My '56 Buick build *or* How to completely destroy a car

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUN-CP8208/

 

Ah. Sweet, going in the plans!

Pretty slow weekend this time around, my girl's cousin was staying with us and i couldn't really slip away to do any work. I did manage to get about 15 minutes on Sunday to take the upper and lower control arms off the steering knuckles on each side.

Unrelated to anything HAMB oriented, but i did also hang out at my neighbor's house to watch him fire up his big boat racing motor. It's a 540, and it is loud. So awesome. Here's a short video:
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I also thought a bit about my next steps, and i think i'm going to pull the exhaust over Memorial Day weekend, and get started on painting the underside. That should keep me busy for a bit while i save up for machine shop and transmission rebuild. Does that seem like a solid plan?

 

keep it up bro, not sure how far centreville is from richmond, but when i get home i will come over to see how things are going!!!! VA baby!!!!

 

Be sure you have that big old beast supported on some good jackstands or something really solid (NOT concrete blocks) before you get under there. Make sure it can't roll and smash you, chock the tires if you still have the rear wheels on, won't hurt to push on it a little to make sure it's not going anywhere. Be safe and keep on keepin' on. Safety First!

 

Like everyone else, i was in the driveway working on my car on Memorial Day. I had the day off work, and didn't figure on wasting it. I rented a massive angle grinder with a wire wheel on it, and a pressure washer. The plan was to get the loose dirt, rust and crud off the underside and front end of the Buick, then take off the exhaust so i'd be ready for POR-15.

I didn't get a lot of work in over the weekend, Saturday was a big yard-sale-athon, so me and my girl were driving all over the place. However, i scored HUGE, picking up all this stuff for less than $150.



Boxes of sockets, wrenches, a puller that's still in the plastic wrap, punches, rags, a brand new engine stand...just tons of stuff. It was a pretty decent day.

So Monday rolls around, and it's just crazy hot out. But i went at it, regardless. Got a little work in on the front end early, while it was still kinda cool out. The angle grinder was a BEAST. It just chewed up the rust and crap on there. Check this out:





It didn't take me that long to have something respectable from the front end. The only downside was the size of the grinder and wheel made it hard to get into smaller spots. Also it was heavy, and wore me out after a bit.

I took a break around the middle part of the day, jacked the car up really high, and set it on 6 jack stands. Power washed the driveway and deck and front of the Buick, then went into the AC for a bit.

Once there was a little shade on the driveway, i figured i'd crawl under the Buick and spend some time grinding. This isn't the fun work, but it needs to get done. So i went under and ground and took breaks as my arms wore out. I broke out my drill with a smaller wheel to get into places i couldn't fit the grinder, and just went to town. Eventually i got to a point i was mostly happy with, and then i powerwashed the underside just to knock off all the dust i had loosened.

I gotta say, after all that i was beat and i packed it in. I'm gonna borrow the air hose and an impact gun from my neighbor, and try to take this exhaust off sometime during the week.

Next week i'm taking off work, and i've got my POR-15 and front end rebuild kit on the way to me. So the plan is to paint and replace front end parts, and make some use of my time off.

Here's a picture of what i looked like after all the grinding. Free PSA: wear some eye protection.



Yeesh, i'm ugly.

 

Glad you're making some progress that shows...
I'm sure you enjoyed that shower afterwards though!
Great score on the yardsales. Maybe I need to start doing that to. Great deal.

 

Haha, i think my girlfriend was happier i showered than i was...

Yardsales are great. I lucked out, found one in the house of a guy whose son-in-law had just come in from california to sell everything in a weekend. The guy used to be an auto mechanic, so there was TONS of stuff buried in a utility room. All priced to move quick.

 

nice work...i'm not looking foreward to grinding the floor pans on my car, at this point I'm affraid to grind cause the rust is holding everything together!

 

Moving right along! I rushed home last night (as much as you can rush anywhere in northern virginia), got my neighbor's air tools and went to town on the exhaust and control arms.

Used the gun on the metal caps on the control arm inner shafts, they came loose without any problems. Took the shafts out, and now they're ready for cleaning, painting & rebuilding. Then i got to work on the exhaust. It went pretty smoothly, ran into a couple of problems fitting the gun in some tight spaces. But switching to an air ratchet fixed that. I did have to cut the exhaust to get it out, i don't think i had the car high enough in the air to maneuver the bend over the rear axle properly. But it's getting replaced, so i was fine with cutting it. I did forget to keep a hand on the muffler as i was undoing the last bolt, so i was a little startled when it dropped. But after just a bit of work, the exhaust was completely undone and the underside is clear for paint!



I forgot: one weird thing - my exhaust was filled with these tiny seed things. I have no idea where they came from, but they are similar to ones i found in my water pump...i'm confused as to where they came from and how they got in the engine.

Here's a photo.



Bizarre.

 

gonna be following this one. I am an amateur at best when it comes to cars, and I am slowly starting to work on and improve my 65 (OT). It is great to see someone else learning as they go. While I thoroughly enjoy watching the many talented individuals on here, the work is sometimes overwhelming to watch.

With that said, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

Looks like something may have been living in your exhaust.....

 

Chris, if I'm not mistaken, those seed are from mice. They can get into the smallest spots and hoard their cache.

Carl

 

Woah, mice? There were a million of these seeds, they must have been busy. Or a lot of them. Could they also get them into the water pump somehow?

 

mice can pretty much get anywhere.. I assume you'll be seeing a lot more of what they were getting into as you go along...

 

I'd check under your seats Chris... That was a big problem for my 67 Buick. Ended up with 6 dead ones under my back seat. Practically filled a shop-vac with shit. Though mine sat for quite a bit of time in someones back 40.

 

Welp, gonna put that on the to-do list for next week. I haven't seen any other evidence of mice, but that doesn't mean they aren't there...

 

I'm taking a semi-mandatory vacation from work this week (racked up too much PTO. This is what i get for not taking a real vacation in 3+ years), so i'm trying to get as much done as i possibly can with all this free time.

Friday, i got my POR-15 and front end rebuild kit delivered to me. So i was pretty pumped on that.



My assistant, Buford, is helping me look over all the parts i got.



Yesterday, i got started in earnest. Woke up early-ish, mixed up the degreaser, and set about cleaning off the front end of the Buick. Took a big wire brush and a wire wheel on my crappy drill, hit the big chunks and then applied the cleaner liberally. Hosed off, then repeated the process all over again. I wasn't too satisfied with the first round of degreaser, so i went for round two. Once that was rinsed off and dried, i went into the metal prep. Now, the instructions say "keep wet for 20-30 minutes", and that might have been the hardest part of the whole affair, just checking and respraying this stuff constantly.

But it did the job, and once it was rinsed off and dried, i had a decent base for the paint.



And a detail.



The POR-15 was way more watery than i expected it to be. Also the big list of don'ts was kinda worrisome (don't shake the can, don't dip the brush directly into the can, don't get it on your skin, don't let any moisture get in the can, etc). But i took my sweet time and did everything according to the instructions. I gotta say, painting a frame with a brush is a huge pain in the ass. But MAN, when it's done it looks really good.

I painted the frame, the firewall, and the control arms. Took me the better part of 3 hours, and i realized i missed a few spots. But i think on the whole it looks decent, and hopefully it should keep things rust-free for at least a few years. I was a little worried after i was done, because the weather forecast said rain during the time it was drying, and i didn't want that work to get ruined. But it held off until later, and disaster was averted.



the control arms



(that dang plastic drop cloth was giving me headaches all day. the wind was really trying hard to work against me.)

a little detail



Today i actually did take it easy on the car work, i had a bunch of other errands to run. But i did drop my steering knuckles off at a shop to get them to press out the king pins. After they're done, i'll paint them and hand them right back to press the new parts back in.

Tomorrow, i'm going to start under the car. Prepping to paint under there, but i think it's supposed to rain some, so actual paint might have to wait. I'm hoping that i can have at least the upper control arms assembled and put back on before the end of the week.

 

You're movin along a hell of a lot faster than i do. Lookin good

 

Looking good Chris. Keep it up.

 

Came up like a peach, Chris.
Makin' me look lazy!

 

great job so far. subscribed

 

Thanks, guys. I think i've been making some pretty quick progress so far, but i'm going to hit a BIG slowdown here soon. If i had the money, i could probably be back on the road by the middle / end of summer. But i'm trying to save up the cash for the machine shop and transmission work. So i'll probably get the front end rebuilt this month and then....wait a while, i guess. Sucks to lose this momentum.

 

So i didn't get quite as far as i wanted last week. It turns out painting the underside of a car is more time-consuming than i'd realized. But i did start putting the control arms back together, and i had a question.

When putting the bearings back on the inner shafts, i can hand tighten them to a certain point, but they seem to get really difficult to turn after that. Should i be pre-greasing the threaded ends of the inner shafts before trying to tighten them down all the way?

 

Great job on the work you've done. Your progress makes me start wanting to get something done on my cars. Thanks for sharing!

 

Chris: When I did mine, I greased the threads with a light coat to help. I would also suggest you take out the grease zerts while turning the bushings. This will allow air and grease to escape. you might be fighting some hydro pressure while turning them. I had to use a 1" ratchet set to tighten the bushing all the way. it was tough turning them. I would not sue an impact gun so you can maintain control over the feel. If I remember correctly the manual says to do one side at a time. Meaning turn one side all the way in and ensure the shaft is centered, then start the second bushing. You hold the shaft still while turning the bushing. Again, they were really tight and hard to turn.

 

Hey man looks great I know all about the money lol

 

Nice job, I want to see how it comes out.

 

Wow, a 1" drive ratchet? I'll try to fight it with what i've got to start with i guess. What kind of grease do you recommend putting on the threads?

 

Looking good! Good luck!

 

I used regular chassis lube grease. Not sure if it really helped, but in my head it sure did. The 1" ratchet was the only thing I had with sockets big enough.

 

Thanks for this post. It motivated me to finally get working again on my 55 Special. I started today taking my suspension apart. My car was coated with a 1/2 inch coating of dirt/oil/grease which took a long time to chip away and remove. The good thing is that all of that preserved whats underneath and all the bolts turn easily. I will be keeping an eye on this thread to keep me motivated.