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Ken's Australian Down Under 1929


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Ok fellas , Lamar suggested it so here it is.

These are pictures of the finished car. Unfortunately , I started to re-build this car before the days of digital cameras hence no before pictures to post ( but I'm working on posting copies of prints), which is a shame because you may not be able to comprehend ( in picture form )what I am about to tell you about the re-build of this car.

It started in the mid eighties when I was looking for a project. With 2 little kids , wife and a house mortgage, whatever the project was, it had to be cheap to start with. A car club member said he saw the "remains" of a 1929 Buick on a farm out in the mulga ( boondocks)

So after a phone call to the cocky (farmer) a mate and I set off with trailer in tow.( not your type of trailer , we call those caravans here ) We got there and loaded on what was left of this once grand Silver Anniversary Buick. I exchanged two boxes of beer for ---

1 Chassis ,no front end , no wheels.

1 diff ( rear axle)

1 engine with gearbox and torque tube.

1 bonnet ( hood)

1 firewall

1 door skin

2 front and 1 rear fender

A good trade I thought !

We had some dramas on the way home when one of the wheels came off the trailer. It was only a single axle so the first thing I felt was the side of the trailer collapsing slowing the car right down , a shower of sparks off the road and one wheel overtaking us rocketing into the paddock for about 150 yards!

The re-build ( I call it that because essentially that's what it was) consumed the next six years of mine and the family's life. Almost every free hour away from the Fire Station was taken up on this car. When someone phoned to speak to me, my wife would always say " he's up in the shed".

I did literally everything on this car ( except interior) including polishing all the parts ready to chrome plate. I pulled the rear tourer body home in pieces from one coast of Australia to the other strapped to the towbar of our camper and doors on the roof rack of the car. I went to night machining classes to make all the missing / broken pieces. I went to night classes to learn how to paint. Any parts missing had to be made by me or imported from the USA. I made the wooden wheels, complete front and rear bumpers,

valance panels ( sheet metal between body and running boards -- I made them too) I did all the panel work including lead wiping. Learnt that at night classes a few years earlier on another project.

Manufactured from termite eaten patterns all the wooden framework. I stripped and re-built every pin , bush , shaft on the chassis , made a new petrol tank. I machined pistons for the engine, spent 2 weeks re-sizing and scraping all the white metal bearings in the engine. I could go on further , but you get the picture.

The colour scheme I chose was one of my own. I don't like the boring , drab colours of the 20s.

People often say they know when Ken's Buick is coming , they can see it a mile away. Most people fall in love with the colour, some hate it , but everyone to their own.

The interior is in all leather. The top fabric is 3 layer waterproof same as used by Mercedes Benz.

I was lucky , it was on sale at the time I bought it. Three times the price now.

The car has won a few trophies, but I don't enter it much because it's a driven car and I didn't do it to win accolades, purely self satisfaction for me ( and the family ).

These cars , and other makes mainly Chev, Pontiac, Olds, Cadillac & La Salle had their bodies built by GM Australia (Holden) at manufacturing plants all around the country. The running chassis and the body from the firewall forward were imported from the Buick plants in the USA. The Holden body shops would then fabricate and fit the bodies here. From a distance they would look almost exactly like Fisher body cars except for the R.H.D. The Australian Government at the time wanted a car industry, but the cars had to have a certain Australian labour content. This continued until 1948 when the first all Australian car was built. From then on Buick imports quickly slowed to a halt due to high import tarifs to protect the local industry. There you have it.

Thanks for dropping by to look at my Buick

Cheers, Ken Churchman

Perth , Western Australia ( the most isolated Capital City in the world would you believe ! ) 427440-IMGP0353.JPG427440-IMGP0362.JPG427440-IMGP0363.JPG427440-IMGP1162.JPG427440-IMGP1163.JPG427440-IMGP1164.JPG

post-41457-143137916545_thumb.jpg

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Guest imported_Thriller

Thanks a lot Ken...it gives me hope for my '29 McLaughlin as I have considerably more car than you started with.

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Beautiful job Ken; "Buicks were made to be driven".

I agree that driven cars need not be the same color as original. I am sure if you were interested in trophys you would have painted it as original.

My 29 model 27 Buick was originally one of those drab 20s blue/green colors, but I painted it a creamy yellow with black fenders. My mother said it looked like a taxi cab, so I have been looking for an old style lighted taxi sign ever since.

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You can probably see in the fuzzy photo that the Buick was once " uted "

In Australia that means during and after WW11, cars ( especially on farms ) were cut down from the front seat back and a tray fabricated on the back to make a "ute" ( pickup) and carry around farming equipment , seed etc.

The whole country was on rations and farmers could not afford to buy new trucks , or even run them.

Petrol was rationed and another popular conversion was to build a gas producer on the back tray.

This was a crude ( but engenius )fire box , fueled by charcoal or coal if you could get it. The combustion gases were them piped off and fed into the engine to keep it going. Kereosene was another form of fuel used, hence a lot of the older engines quickly sludged up. When I've stripped down those old engines there is always a thick , heavy build up of black sludge caked all over the internals.

You can see the remains of something related to the old fuel system on the left firewall.

That's why I never try to start an old engine that has not been run for ???? how long because of all the crud built up inside.

I've always had the idea of finding and restoring one of those old gas producers, but it wpould not be practical because of the environmental issues against us these days.

Ken.

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