Project INVICTA

[ocnblu]

Bench seats ROCK

[balthazar]

Took the steering wheel, column, speedometer/gauge unit out, then took the dash substructure out. Going to clean/sand and 'jamb' spray around the ashtray & glovebox, so when those are opened, it's finished. Also going to brush-paint the firewall behind it, so I can permanently bolt the dash structure back in. Down the road the dash tops and a few other like pieces will get professionally painted. Interior is going to black. Paint tomm.

EDIT :: prepped , primed & sprayed 1st coat this morning. Unfortunately, I noticed soon after that it was speckled with pollen. Have to wait 48 hrs, then do a quick 600-grit light sand & spray a 2nd coat inside.

EDIT 2 :: resprayed, looks good.
Worked on cleaning the ashtray & it's slide, did some more sound deadening, (searched for my radio/ashtray bracket to no avail), brush painted the upper inside firewall. Had to trim the corners of a fiberglass glovebox from my parts car- for some reason it would not seat all the way in the dash opening. Weird, but it fits now.

Edited June 3, 2020 by balthazar

[balthazar]

Bolted the dash substructure in "permanently" tonight. Feels good. (8) 1/2-in bolts, plus (3) diagonal braces (for effectively 3 more bolts). Made thin rubber gaskets between the substructure and the body shell- hopefully no squeaks, ever. Feels very good.

[balthazar]

Cleaned/painted the bare steel axle ends, re-sprayed one rear drum exterior, put NeverSieze on axle ends and centers of rims, then put the drums & rims back on.
As a point of reference : 315/60-15s. Not fun getting these on / off the car. Oh well, the price for speed! 

[balthazar]

C7 Z06 wears 335s in the rear, does 1/4-mile in 10.9.
B-59 wears 315s in the rear, will do quarter mile in ????

Edited June 13, 2020 by balthazar

[balthazar]

• Bolted rear suspension back up (lower shock mounts & Panhard Bar) and sat the car back on the floor (in the rear).
• cleaned / lubed the vent window regulators; bagged & put on the shelf.
• started poking around with the seat belt situation. Front lap belts were not required by federal statue until Jan of '66, tho GM began installing threaded bosses for front lap belts for the '62 model year. Obviously there's nothing on my car from the factory for belts. I have a pair of period (aftermarket) belts I already dyed black, but some of the mounting hardware seems to be MIA. I hate the modern 'tight weave' nylon look in a car this old, but without those MIA brackets, I can't even install these 2 pair. Researching options.

[balthazar]

• Shelved the seat belts for now. Some of the pics of vintage, aftermarket belts look fairly hideous. These weren't installed cleanly, and the seat may be moved artificially up, but still; not having this slop :

Edited June 15, 2020 by balthazar

[ocnblu]

Safe to say, it's no accident, those look positively smashing!

Edited June 15, 2020 by ocnblu

[ykX]

On 6/12/2020 at 5:46 PM, balthazar said:

Cleaned/painted the bare steel axle ends, re-sprayed one rear drum exterior, put NeverSieze on axle ends and centers of rims, then put the drums & rims back on.
As a point of reference : 315/60-15s. Not fun getting these on / off the car. Oh well, the price for speed! 

What kind of tire is that?  This look like a racing tire.

[balthazar]

Street legal ‘drag radial’. 

[ykX]

So your project is for drag racing?  I thought it will be a street restomod

[balthazar]

It's for the street.
I would like to take it to the strip at least a couple times. There, I would use actual slicks.
The issue with running it on the strip is; it's going to be too quick to run without a roll bar, and I refuse to put one in. Some tracks kick you out after 1 run under 11.5, others might let you do a few. I would like to know for sure what it'll do, so I'll have to look into that scene for the best scenario to run a few times sans bar.
But for the street, pretty sure I'll need the contact patch these give me (315's).

[balthazar]

• Cleaned / degreased / edge-smoothed 1 front window regulator.
• went thru 5 shelves of B-59 parts; re-familiarized myself, segregated extra parts into storage.
• Pulled my 2 front & 1 original rear bumper out to evaluate. Rear is burnt toast. 1 front is a suitable core for rechroming. Have a line on a local rear bumper core.
• Bought rechromed front bumper guards off B-59 restorer I bought from before.

Edited June 24, 2020 by balthazar

[balthazar]

Found wiper motor, tested; it works fine. Still a good idea to disassemble, clean, relube. Trying to get actuator arm off- has 'keyed' shaft & retained by nut, but not moving off shaft yet. Soaking.
It's a single-speed motor. Variable would be nice, but then again I doubt I'll be driving it in the rain. Have not researched to see if I can retro-fit a variable motor in this bracket/car- variables came out in the very late 60s. Perhaps a Cadillac unit...

EDIT : before & after pics of single-speed wiper motor. Opened, degreased, re-greased, stripped, painted, test-run again. On the shelf for later re-assembly. Wiper transmission linkage already rejuvenated.

Edited July 1, 2020 by balthazar

[balthazar]

My car's original rear bumper on the right: bent, twisted & tweaked, beyond the obvious dent.
Got a nice straight core today (on the left); will save huge on the metalwork to try & fix the right one.

[G. David Felt]

37 minutes ago, balthazar said:

My car's original rear bumper on the right: bent, twisted & tweaked, beyond the obvious dent.
Got a nice straight core today (on the left); will save huge on the metalwork to try & fix the right one.

Gonna re-chrome it?

[balthazar]

That's the plan, tho chrome work is very expensive.
There's a few products out there that 'replicate' chrome, but I haven't researched if they have any longevity to speak of. Highly unlikely.

[Robert Hall]

So spray painting them with Rustoleum chrome is out of the question?  

[balthazar]

Yes; yes it is.
Figure around 2 grand for the rear & front bumpers plus 2 'eyebrows' over the parking lamps. But I haven't priced anything yet- not ready. Also want to get the speedometer cluster and 2 lower dash panels chromed. There's also taillight & headlight bezels. I think the 2nd grille I picked up is good enough to use. Everything else is stainless.

[balthazar]

F I N A L L Y got the trunk spatter-painted. I bought the cans 2 years ago.
Not exactly how I wanted it to look- GM's application comes out smoother and quite a bit less 'peppery', but this isn't a restoration, and I can't think that I will actually use the trunk, so it should be good. Have an extra can left for touch-up, but I think it's 95% as of today, maybe 100%.

 

Another reasons how this isn't a restoration- I believe GM didn't start to spatter trunks (and different Divisions started in different years), until '62-63. For sure, P-62s are spattered, but Buick didn't start until '65. Buick in '59 shows zero metal in the trunk in factory form; between mats & cardboards, it's all covered. I don't have any of that stuff, and even if it were available repro (I think it is), my trunk's contours are different than stock.

Future decision- to get a period trunk mat or not. I want to... down in that lower well at least. I love the period Herringbone in aqua- both my Pontiacs had/have that :

Edited August 1, 2020 by balthazar

[balthazar]

Used up spatter can #4 in the trunk, came out pretty good. However, should have used a black undercoat- the self-etching primer was a grey-green color, and such changed the final color.
Then went ahead and dumped 2 cans of matte clear overtop, recommended as the spatter paint is partially water-soluble. That ended up a bit more mottled, but F it; I'm done. Still plan on a mat for the center section.

Still have to get back on the header, but there's a few other minor sidebar tasks I can spend some short time on, too.

[balthazar]

Had stripped/ painted the trunklid hinges & torsion bars, reinstalled yesterday.

Been working on prepping some of the dash panels for painting- primer/sand/prime/sand sort of thing. Still pondering sending off interior bits for rechroming... the costs are high but they aren't going to get any cheaper... ?

EDIT :: Put trunklid back on and the trunk 'receiver' catch in (it was cleaned & zinc plated).
I believe I still have to drill the package shelf speaker bolt holes... and I have already-made panels that will block off the view of the back of the rear seat (the 3 trapezoid holes seen in the above), so I'll knock that off the list, too.
 

Edited October 15, 2020 by balthazar

[balthazar]

Here’s the ‘fiberboard’ panels that hides the back of the rear seat, installed: 

Cleaned up & started priming the trans mount ‘offset’ plate for paint : 

Edited October 17, 2020 by balthazar

[balthazar]

Painted speedo hood and 2 lower dash panels that house a variety of controls. Trying to figure out a modification to a tissue dispenser to have the face hinge down / hide a trio of aftermarket gauges. 

Also polished up a cool ‘V’ emblem from a B-58 for the package shelf, and am exhausting a few last techniques RE trying to save the dash chrome vs. re-chroming. None of them are going to be an acceptable alternative to the real thing unfortunately.

Edited October 28, 2020 by balthazar

[ocnblu]

YOU'RE gonna hafta open that wallet! 

[balthazar]

Wallet has a 4” drain in the bottom of it. 
No good chrome : 

[balthazar]

Need to get new dash pad. Have large crack in mine, and only 1 outfit makes these (in Sweden). $550 shipped. You let me know, Bill, when you're ready to contribute to the Buick Fund.

[G. David Felt]

2 hours ago, balthazar said:

Need to get new dash pad. Have large crack in mine, and only 1 outfit makes these (in Sweden). $550 shipped. You let me know, Bill, when you're ready to contribute to the Buick Fund.

? What do you think of rubberization or leather cover over it? I have seen friends who also did not want to pay big money so they decided to have the interior parts either rubber coated or leather. I have seen kits you can buy for applying leather over plastic or foam dash parts.

[balthazar]

'Rubberization'? Don't know what that is; envisioning Plasti-Dip.

The couple of pics I've seen of folk who wrapped their dashpad with some sort of vinyl material always looked like crap to me. Those heat-sunk lines are so characteristic, plus it has about a 1/2-in flat on the edge... I don't want to lose too much of the B-59 character.

[balthazar]

I have a vintage tissue dispenser, came out of my grandfather's '57 Star Chief.  So I want to incorporate it into the B-59, despite the small center emblem saying 'PONTIAC'. They have a chrome face, mount under the dash and pivot outward, & the tissues pop out the top, like this :

 

But I want to convert it to hide the aftermarket engine gauges, so I can hide them when I want a pick-up street race . So the work in progress so far is; I detached the face plate, have some small hinges, and I fabricated an aluminum plate I will drill for the 3 gauges. I wanted to add some detail, so I did this :

Edited November 6, 2020 by balthazar

[balthazar]

Also in line is fabricating a 'bullet' housing for the tach. There's a pic I think on page 3 of basically how it'll look, but I don't want the back of it & it's wires exposed. So I have a spare pair of rotted headlight bullets for my COE, and tho they're much larger in diameter, I'll pay around and see if I can make a 'bullet cup'. The blue Solo cup covers most of the tach when mounted, so you can see the size disparity I'm looking at.

[ocnblu]

When you posted your chrome parts I was thinking of some sort of "starry night" theme.

[balthazar]

Did more work on tach housing. Difficult staring point; tach is 3.375” dia, headlight housing is 7.75”. Getting closer tho.

 

Prepped & primed hood springs. Also recently went over both hinge assemblies with a file; deburring & smoothing. Everything must be smooth. Going to try a phosphate bath for the assemblies instead of paint

Edited November 13, 2020 by balthazar

[A Horse With No Name]

On 11/11/2020 at 3:43 PM, balthazar said:

Did more work on tach housing. Difficult staring point; tach is 3.375” dia, headlight housing is 7.75”. Getting closer tho.

 

Prepped & primed hood springs. Also recently went over both hinge assemblies with a file; deburring & smoothing. Everything must be smooth. Going to try a phosphate bath for the assemblies instead of paint

Impressive work. 

On 11/5/2020 at 11:37 PM, balthazar said:

Also in line is fabricating a 'bullet' housing for the tach. There's a pic I think on page 3 of basically how it'll look, but I don't want the back of it & it's wires exposed. So I have a spare pair of rotted headlight bullets for my COE, and tho they're much larger in diameter, I'll pay around and see if I can make a 'bullet cup'. The blue Solo cup covers most of the tach when mounted, so you can see the size disparity I'm looking at.

Surprising tht "Blu would upvote something with a size disparity, usually that is a problem from what I understand. 

On 11/6/2020 at 5:34 AM, ocnblu said:

When you posted your chrome parts I was thinking of some sort of "starry night" theme.

Interesting, and funny.

On 11/5/2020 at 11:30 PM, balthazar said:

I have a vintage tissue dispenser, came out of my grandfather's '57 Star Chief.  So I want to incorporate it into the B-59, despite the small center emblem saying 'PONTIAC'. They have a chrome face, mount under the dash and pivot outward, & the tissues pop out the top, like this :

 

But I want to convert it to hide the aftermarket engine gauges, so I can hide them when I want a pick-up street race . So the work in progress so far is; I detached the face plate, have some small hinges, and I fabricated an aluminum plate I will drill for the 3 gauges. I wanted to add some detail, so I did this :

Right, because a tubbed big block Buick with Fins and a nasty idle just screams sleeper W body impala when you change the dashboard a bit....got it. 

On 10/28/2020 at 2:00 PM, balthazar said:

'Rubberization'? Don't know what that is; envisioning Plasti-Dip.

The couple of pics I've seen of folk who wrapped their dashpad with some sort of vinyl material always looked like crap to me. Those heat-sunk lines are so characteristic, plus it has about a 1/2-in flat on the edge... I don't want to lose too much of the B-59 character.

On the serious side, I love everything you have done so far. Although unlike you I sometimes like light colors, and I also like stock restored cars. I keep thinking about how good this also would look restored, or when it left the factory. Your white B-59 and Sixtyeights B-59 occasionally haunt my dreams....maybe I need to stop eating pizza before bed. 

[A Horse With No Name]

On 10/28/2020 at 12:45 PM, David said:

? What do you think of rubberization or leather cover over it? I have seen friends who also did not want to pay big money so they decided to have the interior parts either rubber coated or leather. I have seen kits you can buy for applying leather over plastic or foam dash parts.

You might rile up some of the ICE loving crowd if you talk about ruber and leather too much. So watch your content, sir. 

On 10/28/2020 at 9:56 AM, balthazar said:

Need to get new dash pad. Have large crack in mine, and only 1 outfit makes these (in Sweden). $550 shipped. You let me know, Bill, when you're ready to contribute to the Buick Fund.

Take it out of the grand you win street racing with that stock appering dashboard...

On 10/28/2020 at 9:51 AM, balthazar said:

Wallet has a 4” drain in the bottom of it. 
No good chrome : 

Look at the bright side, it's still only a fraction of the cost of repairing and owning a Euro luxury car, and much cooler and more original. Plus, Street race...

On 5/29/2020 at 6:45 PM, ocnblu said:

Bench seats ROCK

I really miss them in cars. Seriously. Although I would prefer a 60's or 70's, or 50's....Ford or Chevy pick em up with a bench seat. 

[A Horse With No Name]

On 6/12/2020 at 9:20 PM, balthazar said:

C7 Z06 wears 335s in the rear, does 1/4-mile in 10.9.
B-59 wears 315s in the rear, will do quarter mile in ????

At some point in the distant future the universe will contract and time will run backwards. Given progress on the car, and the projected completion date, this might be the ony Buick ever with an infinite quarter mile time. You just think you will arrive at the finish line....until you suddenly find yourself staring at a stock white B-59 in your driveway. 

On 6/14/2020 at 10:36 AM, balthazar said:

• Bolted rear suspension back up (lower shock mounts & Panhard Bar) and sat the car back on the floor (in the rear).
• cleaned / lubed the vent window regulators; bagged & put on the shelf.
• started poking around with the seat belt situation. Front lap belts were not required by federal statue until Jan of '66, tho GM began installing threaded bosses for front lap belts for the '62 model year. Obviously there's nothing on my car from the factory for belts. I have a pair of period (aftermarket) belts I already dyed black, but some of the mounting hardware seems to be MIA. I hate the modern 'tight weave' nylon look in a car this old, but without those MIA brackets, I can't even install these 2 pair. Researching options.

Actually I think a well done cage with a 5 point harness for driver and passenger would be badass...especially if you could keep the factory bench seat somehow. Not sure how that would work. But the car would look good with a well built cage. 

On 6/15/2020 at 8:34 AM, balthazar said:

It's for the street.
I would like to take it to the strip at least a couple times. There, I would use actual slicks.
The issue with running it on the strip is; it's going to be too quick to run without a roll bar, and I refuse to put one in. Some tracks kick you out after 1 run under 11.5, others might let you do a few. I would like to know for sure what it'll do, so I'll have to look into that scene for the best scenario to run a few times sans bar.
But for the street, pretty sure I'll need the contact patch these give me (315's).

You will. And also, I think the cage thing would be badass. seriously. But I understand not wanting to put one in. 

On 6/24/2020 at 12:21 AM, balthazar said:

• Cleaned / degreased / edge-smoothed 1 front window regulator.
• went thru 5 shelves of B-59 parts; re-familiarized myself, segregated extra parts into storage.
• Pulled my 2 front & 1 original rear bumper out to evaluate. Rear is burnt toast. 1 front is a suitable core for rechroming. Have a line on a local rear bumper core.
• Bought rechromed front bumper guards off B-59 restorer I bought from before.

Entirely sweet. This would almost be enough to make me buy a project car or truck. 

On 7/1/2020 at 3:29 PM, balthazar said:

My car's original rear bumper on the right: bent, twisted & tweaked, beyond the obvious dent.
Got a nice straight core today (on the left); will save huge on the metalwork to try & fix the right one.

When you ride the rear bumper without wheelie bars you will have a spare, good move. 

[A Horse With No Name]

On 10/28/2020 at 5:33 AM, ocnblu said:

YOU'RE gonna hafta open that wallet! 

He has been, for a long time. Good thing the man does not have a mortgage and does not like to eat out. Sirloin every night and a Jersey McMansion if he had never spun a wrech on this thing. 

[balthazar]

Wheelies are an interesting subject. I hope it doesn't; it does have the build-in discouragement of a 123" wheelbase.

I've looked at a built BBB currently for sale online. Stroked to 496 CI, runs on 93 pump gas, has the same cylinder heads I have. It's taken a '69 Buick GS to a 6.5 sec @ 103 in the 1/8th mile, which equates to a 10.1 in the quarter. I don't know what that GS weighed; but every 100 lbs is one tenth in the quarter, and my car will be around 4100 without me in it. I'd guess I'd be 5-600 lbs heavier.
 This car weighs 4040 lbs & runs 10.4's :

 

[ocnblu]

10 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

He has been, for a long time. Good thing the man does not have a mortgage and does not like to eat out. Sirloin every night and a Jersey McMansion if he had never spun a wrech on this thing. 

That was an inside joke between Balthy and ocn.

[balthazar]

• Finished prepping the hood hinges & shot them in epoxy primer.
• Did some metal prep on the major crossbrace that connects the 2 front fenders / the grill hangs off of. Have some other similar pieces I might as well prep and get into epoxy primer.

• Decided to hold off on sending stuff out for chrome until next year. If a lot of businesses shut down over the winter, I don't want rare parts sitting somewhere else for who knows how long.

So here was a sched I posted in May. Done pretty good, I think (plus, I did a number of other minor tasks). The roof insulation I have been holding out trying to get exactly what I want. The door speaker holes wouldn't take but an afternoon, but the header is a number of sessions and I've been avoiding it. Will get it done before 12/31.

Edited November 26, 2020 by balthazar

[A Horse With No Name]

You are inspiring me to get some of my projets done. 

[A Horse With No Name]

[balthazar]

Well, '20 is shut, and I didn't get the last couple items done on the above list. s'OK; I did accomplish other tasks not on there. Feel generally good. Working on my '21 to-do list.

[ Meanwhile, I am still mentally dancing with clearing / dedicating space to enable pulling the engine out of the '64 meanwhile NOT allowing it to be a time distraction to the B-59. Going to check if the starter is locked up first and I have a new borescope enroute to try inspecting the cylinders again. ]

• • 2021 • •
finish tach housing / mounting
finish driver's header
drill for rear speaker mounting
figure out front speaker mounting
insulate roof
finish revitalizing all window regulators
gather parts to convert to manual dual master cylinder brakes
route/mount fuel line
bend/route at least rear section of brake lines
route exhaust/mufflers (3" with X-pipe) (once header is done)
get headers ceramic-coated