lights are some of the ugliest ever.....i will post more photos as i go,,,,,next i have to make an exact duplicate of that one, and then figure out how to make the taillight buckets to put the bulbs in,,,ill probably end up cutting up the originals somehow....

 

Very kool........