My first classic car! 56 Buick Super

Hey all i'm new here! I just picked up a 56 Buick Super 2dr hardtop with a 322 in it and I plan on fully restoring it, I actually just wanted to find out what are some of the "gotchas" that i will have to look out for when i start rebuilding her?? thanks all!

Welcome! Good to see you! Congrats on your 56. As far as "gotchas", there may be a few. I was lucky no to find any. My biggest issue was rust in the front floor pan, an easy fix. Sooner or later I was able to find any missing parts on ebay. All new parts came from vendors recommended from this forum.

Like with any restoration I think documentation is the key. Take lots of pictures and make a lot of notes during dissassembly.

We enjoy our Buick a lot, it gets a lot of comments, well worth the effort. Click the link under my name and let me know what you think.

Welcome to the Forum, and the 56 world. The 56 is a great car. Old enough to cause a ruckus by it's appearance, and new enough to drive all day at highway speeds. I love the clean appearance of the Super.

Be sure to join the BCA for now and watch the classifieds. There are plenty of parts available.

AS for gotcha's, watch for tranny leak down. If the car sits for a few months it's almost guaranteed to leak a quart or two of tranny fluid from the rear main seal. Next to impossible to stop this but start driving the car and it will seal again. Keep the tranny fluid to the proper level or it will feel like the tranny is slipping.

Watch for the master cylinder leakdown. Chances are it's a wheel cylinder or flex line, not the master, but if it is the master, hang on. It's a one year, one vehicle application. It's expensive but they are rebuildable, but not easliy interchanged with anything. Certainly not anything bolt on.

Overheating: Two problems,

1 vapor lock when the fuel in the fuel lines cooks because it's too close to hot engine parts. First off, do nothing till you know you have the problem. If you do have the problem observe the line from the fuel pump to the carb and make small adjustments to bend it away from hot engine parts. The smaller the adjustment the better as the final alignment adjustment will be very small and things will work okay.

2nd, is the temp guage. I have a book that says towards the end of the model year run, Buick stopped putting guages in the car with the red lens. This was because of people complaining the car was overheating (as per the guage) when in reality it was not overheating at all.

If for any reason you think you want to check the guage, just know the sender bulb is sitting in a pocket inside the drivers side head, back by the firewall. Also that it is a hollow copper line to it. Twist the nut holding it in and the bulb will break off. I understand these are repairable but you need a skilled craftsman to do so. Better yet, don't consider this job unless you have a replacement part. Start now by watching e bay for one.

Also as far as overheating, the car is supposed to have a 160 degree thermostat. If you pull the thermostat out you will definitely overheat.

If the guage is just slightly in the red zone chances are it's not a problem. If you smell burning oil and the guage is pegged on the hot side, you are overheating. Try turning on the heater to cool it down a bit, but if it won't do so quickly ( within one or two minutes you should see the temp guage drop) , then shut her down. It will take a long while to cool down and you can't rush that.

Once it is cool, drop the radiator fluid and look inside the top of the radiator for rust and scale blocking the cooling tubes. If you have this, you do need to address the situation. Let us know and we can provide some guidance on that.

The last thing it to look at your exhaust tips. The factory tips have galvanized steel tips with a stainless steel piece of trim on them. They are actually bolted to the rear bumper, not the exhaust pipe. Unfortunately these are very hard to find and expensive when found.

After that the good news is everything else is readilly available and the car is a lot of fun.

Did you post any pictures in the me and my Buick Forum?