Well, here's the direction change, another body.

The body has some minor issues. The floors have surface rust but are very solid. The rockers have some rust outs along with the rear doglegs. The trunk has had some pieces cut out and there is rust outs but I am going to cut the trunk panels I put into the original body and weld them into this body. That way I won't feel like I didn't waste all the time I spent working on the first car.

There are a few people, well more than a few, who think it's kind of funny I put so much work into the original body. I have to agree but I justify it somewhat by saying I did a reverse parts car buy. I bought the substantial body second and the parts car first. I will be using the entire front clip and rear fenders on the new body. I paid $550 for the original car and I figure the parts I am using are worth a lot more than that. I will also sell some parts from the original car once I am sure I don't need them, doing so, I'll be able to recoop some more of my money.

I have the '40 engine I bought a while back switched over with the '37 mounting parts ready for installation in to this frame as soon as I get it cleaned up and painted. That is the next step I'll be taking.

The story of the "new" Buick body.

I was lucky enough to meet Dave Tacheny after we made a deal on the phone to swap the parts from the '37 Limited I bought (see page 6) for much needed parts for my Special. Many people had suggested I contact Dave for help with my restoration but I was apprehensive about contacting him. It seems like everyone who has a Buick knows Dave Tacheny. I figured since he was the Buick "Expert" and he deals with people who are doing show winning restorations he wouldn't think much of my low buck restoration. After finally contacting Dave I found he was a very nice, down to earth guy. We both think we made out on our trade.

Dave brought my Special parts down to my shop, on his way to pick up a '37 Road Master I gave him a lead on. While shooting the bull in my shop Dave was looking over my project. He saw the condition it was in and offered to sell me a "fairly solid" body and frame for an extremely fair price that I couldn't turn down. I had to sell a few parts to raise enough cash to buy the car and gas for the trip. I got a little more luck when I mentioned to my neighbor that I was planning to make a trip to Minneapolis to Dave's to pick up his Buick. A week or so later my neighbor asked if I was still planning to take the trip to Minnesota, when I said I was he asked if I'd take his '52 Ford F-1 up to his son's house, between Eau Clair, WI and Minneapolis, MN. He said he didn't have room at his house to store the truck and work on his other cars. I asked if they'd split the cost of gas and he offered to pay for all of the gas. Great, now my gas was paid for. Friday my wife headed up to Minnesota with the '52 on the trailer, Saturday afternoon we were back home with the "new" body. The only bad part of the trip was that I didn't have more time to BS with Dave. As soon as we got to the farm he stores his cars at a huge, dark cloud rolled in from the north. We barely had time to load the car on my trailer before the skies opened up and rained down on in a torrential storm, not letting up for the next two hours.