Gimme Shelter!

So after a few days of filling and sanding in the garage, I realized that I was getting a lot done. The backside of the car was sanded smooth with 220 and ready for primer. The drivers side rear fender was getting close...awful close. I tried not to get that "screw it, it'll do" attitude, so I kept going over and over, looking and feeling for any discrepancies, spraying a thin guide-coat of dark grey primer and checking. So far, so good. Then, I realized after just 2 days that I was making a complete dusty mess in the garage.

Now, I'm not like some crazy garage clean freak, but when my tools, shelves, quads, and camping gear get covered with a layer of filler dust in 2 days, I knew I had to do something to contain most of the dust. Enter....the shelter.

I decided to take a regular camping shelter, 4 rolls of 2mm plastic drop cloths (it's about the thickness of Visqueen...maybe a little thinner) and ran the plastic all the way around the shelter. In the front, I draped the plastic around the hood, and for the most part, the entire area was sealed up, other than the underside of the car. With the torpedo heater right inside the shelter, the area (and the car) heats up in a serious hurry, and stays warm. It also helped contain the dust.



For the most part, I've spent the last few days (about 4 hours) finishing up the driver's side rear fender. It's just about done. Today I worked my way over to the passenger side, which is going much quicker and easier than the driver's side. The passenger side welds and metal were much easier, and I had got the hang of welding the channel much better on that side. My guess is that I'll probably be done with the back of the car soon, and be able to get some primer on it. I've made more progress on the car in the last week than I made in 4 months. This is good. The front half of the car has probably 1/4 of the body work needing to be done, so things are moving along well. I've sourced out some primer, and decided to go with a urethane multi-use primer that can be put over bare metal, rather than doing the etch, then a build primer. Once again, it's not going to be a concours car. I think I've opted to go with a basecoat / clear, and use flattening agent in the clear to get that suede look I'm after. I've heard too many horror stories about using Hot Rod Flatz metallic paints and trying to get them to lay right. So...that's up in the future, until now, I'll be chilling in the shelter, which is more like a suana when that heater runs for awhile!


Oh, and the Riviera sellers called back - the new motor and tranny are in, and the car is supposedly going to be delievered tomorrow. Gulp.




Here, the driver's channel is on it's last little spot coats...

Sanding is a 7-letter word.

Yep...I'm back on the body work again after a long long time delay. In fact, I don't think I've even laid a piece of sandpaper on this car since August.

I got back on sanding the drivers rear fender and worked over to the passenger side, while putting the final touches on the rear. I also needed to take my abrasive sponge wheel and take off all the surface rust that had formed on the backside of the car. This had happened from when the garage door was open and it was snowing. Just a little dusting of snow on the bare metal and surface rust had started. I now have a cover for the car.

Here's the drivers side...getting closer to being done.



I'm hoping to have primer on at least the back half of the car by February (I've heard that before).

At it again update....

So the sellers of the big green Riviera called me (see, Ooops, we're at it again to find out why the hell we bought a 1975 Riviera) to tell me more bad news. One, the tranny was definately bad, but what's worse, there was coolant in the antifreeze, which indicated either a cracked block or head, or in a very rare case, a headgasket leaking coolant into the oil. I had sensed that something was up when I noticed a new radiator, water pump, and thermostat, all changed by the sellers within a few weeks. It seemed to me like they were chasing a problem - that problem more than likely was a cracked block or head, and coolant getting lost in the oil. What's worse, is this explains the oil light coming on while I was driving home. The coolant was slowly galling the bearings until there was no oil pressure left. They simply hadn't driven it far enough, and at the massive-transmission-slipping RPM's that I had on the way home, it sealed the deal. I was blowing up the motor and didn't even know it. Fun.

So the sellers were at a complete loss on what to do. Honestly, I consider myself very lucky. I could have had some sellers that just told me to get screwed, and then I was stuck with a car frame missing the two most important parts of the swap - the motor and tranny. What's even odder is that they told me they were going to try to find a motor and tranny for the car, and put it in... I told them I didn't see how this was possible as the cost involved in this would probably be over what the vehicle was worth. I felt really bad for these people. They had the worst string of luck and felt obligated to do something about it. At this point they were stuck fixing a car that utimately would cost them more money to sell than it was worth. We agreed for them to return my money to me and I would call this a dead issue - a major bullet dodged for me.

But then...they called me back on Friday to tell me they had just got back from Iowa, where they found another 455/400 from a 1976 Electra, and were in the process of having a garage install the motor and tranny! They even pulled the trans apart to change the front pump seal and the rear main seal of the motor. They told me they wanted everything perfect. I asked for picture documentation of what they were doing and they agreed to take as many as they could.

You can't buy this kind of dedication for 1,500.00.

Stay tuned.

Oops...we're at it again.

We came very close to selling Betty. I put her on ebay, got some lookers and then after the auction ended under reserve, I decided to throw a cover over her, let some time go by, and decide whether I wanted to tackle this project after all.

My main dilemma was still the old, outdated drivetrain and suspension. My dream scenario would be to have a Nailhead / manual combo, but I knew that having this anyways was going to involve first, finding one, and second, some major fabrication on the existing frame....and even then, I'm still stuck with updating the suspension and brakes, all of which were seriously tired. I was going over and over these things again and realizing how much work I was getting into. On top of all this, the straight 8 engine was cool, but took a lot, and I mean a lot, to get a decent amount of power....coupled with the fact that the dynaflow trans is about the most pathetic example of an automatic transmission out there.

I had steadily been returning to Dan Speakin's cardomain page (see HERE) where Dan took a mid-70's Cadillac Deville chassis, cut the body off, leaving the floors and firewall, shortened the frame 6 inches to match wheelbase, and welded the Buick body on the Caddy floors and chassis. This way, you get the updated suspension and in this case, huge ass 472 engine, and everything is done for you. Dan also channeled the body a bit to drop the body down more on the frame, eliminating any need to lower the suspension.

Many on the Buick boards had talked about using a 71-73 Riviera. The wheelbase is exactly the same (well, off by 1/2 inch) as the Special, at 121.5". Come to find out, the 74 and 75 Rivi's also use the same wheelbase. This way, you get the 455 engine, 400 tranny, and 12 bolt rear end to boot. Power brakes, front disc, power steering, and even A/C make a whole lot of options I couldn't dream about doing on Betty. Only trouble would be finding a good 71-75 Riviera that's not too far away, and actually has good floors in it to swap over. Well, I let a 73 get through my hands for 400.00, but it was in New Jersey, and it was trashed, rotted floors, and a possum living under the hood. Probably better that I let that one go.

So I waited and waited, kinda giving up on the idea. I'd see the occasional one pass, but 71-73's are usually always going for between 3-5K, even in bad shape. 74's and 75's are so rare, that you never see them. Then, 2 days ago, I found one for 1,600.00 on ebay.

It was a 1975, 60K original miles and nearly everything original on the car. I almost hated to hack the thing up it seemed to be in such good shape - but then again, I don't see a long line of people waiting for one. What's better, is that they lived just a few hours away on the other side of Michigan. I managed to get ahold of the people and snagged the car for 1,500.00.

Once we got on the road, all the fun began....


The 2 feet of snow we had got in the last 2 weeks suddenly melted the day we left, when temperatures shot up to 55 degrees in about 12 hours, coupled with rain. The result was a super thick fog that literally made for less than 40 yards visibility all the way there. Fun.


Here she is in all her glory. Notice the thick Steven King horror story fog in the background. The car was really in miraculous shape. Outside of one busted front turn signal lens and a plastic piece on the corner of the trunk, the car didn't look too bad. No rust anywhere, solid floors, motor sounded pretty fair...just sounded old - even with 60K miles! Even if I ended up giving up on the Betty project, this car could fetch some money if re-worked correctly. Then I got the bad news - apparently the tranny started slipping on the way to the meeting point. According to the sellers, the car had never done this before, and they had just had the transmission serviced a few weeks prior. I opted to take the car anyways, as the sellers reassured me that if anything went wrong on the way home, they would take care of it. Unfortunately, things went way, way wrong.

The car took about 5 miles to get up to 55MPH. 1st and 2nd gear slipped so bad I'm surprised they even moved the car. The transmission chattered and banged like hell until it finally dropped into 3rd gear. I managed to get it up to 60MPH for a brief 50 miles until the oil pressure light came on and the car started making some funny noises under my feet. Rather than risk anything, I made a bee-line for the nearest exit. The car died at the stop sign at the end of the ramp. I got out to find antifreeze pouring out from underhood. She had overheated badly and I didn't even know! Nice to know the idiots at GM decided a coolant temp gauge wasn't important in those days.


Luckily, I had left a towstrap in the Ridgeline and we used it to tow the Rivi-beast into the gas station nearby. The Ridgeline happens to be the best damn truck in the world and should you come across one, you should buy it. (Shameless Honda Ridgeline plug). Upon inspection, the car did have a new radiator and water pump, as the sellers indicated. I noticed, though, that the fan clutch was just free-spinning, and that was bad news. My guess is that the high revs of the tranny slipping, coupled with the fan clutch, over-heated the motor. Here I am calling the sellers. I hate to be a pain in the ass buyer, but unfortunately, this one was a deal breaker. The over-heating part didn't bother me that much - that's easy to fix, not to mention, the motor was going to be ripped apart anyways...but I didn't expect to do a tranny rebuild. The sellers were pretty rattled by the fact the car did this. We agreed to two choices. One, I could buy the car for $1,000.00 and figure out how the hell to get it across the state and home, with them washing their hands clean of it...or two, they come get the car, rebuild the tranny with documentation proving so, and deliver it to me. I really thought they'd opt for #1, but apparently this guys' mechanic rebuilds transmissions and does a lot of them, and offered to do it for them for a cheap price. I left the car and got a call later that night that they had picked it up, and were going to deliver it to me in a few days. Score! Now I get a rebuilt tranny out of the deal.

Now my plans are to pull the 455, drop in some higher compression pistons (try to get it up from the enemic 8.2:1 the smog motors became) and get it up to 9.5 to 10:1, a new cam, manifold, and some headers. That should be all I need to move Betty with some conviction.

But for now, I wait for the car, and it's back to body work on Betty. I need to get the body work done first, then we'll work on removing both bodies and doing the swap. The Riviera will stay parked until I get the body done, and should something happen, I can always sell the car off. I just couldn't pass up a deal like this. Stay tuned, the fire is alive again! -TH

The latest, not the greatest.

Wow. Its been a while. A long while. Unfortunately, life got in the way of reBuilding Betty. Planning and paying for an upcoming summer wedding, plus a honeymoon in Italy and buying a house all seem to have taken center stage over the car. So she sat for some time in Jim's barn, keeping him company and taking up space. We decided Jim had enough time with Betty to himself, so once we got all moved in the new house, we brought Betty home with us.

I know we said we'd keep her. And we want to... we would both love to see this project to the end, and to be able to hot rod around town in a car we both helped reBuild. When I look back I see how very far we have come... and when I look forward I see how very far we have yet to go. Maybe if we had more room, or more time, or more money, or less to do.. we wouldn't feel so hopeless. But for now, she's on the auction block. Sad as it may be. Maybe there is someone out there looking for a project 1950 Buick Eight. Maybe she'll sell. Maybe she won't. Maybe we'll sit on her for another year, and then take up the challenge again. Who know what the future holds. -SB

I'm still sanding, yeah, yeah, yeah...

Almost half way through August already! We've sorta been "slackers" lately, or at least it seems that way. With the car housed in Jim's garage, its been a little more difficult to get in a good days work when all we seem to be doing is sanding a bit, slathering on a bit more body filler (oh, who's kidding.. bondo..) and leaving so it can dry. We tried not to get too ahead of ourselves and instead focus on just one area at a time (i.e. the rear end) but this makes for very slow progress. So, instead of hogging Jim's garage any longer we've decided to bring Betty home for a while so we can maybe get this sanding business over with a bit faster. Honestly, we went back and forth whether to keep Betty or sell her, and it was decided after much, much deliberation to keep her. So in between house hunting, wedding planning, and work we will (once again) borrow Jim's dads car hauler, and haul Betty over here to our tiny garage. At least if she sits here for a week without being touched we won't feel guilty about it. Maybe a little, but not much. -SB

How much I hate sanding.

See this image below? This is going to be me for the next 10 years. I hate sanding body filler. Hate it. Loathe it. Despise it. I have no patience for it. But... I try. Here I am trying to smooth out the massive discrepancies in the channel between the rear fender and body. Keep in mind, this area has been welded, ground down, filled with aluminum epoxy filler, then coated in body filler. It's a long process. It's tough to get anything in this area to sand the transition from the high fender, sloping down into the body. A short block with 36 grit is about the best you can do for now. Later, I'll smooth it out with the DA as good as I can, but currently, the last skim coat has been put on - I'll shoot it with a guide coat and see how we come out. -TH



The back in this pic has been skim coated for the last time. I'll long block this out and we should be ready for some finer grit on the DA...then on to primer. This was a long, long process getting the rear looking good. -TH





I'm sure I'll be sanding this thing for an eternity. I hoped to have primer on the whole car by August. Yeah right. Until next time...I'll be sanding, sanding, sanding, sanding...oh, and sanding. -TH