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May 25, 2005
2.0 Hours

Reassembly Begins

First, by request, a few more photos of the frame after Doug and Nick Seybold brought it over on Saturday.

Yeah, it is pretty nice...

With that new frame sitting there, it was hard to resist installing at least a few parts on it. Though most of the suspension is ready to go back on, I don't yet have all the little parts like the rubber sway bar bushings, the bushings for the control arms, the Panhard bushings, etc. The shocks also need to be rebuilt, so I'll be sending them out in a few weeks once the Buick Fund recovers from the powder coating and the purchase of a big pile of NOS parts from a friend (bumpers, some interior parts and some cool factory manuals). I figure the suspension needs another $800-1000 before it can be reassembled. That little stuff really adds up!

But I did install some little parts that needed nothing more than a few nuts and bolts, including the heater hose brackets and the front brake hose brackets, all of which you may recall I removed just before Nick picked it up in February. 

Front brake hose bracket took a couple of tries to get the orientation
correct. Looking at my disassembly photos cleared it up quickly.

I'm pretty sure this is where this bracket fits.

I'm using all stainless steel fasteners throughout the Buick wherever possible. An important tip I gleaned from Nick regarding stainless fasteners is that you have to grind off the markings on the bolt head so that the judges at the shows don't deduct points for incorrect (modern) fasteners. While the shiny bolts don't exactly look authentic, there's no penalty for over-restoration, and the only alternative is reusing the questionable original fasteners. Stainless just makes me feel better.

I ground off the markings on my grinding wheel, then sanded the heads using some 220 grit wet sandpaper and finally polished them on my buffing wheel. Each bolt probably took a grand total of about 5 minutes. Considering how many bolts are in this car, I'm guessing I'll have more than a few hours invested in simply polishing hardware...

Before and after grinding/polishing the stainless bolt heads.

After the fun of bolting on some parts, I went back into the trunk and got back to work. I've been struggling with some holes that I just can't weld closed without blowing through, so I finally cut it all out and made 3 new patches. Maybe I'll show that next time.

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E-mail me at toolman8@sbcglobal.net

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Last modified on 05/30/2005

Thanks, Fidget!