1952 Special Deluxe Project

[smithbrother]

shadetree77, YES you can clear coat. Goggle " 1 SHOT PAINTS, CAN I CLEAR COAT", you will find directions there.

Basically you want to make sure the 1-shot is dry, more than 8 hours, the spray a couple LIGHT coats of clear, let dry per instructions, then a wet coat.

You will LOVE 1 SHOT paints.

Dale in Indy

[GaWajn]

I'm loving this thread. Keep up the good work!

[shadetree77]

Thanks Stephen. Nice Pontiac. Good luck with her! I always wanted a '54 Star Chief myself. Maybe someday when I get done with my Buick.

Got around to tearing down my carb recently. Managed to take a few pictures of the process. Wasn't too difficult seeing as I didn't have to take out every single bolt this time. I just had to tear it down far enough to check out the float needle and seat. I didn't see any problems with it visually. Everything looked just as it should. Even so, I went ahead and replaced the needle and the seat with a new one from my re-build kit. The last time I re-built this carb I put the old original ones back in because the new ones didn't look anything like the old ones as you can see in the pictures below. I don't know what difference this would have made because the old stuff looks fine but who knows? After getting everything back together I took the carb out to the garage and set it on the fender. I ran the gas line over to it and turned the electric fuel pump on. I had a little leak from the large plug that covers the gas inlet screen so I had to take the air horn back off the carb and replace the gasket on that plug. Hooked it back up and ran the pump for 5 or 6 mins and everything looks good. The carb filled with gas and I don't see any leaks so I guess that new needle valve is doing its job. I put the carb back on the engine and started it up. I had a problem with the carb though. It's making a loud sucking noise and has gas seeping out of a small indent or hole down in the air horn wall. It will run the car but it stalls a bit when I rev up the engine and that gas seepage shoots out of the horn. It sounds pretty strange too with that loud sucking noise going on. I posted about this on the Buick General forum(Need Help With Several Problems)to see if I could get some advice on what may be causing this problem. Also had a problem with a dead lifter. You can read about that on the link above as well. Had a few leaks around the oil pan too but my dad crawled under there and tightened a few pan bolts which seems to have fixed that. He payed for it with a burned arm(exhaust pipe) and a face and ear full of oil but he said it was worth it. So far, no leaks around the transmission pan. Had really good oil pressure too. Plenty of oil coming out of the rockers.

[Rob McDonald]

"So far, no leaks around the transmission pan"

You are on the good side of the Dynaflow god - congratulations! Again, thanks for your detailed descriptions, ready admission of errors, and for your easy, readable writing style.

[shadetree77]

Thank you Rob. You aren't the first one to compliment me on my writing. My college english professors bugged the crap out of me back when I was going to school to write for the college and local city paper. It just wasn't something that interested me at the time. Writing about my experiences with my old Buick DOES interest me though. As far as the many different Buick Gods go, may they keep smiling upon me! A few days ago my dad and I were talking about how expensive working on the Buick could be and how many setbacks we have had over and over. He suggested that from now on, before we start working, we should burn a $100 bill as a sacrifice to the Buick Gods. So anyway, I picked up some more replacement chrome this weekend. I bought an upper grill "moustache" bar from a local guy on EBAY. My dad and I went down to Jonesboro on Saturday to pick it up. The owner Don was a really nice car guy and we hung around talking to him for quite awhile. He had a bunch of other Buick parts as well and he made me a good deal on an air cleaner assembly(mine is beat up pretty good). He even gave me a vent window latch FREE! Really nice guy. No pictures of the grill bar yet. I'll put some up when I get it put on. Gonna' continue work on the rocker arm problem in the morning. I'll post my findings tomorrow some time.

[shadetree77]

I worked my BUTT off today! I spent half the day taking the fins and the rear bumper guards off the back of the car. I have shiny replacements for these parts. Man!! Those fins were a pain. They are held on by nuts and these round metal pieces with a rubber insert. The nuts and round parts came off easy. The rubber parts stuck to the inner sides of the fenders and were hard as rocks. Most of them had to be mangled with pliers and chipped off with screwdrivers. Don't know where I'll find replacements. I'll probably just use black silicone unless someone knows where I can buy some repro's. The fenders were pretty rusted in spots under the fins. No rust through yet but I'm sure it's close. I think I'll hit the worst spots with a wire brush and use some carefully placed rust encapsulating paint on them. That should stop the rust until the real restoration begins in a few years. I also managed to remove the two bolts and two nuts that held on the old rusty rear bumper guards. I couldn't believe they didn't break! They were rusted badly. I just used LOTS of PB and cleaned the exposed threads with a wire brush. As you can see in the picture, there was a ton of gunk inside those guards. Looks like entire generations of creepy crawlies lived and died in there. After my dad got home from work, I put these things to the side and continued work on my dead rocker arm problem. We re-adjusted the rocker arm that wasn't moving and then I decided to go ahead and pull the lifter cover off the side of the motor to see if the offending lifter was stuck in its bore. I just didn't want to start the car without knowing first. I removed the push rod and pushed down on the lifter. It didn't move at first but after a little persuasion it finally dropped down. We hooked up the plug wires, coil, and distributor cap. Then we adjusted that lifter again and turned the motor over to see if the lifter was moving. The good news is that it is now moving in its bore and the rocker arm is moving with it. The bad news is that I can't get the car to start!! Lucy strikes again!!! I believe I may have partially broken the old wire that goes from the coil to the inside of the distributor. I had a problem with this wire once before and it kept the car from starting. Tomorrow I'll start with trying to run a new wire. Fix one problem and another pops up!! Good Grief!!

[shadetree77]

Day 2 of the battle. I started out by running a brand new wire with new connectors from the coil to the inside of the distributor and cleaning up all the contacts in between. This needed to be done badly anyway so I'm glad I did it. As I said before, when I first got this car the wire inside the distributor was frayed and was shorting out on the plate inside there. This alone kept the car from starting. I ended up just wrapping it in electrical tape at the time but I'm glad it's replaced now. However, this didn't get the car to start. I then did the following things:

Charged The Battery
Cleaned the Terminals and Connections
Tried Another Charged Battery
Checked All Spark Plug Connections
Took Out And Cleaned All Spark Plugs
Checked For Voltage At Coil
Bypassed Ceramic Resistor
Took Off And Inspected Cap And Rotor

All this and still nothing. I did notice that my starter had begun to crank much more slowly than it had before even with a fully charged battery. My dad ran out and bought a new positive battery cable. We put this on and the starter turned over MUCH faster just like it used to. We poured a little gas down the carb and tried to start it. It finally caught and tried to run but when the gas we dumped in burned up it died again. I checked the carb and I AM getting squirts of fuel when the accelerator is depressed. I also took the sight plug out of the side and there IS fuel in the bowl. However, after closer inspection my electric fuel pump does not seem to be keeping the clear plastic filter full of gas. So after some discussion with my dad I think we've narrowed it down to one(or maybe both)of two things. First is there is definitely something wrong with the fuel pump or maybe a clog in the lines. That filter should be kept full of gas and it's not even half full. Two, maybe the gas has gone bad. It is 10% ethanol fuel and it has been sitting in the tank for about 5 or 6 months. From what I understand, that is enough time for it to go bad. I didn't think to add any Stabil either. So that's where I'm at now. I ran out of daylight so the battle continues tomorrow.

[shadetree77]

I am thoroughly confused here. My dad and I tried to get the car started again today. No dice. We took all the spark plug wires off one by one and checked to see that they were getting a good spark and they all are. We also hooked up the carb and fuel pump to a fresh can of gas. The only time the car will try to start is if you pour some fuel down the carb. It will try to run and then stop. What's confusing me is that I DO have fuel squirting out of the jets when the pedal is pressed but those squirts aren't keeping the motor running. I decided to take the carb off the motor and take it apart AGAIN to check the measurements and adjustments on the internal stuff. When I took the carb off the manifold though, there was about a 1/4 inch or more of fuel standing in the bottom of the manifold! Anybody know what's going on here?? You can read my post above to see what I've already checked. I just don't get it! It was running fine a few days before with the exception of that one rocker arm. All I did was re-adjust one of the rockers and now it won't start. I'm running out of ideas because as you can see from my last post, I've checked almost everything.

[buick5563]

Robert,
You may want to start a new thread in the Post War forum. A lot of people don't check this forum especially if it buried later in a thread.
Good luck.

[shadetree77]

Thanks Mike, I'll give it a shot.

[wmsue]

Robert,

Great reading your column. Thanks for keeping us informed or your progress.
Just a thought, have you checked how much vacuum there is when cranking? I had a similar experience and found that I had a huge leak at the intake manifold.
Is the timing correct ?

Continue keeping us informed. We're curious what happens tomorrow.

Thanks

[shadetree77]

No problem Bill. My pleasure. No, I haven't checked the vacuum yet. That is on my list of possibilities though. I would have to read up on how to do it on my engine. I've never performed a vacuum test on any engine actually. As far as I know the timing is correct. I had to line up the timing marks with specific cylinders when I was adjusting the rocker arms and they were lining up dead-on just like the manual says so I'm assuming it is correct. I also have a thread on the "Post War" forum about the problems I'm having. Here's the link if you missed it: Car Won't Start. Thanks for the suggestions and feel free to add more if you think of anything.

[shadetree77]

Wow, it's been a busy week with not much time to work on Lucy. I did manage to pull my carb apart tonight and reset all of the adjustments/measurements. The float levels were way off. I guess when I installed that new float needle and seat they were a different size which changed my float levels. They were set too high(or too low depending on which way you look at it) so maybe the car was starving for fuel at idle? Sure would be nice if it was that simple. So the thrice re-built carb is sitting on my kitchen table patiently awaiting re-installation. Hopefully, that will happen tomorrow. I have to help my dad take some metal to the scrap yard and maybe if I buy him breakfast, it'll convince him to help me when we get back! Wish me luck friends.

[shadetree77]

Success!!!!.......well, sort of. I put the carb back on today and after a few tries she started up!! Took me a little while because after the first few times of cranking the motor, I noticed my battery ground wire was smoking!! I took it loose and cleaned all the contacts. I also had to remove the ground wire for the electric fuel pump that the previous owner had haphazardly attached to the battery ground cable(this is what was smoking). I relocated it to another ground on the frame. We tried it again and it fired right up. She was running pretty rough but at least she's running! Ultimately, I have no idea what the problem was. It could have been any number of things or even a combination of several things. I fixed and adjusted so many things at once it's hard to tell. Anyway, the bad news is that after running for a minute or two, that darn lifter stuck again!! Back to square one I guess. I'm going to pull it out and put the old one back in this time. Also, I still have gas seeping out of that hole down in the air horn. I can't figure that one out. The gas leaks out and gets thrown up out of the air horn when the throttle is pressed. All things considered, I'm just happy I got her started!

[1957buickjim]

Robert, Nice job on the article in the Bugle! Just got mine yesterday. Well Done my man!

As for the gas flowing out of the air horn, could be that the float needs some more adujustment as well or the pump pressure is high, or as MrEarl said, the accelerator pump may be stuck as was talked about in some of the previous posts. Good luck and keep up the faith!

[shadetree77]

Thanks Jim! I was honored to be included in the Bugle. My thanks goes out to Bugle Editor Pete Phillips for putting my little write-up in there. As for the carb problems, I haven't had time to work on it the last few days. I'm pretty sure it's not the float levels. I spent quite awhile working on those floats to make them match the factory specs. Not sure about the pump though. It's a new pump and it didn't look like the leather on it was bunched or cracked. I'll be getting into it again for a fourth time soon. Fellow member NTX5467 suggested I check the gasket placement, so I'll double(or quadruple at this point actually)check everything else too.

[shadetree77]

Thankfully, today was a very productive day. My dad and I needed one after all the set-backs recently! We started off the day by taking apart and cleaning one of the old lifters to replace the defective new one. I've never taken a lifter apart before and didn't realize how easy it was. Many thanks to fellow member "buick man" for the post he did on cleaning lifters. My lifter had a stuck plunger and his post helped me to get it loose. Thanks David! I only wish I had known how easy this was BEFORE I spent $300 on a new set!! Anyway, after this I took the side of the engine apart.....again(I'm an expert at it at this point!), pulled out the new lifter and popped in the re-built old one. If anyone is wondering, I did keep track of what lifter came out of what hole when I took the originals out. I put the side of the motor back together and we started her up. The rocker arm above the replaced lifter was moving just fine. I set the idle up and let the car run for about 25 to 30 minutes to let all the lifters get pumped up. Oil began to flow out of the rocker arms and eventually everything quieted down and smoothed out. Man, that was a great sound!!! We were ecstatic! VICTORY AT LAST!! The old girl was running smooth and clean oil was flowing like crazy. I took a short video of the motor running just after all the lifters smoothed out. We shut it down and wiped down all the oil spatter from the engine compartment, fenders, windows, and our faces(told you oil was flowing like crazy!)and decided to install the newly re-built master cylinder and bleed the brakes while we waited for her to cool down. I painted my master cylinder with Eastwood's "Brake Gray" paint. It turned out WAY more silver than gray. Really disappointed in it but it's too late now! At least it won't rust. After this, I installed a new battery ground cable to replace the old chewed-up looking one. At this point, the motor was cool so we put the valve cover back on. All in all a very successful day. By the way, my carburetor seems to have fixed itself somehow. It is no longer seeping fuel from that hole.... Any thoughts on this?



1952 Buick Special Running.3gp - YouTube
(link in case video doesn't work)

[buick5563]

Good job Robert. It's a pain to keep doing and re-doing tasks, but next time the carb or side of engine needs taken apart it'll be a breeze.
Now go buy yer old man breakfast.

[retirednow]

Excellent!! Sounds great, Robert

[1957buickjim]

Robert, isn't it nice how when something finally comes together, it is like a small miracle occuring and a little thought in your brain goes --"Did I do that? It is really working like it should! Wow!" Great job on that. For your master cylinder, a suggestion would be to paint it with POR15 - Metal Coat. You can paint it over the Brake Gray and man, it looks just like cast metal. It is available from TP Tools (TP Tools & Equipment). Fred frequently posts on the forum (he is retired owner of the company). He is restoring a 1954 Buick.

Now go do what Mikey says!

[RACEJones]

Robert,
I have been using a product called “Seafoam” in my vehicle fuel tanks, it was recommended by the mechanics at the Fire Department I work for. It is safe for Gas or Diesel engines. I first used it my Kubota tractor, I had some bad fuel (condensation, I thought I had filled the tank) after sitting over winter last year. I had to drain the tank, changed out the filters then added the Seafoam additive to fresh fuel, ran it, then changed the filters again; worked out great. The product supposedly cleans the fuel system as well, who knows about that.
At work we use it in the gasoline for the small equipment since it will sit for about six to eight weeks on the rigs before being changed out. Our small equipment tech told me that the formula of gasoline with ethanol added will begin to degrade after 30 days unless treated; he said if untreated gasoline is used, the choice should be premium fuel in small engines. Past 45 days untreated Premium fuel will be degraded to have an octane equivalent to or less than fresh regular fuel.
I use premium gas in my ’51 that has no alcohol added, and then add Seafoam every other fill up and keep my fuel tank topped off. I have not been having the issues that I did when I first bought the car last fall. The guy I bought it from was none too particular as to what fuel he used, nor did he have any idea about anything on the car, but that is long and sometimes amusing story. You should be able to find ethanol free gasoline in your area Ethanol-free gas stations in GA .
What I was told is that unless your fuel tank is topped off there is room for condensation. A twenty degree temperature fluctuation can cause condensation in your tank, and then with gasohol the water is absorbed. This mixture fouls up fuel lines causing rust and plugs filters. Also I have been reading about other issues that the ethanol causes with new and older vehicle fuel systems.
Randy

[jackofalltrades70]

Great job Robert! Nice when things come together. Now, on to the next part of your project! Look forward to more updates! Matt

[RACEJones]

Robert,

I have a question regarding your front license plate. Did you make a new bracket or is that an original bracket? The reason I ask is I am missing the front bracket, though in Washington State being a collector/classic vehicle plate we are required to only display rear plates. I noticed that your front and back plates don’t match is that OK in Georgia? Also I watched the movie Yank Tanks and that was great, thanks for suggesting it.

Randy

[shadetree77]

Thanks for the responses guys. It sure was a great moment for me and my Dad when that engine started running and smoothed out. We spent a lot of long days working on it together. By the way, I did one better and spent several days helping my Dad install a new exhaust system on his Jeep. I think that was worth more to him than breakfast this time! Thanks for the POR15 suggestion Jim. I'll definitely need to re-paint that thing eventually. It bugs me looking at it. I can't believe how bright silver that came out! False advertising from Eastwood to say the least. Sticks out like a sore thumb under the hood(at least it does to me). Matt, I know I sure am glad to be done with this oiling system business! Seems like it took forever! I'm not sure what the next thing will be yet. I have a HUGE "To Do" list I can pick from though. I'm thinking it will be cleaning and re-building the cooling system. I already bought a lot of the stuff to re-build the water pump as well as a new thermostat and all the related gaskets. The cooling system works just fine(at least according to my dash gauge)but I just know that will be the next thing to go on me while I'm out on the road. Those 60 year old gaskets can't last forever. I also need to replace all the heater hoses and the transmission cooling hoses. I'm seriously considering installing a shut-off valve on my heating system as well.

Randy, thanks for the suggestions. I've been on that "Ethanol Free" website before. Luckily, according to it there are several stations within reasonable distance from here with ethanol free gas. When I get her on the road again I'll definitely be making that trip. As for the gas that's already in the tank, I'm torn as to whether or not I should run it. I drained some out into a bucket and it looked and smelled just fine. My Dad thinks I should just run it but he doesn't know much about the effects of ethanol. I tried to tell him but, well, let's just say he's a little stubborn at times(just like me I've been told). I hate to waste it as it's a full tank of gas. It's been in there untreated for about 5 months though. Anyway, as far as I know that is the original bracket. I included a few close-ups for you. It was pretty bent up when I got the car(like in those pictures). I straightened it up enough to put a plate on there. As for the front and back plates not matching.....I'm not really sure. I didn't even think about that when I bought that one for the front. I sure hope it's not a problem because I paid quite a bit for that custom-made tag on the front. I bought it from here:LICENSEPLATES.TV. Georgia only requires a rear tag and the one that is on the back now is an original 1952 Georgia tag. Georgia has a law that you can actually use an original tag for the year your car was manufactured as your real tag. They give you a new tag and a piece of paper that you have to keep inside your car at all times but you can display your original tag on the back of your car. Glad you enjoyed "Yank Tanks". Any car guy who hasn't watched that one should definitely check it out! You think we have a hard time locating parts? Cubans are improvisational geniuses when it comes to those old cars. How'd you like the guy that makes the asbestos brake linings with absolutely NO safety equipment in his back yard to keep his family fed? Amazing......

[Rob McDonald]

EsTee7T7, thank you for posting that video. I love watching rockers and valves springs shivering in their frantic precision dance. It's a shame we have to put valve covers on our Valve-In-Head Buicks. The brass era cars leave them out in the open for all to enjoy.

Your straight eight sounds fabulous! You and your Dad can be very proud.