At our HAMB and Eggs breakfast last Saturday all us youngin's were embarassed by all the work that Bill Renaldi completed on his Jeepster ( being retired is cheating ) and as such several people made commitments to get something done on their projects. This is my effort for this week. Just to bring every one up to date about the 48 Buick . Janne helped out with the renderings a couple of years ago. I got this far before getting sidetracked on other ( Cash Customers) cars. Enough of the excuses . Here is what I got done. Found all the tools and necessary things right where I left them. The original 48 headlamp assembly will be utilized but there is a small problem . It places the beam out way to far in the Olds headlamp door. A little trial and error determined it would need to drop back 3/4 " in order to line up correctly. A strip of metal was added to the bucket . I'm doing this the hard way. It is difficult to find 55/56 Olds fenders and headlamp doors especially rust free examples. So I am going to make patterns and form all new metal for the opening. Masking tape, scissors and construction paper will be used for the patterns. A outline of the bezel shape is the first pattern made , transfered and cut out. The Olds lamp needs to drop down in the fender as it has an oval shape to it. The edge of the top half of the lamp opening was cut and about 1 1/2" piece removed just above the park lamp . This piece was cleaned on both sides as well as all inner metal areas that will be near the welds . The bezel was then fitted with the lamp assy and the upper attaching screw bracket fabricated and tacked in place. The bucket and bezel were then trial fit in the fender to make sure everything is lined up correctly. The lamp and bezel were then removed from the new/ old headlamp opening and the pieces tacked into place, checked many times to make sure nothing shifted. The next couple of pics show how pieces were made to fit the gaps . Some pieces were arced, streched and twisted to fit the opening after the tracing was done. Having a good tight fit with the pieces is essential. To get a nice even gap to weld I will some times run the air saw down the seam . It makes things just go together much easier. I forgot I migged all this together . All pieces tacked in place and the lamp and bezel reinstalled to check the fit again. Now remove the lamp and bezel and weld everything together. A small piece was made to fill the park lamp opening. All weld seams require almost no ( to be determined ) filler . This area could be finished with zinc primer and a thin coat of polyester glaze. Now assemble one last time to check that everything still fits . Now on to the other side. When doing a mod like this save the patterns just turn them over and you can make the same mistake twice . Its a great time saver. The excuses for not working on the Buick . The "French Whore " is wasnt running and for the most part awaiting an ownership transplant. I finally finished the LS1 Datsun that Janne did the renderings of and sent it off to the upholstery shop. More pics of this build are at http://picasaweb.google.com/wgmauto. I cant wait to get this out on the street to test drive before delivery. These are 12 second conversions using stock suspension, brakes and stuff but there ain't nothin stock left in it. I know its OT build but this is a neat conversion. 425hp and 2600lbs. There is a lot more to do to complete the Buick . Will keep you posted.
Great!! The return of one of my favourite builds. Been wondering what had happened. Did you get the side windows figured out?
Great metalworking! Alos a VERY nice design by Janne, I love his stuff! How's the A-bros Lincoln going?
The Valley / Overman Lincoln is on hold until I find some additional info about the engine compartment and interior on the car , purchase an extremely nice low mile original 52 capri for a donor ( dont tell the AACA guys they could get pissed ), sell the "Frech Whore " , as well as find the winning lotto numbers or a extremely wealthy widow who believes in polygamy.
Are you getting some covert assistance from Stu-D-Baker? I just noticed the grape jelly! That will be a great car.
Thanks for the pictures! I'm getting ready to do a '56 olds headlight swap onto my Ford. I'll probably extend mine an inch or two.
Awesome! Those headlights looks really nice on the car. Didn't know that those drawings were for an actual build.
I love your Buick project, and I'm delighted to see that you're back at it. Please keep us in the loop!
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 9"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 9"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Ted/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <woNotOptimizeForBrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style>[FONT="]Nice work and great looking car keep us posted on you progress. [/FONT]
The Jalopy Journal
