And so it begins...

reBuilding Betty on a Budget

At the end of December 2007, I mentioned to Tim that he should take a look at the "old car" for sale on Portage, because it was..well, old. And kinda cool. Little did I know that a few weeks later we would buy this "pretty" little beat up 1950 Buick Eight from a guy named Jim who probably laughed his way to the bank as we white-knuckled our way home with her in tow. -SB

After an hour of chipping away snow and ice, we loaded her onto a borrowed car-hauler, and hauled Betty some 80-odd miles home in freezing cold winter white-out conditions. A couple of hours and more than a few white-knuckle moments later we were home.

The unload was simple enough, we just pushed her off the car hauler, praying she wouldn't have enough momentum to power through the back of the garage and end up in our master bedroom. Happily, there were no major catastrophes to report, although I did slip on the ice and bust ass off the car hauler, then ripped my jacket sleeve. But, she made it home safe and sound, and there we let her nap until the weather broke. -SB

So yeah.... I've always wanted to build an old Hot Rod, Rat Rod, whatever you want to call it. I guess the word Rat Rod is too cliche now, so whatever you want to go by. I prefer Rolling Coffin. At first I had visions of going all out on this car, fabbing in an old 401 nailhead, or simply swapping the body over onto a 71-73 Riviera and having a 455 with a TH400 to boot, but as my research went on and on, I came to the realization that I just wanted the thing to run.

The plate on the car was last registered in 1976...so she had been sitting awhile. A long while. But, we'll take it one step at a time. In this re-build you won't find any fancy concours paint jobs. You won't find any perfectionist body work, no $2,000.00 big brake systems, and no 502 crate motor. Oh, and certainly no sissy cliche-put-in-everything small block Chevy. My plans are to rebuild the tugboat 248 straight 8 (that's STR8 for the old-school Buick crowd) and do some serious, cheap-fab-o-on-the-dime-scavenge and built everything hot-rodding. For now though, Betty would hibernate in the winter. -TH

....Five months later, the weather would finally break enough for us to wake the sleeping beauty and move her to her new, albeit temporary, home at another Jim's house, next to his pole barn. -SB