51 Olds project

Started by DRD57, February 15, 2009, 12:38:58 AM

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wayne petty

the 56 bumper makes it look like a gold fish...

the bumper does look massive... but i can see the car is gold fish color with air brushed scales in the sides...

i do like the flange around the outside of the bumper... so cutting just infront of the flange... starting about a foot from the center across the top... all the way around to where it straightens out on the sides... bending it back to fit   the body then filling the gaps..

i take it that you know that chromed pot metal can be deplated.. corrosion dug out with a die grinders...  torch filled with other pot metal segments

enjenjo

The quarters on that look like normal 51 98 quarters, which were different than 88 quarters.
Welcome to hell. Here's your accordion.

jaybee

The underhood work looks awesome.  I like the way the grill opening looks in front view, not wild about the width of the bumper or the way the sheet metal meets the bumper in side view.  The sheetmetal or bumper, maybe both would have to be reworked pretty dramatically to make it a graceful transition.  It would be better if the bumper could be moved closer to the body but as you pointed out the wraparound already comes back to the wheel arch.
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. Eric Hoffer  (1902 - 1983)

39deluxe

Nice job on the inner fenders and the fires wall. To me the mustache sets the character of these early '50s Olds. The '56 bumper is too big for the car.

Find a  usable upper moulding  and try a '53 bumper if you can find one.

Tom

GPster

I agree that bumper is too big, but maybe only in scale to that body. I've been doing some cut/paste in my mind, you decide if it's worth doing any cut/weld to that bumper. How wide is the distance across between the bottom edges of the fenders at the front edge of the wheel openings? Trying to see on the pictures the bottom section of that bumper would need to come in better than 2" a side for the wheel well slant of the body as viewed from the front  to carry through to the line of the bumper (of course this sight line is actually under the actual bumper line where it extends out). Twice this dimension (2"+ ?) would be the amount I'd narrow that bumper. I'd narrow the bottom section of that bumper in the center behind the license plate and I'd move the verticle bars on either side of the plate out to preserve the correct width between them for the license plate. I'd eliminate that center verticle fixture between the top and bottom sections of that bumper. Now I'd figure on narrowing the top section of that bumper a like amount but I'd do it differently. If you narrowed that top section in the center you would loose that graceful arch. Maybe if you imagined the inside edge of that arch divided into four quarters with the center/top of that arch being the half-way point you could plan on the removal of half of the demension in two sections, at the one quarter and three quarter marks of your imagined divisions.  Now I'd plan on removing that upward bend on the back edge of the top bumper section. I'd plan on the bumper being move back and the center of it being under the hood and the top section of the bumper being trimmed to follow the contours of the fenders. The bigness of that bumper might be lessened if it doesn't stick out and protrude so much in front of that body. GPster

phat46

That bumper swap would be a lot of work to make it look like a stock '56 Olds...and it would still look very heavy. I personally like the "moustache" bar, maybe with some Dagmars?  :D

chimp koose


chimp koose

How about a 50-53 hudson bumper? Similar shape ,smaller ,less bulky on the sides than the buick one.When I first saw the picture of your project without the drivers side b pillar I thought it was a hudson.

DRD57

The customer decided against the 56 bumper. He's been looking at a lot of pictures so, hopefully he'll come up with an idea he likes.

It's all apart again and the chassis is off to the powdercoater.

DRD57

The chassis is back from the powdercoater and back together. I'll snap a pic or two before the body goes back on.

Rotten Rodney is going to come up and start on the body work.

I need to get some door latches on this thing.

What is the best source for bear claw latches, actuators, poppers and all that stuff?

enjenjo

I get them from Ball's, but there may be some closer to you.
Welcome to hell. Here's your accordion.

The Paisano

Nice bandsawing work there on the brackets.Nice lay out too.Looks great !
Paisano

DRD57

We got a few more things done on the 51 Olds.

When we dropped the body back on the chassis after doing the suspension mods, we had to cut the floor under the rear seat area to clear the upper 4-link bars when the suspension is dropped. So, when we took the body off the frame again for chassis powdercoating we patched the holes in the floor like this.
First I made some patterns out of some recycled cardboard.








The I transferred the patterns to 18 gauge steel and bent them in the sheetmetal brake.



The outside was tacked and then we welded the whole thing up from the inside. Before we put the body back on the powdercoated frame I shot some more 3M Shutz over the bottom.

DRD57

The next task was to fix the pointy rear corner on the quarter windows. With every other window corner having a nice smooth curve, that pointy corner really bugged me.


Unfortunately there were no spare pieces to use to make the window corner round and the bent piece of tubing that we tried to use had a radius that was too large. So, we decided to try out hand at hammerforming.

I made a pattern for the curve by tracing the window opening and then transferred that to a piece of scrap plywood. A router was used to cut the radius on the plywood form. I also cut a second scrap of plywood, with a slightly larger curve, to use as a clamp to hold the metal.  

Once the metal patch was cut to the general shape needed, I clamped all three pieces together by screwing them down to a wooden bench and then we started hammering.



The first one was made from a scrap of 18 gauge and it took a fair amount of hammering to get into shape. The second one was made from a piece of late model Chevy truck bedside from the scrap pile. That one went much faster.

Here's what it looked like before we started trimmin it to fit.



Trimmed to fit.



Here's Rotten putting the finishing touches on the final piece.


Here it is welded in place. We also made some patches to box in the back side of these pieces.



I also got the door frame and the B-pillar finished up on the driver's side. Between that and the curves at the rear of the quarter windows, the raggedy top chop is just about saved.



Next up, Rotten Rodney handles the filler work.

jaybee

Very nice.  That recycled cardboard looks vaguely familiar, like it's a product I'm familiar with.  :)
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. Eric Hoffer  (1902 - 1983)