Disassembling the Frame

Now the disassembly of the frame is finally done. Actually it was done few months ago but we didn't have the inspiration to write the post about it. Anyway, here it finally is.

The disassembly process was pretty straightforward and there weren't any big surprises. There was a small mouses nest inside one of the frame rails though :).

First to come off were the rear axle and torque tube assembly. Nothing much there. We don't have any idea what the condition of the rear axle is, so some kind of overhaul will be done, new bearings, axle seals and so on. Then there are also the lever-action shocks, although they seem to have some resistance they will probably be replaced by a pair of modern shocks along with the springs, who knows?

When taking the engine and the transmission off, we noticed that the engine and transmission mounts were all sheared. So basically the engine and the transmission were held on only by gravity and the torque tube.

Transmission mounts

Engine mounts

Our older son helping with the jack.
If only we had taken the front springs off at this state as he is suggesting :).

Then we took off the transmission. Fortunately we have the shop manual so we also knew to unscrew the 4 screws between the flex plate and the torque converter in addition to the the screws between the bell housing and the engine. Like already mentioned, the transmission mounts were sheared so when we took the transmission cross member off, it fell to our garage floor. Fortunately we had the transmission and engine already supported by engine crane so no harm done there.

Transmission being lifted off

Engine being lifted off

We also had some difficulties with the detachment of the front springs. The shop manual states that detachment should be done by detaching the outer end of the lower A-arm and then lowering it with the jack. Well that works fine if you have the weight of the car on the jack but we had already disassembled the whole car off the frame. So we had to use coil spring compressors to compress the springs, which wasn't that easy either, because only half of the coils is visible and could be compressed. In the end we finally got the front spring assembly off and the disassembly of the frame done.

She's Back

We got the body and the front fenders back from the sandblaster.

Most of the old undercoating came of with the sandblasting. The sandblaster said that the bits where it didn't come off the undercoating was so sticky that it just moved in front of the sand, so we decided to leave it there. After blasting the body and front fenders he put on a coat of grey epoxy primer.

After a brief look there were no big surprises. There were only a few rusted spots that we didn't anticipate, most of them are few millimeter diameter holes though. So still nothing too bad.

The most difficult place to repair will be, by far, the right side lower corner of the rear window as you can see below. Fortunately, the other side has been already repaired so we can use that as a template.

"Little bit" of holes in the trunk

Left side rear light mount. The right side was completely fine.

Next we will be doing some sheet metal work and we have also started the disassembly of the frame.

Let's Strip!

Now to the stripping of the paint. Previously we had talked about taking her body and body panels to be soda blasted. After a visit from a guy, who has sandblasted a lot of cars, we decided to go for sandblasting instead. In order to minimise the distortion caused by the heat generated during sandblasting, we used a grinding disk to strip the paint from the larger areas beforehand.

We began by grinding the paint off her body then moved on to the front fenders, boot lid, doors and the bonnet. In some parts of the body there was an almost 10 mm thick layer of Bondo, but nothing too bad. Guess the previous owner didn't see it necessary to straighten the dents and just used Bondo instead...

Bondo bonanza...

Another patch of thick Bondo

Grindin'

Front fenders ready for blasting

Not quite done

At this point we also decided to do some sheet metal work, namely replace the passenger side floor panel. After drilling the spot welds off and using a little bit of angle grinder the old floor panel came off. Then we just welded a new piece of sheet metal in its place.

Old panel

Old panel ready to come off

New panel fitted in

After that we rented a trailer and took the first set of parts to be sandblasted. In the first set there was the body and both of the front fenders. A local machine contractor came to help us lift the body from the garage to the trailer with his wheel loader.

Caaaaaaaareful

Next time you see her, all the rust and old paint will have been blasted off and she'll have a brand new coat of primer. Then it will be time for some serious sheet metal work...

Undressing Bessie Part II

Yes, we're still taking her apart. The next step in her disassembly was to remove the body from the frame. The body was held on the frame with total of 14 bolts. Having gotten wiser from the efforts with the door hinge bolts we decided to use the impact wrench for the frame bolts. To everyone's surprise 13 of the bolts came of fairly easily and only 1 got sheared.

After the bolts were off and we were sure that there wasn't anything else attached between her body and frame we could finally separate the body from the frame. The car was already on jack stands so now we only had to lower the frame and let the body stay on the jack stands.

Frame coming off

After the frame was lowered we rolled it from under the body and straight to the other garage lot.

The body on jack stands

Pulling.

Pushing.

Next we will start stripping the paint off her body and do some other body work.

Undressing Bessie Part 1

Hello again.

Now we have finally begun the disassembly of Bessie. First thing we did was lifting her on jack stands and took off her wheels.

What came off first were the larger pieces of the body. Trunk lid, hood, doors, front fenders etc. There were no major issues in this part of the disassembly. Obviously, Bessie being almost 60 years old, some of the bolts had to be cut with an angle grinder and some were sheared when opened, but nothing too bad.

We also found a small beehive in the driver side door, no bees in it though.

The Girl Has Issues

Hello again. As we mentioned in the previous post, Bessie needs some work. So we thought we'd give you an overview of the issues, at least the ones we know of so far. First, some general pictures.

It's worth mentioning, that the previous owner had already begun to restore her. She had been partly dismantled (seats, front bumper, side panels and some smaller pieces). The driver side quarter panel, driver side floor, driver side rocker panel and also the driver side lower rear window corner had already been restored. So the driver side is for the most part done. In addition, they had begun to overhaul the brakes.

Restored driver side quarter panel

There is some sheet metal work to be done. The biggest issues are rocker panels, front floors, lower rear window corners and a few smaller places need attention too. Then there is an issue with the brakes. They don't work. The transmission is a bit of a question mark. She was driven for a few hundred meters when she was first brought to Finland in 2007 but she hasn't been driven since. So we have to keep our fingers crossed!

Lower rear window corner

Front floor

The chroming on her is in a rather poor state so something will have to be done about that. Her interior needs some work done too. The seats are in a really bad shape and need to be completely redone. The headliner and the side panels on the other hand are in a rather good shape. These are all the issues that we know of at the moment. And it's almost certain that more issues will come up as we continue to dismantle her...

Pitting on driver side tail light frame

Our older son helping out and a view of the interior

Introducing Bessie

Welcome to our blog! As you might have guessed, it's about restoring a car. This blog will follow the project as it happens. The trials and errors, the successes and the failures. We won't be aiming at a show-quality restoration or try to keep it completely authentic. All we want at the end is a nice family car to drive to cruisings and other events during the summer. We hope, that this blog might be of help to someone doing a similar project or at least be an interesting read.

We had talked about getting a "project car" for quite some time, about ten years maybe. It's only now that we have the garage to do the work in. We knew the car had to be American and preferably from the 1950's. It also needed to be big enough for our whole family. It had to be reasonably priced and the amount of work that would be needed had to be within reason. So, suddenly last summer, we spotted an advert for a Buick. She needed a lot of work, but not too much. Her engine ran but she wasn't drivable. There were parts included. So after driving to Kirkkonummi and giving the car a quick once over, she was ours.

Bessie coming home

And that's how we got her. Bessie, that is. She is a 1955 Buick Century Riviera 2-door hardtop. She is blue. She is big. And she needs a lot of work.