1940 Buick 51
January 2022 - Body undercarriage and firewall work
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I planned to lower the body on the frame before stripping and repainting the upper portion. Before doing so, the undercarriage and firewall needed to be complete.
The trunk floor was the only portion of the body that was severely rusted through that it needed to be cut out and replaced.
New 16 gauge sheet metal was cut and welded in place.
The original fuel tank mount brackets were spot welded on the old trunk floor. The spot welds were drilled out to remove the brackets to transfer to the new metal first before the floor was welded onto the body.
The undercarriage was in very good condition with most of the older undercoating still intact. Loose flakes were scraped off and then the entire undercarriage was repainted with Rustoleum Undercoating paint.
The firewall had several holes drilled in for non-original A/C and heater hoses that were patched up.
Some light body filler was applied to smooth out the patches and then epoxy primer was applied.
The first glimpse of the original paint code 555 Nottingham gray color on the lower half. The firewall was painted the same color as the rest of the body because it was painted all at once before being lowered on the frame during factory assembly. Although the inner fenders of the engine bay and under hood would have been painted black originally, the firewall was always body color in 1940.
The body paint code is 555 and calls for a two-tone lacquer paint scheme with Nottingham and Alameda Gray colors. The closest matching modern paint color codes for 1940 Buick Nottingham Gray (lower half) and Alameda Gray (upper half) are both coincidentally 2018 Hyundai Sage Brown (M8N) and Gold Coast Silver (NA2) respectively.
The body was carefully lowered back on the frame by retracting the lifting straps a little at a time. All took less than 30 minutes.