A 13-year-old tackles a 67-year-old.

No, this is not a football story. It is a story of how my grandson has tackled the project of building his first street rod, a 1939 Buick coupe.

His name is Tom Wolf and he is the youngest member of our car club, Rochester Street Rods of Rochester, NY. Tom is very outgoing and enjoys the company of the club members. He and I have attended many car shows, cruise nights, picnics and rod runs over the past few years. Tom has been down in my shop since he was able to walk, it seems.  

Photo of Tom taken July 1994 in my ’32 Ford

A brief history of his 1939 Buick Special Coupe.

My nephew towed this Buick from central Montana to Niagara Falls, NY in the mid-eighties. He completely disassembled the car. In 1991 he decided that he wanted to return to Montana. I bought the ’39 from him and Tom’s dad and I trailered the coupe and a truckload of parts to my barn. 

One of his first shop toys was the chain hoist. Much to his mother’s dismay, he usually ends up greasy from head to foot.
 

He knows his tools and how to use them. He asks a lot of questions and often suggests a better way to do something that I might not have thought about. He keeps me young too.

Tom has been helping me complete the restoration of my 1937 Ford slantback sedan as well as doing routine maintenance on my 1932 Ford 5-window coupe. I told him he could have the ’39 Buick for all the help he has given me in the past few years.
 

In July of 2006 some friends stopped over and we pulled the engine and body off the frame and rolled the chassis into my shop. Tom was excited and we could hardly pry him away from the shop, even to eat! He spent the first weekend dismantling the ’39 Buick chassis.

A truckload of parts, everything but a trunk lid.

Chassis in the shop for dismantling

Removal of the engine & body from the frame

Rolling the chassis from the barn to the shop

Frame sandblasted and primed

Once the chassis was stripped down to the bare frame, we had it sandblasted. Buicks were built like tanks with very strong boxed X-frames, heavy cross members and a panhard bar to hold the coil sprung rear end in place. The front end uses coils with independent suspension. After we got the sandblasted frame back, Tom primed and painted the frame himself. 

Frame painted, front & rear suspension back in

Frame painted, front & rear suspension back in

View of the rearend before tube shocks and
panhard bar installation.

Tom has decided to use as much as possible from the original ’39 Buick rather than get into more than he might be able to handle in having to re-engineer everything to fit. He figures that someday when he is older he could always sub-frame the car and install a Chevy with open driveline, disc brakes etc. Money is also a concern for a 13 year old.

He does want to run the car in primer for a while. He will be installing a Chrysler tele-tilt steering column and bucket seats. Last summer we found a trunk lid for the car. His hopes are to have the car on the street by the time he turns 16 and gets his driver’s license.

His mother and dad are very supportive of Tom’s efforts and surprised him last Christmas with the purchase of a bunch of parts from a 1948 Buick. One of our club members gave them a really good deal on a good running straight eight engine and transmission, the complete front and rear suspension, wide whitewall tires and boxes of other odds and ends.

There is a ton of work to do yet but with each project he learns another skill. I am sure as he gets older, he will be over to my shop burning the midnight oil like I used to do when I had that kind of energy. I still have the enthusiasm but have slowed down somewhat in the energy department. I enjoy showing and teaching him whatever I can about our great hobby. In the meantime his circle of street rod friends continues to grow too.

Lots of parts waiting for restoration