Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super

[youngrodder]

So cool Drew.. I love your level of detail and planning on the fabrication side of things with your builds. Taking something old and improving it with today's technology is a cool as it gets in my book...

Nice progress

Marc

[Palf70Step]

Great work on the door Drew.

[Hard Luck]

Great idea. Nice to see someone else thinking about safety. Been trying to figure out crash bars on my 69. Agree totally on the modern latches. Nice work again!

[Dieselwrencher]

Very nice work on the new latch and mechanism installs! That took a lot of brain storming and trial and error. Been there, many scrap pieces and puzzled moments.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by youngrodder

So cool Drew.. I love your level of detail and planning on the fabrication side of things with your builds. Taking something old and improving it with today's technology is a cool as it gets in my book...

Nice progress

Marc

x100.

[1985-GMC]

Awesome work drew! That's a lot of tedious and (more often than not) frustrating work. I like that kind of stuff though.

[TennesseeZ]

OK Drew, I'm hereby nominating you for, and awarding you with, the Most Real and Down to Earth Thinking Hot Rodder of All Time Award.
Aside from all your other skills, innovations etc. which have been amply documented on these pages, you are probably the first to consider safety to this extreme, and to actually make it work. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking this way, I commend you sir for taking safety to this level, eyou're really leading the way in this hobby of ours, hopefully more will follow. I'd like to see a full spread in Hot Rod to get these ideas out to more of the general Hot Rodding public.

[drewskiren]

Originally Posted by TennesseeZ

OK Drew, I'm hereby nominating you for, and awarding you with, the Most Real and Down to Earth Thinking Hot Rodder of All Time Award.
Aside from all your other skills, innovations etc. which have been amply documented on these pages, you are probably the first to consider safety to this extreme, and to actually make it work. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking this way, I commend you sir for taking safety to this level, eyou're really leading the way in this hobby of ours, hopefully more will follow. I'd like to see a full spread in Hot Rod to get these ideas out to more of the general Hot Rodding public.

Thanks!!

Those driver's education films from the 50's we were made to watch sure made an impression on me when I was 15! That was 35 years ago and I still have images of passengers ejected onto the pavement and steering columns impaling drivers in my head. No way I'm getting in this death trap without a few sensible mods. In fact, I was on the H.A.M.B. boards a while back and a shop owner had posted he was about to start on a 56 Buick, and then got back on the board a month later and said the project wasn't happening anymore because the owner had crashed the car, car was a goner, and he wasn't sure if the owner would ever fully recover from his injuries.

I'm still welding away on the doors and jambs, but in between cooling down periods I'm figuring out how front shoulder harness seat belts are going to work.

[drewskiren]

Wrapping up the driver's side door now.

Tedious and not fun project to be hidden from view forever. But less injuries makes it worthwhile.

[TennesseeZ]

Originally Posted by drewskiren

Thanks!!

Those driver's education films from the 50's we were made to watch sure made an impression on me when I was 15! That was 35 years ago and I still have images of passengers ejected onto the pavement and steering columns impaling drivers in my head. No way I'm getting in this death trap without a few sensible mods. In fact, I was on the H.A.M.B. boards a while back and a shop owner had posted he was about to start on a 56 Buick, and then got back on the board a month later and said the project wasn't happening anymore because the owner had crashed the car, car was a goner, and he wasn't sure if the owner would ever fully recover from his injuries.

I'm still welding away on the doors and jambs, but in between cooling down periods I'm figuring out how front shoulder harness seat belts are going to work.

You're welcome! Ive got another 15 on you, I lived some of it. I vividly remember some of the wrecks I've seen, both back then, and recently as well. Maybe 10 yrs back I saw and stopped at a scene where an elderly woman had lost control on a I26 overpass, (state rd crossing over), left the road and gone down the (really steep) embankment, crashing into the backside of the guardrail. I fully expected everyone to be dead or dying, but the airbags (and harnesses) had saved both with only minor scratches. This would not have been survibable before shoulder harnesses and airbags. Again, I applaud you for doing what you do. When many are figureing out how to put 4 more turbos and5 turbos on their "street" car, and if they do even consider safety they probably chunk a rollcage in it, you integrate real world advances in design etc into a 60 year old potential deathtrap and make it a state of the art daily driver. Yeah, I'm impressed. Keep this just between us tho, ok?

[drewskiren]

I know this is just a message board, but I think I can do better by you guys. I vow more interesting pictures and maybe even a video or two from now on out.

Jamb and door are both ready for a wipe of bondo, but I need to clean up a little surface rust in the blast cabinet first.

[drewskiren]

Saturday Night Picture Time

3 dull pics of the rear seat belt crossmember I cut and shaped to fit the floor. It used to be the structural hoop under the radiator. I've primed it with weld-thru primer, bolted and welded it in. Nice solid anchor point for all 4 belts. Yes, I said 4. It's ridiculously large inside and I think for short trips I could squeeze 4 kids or girls in the back. The front is actually even 4 inches wider, so we'll have 4 up front too. Sounds like fun!

[drewskiren]

Went to the scrap pile and found 2 pieces to use as reinforcement to the sheet metal floor. I'll need a strong anchor point for the outboard lap belt portion of the front seat belts. The inner portions will bolt through an existing thick support member.

[drewskiren]

The new outboard seatbelt brackets are shaped, bead blasted, and ready to weld in on the bottom of the car. I will attach the center seatbelt ends to the main crossmember that runs underneath the rear edge of the front seat. It has a recess that creates a bit of a problem in bolting it down though. There is a 1 inch air gap between the thin sheet metal and the meaty bracket so I have to cut out the thin stuff and create a pocket so that my belt end is mounted hard to the bracket. Still using that bent up fender for patches!

[drewskiren]

Burned in the outboard seatbelt reinforcements.

[notsolo]

The Doctor can improvise on the fly. Mad Skills Drew. Great Mods.

[drewskiren]

I found 2 rotten spots on the bottom of one of the doors after I beadblasted it in the cabinet. Cut and patch, I'm a pro at this now but I wish I wasn't. I used the 2 magnets to hold them flush to start my welds.

[gringoloco]

Fancy work as always!

[Dieselwrencher]

Great work on installing the seat belt mounting points and nice work on that rust repair!

[Gokart Mozart]

Next time you plan on doing the door brace, look into Fiero doors. They weren't the second safest cars for nothing.

[drewskiren]

I finally got around to uploading a quick video of the door work. Moderators, is there a better way to post a youtube video?


https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&vid...dg8&feature=vm

[drewskiren]

Straighten up and fly right, straighten up and fly right....

Name that song and artist old timers.

Found another thin spot in the rocker after wire wheeling. Every time I think I'm about ready to get this in primer, I find more work to do.

[Russell Ashley]

That was back when I could actually understand the words to songs. It was Nat King Cole who did that one. I thought of him this past Monday night when one of the contestants on The Voice did Unforgettable. Your build thread is one of my favorite threads on the forum. Thanks for adding this to make it even more fun and interesting.

[Gokart Mozart]

n/m

[Dieselwrencher]

I'm betting you are loving the rotisserie now! Nice repair Drew.