My Limited Four Door Project

[Smartin]

I had wanted a 58 Buick for a few years after seeing some in the Buick Club, I saw this car at a local storage facility in early 2006. I contacted the owner, and it wasn't for sale at the time. I never really got a great look at the car, but I knew that a Limited would be AWESOME, especially after seeing one up close in that condition. I could just imagine myself turning wrenches on it.

Fast forward to July 2008 - I get an email from the owner's son, stating that they are selling a few cars, and the 58 Limited is one of them. I called the owner and set up a meeting the next morning. By that time, I was already counting the cash it would take to get it into my garage. So, on Sunday morning, I went and checked out the car. There it was, sitting exactly where it was 2 years ago.






Here is the original color - Blue Mist (Polar Mist top)






We agreed on a price, and shook hands. I just had to figure out how to get it back to St. Charles, MO (60 miles away!). Fortunately, we have many willing members of our local BCA chapter that could help with a trailer. It was the next weekend that I dragged the car home. It started and drove onto the trailer, but the brakes were questionable at best. I had one foot on the emergency brake the whole time....and I used it to stop most of the time!




Ouch!! I had to evict some tenants in there.





After completely gutting the interior, I found some rot... All four sections have some rust-through. The fronts were the worst.



The rockers are/were pretty much toast, too. Inners and outers. The inside of the trunk lid is gone, and the channel where the weatherstripping goes is rotten pretty badly at the lower portion.








These fun little parts are part of the front wheel house...both rusted out like this.




With some massaging, they'll look good as new!




Drivers side rocker getting some new metal...






I had to totally rebuild the lower cowl portion where the front fender bolts to it. I didn't have a pattern or any idea on how this was actually supposed to look...I hope it turned out ok.




Last weekend, I welded in a new front drivers side floor pan from Classic Fabrication. Their panels are nice.



I still have the entire passenger side floors to do, as well as the rocker panel. The trunk floor is ugly, as if that is a surprise. There is much work to do before the body comes off the frame!!

[58limited]

WOW! You've already put a lot of good time into this. I wish i could weld and fabricate metal parts - I have several cars that need metalwork. Your car looks like a great one - even has A/C and the original air ride pump. Does the car still have the other original air ride components on it?

Also, I notice there is some missing trim. If you don't have them, let me know - I've parted a few Limited four doors and have most of the trim, except the trunk lid and tail light parts.

[Smartin]

I think that any missing trim you saw in the photos was either in the trunk or in the back seat. Hopefully, it REALLY is all there! I'm going to try to go check out a 57 parts car today to see if I can harvest some of the trunk floor/lid/channel sheet metal.

When I popped off the rocker molding for the first time this Fall, I about gave up. MUCH more rust than I had anticipated...but, so it goes. It'll allow me to hone my welding skills.

[Smartin]

Forgot to mention:

The air poise compressor is there, but nothing else is. It was converted to springs. They pinched off the line at the compressor. I was thinking about running a dummy line to make it look like it's functional.

Also, it no longer has the flite pitch transmission. Standard dynaflow now.

The car needs an entire wire harness, which will run me over $2000 alone. Chrome is going to cost me a boatload....all the pot metal is in rough shape.

The door panels will be redone in a couple months. I'll hold off with the seats for a while, though. The door panels alone are costing $1600 to reproduce. I am having SMS provide the material (including the embossed upper panels) and a local club member is doing the upholstery work.

[groundhog180]

Hi,
Seeing your pics brought back what I was doing during Summer/Fall 2007 on my Super 56R. It stills needs some patching,but other projects took precedence in 08'. I also have a Limited like yours that has the front clip taken off and will be a repeat of what the Super has had done,except the trunk is in nice shape. Looks like a good job of welding. I also have had to do some self fabricating when there is nothing left in an area like the front rocker......Lee

[Smartin]

I've been stuck lately...mostly due to weather, but in other ways with the engine in the Centurion. All my extra fundage just went up in smoke after I paid for the new engine parts.

Surprisingly, I've been very busy at work with irrigation. I never work this much in the Winter...it's been a big drain on my energy.

Today, with the help of a fellow BCA member, I harvested the trunk rim and main floor pan out of a 57 Super. Earlier, I had posted a photo of the lip that holds the weatherstripping, and it was virtually gone.

I'll still have to fabricate some of the pan by hand, but this will give me a boost that I need badly.

[groundhog180]

Hello,
I came close to doing something like this with a 57' Roadmaster parts car I have. The wheel wells in the trunk area of the 58" 56R were rusted out and split all the way into the inside of the passenger area behind the rear seat. This area in the 57' is still in good shape. I don't know how because the rest of the body isn't. The problem was that the 57' even though it's a big series Roadmaster measured much shorter than the elongated 58' Supers trunk. Not worth the effort to cut out. I ended up making patch panels and butting them together until the trunk area was done. When warm weather arrives I'll get back to that area behind the seat to wrap it up.

Get this! Someone had removed the ignition switch and trunk lock from the 57' apparantly because they could not find the keys. When I tore out the nasty old carpet there they were under the seat. The keys were still attached to the original green plastic Buick holder. The logo was from a dealer in Pittsburgh,Pa where I believe the car was originally sold. It's last sticker was 1976. I needed the car for the dynaflow and engine heads primarily. The block has a huge crack in it from being frozen........

Lee

[Smartin]

Hi Lee,

Does your 57 Roadmaster have fender skirts? I have a good friend that is looking for a set. He lives in Massachusetts.

[groundhog180]

Hi Smartin,
Sorry it doesn't have the skirts.

Lee

[Smartin]

Hacked and chopped at it some tonight. I had to remove the gas tank before I started....almost forgot to do that. I'm sure the 5 gallons of gas that was in there was in great shape.

Test fitting the channel... I have just a little bit of adjusting to do. After I get that installed, I have to reinstall the metal "skirt" that was welded to the channel. (see photo above). The 57 did not have this skirt.

[Smartin]

I welded the trunk channel today and patched a few spots just inside and outside of where it connects to either side of the trunk.





I was hoping I could get away with using the apron I pulled off, but it's more swiss cheese than I thought...and I don't think I can effectively repair it. Does anyone know if all the 58's have this apron that tucks under the rear bumper?






Here I am struggling to hold up the piece while taking a picture - for reference.

[58limited]

I believe all models have that apron. You could probably fix the bad end with a patch panel-it looks pretty flat for the most part.

[Smartin]

It does have a slight curve to it, but I may try to patch it. It's much worse than I thought originally. The majority of the left side is pretty ventilated.

[Smartin]

Ok, I hacked at the apron and managed to save it. I had to make the entire left side, basically. It turned out nice. The seam where the apron is welded to the trunk channel gets filled with seam sealer and smoothed, so all you see is a crease.




Look below the apron and check out the rust mess that's hanging there. I completely removed that lower "pan" brace and am in the process of making a new one to replace it. That should be interesting. It also has braces welded into it for the rear two body mounts.




Here's the rear body mount brace...UGLY!! I really got myself into a pickle with this car. This brace was packed with mouse nest fluff, just like the rocker panels.




If I didn't already have almost $2k into the interior already, I'd be seriously thinking about unloading this thing. BUT, that won't be the case at this point.

[Smartin]

Another thrash session in the garage this morning, and almost completed the rear body mount brace. It's not perfect, but it won't be something everyone sees. The only thing that will show, is the flat part underneath the car.

The top flanges are still rough...I'll beat those out when I'm finished making it fit right. It goes into place pretty well now, but I have a couple little spots to trim.