55 Buick Century

Well today I scored a new project. Found out about a local auction that had about 60 cars up for sale. I ended up winning this 55 Buick Century. It has the original 322 Nailhead still in it. It has a title and original owners invoice with it. This will be a project for me and the bride to work on together. She wanted a wagon but said this 4 door hardtop will work also. I will be picking this up in the morning. It looks like it pretty far gone, but I see a awesome ride in the future. Cant wait to pull my bigblock off the stand and replace it with this Nailhead.






This was the first year for a Hardtop 4 door car. I have been wanting a Nailhead engine for many years. Now I have one, next will be a 348/409 I hope.

Congrats on winning the auction. Usually I'm not into big boat cars, but I've always liked the mid 50s Buicks. My favorites are the '54 Special 2-doors and wagons. Good luck bringing her back to the glory she deserves.

nice, can't wait to see progress pics

I had a 57 Buick years ago. I loved that old car.

I decided to get some sleep today since I working nights. Going to pick it up in the morning. Im excited to see what is hiding in the back seat and trunk.

Got the Buick to my house. So glad the seller had a backhoe on site to help load this. Its a heavy girl.
Got to the pickup lot and popped the trunk to see what it had in it. I found what I was looking for.



Opened the hood and found my Nailhead still in place. Checked the oil and its nice and black like it should be.


Got it loaded and headed home. This is happened after pulling a 12 hour night shift.

Here are a few of the other cars that were on the auction block.

Started digging in the trunk..


Holy Shit , I think I found about 95% of the chrome in almost excellent condition.


2 heavy grilles.


The doors open and close pretty good too.

Found the dash top and door panels under the back seat. The panels will have to be built, but all the door panel chrome is here.


Have a great front bumper but no back bumper. I have located a couple parts cars in Denton, TX.

Started getting late and I had been up for almost 30 hours straight.




Here is my favorite shot of the day..

Put some tires on it so we could unload it.


Got out the folder that was given to me to see what all was included.
Got a clean open Arkansas Title, dealers invoice, buyers invoice, owner ID car, Insurance Card, tax receipt, and Buick service papers.


It was ordered on Oct. 12th 1955



Buyer received it on Oct. 31st. 1955


The car was sold to either a Son or grandson in 1981 by the original buyers wife for $500.

Makes me wonder if these miles are original or not and the car just sat alot of years.

Nice score. That trunk was a gold mine. I love digging through old trunks. You never know what you'll find.

Hanging out with the Nova.

I had this bumper sitting in the garage so I put it on to see how it looks.


Well it looked good enough for me to put more chrome on it.

I like this look enough that I am going to put all the chrome back on the car, wipe it down with some linseed oil, and put in some glass. Then do the interior and drive this car like it looks. Im ready to cruise another Oldie.

Looks great, should be an awesome cruiser.

Love it! Couldn't have scored better with the majority of the parts hidden in the car. Looks like the sheet metal is in pretty good shape and still straight. Great score!

The Sheet metal is in very good condition. Only a couple of small dents that I may be able to dolly out. I started cleaning up some of the body molding to see how its going to look. The previous owner has some extra pieces in here and it all looks pretty decent for the age.


I have located a Boneyard in Denton Tx that has 4 of these cars in it. Ill be making a trip down to try to salvage some glass and window frames. Also spotted a rear bumper there. Hopefully I can pickup some seats as well. Im really thinking of putting some Lake pipes on it.

Aside from the John Deere sitting there on flats this is a cool looking picture to me..

What Tractor?

Cool, I like that background better..

Well it looks like I am not going to be putting much time into the Buick since I plan on turning my C10 into a gasser. Im going to put all my resources towards making that happen. Just going to throw this out there. I will trade this Buick for a good Muncie 4 spd.. if anyone is interested. Going to post this on the Scroungers FB page before putting it on the primer page.

Steven

Best of luck! Hate to see them go, but floating more than one project is hard. You feel like you can't get anywhere.

Wanting to put a 4 spd in my 64, and have a guy wanting to trade me a Ford Top Loader with shifter out of his 65 Mustang. Lakewood makes a $$$$ Bell housing and motor plate to run the Top Loader behind my Chevy engine. I have around $600 in the Buick right now. 4 speeds are getting expensive and the top loader "from what im reading" is stronger than a Muncie.
Need to make my decision by Sunday.

I mean really the only way to make a real Gasser is with a 4 speed.. Right?