Bride of Young Frankenstein - 1957 Buick Super

[alsriv2]

Love old Buicks.
Especially fond of the 2 door series. What is under the hood on this one? With the 4 "ports" on the finders, that would seem to mean this one is a super or possibly with it being a 2 door, the sportier model with the higher HP engine?

[Advanced Design]

Road trip updates?

[drewskiren]

Originally Posted by alsriv2

Love old Buicks.
Especially fond of the 2 door series. What is under the hood on this one? With the 4 "ports" on the finders, that would seem to mean this one is a super or possibly with it being a 2 door, the sportier model with the higher HP engine?

It is a Super and yes it has the 300 horsepower 4 barrel carb 364 ci Nailhead engine.

[drewskiren]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Road trip updates?

We were so bummed, we had a computer snafu and couldn't get pictures to load after that first post. I'll bring it up to speed soon. (hint, there are 2 Buicks at the house now as I type)

[drewskiren]

We hit just a few states; Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota (detour for 10 minutes since we were so close), and South Dakota all in the first day. (17 hours in the road)

[jbclassix]

So... I'm wondering if the second Buick is a GNX, something with a 455, or LT1 Roadmaster... what else did Buick super motivate their cars with?

[nlped]

Are you guys going to be back/home this weekend? I'm heading up to Oakland Thursday and I'd love to see all the toys.

[drewskiren]

Originally Posted by nlped

Are you guys going to be back/home this weekend? I'm heading up to Oakland Thursday and I'd love to see all the toys.

Saturday and Sunday we will be traveling to the Boston area for the "other car"

[nlped]

Gahhhhh. Maybe next time?

[drewskiren]

Originally Posted by jbclassix

So... I'm wondering if the second Buick is a GNX, something with a 455, or LT1 Roadmaster... what else did Buick super motivate their cars with?

Well, the second car is the parts donor 4 door 57 Buick. Rescued 10 years ago from a junkyard. It was literally in line for the crusher when Joe intervened and saved it thinking it would be cool to restore. Ten years later and it is still sitting in his barn so up on Craigslist it goes. Thanks Joe for saving all those critical parts for me even before I knew I'd be needing them!

[drewskiren]

On the second day we took a 30 minute detour before we crossed over to Montana. Something about the side of a mountain and 4 dead presidents???

Check that off the bucket list.

[Dieselwrencher]

Very cool story on that buick! Nice road scenery as well!

[Beetle]

Subbed!!

[drewskiren]

After we saw the presidents, we headed off to see Darrel near Billings Montana. He has been collecting Buicks for about 30 years and has a 1958 Buick Special convertible he is rebuilding. He had a complete front sheetmetal set from a 1957 Buick Roadmaster which is identical to our front cap. A little history is in order here, Buick was a 2 body company at the time and GM had them building B body cars (Pontiac and Oldsmobile) and C body cars (Cadillac) both to be sold as Buicks. The smaller B body cars were Centurys and Specials and the larger C body cars were Supers and Roadmasters. Herein lies our dilemma, we have the much more rare Super which is not only a longer car with longer doors and quarters, but it is also 4 inches wider than the much more easily found Centurys and Specials. We need a hood badly for our car and Darrel had just the 4 inch wider hood we needed, cheap too, only problem- he's in Montana. I figured I could make it worth my while if we came home with our special hood (with matching fenders and rad support) and a complete parts car for all those little things like trim, interior parts, correct bolts, etc. Our Super had been a restoration project for someone before, but they abandoned it and lost half the stuff they had taken off. Long story short, I think I've got enough Buick parts now to finish our car.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice info, and cool to hear you found your parts in such short order!

[mcbassin]

Very cool road trip. Thanks for sharing!

[calvin78612]

I'm in. This should be good !!

[drewskiren]

Heres a few pics I snapped on my phone at Darrel's in Montana of his 58 Buick convertible, he's the mountain man looking guy in one of the pics. Super nice guy!

After we left him around 3 o'clock we were headed to Casper Wy and on to Nebraska to sleep for the night. We had planned on stopping before 11 pm, but we weren't counting on 4 inches of snow falling 3 hours ahead of us. We got to travel at 40 mph all through Wyoming where we were planning on going 80 mph. Black ice was no fun - the plows were out with us, but there were still cars everywhere littering the grassy median and shoulders. I counted about 14 off the road! - and these people know how to drive on this stuff!

[drewskiren]

Pictures misfired.

[Warrens69GMC]

Subscribed. This should be good.

[72 tigger]

Merry Christmas to you & Biz!

[drewskiren]

And the tear down begins! Fakhry and Sarah got a Christmas Eve jump on the Super with a little direction from me. I think tomorrow we will really tear into it.

[Advanced Design]

Awesome! Some good help there. Looking forward to your vision and execution on this build. Came way late to the party on Frankenstein build so anticipate this one will be impressive too!

[Palf70Step]

I need to try working in my Jammies to.

They are going at it well.

[FL71C10]

That looks like a fun heater core to change out!