1958 Buick Caballero

Wow! I continue to be impressed with this build. Just looking at the progress you've mad since you first picked it up is amazing. Well done! And thanks again for keeping us updated.

 

Update April 21, 2016

The passenger side rear shock mounting brackets were badly damaged; one mounting leg was completely severed from both the inner and outer brackets. Ground the mating surfaces to a "V" and welded the torn tabs onto the bracket body. Here is one of the repaired tabs.


Also found the beginning of a stress crack on another shock mount bracket. Ground out the crack and reinforced the part with weld. Here is the back side after welding.


The body comes home! My grandson, Pete, helps check it out after it has been bead blasted and epoxy primed.


Floor pans and spare tire well are worse than expected. This is the left front floor pan:


The spare tire well is solid at the bottom, but has perforations where some parts and trash were laying in the well area.


Passenger rear floor pan needs some serious help:


There are several dents in the roof to be bumped out:


But most of the body looks great!


Found repair floor pans at Classic2Current Fabrication in Michigan. The parts are similar, but not identical to the original panels.
Rather than using the "close" parts, I chose to patch the bad areas.
Here's the portion of the driver's front floor that will be replaced:


Cutting and trimming the replacement piece; all the small circles on the part will be punched out for puddle weldiong to the underbody reinforcements in the same positions as the original welds:


Stay tuned; more soon.

 

Of all the update photos you have shared so far, this one is my favorite. Keep up the good work. Soon you and your grandson will be cruising to the ice cream shop in style.

 

Any progress to report?

 

Couldn't have said it any better, so I'm borrowing these words. You inspire me with your efforts and keep me wanting to get back to Fannie, and we will, just when is the question?

 

Very impressive. I have a 58 Estate Wagon as well and have had almost all of the exact same problems with mine (including the roof crinkles). Got to get back on it soon. Keep posting pictures! They are fabulous.

 

Update September 26, 2016

It's been a very busy summer, so not much progress to report.

I started on a couple of small, damaged areas of the floor pan. This is the rear corner of the driver's front floor pan, at the bottom of the B pillar.


There were a couple of small holes; minimal rust between the pan and the underbody reinforcement.

Cut out the area and repaired/replaced all the rusty metal. It was the same under the driver's floor area; the upper pan is bad, but the cross-member is A-OK.



Here's the repair patch welded into the floor at the bottom of the B pillar:


The underside of the patch was primed with weld-through primer before welding in place.


Jim Hughes (Perrysburg, OH) rebuilt my Dynaflow; great guy to work with.

Here is the transmission going into the chassis:


And the engine being mated up to the transmission:


Still need to connect the cooling system, basic engine electrical and fuel system components so I can break in the cam.

I beat out the worst of the fuel tank damage and had some help welding the access panels back in place.




Then took it to Gas Tank ReNu in Sterling Heights, Michigan for inside and outside cleaning and coating. The black coating is THICK! Looks like a nice job; I painted it to make it look more "correct".

Trans cooling lines went from this:


To this:


Finally got back to the floor pans; almost done with the driver's front section:


Here's a look at the underside of the passenger, rear floor pan. Patches are about 60% welded in this image.

 

Slow and steady wins the race. Any progress is better than no progress!
I know how busy things can get. I'm glad to see you're picking away at it. Soon it will be too cold to do anything outside, and your wagon will be waiting for you to spend some quality time with it.

 

I can't wait to visit MI and look all over and ride in this wagon when its finished! It looks great!

 

Amazing work, and the level of detail...wow. Fantastic stuff, keep at it mate!

 

Any updates Joe? Not trying to be pushy of course!

 

Thanks for watching and asking!
Unfortunately, I haven't got much done recently. I'm planning to post an update with a few pics after Christmas.

I've been spending most of my garage time on my 69 C10 pickup. I pulled the engine to have it rebuilt and that's been a huge time sink.

 

jmt455 , fantastic result so far keep up the work from Downunder

 

So, is the C10 done?
So you can get back to the wagon

 

I'll post a Caballero update soon.


The C10 is running again.
Here's a pic of the truck (from late autumn):