old-tank Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 The top came off and I guess it could go back on if needed. In 1955 the convertible frame had considerably heavier metal in the "X" part of the frame and additional mount points with thinner and denser body mounts as compared to the sedans. On the other hand the 4 door hardtop had the fewest mounts and extra metal and braces in the body. Your service manual, body manual and parts manual should give clues for the differences. It will be interesting to see how it will look when finished and how it stands up to use.Willie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithbrother Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 Maybe I missed it, but what brought about the decision to cut the top off?Love the progress,Dale in Indy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceejay Posted December 26, 2014 Author Share Posted December 26, 2014 hahaha :p just playing around with you folks ... I would never do that to the car.The original roof had far too much deep pitted rust on it. We could have cleaned it up and re used it but the pitted rust always comes back to bite us here in Sri Lanka, no matter how well we clean and treat the steel. I guess its the high humidity.So I imported a beautiful rust free roof from USA and welded that on New and old roofs side by sideNew roofHere's the old girl sporting her new rust free roof Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 56BuickSuper Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 Oh Ceejay, you are such a kidder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithbrother Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 YOU know this is December, NOT April fools day, hehe.Love the joke though. I would have bet a convert WASN'T going to happen, Dale in Indy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithbrother Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 I have been reading about your country, very interesting, good for you all.Dale in Indy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceejay Posted December 26, 2014 Author Share Posted December 26, 2014 hehe thanks for the confidence...I do know of a perfectly good 58 Special 4 door sedan which someone in the USA chopped and ruined by making into a convertible... Photos below Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithbrother Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 Personally, the car wouldn't be that bad, but for ME the colors, and tall seats don't help the build. The wheels and port holes aren't my choice either.But like I a well aware, EACH TO HIS/HER own.Dale in Indy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceejay Posted December 26, 2014 Author Share Posted December 26, 2014 True Dale, like you say, the way it has been done is a shame. Too many add ons. That car should have been left as a sedan. Looked much better.Lets hope my Century hard top project ends up looking good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GARY F Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 dam, you work fast and good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 53 Roady Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 Looks like you have some good old fashioned body men there.Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD1956 Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 hahaha :p just playing around with you folks ... I would never do that to the car. LOL, you got me pretty good. What with all that quality work going on it did seem like a possibility Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 53 Roady Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 My 57 Olds was in the shop for a year and a half. It had been wrecked everywhere but the top. They were doing a great job but one day Rick called out of the blue and said "We couldn,t help ourselves last night". I asked what he meant. "Well, we painted it black". I knew they weren't crazy about the original pink so I said "Oh...".Rick said" Well there's more. "What?", I asked. "Well, we chopped the top". He got me good.Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceejay Posted December 27, 2014 Author Share Posted December 27, 2014 well at that stage, all the rust on the main body shell had been cut out and replaced with hand made panels, the unbolt-able panels like the doors and fenders have been replaced with good rust free panels imported from USA and the roof has been replaced.So next stage... off goes the body again from the chassis..and onto the rotisserie she goes.Gets pushed outside..and blasted clean !! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 53 Roady Posted December 28, 2014 Share Posted December 28, 2014 Amazing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceejay Posted December 29, 2014 Author Share Posted December 29, 2014 After the body was blasted back to bare metal, it was primed immediatelyThen seam sealer on all the seams on the bodyNext, stone chip and corrosion protection both inside and out.Then a coat of spray filler and paste filler over that. the paste filler gets sanded down so that it only remains on any small indentations in the body. We do not leave a whole layer of paste filler on the entire body 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceejay Posted December 29, 2014 Author Share Posted December 29, 2014 I bought the car on 30th December 2009.Started dismantling the car for restoration on 20th May 2011The project was at this stage on 8th November 2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dei Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Wow Ceejay! You have come a long way in 5 years. Please keep us updated in the future.Happy New Years to you and your family! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceejay Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 Wow Ceejay! You have come a long way in 5 years. Please keep us updated in the future.Happy New Years to you and your family!Thanks Doug and a Happy new year to you and yours too !Actually the progress shown up to the last set of photos above, has taken exactly 2 and a half years.Progress since then has not been as good as I want but I had stopped them working on the car because I had them working on my 1960 Pontiac 4 door hard top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceejay Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 Since the car is going to get painted a shade of Orange color, the body gets painted in an orange color on the under side and the inside and then gets placed on the blasted, primed and painted chassis.Next all the body panels get fitted back and they all get spray filler applied and the whole body leveled with all the panels in place.I have a photo of a car which I found in the web. It is a beautiful shade of orange and that is the the color I want my car to be... It is not a stock 58 Buick shade of orange so I had to keep mixing paint and applying on different panels till it looked like in the photo...Well, it looks different when I take a photo with my camera than it does in real life.. but I think I'v arrived at the shade of orange I would like the car to be.The car is now painted in a base coat (not the correct shade) and is sanded back and ready to get pushed into the paint room to get painted... BUT, to do that, I need the suspension fitted up. All the new suspension parts have arrived from USA but I have got the mechanic busy working on my 1960 Pontiac so Ill let the car sit for now and start working on the engine... Pics to follow :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceejay Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 So.. work started on the engine..No wonder the engine was stuck !!Time to wash every thing for the first of many times..Caustic bath Wash againElectrolysisComes out like new..In Primer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadmaster75 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Hi CeeJayI'll never think about "hot tanking" an engine the same way after seeing your method!Fantastic! What kind of chemical is in there? How much juice did you apply to the barrel? and for how long?Keep 'em coming! BTW, the fan is incorrect for that motor…. but you probably knew that.mike<script type="text/javascript" src="safari-extension://com.ebay.safari.myebaymanager-QYHMMGCMJR/c5ad9e5c/background/helpers/prefilterHelper.js"></script> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dei Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 (edited) Being your car is air conditioned it makes sense that the fan was changed out at some point. I know mine, even with out air, would run hot with just that four blade factory fan when idling too long in traffic after coming off the highway. My solution was to run a new three core rad and an auxiliary pusher fan on a switch when I occasionally needed it.As to the orange colour you are painting it, here is a shot of an all original Special I met some time ago at one of our local cars shows. Admittedly not quite orange but a different Buick colour you don't often see. The car was his grandfathers which he inherited after his passing. He was willing to sell for $5,000.00 (cdn) but just wasn't good timing for me. Edited January 8, 2015 by dei (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceejay Posted January 8, 2015 Author Share Posted January 8, 2015 Hi CeeJayI'll never think about "hot tanking" an engine the same way after seeing your method!Fantastic! What kind of chemical is in there? How much juice did you apply to the barrel? and for how long?Keep 'em coming! BTW, the fan is incorrect for that motor…. but you probably knew that.mikeThe "hot tank" contained caustic soda dissolved in water.The Electrolysis was done with voltage ranging from 12 to 24 volts, maintaining the current draw at around 10 amps. Most of the items were in electrolysis over 24 hours.The fan is from a 57 Nailhead with AC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceejay Posted January 8, 2015 Author Share Posted January 8, 2015 Being your car is air conditioned it makes sense that the fan was changed out at some point. I know mine, even with out air, would run hot with just that four blade factory fan when idling too long in traffic after coming off the highway. My solution was to run a new three core rad and an auxiliary pusher fan on a switch when I occasionally needed it.As to the orange colour you are painting it, here is a shot of an all original Special I met some time ago at one of our local cars shows. Admittedly not quite orange but a different Buick colour you don't often see. The car was his grandfathers which he inherited after his passing. He was willing to sell for $5,000.00 (cdn) but just wasn't good timing for me.The factory air cars always had a multi blade fan and a fan clutch. This fan is from a 57.wow that was an amazingly low price he was asking for that car. I paid over $15,000 (cdn) for my wreck !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceejay Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 (edited) Edited January 22, 2015 by ceejay (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceejay Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smartin Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Who did you end up using to rebuild your transmission? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 53 Roady Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Beautiful outside finish. Did they/you paint the iron parts with cast iron color paint ?Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bustedknuckles Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Wow is all i can say!.........the car looks great and the work is done with great detail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceejay Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 53 Roady Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Can you explain how to hook up and power your electrolysis cleaning system?Thanks Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest xcelerationrules Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 Bummer I was looking for some help with mine...lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceejay Posted September 8, 2021 Author Share Posted September 8, 2021 (edited) Waking up a very old thread.... Edited September 8, 2021 by ceejay (see edit history) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelfish Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 I like to see scrap metal turned into something beautiful. I also like that you’re all wearing flip-flops. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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