Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Still making progress. On the Jag mount, bolts ran through and clamped it to the "frame rail". Here I will have longer bolts and run them through the mount, then a frame rail, then the other side of the mount and then another frame rail. It's complicated to explain, but easy for me to "see". Give me a week or two and everyone will see.

I have spent a ton of time centering, setting the height, locating fore and aft, and leveling the pinion. I've finally got it exactly where it should be. Looks like it will work very well, however - I will have to modify the floor at the rear seat about 2 inches, but it is in an area of dead space - unnoticeable on the inside of the car. Just more work for me! Yay.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Drew, based on your last pic, it's easy to understand what you will be doing...Jim

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

:agree:

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Is there a bushing, or some kind of metal sleeve, which will go in there to locate the mount? I understand your plan of attack, just curious what's going to bear that crosswise loading.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Metal sleeve is my plan, but I am at a loss as to where to get them, I can cut them to length, just need the dang thing. I went to Active Bolt today to get my longer bolts but they had no sleeves. They've been around since 1959. Any ideas?

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

What size bolts? What about DOM tubing? Say you have 3/8" fasteners... you could get 11/16" O.D. DOM tubing with a 1/4" wall and that would give you a 7/16" I.D.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Something like Diiiissss?

(said like Meg Ryan in the movie French Kiss when she flashes the diamond necklace around her neck)

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

I usually use McMaster-Carr for this sort of thing - have a look at this section of the catalog here - it shows what they have for structural tube stock. There's a pretty good selection of ID's available in 0.188" wall and some in 0.25" wall under the "Easy to weld 4130 Alloy steel" section

Not affiliated, of course, but they are super handy ;)

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Yep

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Oh man, that is perfect, thanks so much for the heads up.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Look Ma, no hands!!!

It's only just barely held in place with 6 bolts and only the new outer rails. I have a lot more to do here, a lot!

Last picture is not black spray paint on the ground but instead metal shavings! See where the tire was sitting for the last week?

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Saturday Night Picture time!

Biz and I spent a good part of the day building a set for a high school play with some of the parents, ho hum.

Then the fun started, designing and building the inner frame rails.

The 2x4 is helping me check the height/level of the rails before I weld the inner ones on.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Yeah, I finished them both.....:lol:

You can see the front and rear mounting notches that I will fabricate a flat mounting surface to and then box that out so I can clamp it tight like the factory designed it.

Its coming along!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Looks good Drew. I think I am starting to understand how the cage will be clamped.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

As I am working on my rear suspension mounts, I keep going back to "if thats the way the factory did it, it must be important" I had at first thought I would not have room for mounting "pads" for the brackets to nestle in to like Jag had done it, deciding instead to just let the bolts take the forces. I've reworked my design to go back to mounting pads AND bolts and I'm much happier about it.

I made the pads from qtr inch stock and after many test fittings and reworking, I was ready to weld. I simply laid the pads on the mounts so they would seat perfectly and then welded the pads to my frame rails where they were. I didn't want to be tugging or twisting the mounts to get them to conform where I thought they should go - easy to do since they are rubber.

I know, I know, all day and I only got 4 small pieces of metal tacked in...I'll work harder next time.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

I love this build. Thanks for taking the time to document all the steps to make this work. If I live long enough, I would love to use the same suspension setup under a 55 2 door Caddie Hardtop - it would make an awesome cruiser.
Ricky

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

When working on something as important as this, time isn't a factor, correct outcome is, I feel you are on track....Jim

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Sorry I've gone dark, but I've been engineering a Sportclips 3 store purchase which is quite involved. Long story short: I now own them and am in the process of transferring everything into my name, employee changes!, and general upgrading. I'll try to carve out some time for The Bride soon.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Never heard of these stores ,tell us a little about them if you want to ,good luck.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

SportClips is a haircut franchise for men or boys with a sports themed atmosphere, playing ESPN on big screen TVs throughout the store.

www.sportclips.com

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Hey Drew how about that i am posting photos now of my friends'57 with a complete jag rear end in his truck. You are the only other person I have seen use the cage without using the kit. My friend Donnie felt it was cheaper and easier to go this route. GR8 minds think a like I guess, hahaha. GR8 work. The red arrows in one photo just indicate a temporary jig set up. I'm gona post more up date pics on my page now.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Hoping for some updates on this one soon. Love this build.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Me too ,where is Drew .

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

busy with his new acquisitions.
subscribed, because i see the level of craftsmanship going into this one as i did with his last one.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Sorry guys, earlier I have been wrastlin my 3 new Sportclips franchises. Getting them where they need to be staff and quality wise. This week we have been doing Service Over Self inner city mission work with the youth group - repairing houses in the poorer parts of our city (roofing in 95+ degree heat!) I'll probably be doing a little business catch up next week, but may be able to regroup and figure out where I was on the missus.