Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super

[Scott2]

Amazing progress! The paint booth brings back old memories - I primed and painted more than a few cars, a boat and a couple of trailers in a similar setup although I also rented time in a proper booth occasionally. I rolled up and stapled a 1x2 at the bottom of the plastic so it sat a little tighter on the floor, and wet the floor before spraying for dust control. When I wasn't painting I rolled each side up to the ceiling and held it there (bungees? Can't remember that part). Also always used a ground strap which is probably still a good idea to get rid of static electricity. I used to shoot some flake and metallics and they didn't lay down right w/o a good ground.

Looking forward to more progress!

[ole dollor]

loving your project , can't wait to see it when its done ......cool project .....

[drewskiren]

Originally Posted by Scott2

Amazing progress! The paint booth brings back old memories - I primed and painted more than a few cars, a boat and a couple of trailers in a similar setup although I also rented time in a proper booth occasionally. I rolled up and stapled a 1x2 at the bottom of the plastic so it sat a little tighter on the floor, and wet the floor before spraying for dust control. When I wasn't painting I rolled each side up to the ceiling and held it there (bungees? Can't remember that part). Also always used a ground strap which is probably still a good idea to get rid of static electricity. I used to shoot some flake and metallics and they didn't lay down right w/o a good ground.

Looking forward to more progress!

Thanks for the tips, I'm mainly using this to protect my garage items from primer and bondo dust. I may be using a real booth for the final paint shoot.

[drewskiren]

Saturday night picture time.....

Just a couple showing the frame and front suspension all wrapped up.

[drewskiren]

After I wrapped up the frame last month, I've been chiseling off undercoating for weeks! The rotisserie sure makes that a ton easier. I also got to examine close up my rocker install that I had laid on my back to fit and install. It left a lot to be desired, so I cut it back loose again and refit it. Looks MUCH straighter now and its so much easier to weld standing up at eye level!

[72 tigger]

Lookin' great! Do you have a target date to start painting?

[oldman3]

Buick is looking super, underside looks great, that undercoating did it's job protecting everything...Jim

[Zoomin]

Wow, that's a ton of work but now you're about to make the turn toward it starting to look nice again.

[snipescastle2]

Drew I don't know if you have one, but those Harbor Freight pneumatic gasket scrapers make removing undercoating a breeze!!plus they come with a few different changeable blades and only $20. The Buick is really coming along!
Have a good one!
Ben

[drewskiren]

Originally Posted by snipescastle2

Drew I don't know if you have one, but those Harbor Freight pneumatic gasket scrapers make removing undercoating a breeze!!plus they come with a few different changeable blades and only $20. The Buick is really coming along!
Have a good one!
Ben

I don't but I was using a Milwaukee scrape blade in my Sawzall which works well to get the big stuff, but to big and wild acting to get in every nook and cranny. It's done now!!!

[drewskiren]

Originally Posted by 72 tigger

Lookin' great! Do you have a target date to start painting?

I really don't feel like I'm close enough to even guess on that. Next I have to cover everything in Eastwood Rust Converter, then epoxy primer, then bodywork/filler, then final priming and blocking, then paint! The front cap still is untouched, so I need to get that down to bare metal also. I wish I had a crew of 14 like Chip Foose!

[LODI3QTR]

Any New Updates On The Bride? By The way, I just found out one of your Sport Clips Shops is not to far from my house....

Sport Clips Haircuts of Hauppauge. At....Hauppauge Shopping Center, 389 Nesconset Hwy, Hauppauge, NY 11788

[drewskiren]

Saturday Picture Time:

This will be a long multi-post. I like to DRIVE my classics, that's why I have gone to such great lengths to upgrade the suspension, steering, and brakes. I will also be upgrading the engine/tranny with something new with great power and mileage. But...... If I'm putting a lot of miles on my classic cars, that means the chances of me being in a wreck in one are much greater. Cars in the 50's had just about nil in the way of safety features, so I've been working on upgrading the Roadmaster on the basic items - airbags are not really possible, but certainly we need to get it up to 80's specs. First on the list are seat belts and I'll be documenting that soon, second, to me, is side impact protection inside the door and good door latches that will stay shut during impact. (50's cars were notorious for the doors popping open at the point of impact and then ejecting the passengers out onto the pavement!) There are other safety items we will look at also, but these were the first biggies in my mind.

So lets dive in. It's a hotrod right? That means take better parts from other cars and make your own supercar! Time to head to the junkyard and find a donor car with good latches and side impact protection. Lots of cars have door beams that are thicker corrugated steel bonded to the skin, that won't work for me. Another thing that won't work is all 4 door cars since the beam won't be long enough for my 2 door from the 50's. Hmmmm, this may be tougher than I thought. While poking around, I walk up on a 2000 Camaro which I am immediately drawn to since the doors are so long - I can easily cut something down to fit. Then, within seconds, I come to realize that these Camaros have fiberglass doors.....2 things that are possibly great about that. 1 - the door shell is ridiculously unsafe and would need a really stout bar, and 2 - a steel bar won't be bonded to the fiberglass door - it will need robust attachment points that make it easy on me to fabricate onto my car. I open up the door panel to find....ding, ding, ding

[drewskiren]

This pipe is SERIOUS! and comes with brackets to let me easily weld it into my door. It also comes with an extra "jerk pin" (my term) which is above the latch as an extra measure to keep the door and beam connected to the jamb in a wreck. (Think side impact and the door being driven into the passenger compartment - this pin keeps the door connected to the jamb in addition to the latch)
I also cut the jamb of the Camaro to get the latch and jerk pin together since I didn't know at the time exactly how I was going to create this monster.
This is major surgery here, and I need to be able to get at it all inside the door, so I found it was easiest to cut out the inner door for access. Should be fairly easy to weld back up after all the modifications.
Next pictures are of the opened up door in my blast cabinet! It was tight!

[drewskiren]

Here's the patient laid out on the table with her chest opened up. (see the Frankenstein reference) Working on fitting a good bit of the hinge end bracket up in and around the 57 hinge mount. Cut and shaped and bent with many weldable spots on the hinge end now. I cut about 6 inches of length off the bar, tapered the skin side to fit the skin close, and drilled a new mounting hole for the 1 through bolt to the latch end.

[drewskiren]

Side impact bar done! It took a lot longer than these posts show!

[drewskiren]

Next was a head scratcher - how to make a 1957 door handle work with a 2000 Camaro latch and lock assembly. My first issue was my door handle on the 2 door (not pictured), it only punches the plunger straight ahead when you push the thumb button. On the 57, it engages the latch which is mounted directly behind it. No levers or rods or anything. Booooo. Time to really think...
I wonder how the back door of the 4 door parts car parked outside works? I went to see and it was the same. Boooooo. Then I opened the front door - mainly out of frustration- and noticed right off that the latch was much lower, probably to make room for the rear door's hinges. I tore open the door panel to find that the front door handle on a 4 door is different than all the rest and has a built in lever which changes the simple plunger push, into a pulling action - SEE PICTURES. Score! Oh wait.... the Camaro latch needs a push to open, not a pull. Booooo again. Thats when I started channeling my inner Rube Goldberg..... came up with this crazy bell-crank to change the pull action into a push action. Whew! That took a while too.

[72 tigger]

Nice job Drew! Should make it safer for Biz

[drewskiren]

For my next trick, I had to get the lock button to work which meant building a cam to convert up down action into front back action. It's too complicated to explain.....

[drewskiren]

One more kinibly rod built, this one works the outside key lock.

Oh and remember times 2 on all this crazy stuff - 2 door.

[flashed]

Looks great .

[FL71C10]

Looks good, does that give you the ability to install a keyless entry system from the camaro?

[drewskiren]

Not sure about keyless entry - if I have to have a large keyfob, not really interested. It does have the electric lock solenoids still, so I know I could do electric locks. I'm sure I could do most anything aftermarket. Remote start might be a fun gimmick.

[mcbassin]

Nice work on the door and latch upgrades Drewski!

[drewskiren]

I Win!

Bride of Frankenstein - you will come alive. It may take a while, but I'll get you rolling -safely- again.

Here you can see the secondary pin that the slot on the jamb plate engages. It now opens and closes effortlessly, now I just need to finish the drivers side jamb and weld up all the little holes and little pieces of sheet metal that close it up. Primer and weatherproof the inside of the door after that, then weld the inner door panel back in. And then a million other things.