Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super

[Palf70Step]

Looks like she'll be a roller soon!

Nice work Drew.

[flashed]

Looking great .

[oldman3]

Drew, nice job and looks great...Jim

[drewskiren]

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.

[drewskiren]

So happy that it all worked out so well

[drewskiren]

Time to move on to the rear!

[MalibuSSwagon]

Thats pretty cool!

[Advanced Design]

Came out really nice Drew. Looks good!

[Low Elco]

Looks great Drew! Very interested in the rear.

[drewskiren]

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.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice! Have fun out there!

[RockinKees]

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!

[drewskiren]

Originally Posted by RockinKees

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!

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).

[RockinKees]

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!!

[ricott]

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

[NTIMID8R]

Subscribed!! Very cool father/daughter project 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.

[drewskiren]

Originally Posted by ricott

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

Sure thing, 864-1726

[JJorgensen52]

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 ) '63 Wildcat not too long back.

Great work on the IFS!

[drewskiren]

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.

[drewskiren]

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!

[Zoomin]

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

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

[drewskiren]

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.

[FL71C10]

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?

[roushinator]

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

[nlped]

Originally Posted by drewskiren

double rubber

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