2013-04-16- 56X Buick

Subject: 56X BUICK APRIL 16 2013

VOLUNTEERS : Jim Baker, Al Batts, Bob Boorsma, Jerry Bush, Del Carpenter, Dick Champers, Connie DeJong, Ron Elzinga, Don Feutz, Don Mayton, Art Meidema, Dick Saddler, Chuck Snow

Photographs #1 & #2 show some real attention focused on the two rocker panels that have been manufactured replacing the original badly damaged ones. Placement of these rocker panels has to be perfect with the vertical door opening lines on the front and rear of the doors as the start and stop of the machined grooves on the rocker panels themselves. These machined aluminum rocker panels are below the door and begin just behind the front fender wheel opening and extend to the rear wheel opening and have to be placed in this exact location. Using the enlarged photographs that came from GM Media archives our crew working on this part of the restoration met to insure that these rocker panels would end up exactly where they were when this Buick 56X Century was taken out of the studio and started to be shown to the public. The 3rd photo is from the GM Media archives showing the location of this rocker moulding.

Once the team settled on the location Ron and Dick Chambers who has been leading this effort then went to work and by the end of the work session the left rocker panel was in place minus attaching two fasteners at the rear of the rocker. This work will be continued next week.

Al had to leave early due to he and his wife having to consult with her cancer doctor.

Jim has now positioned the driver's bucket seat. He had everyone sit in it for final approval. There was some questions about the steering wheel position but that is fixed by the bolt locations of the steering wheel column and where it is bolted to the steering box. This location was confirmed when Chuck brought the steer wheel up on the computer and comparing the original car's photos with the actual car. Next Jim was working on the connections to the seat controls.

Bob is repairing and restoring many of the components to the instrument panel. He is making great progress here.

Del has sand blasted the head light bulb retainers for the actual mounting of the sealed beam lights. He also has been working on some small components that had to be sandblasted and painted. Del did some badly needed maintenance in the shop by removing an old air line that since has been replaced with steel piping.

Connie worked on attaching fasteners to some of the exterior trim by soldering these small components. Also he and Don M. worked on setting up a jig to drill small dimples on some steel bars to make inner trim pieces. These pieces will later have trim nails soldered in place and then sent out to be chromed.

Jerry Bush has been gathering all the components of the convertible top. He has managed to find all the mechanism that locks the top to the header when it is up. One piece that I have been trying to identify for months Jerry identified and is a piece of the latch.

Don Feutz continues to work on the tail light component sanding out all the pits so that these parts can be chrome plated. This is very slow even though we picked out the best of the 3 sets of production castings.

Art worked on a small area on the 1929-55X that needed touched up. He also repaired and painted other parts for the 56X.

Dick finished the preparation of two small decorative beveled washers that need to be chrome plated for the 1929-55X. Next he assembled the painted head light buckets for the 1956X. They are now stored ready for installing in the car, but that cannot take place until the car has had its final paint job.

Chuck designed a storage compartment for holding the fiberglass 3 piece boot when the cars top is down. He also mocked this up in card board. Chuck also created the foam head rests for two of the seats at home and brought them here for fit. He is also working on the interior with Jim laying out all the details. Chuck is also the go-to person that brings up original photos on the computer when we need to either look at disassembly photos or the original photographs of when the car was finished at the GM Styling center.

He has logged all of Al's photographs as well as the original photographs.

Don