Mild Mitch's 1941 Buick Sedanette Project
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Hey all,
I have been a part of this forum for a while. But, have never really felt I have added anything of substance. I usually don’t “show” my stuff. I am in the business, building and fabricating Hot Rods, and a little bit of Custom stuff when it happens. This is my own project. A 1941 Buick Special Sedanette. The premiss is a “Driver”, 40’s styled Mild Custom. The progress of my project is regularly stalled due to paying stuff in the (one man) shop. It started in about 2006, so that may give an indication of how fast, or slow things happen around here!
I first saw the car in a friends shed. Bryce was a young guy and had driven the car for a while, with Torched Spring lowering job. NO suspension travel! LOL But he was about 16 at the time so he got away with it. I have had several Cadillac Sedanettes before and always loved the ’41 Buicks. So when I saw this car, without the straight 8 installed, I fell in lust. Nose High stance without the engine and only a little white wall peeking out under the rear fender. Perfect!
I will add some photos here and more latter. These were taken maybe a year ago. I started on repairing front end damage then, so the front clip is off…
The stuff:
’41 Buick skirts, Bumper guard tail lights, ’41 Caddy wheel covers, Frenched headlights, Straight 8 and 3 speed drive train. Front coils cut, rear replaced with mid 80’s GM progressive coils. Door handles to be shaved, deck lid shaved, and possibly sunken license plate later. Working on forming rear fender gravel shields. Simple, mild appearance.
Rik,
Well I’made a mess of the photos here, Can you fix? I tried to edit or delete and start over to no avail. Sorry to trouble you!
Mitch
Tony and I are Down under , so your photos are fine. Great that you are embarking on one of these. There’s a 41 Cadillac factory Rhd Sedanette next door to my workshop. My old mate has disassembled it and spread it around his yard and I worry about it, along with his 38 Buick coupe. They are a very cool body style.  Start posting regularly.
I always worry about a car when someone just disassembles them. Not s good sign.
And yes please, keep posting.
Will do, glad the photos are working for ya’ll! LOL
I will get a little more caught up with more photos soon. I have no idea why they don’t show up in the normal orientation here, they are right on my computer.
Mitch
Great car style to start with.
And I agree with Q and Tony. Thanks for posting and please keep posting.
We need to keep the best Custom car site on the net gong.
We are watching.
Torchie
Neat to see a -41 Buick custom in the making , I got two -41 Buicks so this is too important to twist my neck for looking at the pictures , looking beautiful with the speedboat slant , skirts , whitewalls , decked trunk lid and bumper guard taillights , yes yes yes , I want to see more 🙂 !!!
Here is one of my two -41 Buick:s I got outside the shop together with my -36 Buick early October this year (the other one is a 4door) ! I know both cars are leaning forward , very unbecoming but they were like that when I got them and Im planning to correct that to the lovely speedboatstance eventually 🙂 …
Wolf
Great project… Such amazing lines on these cars.. and as Custom they only get better
Sorry I missed the post at first Mitch, got the pictures sorted now.
Enjoy the beauty of Customizing
Rik! Thank you so much for taking care of this mess. And I agree of course with your comment regarding the lines of these cars. It is interesting how little needs to change on ’41 Buicks to “customize” an already “custom car”. Â Even the grilles are good.
Thank you Timwolf and Torchie for your comments too! I still have a lot of work to do, but it will be slow going. The rockers need attention, they have been molded with a thick layer of body filler over aluminum roof flashing! The rear body needs some patching and I am thinking of how to mold or even reshape the rear gravel pan at the body to bumper area. Some bits have been re-chromed, the car has a new wiring system installed, engine is built and running. Newest parts on the car so far are the rear bumper guards. Oh, and the rear springs of course.
I will try to post a few more pics soon.
Thanks you all, Mitch
Hey, Mitch, I bought a set of inner and outer 1940-1941 Buick repop rocker panels online. They would really save a lot of time…. Just saying.
Larry,
That would make things much easier I think too. Do you have a name or link for the seller? And, more importantly, were they properly shaped? My experience has been pretty negative with almost all patch panels, etc. I now usually build and shape my own.
But, I am assuming since you mention this, they were good!
Thanks, Mitch
Hey, Mitch, I bought a set of inner and outer 1940-1941 Buick repop rocker panels online. They would really save a lot of time…. Just saying.
Mitch -41 Buick is the large Special that used the B-body which has a rocker that is not the same as a A or C-body rocker , ive seen the C-body rockers repoped but B-body ? Are they also available ? Here is the C-body rockers:
These are for 1940-41 GM cars that use the C-body , the -41 Buicks was Super and Roadmaster , B-bodys were large Special , Century and Limited , my two cents 🙂 !!
Wolf
Back again: Tinwolf has the right site. I’m not sure, the C-body vs B-body. I’m using them in a custom application, and did shorten them to my purposes. Don’t know if just shortening would allow the parts to fit a B-body. Perhaps the seller, classicparts4u, can help out on that. There is a taper, front to back, in the rockers I used.
Thanks Guys, I will check them out. Mine is a 46S Model. Not quite the shortest wheelbase. I think it is 126″.
Shortening might work if I had to. I haven’t gotten to far into this phase yet, I just know it will need to be fixed sometime. I had thought of building/shaping my own rockers, perhaps with a little more “roll” to them as they flow up into the door, etc. Anyway, a little softer edge, if that makes any sense.
Ok, here are a few more photos, just prior to firing the engine. This was actually a 1940 that I acquired acquired with the ’41 Dual intake exhaust. It had been rebuilt in 1985, AND NEVER RUN! I pulled the rebuilt front suspension from the same ’40 4 door. The guy had started “restoration” in the early eighties and not gotten very far. Chassis was somewhat done, engine rebuilt, and he took everything else apart, including all the gauges. I think he may have had substance abuse issues.
The last pic tells the Horror story of a quick n dirty lowering job, lol. Oh, and yes, that is a 12 volt battery…
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