1956 buick build

I was talking about the opel's.. they are steel.

 

You can find them now. I had considered this engine for a swap in to the opel.

 

They were sold at buick dealers. Now the go to place for parts is here https://www.opelgtsource.com/

Only part you can't get is a windshield....

 

I was looking for a chevette when I found the opel. Fit and finish?? It's 49 years old so I would give it a fair.
Honestly I think of it more as a go cart. Just wanted something cheap to run back and forth to work in to keep the miles off my truck.
There is some who are seriously into these cars and race them. But no, they never really took off in the market...maybe one day they will?

 

Whoops #2&3.... needed the parts.... lol

 

This is next years project..... they were cheap.

 

So after spending 3.5 hours sitting in front of the computer cad modeling an emblem, only to find that I screwed the pooch by .1" in every fashion due to writing down .290 when the actual measurement was .190 at my point of origin. I headed out to the garage for a few to do some brainless sanding.
Well atleast this went well. Straighter than the factory had it


So I moved my attention to the patch panel at the bottom of the quarter next. Pretty straight forward but I wanted to play with a new toy I picked up. An English wheel. Found it on Amazon for $150.00, it's a bit small but works for what I need. Bit of a learning curve and takes a bit to get used to rolling the metal in a straight line without catching your fingers in the rollers but I managed to curve the panel with only minimal pain.


With a bit of luck I'll have it welded in and finished up this week.
Well, back to the emblem... I'll post it later this week...

 

It's kinda an odd curve. Sharper on one end than the other, but not a compound curve.
I'll try the innertube trick, I can see that working well in my head. Thanks

 

Finally decided on a color.. mixed up some house of kolor candy brandywine and sprayed it on one of the spare opel hoods.
Photo dump warning!!
Here's a picture of one two toned in candyapple red.. Basically the same but mine will be a little bit darker...

 

Finally managed to get back to this project, atleast for a couple days. Still lots of overtime at the job thing. I was hoping it would lighten up this month but the new guy I've been training got himself canned, so back to 3pm till 3 am every friggin day ..
Oh well took my frustration out on some rust today. When I bought this car I had no intention on replacing inner and outer rockers as they seemed ok. But once you hit them with a sandblaster you tend to find the thin spots...
So I spent today cutting out the rockers, and fabricating new inner and outer rockers. Got quite a bit finished, maybe with a little luck I can get it all welded back up tomorrow