2011-11-15 56X BUICK

BUICK CENTURY 56X - Work session for Tuesday 11-15-11.

Volunteers: Jim Baker, Al Batts, Jerry Bush, Del Carpenter, Connie DeJong, Ron Elzinga, Don Feutz, Don Mayton, Chuck Snow.

This was Michigan's opening day for deer season and the hunters were off in the woods. Carol and I have been enjoying seeing deer in our back yard daily for a month but we are not telling anyone.

Al Batts has put together a large collection of photographs of the inside with the seats and pieces in their relative positions. We will be sending this package along with a computer disc to Larry Faloon.

Jim continues to work on the design and assembly of the swivel seats. He has one seat assembled and he is working out some of the rotating details. He also is checking the clearances necessary for the seat to turn.

Ron Elzinga continues working on the bumper bombs (some call these Dagmars' but in truth those are the Cadillac type). Ron has done extensive reshaping of these in order for the driving light bezels to fit. Del also is helping this project with the cutting torch removing the inner brackets that attaches to the frame extension. This work is progressing a lot faster than I thought was possible.

Our next stop is to get the chrome removed from the bumper bombs and then weld on fastening points for the bezels and fabricate frame extensions and fabricate driving light housings.

Del also has been working on rebuilding the power brake unit with great frustration. Finally after I had made many calls to the company that shipped the rebuild kit we discovered that we had the wrong kit.

We then located another company that can rebuild the power brake unit. Del then packaged up the unit and it was mailed off today to White Post.

Connie had the privilege of attaching the GM Styling studio "shop order" tag to the newly painted firewall next to Buick Motor Division's serial number tag. The two tags identify the car and the fact that it was built in Flint and then modified at the GM Styling Studio.

Connie then went to work on the top of the radiator tank repairing dents to bring it to "show room" condition. He is a master at body work but in this car the radiator top tank work.

Don Feutz has been struggling with back pain. He may half to have a future operation? However, he faithfully has been working on preparing small trim pieces for the chrome plater. He is very patient at doing this detail work.

Chuck has mounted the female clips that he designed for the

cam hold down latches that secures the "parade boot". The "parade boot" is comprised of three pieces and two hold down latches secures the boot assembly.

We are still looking for another hold down latch as we are missing one. The hold down latchs' came from the Cadillac parts bin. At Hershey this year many of the Cadillac vendors recognized the part but simply said "keep looking" and some said you will not find one!

Chuck next took on the task of building a metal foundation for the front seat passeger's heal and vinyl floor pad. I am not quite sure what this arrangement is called as I have never seen it on another car. There is a metal plate on the floor in front of both the passenger and driver. The plate has a place to rest and catch the heal of your shoe. On the driver's side the accelerator pedal is attached to the heal plate. There is a vary narrow "U" trim that extends from this plate towards the bucket seat on each side. From looking at the original carpet the enclosed area that is surrounded by the heal plate and the trim was obviously covered with some material. This covering caused the original carpet color (blue) to fade badly. Looking at the rest of the interior that was blue splashed with red we can only guess that there was a vinyl "red" in this enclosed area to reduce wear on the carpeting. If anyone else has a theory we will listen?

The reason for building a foundation for this assembly is that the trim on the driver's side was broken in three places. The areas broken is where a driver would plunk his feet down and with the soft carpeting under the trim would bend and then break the trim. This trim has to be repaired (welded) and both sides have to be cleaned up and replated.

Jerry always pitches in where help is needed. This really helps others.

Don M. continues to prepare the side trim pieces for chrome plating. Two weeks ago we delivered the left rear sweep spear trim to Ryan DeVries so he can duplicate it for the right rear sweep spear.

Don