BUILD THREAD 81 Buick/Olds Turbo Wagon 02/15/2024 More Parts!

[liquidh8]

Jim,
I remember you telling me why you considered cutting the bumper at the ends, because you wanted to keep the taillights more outward where they belong. It now makes a lot more sense to me. Had I put more thought and planning into it, I might have also done it that way looking back in retrospect.

I guess you also kept the bumper assembly a little lower to clear the tailgate, and also added metal to the ends to raise them to contour with the quarter panels.
You made the ends nice and square. I think I tried bending the bumper to square it at the ends. The ends were pretty much cockeyed. It still amounted to a shitload of work.

As always, I commend you on your great work.

Not sure if I replied to this Jack? I did it like this for a few reasons, one was to keep the lights out as far as the can be, I had to angle the ends way in on the bottom so it looked a bit better with the Buick/Olds body line.

I didn't make the sides of the front or rear flush, I am not a fan of how that looks.

And finally, I needed room for the flush LED parking lights housings, and sucking the sides of the rear bumper flush wouldn't give me the room to mount them behind the bumper. They would interfere with the quarter panel.

 

[Longroof79]

Jim,
You've made the right choices so far, and you know what you're doing.

 

[liquidh8]

Long weekend away with the family. Back home, but I may not get many things done. I just have to epoxy the lenses in the bumpers, and get the car cleaned out and ready to go on the trailer to my buddies. Hopefully the end of next week on day.

So close to paint now!

 

[liquidh8]

Pulled the rear bumper back off, and blocked it out. I had to fix a few spots with some metal glaze. I also got the flush mount LED lenses sanded down and readu to epoxy in. Then layed 2 more coats of some PPG 2k on it. It'll stay like that till it gets to the booth in a week or so when I lay a coat of slick sand on it.

 

[1evilregal]

I'm tuned in!

 

[liquidh8]

Well, the lenses are epoxied in the rear bumper. I have to make the LED board boxes for the backside to hold the LEDs. The lenses get sanded flush with the final blocking and cleared over. The studs are long 8/32 stainless screws. I drilled and tapped holes in the bumper, ran them through, cut off the heads, and used some stainless filler and the TIG to make it permanent.

 

[Longroof79]

That looks really nice, Jim.
I've seen that process done on street rod taillights and such. It's nice that it's flush to the bumper and cleared over.
So these will be your side marker lights...and / or directional lenses?

I know the body contours are different between the Buick/ Olds and Chevy/ Pontiac, but I should've done something similar to make the tailgate clear the bumper and license plate pocket. Otherwise, I have to shorten the tailgate cables. I was so intent on not using the cheesy fillers.

 

[Rktpwrd]

Great.
You've gone ahead and done what I've been envisioning for marker lights in my front bumper. Thanks a lot. Now I've got to go and come up with some other equally brilliant idea!
🙄
Just kidding Jim, that looks killer! I'm envious!
I really was envisioning something similar to that tho...
Nicely done, don't stop now!

 

[liquidh8]

That looks really nice, Jim.
I've seen that process done on street rod taillights and such. It's nice that it's flush to the bumper and cleared over.
So these will be your side marker lights...and / or directional lenses?

I know the body contours are different between the Buick/ Olds and Chevy/ Pontiac, but I should've done something similar to make the tailgate clear the bumper and license plate pocket. Otherwise, I have to shorten the tailgate cables. I was so intent on not using the cheesy fillers.

Jack, I ran across these on the pro-touring site. since the olds fenders didn't have lights, I figured I'd better do something. I filled the quarter lights to match. Then a guy on the pro-touring had a set so I got them really cheap. These are maker and directional. I have to rewire the stock marker lights to work with these, but no biggie.

I was just in the shop looking at the long filler for under the gate, between the bumper and body. That is still gonna get used, but I have to trim it up a bunch.

Great.
You've gone ahead and done what I've been envisioning for marker lights in my front bumper. Thanks a lot. Now I've got to go and come up with some other equally brilliant idea!
🙄
Just kidding Jim, that looks killer! I'm envious!
I really was envisioning something similar to that tho...
Nicely done, don't stop now!

Donavon, I think this is a nice clean way to add the marker lights to keep it legal. They have different sizes, I just wanted to keep the body clean or lights. Those 70's and 80's lights are hokey looking. My 83 Chevy wagon I had 15 years ago had Chevy bowtie marker lights I made in the body. The lenses were mounted just behind the sheet metal, I loved those.

I have a lot of mods that I thought up, and some others did before me but I wanted to do. I am sure what ever you think up will be super clean!

 

[Rktpwrd]

Couldn't agree with you more Jim. Those OE marker lights were functional and legal, but that's about it. They had no aesthetic appeal whatsoever.

Like Jack mentioned, I've seen that flush mount style done on street rods before, but I've never seen or read a write-up on exactly how it's done.

Any chance you could volunteer to take the lead on that? Not right now of course, as I know you're pushing hard toward paint, but maybe sometime in the near future? I know us die hard gearheads would be all over that like a fat kid on a smartie!
😀