New pics of my suicide 56

[mharby]

Here are some before,during and after pics of the progress on my 56.
Mike

[12lives]

Cool - What are you doing, moving the gas filler to the back?

- Bill

[mharby]

Hey Bill,
yes I moved the gas filler cap, it is now behind the taillight. All the doors are coming off tonight so we can finish the body work on the inside of the door jams where the brackets for the suicide doors are. Just have some very minor work to do on the rest of the body, have to do some wet sanding on her to get her ready for paint. The car will be done here real soon!
Mike

[BuickLeSabre1960]

that is going to be one awesome ride when your done. I'm thinking about putting suicides on my '60 but it would probably take alot to do it.

[grnlark]

Do you have any pics of the whole car? I'd love to see them.

[mharby]

I was not sure of your name so I'll just call you greenlark. Here are some pictures of the whole car as you requested, let me know what you think.
Mike

[BuickLeSabre1960]

I was not sure of your name so I'll just call you greenlark. Here are some pictures of the whole car as you requested, let me know what you think.
Mike
That car is awesome
:TU: :beer

[grnlark]

Mike,

VERY COOL :TU: I had a 55 Super a few years back and sold it. I regret it every day. In the next year or so I'm going to start looking for another one. I'm dying to do a prestine 55 with a built 455, dropped, with a set of Boyds. The thought of being able to powerbrake a dropped 55 turns me on. :laugh: What kind of suspension do you have in the 56? I'm assuming air bag?

Matt

[mharby]

Matt,
you are correct in your assumption, I do have airbags on my 56,it makes for a real smooth ride. So you like them low too huh, I think they look awesome when they are all done up and sitting on the ground. I've actually been thinking about doing a body drop on mine someday, but I'm not sure if I want to go that extreme, it's alot of work and it's pretty expensive too.Are you planning on running airbags on yours, when you get to that point? Are you going to keep it all stock, or do you plan to shave the handles, trunk lid,etc..I think they look real nice when you just leave the stainless down the sides and of course the ports! What plans do you have for yours as far as the paint scheme? It's nice to find someone else on here interested in the mid 50s models, not many of them on here. Do you have any pics of your 55 that you sold, I'd like to see some of you do.
Mike

[grnlark]

Hey Mike,

Yeah, it is cool to see other mid 50's lovers. My buddies tell me the 50's are just big bloppy tanks...well I guess they kinda are, but I think they're amazing. I'm not a huge fan of the Dyna-slush trans and small V8 though. I have a 70 GS 455/TH400 sitting under the bench in my garage that I'd like to drop in a 55. Right now though, I have my 65 Skylark and a Lotus Esprit, so I either need to free up some garage space or add on. The latter is probably more likely :grin: Just don't tell the wife! HeeHee!
I've attached pics of my 55 which was in great, solid shape. I sold the car because I got top dollar for it as a 4 door and told myself that if I was going to really spend crazy dough, I wanted it to be a 2 door...either way, I still miss it. I'd really like to get more info on your airbag setup though. Coincidentally, I posted a thread a month or so ago asking about info on dropping a 55/56.
To answer your question, I'd like to keep the car completely stock inside and out with the exception of the suspension/drop and maybe a sweet set of Boyd wheels. Then obviously, I'd like a MAN drivetrain as noted above. I hear that the Ford 9 inch is a good foundation for a rear conversion???
Anyway, all the cars are attached. Let me know what you think.

Matt

[mharby]

Matt,
I really like all the pics of your cars you sent, the 55 looks like it was a really clean car, it must have been hard to part with such a beautiful ride. I like the 70 GS 455/th400 as well, muscle cars like that really do it for me, I've also got a 1983 Mustang GT 5.0 it's has the stock 302 in it still, that is my everyday driver, I'll get a picture posted on here so you can see that as well. What did you want to know about the airbag system? Let me know when you get a chance.
Mike

[grnlark]

Hey Mike,

A while back I looked into air ride suspension when they first started getting popular. Seemed like a reletively easy install with just minor fabrication/welding and not a big deal at all. Is there a kit offered for these cars?? Is it from Air Ride Technologies I'm assuming?? They seemed to be the biggest air ride company around when I looked into it... How was the install? Any major headaches/nightmares?

Matt

[mharby]

Matt,
I'm not sure of the brand of the bags, I'm pretty sure they are made by Firestone. It was not a kit though, specifically for the older cars at least, I believe the bags are available for different applications, you just need to figure out which ones will work for your application. I went through a custom shop in my area called Leet Auto Design, they have a really good website(Leet Customz), that has all the information about the shop and what they offer as far as customizing. As far as the installation they said it was pretty easy on the Buicks because of the X frame, there wasn't a whole lot of cutting and fabricating that needed to be done to make them work. I believe there were regulators, airlines, other components as well that I needed, as well the Nitrogen bottle, which I have to refill every couple of months, it only costs $20 to refill it. My system runs off of Nitrogen, you hit the switch and it is instant, you don't have the air compressors which have to build up PSI to be able to fill the bags. I don't really know a whole lot about my airbag system yet, my car is still at has shop, so I haven't had a whole lot of time to play with it. I've been going to his shop after I get off of work each night and have been doing all of the minor body work, getting it ready for paint, just a couple more weeks and she'll be ready to start crusing again. I hope I was able to give you some helpful information. Talk to you later,
Mike

[yonausti]

Hi Mike,
I love the 50s Buicks too. Me and my pops built a 56 2dr hdtp Special about 12 years ago (still have it and drive it). I just picked up a 53 Super and pops got 2 56 4dr Centurys to fix up. Would like to hear more about the air ride you are running (if you can get info out of the guys that did the install).

Looks like a nice ride. You're going to turn a lot of heads with that one.

here's the 56 we did up.
http://image1.lightbox7.com/yonausti/small_driver_side_view.jpg

[mharby]

I found out what company my airbags are made by, they are Contitechs Airbags. Leet Customz is doing all of the major work on my 56, they don't use bolt on bags, they customize it to fit your vehicle. They can design any air system to fit the vehicles needs, or to the owners desires. I will try and find out some more details about my air system setup.
Mike