Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Looks like she'll be a roller soon!

Nice work Drew.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Looking great .

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Drew, nice job and looks great...Jim

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Saturday night? picture time:

I got all of the nuts welded in the inside of the frame rails and all are snugged down tight. That will make it a piece of cake to drop the crossmember at a future date or throughout the build when needed.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

So happy that it all worked out so well

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Time to move on to the rear!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Thats pretty cool!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Came out really nice Drew. Looks good!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Looks great Drew! Very interested in the rear.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, go ahead give me a hard time for not working on the Buick this week. It's going to be a little hard to get much done from Park City Utah.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Nice! Have fun out there!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

I got a tip from ChuckDriver to look at your build.
I am building a '59 Apache with Jaguar IFS and IRS at the moment.

You have done some pretty fabrication work all together!
It's also great to see your family is involved in the build as well!

Want to see how this is going to be when ready, so I'm subcribed from now on!
Keep up the good work, and take care of wirewheels!!
They're dangerous! ;)

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

I just read you're whole thread myself and am equally impressed. I wish I had seen it before now, I might have had some ride height info you could have used.

My Buick and the Jag XJ-S I used both weigh 4200 pounds, both cars have a similar weight distribution and so the spring rates should be spot on front and rear. I'm not sure how much your truck weighs in the front, but I'll assume the rear might be light. You've done a good job giving yourself some adjustability for the rear ride height, and you will probably want the rear spring rate a little stiffer (which is what I suspect will be) so you can add payload in the bed. If the front of your truck ends up being too heavy for the spring rate, you could probably source some aftermarket race inspired Jag springs.

Here is what I measured on the Jaguar before I took anything off of it:
In the front I measured 3.5 inches of suspension droop - the distance measured at the fender lip from "at rest", to jacked up in the air so that the tire was just barely touching the ground.
In the rear the same suspension droop measurement was 3 inches.

Hope this helps (little late).

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Thanks Drew!

About the Jag rideheight, that's good info, thanks.
The truck is a little bit lighter overall, and I don't know the weight distribution of the truck, we didn't measure that...
Normally, what I read about the Jag swap in TF trucks, is that the springrate is too much for these trucks.
Well we see, when the truck goes down on it's wheels ;)

I will follow your build, I like what you are doing!
Nice car also!! :lol:

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Well I'm late to the party. Great progress so far, and if it turns out half as nice as your truck, it will be a killer ride. My (now 24) year old son and I build a LS powered 66 GTO for him (started on it when he was in high school). The best part (for me) was the time spent working together. I work around the corner from your house (on Primacy Parkway) and would love to stop by and see this project when the weather warms up.

Ricky

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Subscribed!! Very cool father/daughter project:metal: You've got some mad skills. Can't wait to see it finished. If it turns out anything like Young Frankenstein, it'll be killer.

I live just across the state line a little south west of you if you ever need an extra hand.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Sure thing, 864-1726

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

I need to pop into this forum more often! I'm in for the build. Always loved Buicks, my uncle has had a '55 Special coupe as long as I can remember and I bought a (presently disassembled and sleeping :lol:) '63 Wildcat not too long back.

Great work on the IFS!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Sorry for slacking some, but I've had a terrible cold for the last 2 weeks. Saturday I pulled the Jag outside, on its way to a new home/junkyard - that made room for the Buick to get wheeled over to that side of the garage.
Next was to finally put the bumper jacks to their true purpose in my garage - Body Lift!
After raising the body a little on one side, then switch the air hose, lift a little on this side, and back and forth - she is now 4 feet off the ground and I slid the frame right out.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Next it was on to the first of much head scratching over the rear suspension mounting. I have read a lot about guys ditching the "cradle" in favor of solid mounting the rear diff directly to the frame. I still can't for the life of me figure out why guys would ever want to throw away the factory engineered road noise isolation??? After studying the cradle, I am amazed at how brilliant it is - 6 rubber mounts that don't really flex in a way that would create sloppy handling, and yet by being mounted in rubber, all of the road noise and impact harshness won't travel into the frame. The front is the same way, The front crossmember is rubber mounted, but doesn't deflect under severe driving/handling maneuvers. In the front, even the engine mounts are on the rubber mounted crossmember. All in all, we will have rubber mounted engine mounts on rubber mounted crossmember with a body rubber mounted to the frame. Same in the back, double rubber isolation. The ride just may rival a new car!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Sorry you got the cold, but you just had to go on that ski trip. :smoke:

How did you come up with the idea for the Jag suspension?

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

True Hot-Rodders have been adapting the Jag IRS into cars for years, nothing really new or ground breaking there. Keeping it rubber isolated - now thats a novel idea that most guys don't do.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

http://orlando.craigslist.org/cto/4931398376.html

I thought of you when I saw this, Drew. Looks like a big difference between 1956 and 1957. Or is the Special a different model altogether?

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Nice work.... Looking forward to seeing more.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

You said "double rubber". :lol: sorry, I might be a fifth grader. :D