Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

There was a mishap with the wire wheel...

:mmmk:

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Oh no, Who did it get ?

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Ouch. My son used the twisted wire cup on the angle grinder for the first time yesterday, made me nervous for sure.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

When I was a kid, my dad bought a used 1957 Buick Roadmaster. What a ride !!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

It was the newbie on the grinder. Next time I'll give more complete instructions. Sorry Biz.:whine:

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Just a little exfoliation, Biz. Happens quick, don't it?

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Doesn't take but a small edge, and away it goes, hope it didn't hurt to bad...Jim

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

After I played Medic with Biz I went back out and cut and formed the inner frame rail, then cut out the frame part that is in the way for the Jaguar upper control arms. Again using my method of tying it together before cutting it loose. It worked like a champ on the first side, everything checked out level and square.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Next up is making, shaping, and fitting the outer frame rail. This one only gets tacked in and will act as an access port to get to the crossmember mount nuts.

Looking straight down, you can see the rear crossmember mount. It will line up perfectly in the center of my new frame rail. Once I go for placing it precisely I will drill 2 mounting holes in the bottom of the new frame rail, weld the nuts on the inside of the frame, and then weld the outer frame rail on solidly. I'll do the same for the sway bar mounts up front too.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Oh who am I kidding, I finished the whole thing already.

;)

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Ouch for Biz! Hope that doesn't keep her out of the shop.

Nice work on the frame Drew. Looks good!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Looks good. That thing will be a roller before you know it.

Hope Biz feels better soon.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Nice work!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Yeah, that one girl definitely needs a cheeseburger! You can barely see her behind the frame rail :lol:

I'll take that over a sawzall mishap any day! :metal:

I've had more than my fair share of wire wheels twisted up in my tee shirt... :lol:

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Biz should be so excited the scrape doesn't bother her, absolutely excellent work on the frame, very professional and looks well engineered.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Thankfully it's just a flesh wound. Now she has a cool scar to go with the cool car and of course, the cool story to go with it.

Seriously glad it wasn't serious. I've been attacked by wire wheels before. Not fun, at least at the moment.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Thanks all, Biz is better and will be back on it today.

We've got lots of grinding and polishing to do on my welds. On some of my parts I forgot to get the cosmoline off and it was causing some splatter and general ugliness. Everything burned through well enough, just not pretty on a few of the passes before I figured out what was happening.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Nice job on the frame. At least Biz is now all in. She had invested sweat, and after the grinder mishap it looks like she added blood and tears to that investment in this project.

Nice work
Marc

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

She's got skin in the game now!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Ah, learning. Frame work looks nice!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

I was worried about what my welds were looking like until I ran across this one from the 1957 factory!!!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

that may be lead

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

It does kind of look like lead, but it is a weld on the frame for one of the main body mounts.

In my head I can just see the guy on the frame line wielding a big stick welder, wearing goggles, smoking a cigarette. Judging from this weld it was either a Friday or a Monday morning.;)

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

I'm sure you'll redo it and make it nice!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Monday morning, hung over from the weekend.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Last night I decided to make it a faux roller - just cause I couldn't stand it any longer. The rear tire is about correct sized at 27.5 inches which keeps my frame rails 5.25 inches off of the pavement at their lowest point. The crossmember will be 6.5 inches off the ground because it is such a shallow design from Jaguar. Rockers will be 7 inches off the ground. All this looks good to me, but will it be too low for everyday driving?

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

It looks good. But less than 6 inches seems a little close. Maybe you need to check some newer cars for ground clearance. Look at a Honda Civic or Accord to see what the lowest clearance point is.

Don't go to the mall and start crawling under cars and end up in jail!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

My stock height 3rd gen Firebird is less than that. Should be good unless you want to go driving around in the dirt/rocks

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Paved roads should be alright, the roads I go on...not so much.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

I think it sits perfect ,I cant wait to see more .

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

That shouldn't be an issue. My M3 is 4.75" at the frame rails and rearend center section. My '93 Mustang is lower than that & it's fine unless I get on a gravel country road (even then I just slow it down and just a tailpipe will drag occasionally due to the exit route under the IRS).

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

So sweet!

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

The ride height looks good Drew. May have occasional frame scrape of course...and will look good doing it.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Nice frame work/mods drew! Sorry to see about Biz's injury. Those woven wire wheels can be a bad deal for sure! The ride height should be fine. My 40 Ford was 3.5" from the ground to the bottom of the front cross member and it was ok, unless you got into a fast sloping intersection. :lol:

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

I had to use my noggin on this one.

Laying out exactly where to mount the crossmember, I had up and down, front and back figured out, but side to side was a tough one for a while.

I was thinking of pulling a string, but had none - then I remembered my 6 foot level/straight edge. Clamped it to the rockers on each side and lined up the lug nuts an equal distance off of the straight edge. I had already done some centering of the wheels making sure they were perfectly straight. I'll go back over everything again when I'm fresh and verify before welding or drilling out for the mounts.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Good solution. It is always interesting solving problems like this.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

I have known people to have used 8' fluorescent tubes for a straightedge for this type of thing. You may be able to clamp one (gingerly) to the flat side of the frame along the bottom of the body mounts on each side, extending it forward to just behind the IFS. That would give you a reference a little closer in to the center, where you could use a "fixed" (not turning with the spindle) point on the crossmember/suspension. Maybe the contact on the end of the fluorescent tube will actually point to something on the IFS that you can use to check symmetry.

However, looking at the illustration, that doesn't seem to put you much, if any, closer in to the center than the body edge does. But at least it would be a hard measurement from the frame.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Biz and I out in the shop today, She's on teardown duty while I'm still working on the frame adding gussets and grinding things down.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

In working out my ride height, I discovered a miscalculation that required me to cut down my newly fabricated frame rails. Better to get it right now instead of having the car finished and looking ridiculous.

I also made up the front mounting brackets that will be welded to the front horns, 2 of the 4 mounting points for the Jag front crossmember.

Re: Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super
 

Saturday night picture time!

All that's left is the burning.....

I'll have to say, walking up to the car this low is pretty incredible, I just hope that when I get to setting the rear suspension that it's not going to require going into the trunk.