1954 Century 2 DR HT (66R) 3-speed, ‘54 Muscle

I know I've been working way too much when I take a moment to stop in here and see that I had missed this topic altogether. MrEarl, please accept my belated congratulations on this remarkable and beautiful '54 Century! What a dream machine! And it's incredibly cool how the Buick played a significant part in your son's memorable day. Very cool! Thanks for including all the excellent photos.

Congrats on the addition to the family Lamar! The photo of the new bride pushing the car made me chuckle.

Congratulations, Lamar!!

Great photos Lamar and congrats to the newlyweds.

Couldn't help but notice Terry was also there to celebrate the great day!

Thanks Stuart. Ahhh you have a good eye, Terry was indeed there and on the dance floor.

Fantastic!!

I know I've been working way too much when I take a moment to stop in here and see that I had missed this topic altogether. MrEarl, please accept my belated congratulations on this remarkable and beautiful '54 Century! What a dream machine! And it's incredibly cool how the Buick played a significant part in your son's memorable day. Very cool! Thanks for including all the excellent photos.

I won't deny I have been wondering why you had not acknowledged the Century. Should have known it must be work getting in the way. Thanks for the congrats though and also the kind words re the wedding and pictures

Congrats on the addition to the family Lamar! The photo of the new bride pushing the car made me chuckle.

Congratulations, Lamar!!

I love it, Mr E!!!

The sweepspear with heart shaped ventiports makes it...

Ain't that sweepspear w/hearts somethin?!!!! My niece who is an art major at UGA did all the shoe polish graphics. I told her if she could do something with a Buick theme to do it and just left it with her. Tha's what she came up with.

and while not Buick related I thought she did a good job on this too...

She's the one on the right side of the monkey, the one on the left is her sister.

You've done very well Lamar!

All around good lookin' bunch, nice family, NICE CAR. Lucky guy isn't he?!!!!

Great people and great cars!

OK, so I had to dig hard to find this and can't believe I haven't posted to it in so long. I've done a few things to the car, new rear springs, torque ball change etc,  but apparently posted it in the Post War (technical) forums. Maybe I'll search and find them and post it here...or maybe not, I hate the search engine here.  For now, here is some most recent work I've done.

This is one gorgeous car!  That shade of blue is FANTASTIC!

Thanks @lancemb the Cavalier Blue was always one of my favorite colors of '54's so you gotta believe I was extra happy to find it on a 3 speed Century!

So glad to see this starting back up.

14 minutes ago, NC-car-guy said:

So glad to see this starting back up.

Me too Brotha, me too

I noticed some activity on this car based on your Instagram postings. Nice to come across this posting and see a bit more. 

Some work done recently on 54Muscle

and after a spin in the country.

Looks beautiful!

So after getting some of the mechanical bugs from sitting up so long taken care of,  I had to take care of some of the literal bug do do that had accumulated on the hood, roof and trunk between the car cover and her paint. It would not wash off and even the Meguiars Clean and Wax wouldn't pull it off without hard scrubbing. So ended up giving her a complete compounding.  The ol' girl is starting to display some of her "older restoration" faults in the way of some small rust bubbles in the typical areas which I have no real problem with. Just makes for a better driver. 

While trying to position her in the shade I found out that the new bias ply tires really like to spin on wet grass and miry ground. Had to call in her big brother to pull her around.

Will finish her off with a wax and polish today, probably inside the barn as there’s a chance of showers 

So upon posting this picture on FB, taken after she had been up on jackstands for several weeks and the rear springs still stretched out a bit, some jack ass asks "What's wrong with the rear end, looks like you backed up on a stump". Not wanting to have to explain and get into a debate with him I just said "it'll drop down to stock height once I fill the trunk with moonshine".  

Looking good from here!

On 2/27/2021 at 9:23 AM, MrEarl said:

I found out that the new bias ply tires really like to spin on wet grass

It's amazing when I think back at just how awful those bias-ply tires really were.  Remember the cold 4-ply Nylon bump-bump-bump?  Even with 'snow tires' I can remember numerous times pushing someone in or out of the driveway.  And if you got 20 Kmi out of a set of new tires you were doing great!  We're certainly spoiled with today's radial tires... 

So the Century is "All cleaned up and ready to go" , just waiting for Rita to get her hat. 😄

After getting the brakes right, I changed the oil and flushed the radiator and added new antifreeze. I think I've already reported on the job of compounding the hood, roof and trunk with   Meguiars Clear Coat Safe Rubbing Compound as they needed deeper cleaning than the rest of the car, then using Meguiars Clear Coat Safe Polishing Compound over the entire car followed by their Carnauba wax and final machine buffing. I used to use their professional line but can't justify the additional cost especially when if you don't use it all and it goes through a couple of freeze thaws it seems to separate and not perform well.

I then got on the interior with Chemical Guys Total Interior Cleaner and Protectant on the seats, carpet and headliner. Can't say I was really impressed by the results. My old standby Tuff Stuff does 'bout as well IMO.

In the back, I was happy to find the old original Gros Point/Roxpoint carpet underneath the short nylon loop that had been installed back when the car was restored. While it had quite a bit of wear it looks 110% better than the nylon loop. The front floor still has the original rubber mat in remarkably goof shape.

While cleaning the headliner I had inadvertently gotten some of the Chemical Guys cleaner mixed with the crud from the headliner onto the top 2-3 inches of windshield and back glasses. When I started cleaning the glass with Windex and Sprayaway aerosol it would not come clean no matter how hard I tried. I did a little research and found two products. A lot of professionals use  CRL Sparkle so I ordered an 8 oz bottle. Not wanting to wait for it, I tried some  Weiman Glass Cooktop Heavy Duty Cleaner and Polish Rita had in the kitchen and was super impressed with how it cleaned all the glass, inside and out. Used the sponge applicator and was able to get into corners and along edges well.

All this said as an excuse to "show her off" with some cellphone pictures. So ashamed I have kept her covered in the hay barn for the last 2+ years. 

I also swapped out the original portholes for a set I've been holding back for her.

As a reminder, the interior is all original from headliner to floor.

These floor mats were offered as accessories in 1956.

Tha's all folks.

The Century came out looking spiffy!  Don't let the Century sit so long this time around....

WOW!  Looks great! But I don't know about letting my dog in the front seat unless you keep his nails trimmed.  That Rita knows her stuff, and cleaners too!

Nails trimmed about a week ago and you’re so right, Reet knows her stuff. 

Lamar

The car looks great, you spent a lot of time detailing. I am doing the same on my Buick’s right now, we should never let them sit. 

Happy cruising.

Steve
 

Looks like you still need to put that ‘shine in the trunk? 😎

10 hours ago, RivNut said:

Looks like you still need to put that ‘shine in the trunk? 😎

I'll be sure and take pictures the next run I make.

On 3/17/2021 at 4:27 PM, MrEarl said:

So the Century is "All cleaned up and ready to go" , just waiting for Rita to get her hat. 😄

 

After getting the brakes right, I changed the oil and flushed the radiator and added new antifreeze. I think I've already reported on the job of compounding the hood, roof and trunk with   Meguiars Clear Coat Safe Rubbing Compound as they needed deeper cleaning than the rest of the car, then using Meguiars Clear Coat Safe Polishing Compound over the entire car followed by their Carnauba wax and final machine buffing. I used to use their professional line but can't justify the additional cost especially when if you don't use it all and it goes through a couple of freeze thaws it seems to separate and not perform well.

I then got on the interior with Chemical Guys Total Interior Cleaner and Protectant on the seats, carpet and headliner. Can't say I was really impressed by the results. My old standby Tuff Stuff does 'bout as well IMO.

In the back, I was happy to find the old original Gros Point/Roxpoint carpet underneath the short nylon loop that had been installed back when the car was restored. While it had quite a bit of wear it looks 110% better than the nylon loop. The front floor still has the original rubber mat in remarkably goof shape.

While cleaning the headliner I had inadvertently gotten some of the Chemical Guys cleaner mixed with the crud from the headliner onto the top 2-3 inches of windshield and back glasses. When I started cleaning the glass with Windex and Sprayaway aerosol it would not come clean no matter how hard I tried. I did a little research and found two products. A lot of professionals use  CRL Sparkle so I ordered an 8 oz bottle. Not wanting to wait for it, I tried some  Weiman Glass Cooktop Heavy Duty Cleaner and Polish Rita had in the kitchen and was super impressed with how it cleaned all the glass, inside and out. Used the sponge applicator and was able to get into corners and along edges well.

 

All this said as an excuse to "show her off" with some cellphone pictures. So ashamed I have kept her covered in the hay barn for the last 2+ years. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also swapped out the original portholes for a set I've been holding back for her.

 

 

 

As a reminder, the interior is all original from headliner to floor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These floor mats were offered as accessories in 1956.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tha's all folks.

 

 

No offense but this is the best post you've made in years.

What a beauty!  Love the color, love the manual trans.

21 hours ago, NC-car-guy said:

No offense but this is the best post you've made in years.

 X2!

  Ben

Like I said, the old boy is starting to show it’s “older restoration” with some small bb size rust bubbling popping up  especially in the rear quarters. This was a northern car so is to be expected I guess. It was undercoated when new thankfully so floors are good but inner rockers not so good. Turning into a 10 footer but tha’s fine with me. 
I don’t think I have ever posted these. 
 

the original dealer invoice 

Note what he traded in. 
 

If only these prices were still good today, I could restore a Roadmaster 

I have receipts for paint and supplies and suspect that the owner did the body work and paint. Although the finish definitely looks professional 

Ok, it looks like the original owner got taken pretty badly on that car.  Just referring to the original invoice, the price of the car was 2,300(+) and the delivered price was 400 (+)  more. Then they added in some extras,, one of which was a front end alignment and tire balance on a brand new car?  It looks like he paid extra for blackwall tires too and then,  even after his trade in ( for which they apparently added some repairs to that 52 Studebaker) it looks like the final balance is almost 1K higher than it should have been?  What am I missing on that receipt?  I wonder if he bought two cars together, the Buick AND the Studebaker?

20 hours ago, JohnD1956 said:

it looks like the final balance is almost 1K higher than it should have been

I assume the additional $471 between Price of Car and Delivered Price was taxes? But I'm not seeing the other $1,000 you speak of.  There was an initial error where $4175.61 was corrected to $3175.61 which is correct when you add all the options in.

Yea, I would have argued the front end alignment charge but not necessarily the balancing, the swapped tires would have required balancing.  What repairs does it appear were made to the Stude?

Maybe Donald decided to just keep his Studebaker, making the $3175.61 final total correct. Personally what with the '55's coming out that month, at $2300 I think Donald probably got a pretty good year end deal .  Base prices on '54 66R's w/dynaflows was normally over $3000. 

@MrEarlLooks like your car in NYC:  From the facebook group:

Wow, she's originally from my neck of the woods!  I still take my truck to Rudy Schmid for annual Rust Check application.  I also remember Sandy's Bumper Mart! 

3 hours ago, EmTee said:

Wow, she's originally from my neck of the woods!  I still take my truck to Rudy Schmid for annual Rust Check application.  I also remember Sandy's Bumper Mart! 

How about that?!!!! Then you would appreciate the fact the original owner knew to have the dealer apply undercoating, probably the best $35 he spent on the car. I know I'm glad he did.

So I had replaced the factory pancake filter from behind the carb with the  WIX 33081 . But not wanting to have to deal with the possibility of having to remove and clean it on the road and deal with gas on a hot engine, I decided to install another inline "pre filter" under the front rocker panel alongside the frame that would be more easily accessible. This    Earls Vapor Guard Fuel Filter   is a 100 micron filter and fit in well. The longer rubber hose on the right will slip right enough to allow the one on the left to slip free of the line allowing the filter and hoses to be removed for cleaning or replacement of the inner brass filter cartridge.

Went ahead and replaced the currently functioning but 20 year old fuel pump with a newly rebuilt one today.  I had also purchased a new "correct with brass fittings" rubber fuel line from CARS. But after comparing it to the one that is currently on it and it being in good condition I will be returning the new one. I really didn't like the inside diameter of the new one.  I cleaned the old one and sprayed it down good with Protectant 303. Will likely outlast me.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1953-1956-Buick-Olds-V-8-Fuel-Line-Correct-with-Brass-Fittings-OEM-1161564/173189704321

On 4/6/2021 at 9:28 PM, MrEarl said:

So I had replaced the factory pancake filter from behind the carb with the  WIX 33081 . But not wanting to have to deal with the possibility of having to remove and clean it on the road and deal with gas on a hot engine, I decided to install another inline "pre filter" under the front rocker panel alongside the frame that would be more easily accessible. This    Earls Vapor Guard Fuel Filter   is a 100 micron filter and fit in well. The longer rubber hose on the right will slip right enough to allow the one on the left to slip free of the line allowing the filter and hoses to be removed for cleaning or replacement of the inner brass filter cartridge.

 

 

 

 

 

  Believe I would have used a SMALLER one.

  Ben