Dead Betty is my 1955 Buick Special. I call It Project Living Dead Girl because she died a long time ago and sat in a field to be left to rot. After all these years of rot and rust, we will be the one to resurrect her but in a true living dead fashion. This rat rod will be built to drive again but with the heart and internals of her younger successors under her still decrepit body.
Alright, that was getting dark. Truth is, my dream car is a 1955 Buick and has been for at least 10 years. I picked this one up for $200 Canadian (like $0.50 USD). The original nailhead, although present, was seized solid, and I question whether it ever had moving parts, so out it went along with the transmission, torque tube, and rear end. We stripped the interior out, and all the lines and electrical from the front half of the car so we could get to just the frame and firewall to clean up and paint with a chassis paint.
This brings us to the start of our YouTube channel, Cruise Culture Magazine. Go ahead and check out the channel and make sure you subscribe for some awesome content including our full build series in the works on Dead Betty.
Our first video was to recognize our first awesome sponsor taking a shot on us. Poppy’s Patina sent us a full kit of satin wipe on clear coat to protect our patina as well as some chassis armour paint. We took the fenders and did a video on how to prep and wipe on the clear coat with a side by side comparison of a fender with and a fender without.
In part 2, we ripped out the old fuel tank, torque tube and rear end. If you check out our shorts on YouTube or our reels on Instagram, you can see a couple clips of me almost killing myself. Hopefully, I don’t capture any more footage like that.
Part 3, I work at cutting out the rust in the roof and replacing it with some home made patch panels. My first attempt at doing anything like this and I’m happy with the results. We also stripped the paint off of the roof and turned to our build sponsor, Poppy’s Patina, again to put a beautiful gloss clear coat on the bare metal of the roof. These modifications made the car appear longer and lower without the hassle of chopping the top.
Part 4 will have us stripping the underside of the car and the rest of the lines and brackets so we can paint on the Chassis armour from Poppy’s Patina.
Subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss out on the upcoming videos. We have a lot of work to do and some awesome stuff coming. Dead Betty will be getting a 6.0L LQ4 engine with some goodies from our new build sponsor, FiTech EFI, and a 4L65e that needs to be converted to a 2WD.
If you want to be apart of the build, reach out to us or check out our link.tree where you can become a sponsor for the build or if you just want to donate a couple bucks to the build.
Continue Reading online at
https://www.magcloud.com/webviewer/2400370?__r=4399219&s=w
or order your print copy now at
https://cruisecultureapparel.com/products/issue-4-february-2023-cruise-culture-magazine
Article and Photography: Brian Holzli
