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.