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A BUICK SPECIAL RIVIERA 1953 IN PARIS


ABV

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Already have some questions,if I may...

Question n°1 : What's that ?

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Someone told me it could be related with carburator. But where should I plug it ?

could you please show some pics ?

Thanks

Question n°2 : Where does this go ? What is it for ?

Just found it on the floor after shiping

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Question n°3 : How would you fix that ?

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Question n°4 : Should not this be aligned ?

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And last one (for the moment)...

Question 5 : What is that ? A manual pump ?

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Guest shadetree77

Welcome to the forum ABV. You have a beautiful '53. You have come to the right place. There are a lot of friendly and knowledgeable people here. I will try to answer some of your questions.

1. That appears to be the end of the pedal start mechanism from the carburetor. See the yellow arrow in my picture below. Buicks were originally started by depressing the accelerator to the floor which engaged an electrical switch on the carburetor and started the car. I believe you are holding the end of this switch in your hand in the picture.

2. I believe that is the antenna knob that goes on the inside of the car. It goes right above the rear view mirror on the interior and is used for rotating the radio antenna from inside the car.

3. I would clean the mounting surfaces and put a light coat of JB Weld or similar strong adhesive on the area where the two parts meet. I would NOT try to weld it as those hood ornaments are made out of a cheap metal that will not stand up to the heat of welding. Or you could try to purchase a replacement on EBAY.

4. Yes, it should be. We are actually having a discussion about this on another thread right now. There are several clamps that go on this tube to hold it in place and we are trying to determine how many clamps there are supposed to be and where they go. Here is the link to the discussion: http://forums.aaca.org/showthread.php?t=356199&page=3&p=1219070#post1219070

5. This is a button that will reset your trip odometer located on the speedometer. Push in and turn clockwise to do a quick reset. Push in and turn counter-clockwise to reset by 1/10 of a mile at a time.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Me and my Buick...

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Happy Christmas to all.

I am in (little) trouble,

To get my new french license plate, I need to do some work on the Buick.

I have issues on :

- suspension

- breaks

- Suspension should be harder that what it is now

- The rear break is not efficient. Seems that oil from the rear axle has leaked in the wheel.

The break shoe must be full of oil and becomes unefficient.

Question 1 : Is there any tutorial around here with pics and advises, on how to proceed on both subjects ?

Question 2 : Is it easy to do it alone for a beginner ?

Question 3 : Do I need some specific tools ?

Question 4 : Would you do it on your own ?

Question 5 : if you'd need to buy new pieces, where would you buy them on internet (do they ship oversea to Europe) ?

thanks in advance !

Alain

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Edited by ABV (see edit history)
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Alain, those who are willing to try these repairs will experience great satisfaction when they are done, and great frustration when they first learn how to do them. Anyone can learn how to do this work, but there are several things for you to consider:

How much time do you have to complete this work? If you only have a few days, then I would recommend you find a mechanic to do this work. If you have plenty of time then:

As for the suspension, I am no expert on the knee-action shock absorbers, but I suspect the first thing to verify is that they have a full charge of fluid in them. I have not experienced these personally in over 50 years, and none of my cars have them right now, so I cannot tell you how to check them or what to put in them. But that is where I would start.

As for the brakes, you must stop the leak from the rear axle to fix this. If the axle seal has not been leaking for a long time you may be able to clean the oil off the shoe with brake parts cleaner, and then lightly sandpaper the shoe to make sure the oil residue is gone. But obviously, unless you stop the leak at the axle, this will not be a lasting repair.

To stop the leak at the axle you must do two things: first determine if the rear axle fluid is contaminated with transmission fluid, and then replace the seal on the axle shaft.

To check the status of the fluid you need to open the bolt on the rear axle center cover and see if the oil flows out. If it does then there are more problems to be dealt with. This might mean the rear seal on the transmission is leaking transmission fluid into the Torque Tube going to the rear axle with good chance your pinion shaft seal is bad. This is a major job! A novice could do it if they were willing to spend a lot of time on it. But I do not recommend this for any novice. I don't even know if I would do it myself and I've been turning wrenches on these cars for close to 50 years.

If the fluid does not flow out then chances are you just have to change the seal on the rear axle. Recent threads here indicate there are inner and outer seals on these vehicles, with a bed of grease between the two. Again, I have no personal knowledge of this. I don't have this set up in any of my cars. But to get to the axle seal, the brake shoes must come off and then the axle must be removed and the bearing and seals replaced. This usually is done by pressure. This usually requires a heavy press which most people do not have. You would have to take the axles to a mechanic with a press and have these parts removed and installed, then replace the axle in the car.

As you can see, if you do not have a lot of time to complete these repairs, then I would recommend you hire someone with the experience so they can get the job done on time.

In any case, you will want to get a service manual for this. That has all the procedures in it and shows how to do all of this work. Considering you are in France, any mechanic you hire may also need the manual to learn about how to do these jobs. I do not think this is something you can get from an on-line tutorial.

Good luck

Edited by JohnD1956 (see edit history)
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Guest shadetree77

The first thing that you need is a 1953 Buick Shop Manual. These can be bought on EBAY or bought on CD from lots of different internet sites. The shop manual will answer all of your questions and show you how to do almost everything.

Here is a list of parts vendors for Buicks that I have compiled. Hope it helps.

NOS, New, and Used Buick Parts and Services:

Bob's Automobilia

3352 South El Pomar

Templeton, CA 93465

805-434-2963

http://www.bobsautomobilia.com

Classic Buicks

P.O. Box 28

Dallas, OR 97338-0028

http://www.classicbuicks.com

The Buick Farm

PO Box 384

Clayton, DE 19938

http://www.buickfarm.com

CARs, Inc.

205 Pearl St

Neshanic Station, NJ 08853

908-369-3666

http://www.oldbuickparts.com

AutoTran

Antique Automatic Trans. Parts

David Edwards

56 Dale Street, Dept. A

Needham Heights, MA 02494-1218

781-449-2065

http://www.autotran.us/dfparts1.html

Jim's Dynaflow Service

Jim Hughes

Perrysburg, OH

419-874-2393

Fatsco Tranmission Parts

337 ChangeBridge Road

PO Box 635

Pine Brook, NJ 07058

973-227-2487

800-524-0485

For Sales Dial #2

http://www.fatsco.com/index.htm

Antique Auto Supply

1225 Colorado Ln.

Arlington, TX 76015

817-275-2381

http://www.antiqueautosupply.com/

Classic NOS Parts

815-399-1075

http://www.classicnosparts.com/

Classic 2 Current Fabrication, LLC

Reproduction Floor Pans

24536 Capitol St.

Redford, MI 48239

313-534-2886

https://c2cfabrication.com/index.html

Inline Tube

Brake Lines/Brake Parts

15066 Technology Drive

Shelby Township, Michigan 48315

586-532-1338

http://www.inlinetube.com/

Steele Rubber Products

6180 E. NC 150 HWY

Denver, NC 28037

Phone: 704-483-9343

http://www.steelerubber.com/

Kanter Auto Products

76 Monroe St

Boonton, NJ 07005

1-800-526-1096

973-334-9575

http://www.kanter.com/

TA Performance Products

16167 N. 81st Street

Scottsdale, AZ 85260

480-922-6807

http://www.taperformance.com

Used Buick Parts:

Moore's Auto Salvage

1761 Country Road

Rapid City, SD 57701

605-348-4926

http://www.mooresautosalvage.com

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Thank you JohnD, your very precise comments made me understand where I will very soon and undoubtedly find my limits...

Huge mistakes avoided thanks to your experience !

As to Shadetree, also thank you. Instead of spending hours under my car in a cold garage, I will start spending hours comfortably sprawled in my sofa, surfing on internet !!

2 pics from the Christmas break.

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Edited by ABV (see edit history)
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That really is a nice car. About my response though. I think I made it too negative about a novice. After all the difference between a novice and a tradesman is experience. I just did not know if you were facing a time constraint. We have seen many new Old Buick owners crawl under their car and repair a leaking torque ball seal. And I do not want to talk you out of trying it yourself as long as you have the time to invest in the experience. For all I know you may have only a week to complete the repairs for your inspection and I'm sure a novice trying this repair will take a lot longer than that to finish this job.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Good news,

After a second test, I managed to go through the inspection and got my permanent plate for the car.

I can now officially drive it.

The repairs will however still have to be done, but this gives me some time to do it.

I will keep you posted.

Thank you John for your last comment.

As a consequence here are some pics of the day.

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Edited by ABV (see edit history)
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Thanks to Jean Christophe, from the “Peugeot 404 Club”, I started to have a look at my break issue…</SPAN>

</SPAN>

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2 good news, 1 bad news:</SPAN></SPAN>

1st</SPAN> good news: after removing the right rear wheel: I discovered that everything is brand new inside and has been recently changed.</SPAN></SPAN>

Don’t know if this was changed by the former owner or by the intermediary, just before the sale, but that’s a first good news for me: I will not have to fight with full of antique parts to change.</SPAN></SPAN>

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There is still a leak and everything is wet and full of oil.</SPAN></SPAN>

The 2nd</SPAN> good news is that the leak does not come from the rear axle, but from the brake cylinder.</SPAN></SPAN>

Don’t know why they have changed everything but the cylinder.</SPAN></SPAN>

I will only have to change the Cylinder</SPAN></SPAN>

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The bad news is that I expected to use the car tomorrow morning for the “traversée de Paris” (the crossing of Paris) meeting, but won’t be able to use it until everything is repaired.</SPAN></SPAN>

That’s a really bad news since I was waiting for this meeting to use the car for my first real ballad.</SPAN></SPAN>

The “traversée de Paris” title refers to a French film of 1956 (</SPAN>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049877/</SPAN>) considered to be among the top 100 most classic French movie. With Jean Gabin and Bourvil.</SPAN></SPAN>

This event takes place twice a year.</SPAN></SPAN>

It is organized by the biggest French multi brand association.</SPAN></SPAN>

All day long, more than 700 cars drive through Paris from one point to another point.</SPAN></SPAN>

Pics from the summer 2013 meeting :</SPAN></SPAN>

http://leclub404.celeonet.fr/smf2/index.php/topic,6078.0.html</SPAN></SPAN>

Pics from the winter 2013 meeting :</SPAN></SPAN>

http://leclub404.celeonet.fr/smf2/index.php/topic,5458.0.html</SPAN></SPAN>

Pics from the summer 2012 meeting :</SPAN></SPAN>

http://leclub404.celeonet.fr/smf2/index.php/topic,5117.0.html</SPAN></SPAN>

I Will attend tomorrow with my Peugeot and make some new pics…</SPAN></SPAN>

Coming back to the BUICK: My I ask some questions?</SPAN></SPAN>

- Question 1: I didn’t find in the shop manual any explanation on how to empty the brake liquid from the system.</SPAN></SPAN>

Any trick to know? Any screwdriver to use? Any hidden part to look for?</SPAN></SPAN>

- Question 2: Once the wheel cylinder will be changed, How to fill the car with brake liquid ?</SPAN></SPAN>

I didn’t find any fluid tank. Where should I pour the new brake oil?</SPAN></SPAN>

The hand brake was said to be insufficient by the inspector.</SPAN></SPAN>

We found out that a piece of metal was broken.</SPAN></SPAN>

- Question 3: has anyone already fixed that?</SPAN></SPAN>

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Thanks in advance and Good week end

ABV

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The reservoir for the brakes is accessed through a hole in the drivers side front floorboard. As for emptying the system, just remove the line to your cylinder and let the fluid run out while you are replacing the cylinder.

Here are three tips.

1) you may not have to remove the shoes from the backing plate. Remove the top spring that pulls the shoe to the pin the spring is attached to. You may be able to spread the shoes away enough to get the cylinder replaced.

2) Spray the shoes with brake cleaner before putting the new cylinder on. Spray the backing plate if desired. Mainly just shoot the fluid onto the scrubbing surface of the shoes.

3) hold the cylinder in place without the attaching bolts. Then you will be able to adjust the angle of it to match the brake line and avoid stripping the line or the cylinder. Once you have the brake line started into it's bore, then put the cylinder attaching bolts in place and then tighten everything.

4) if you have never experienced starting a line like this then I suggest the following:

a) align the cylinder to the line fitting.

B) turn the fitting on the line as if you are removing it, not installing it.

c) lightly press the fitting to the wheel cylinder while turning the fitting.

d) when you feel the fitting drop towards the cylinder you will be in alignment and then you immediately tighten the fitting. You should be able to get two to three turns of the fitting into the bore without a wrench. If you cannot do that then go back to "a" and try again. You do not want to strip that fitting or cylinder bore or you will have a continuous leak.

To fill the system, you will have to bleed the brakes. This involves filling the reservoir and then opening the valve on each wheel cylinder and letting the air out of the system. Here are some tips:

1) do not let the reservoir go dry while doing this. That will let air back into the lines.

2) Some people open the furthest cylinder first then work back to the master cylinder with the next closest one till you bleed all four cylinders. Others go to the nearest first. It seems to work both ways.

3) In either case look at the brake line when you disconnect it from the wheel cylinder. Does the fluid drip out or not? If it does then you can start by doing a gravity bleed. In this case you would open the valve on the new cylinder and keep filling the reservoir till the fluid drips out of the valve. You would do this on all four wheels.

4) Then you will need a helper to finish the job by going back to each wheel and having a helper push the brake pedal to the floorboard while you have the valve open at the wheel cylinder to make sure there is no air in the line.

5) Obviously, you do only open the valve on one wheel cylinder at a time in each step above. But you still have to do all four wheel cylinders.

If the fluid is not dripping out of the open line you will need the helper to perform the bleed.

Note: you have the helper rest his/her foot on the brake pedal and then you open the valve. Tell the helper to push the pedal to the floor and tell you when the pedal just gets there. The helper holds the pedal to the floor while you close the valve, and then you tell them to let off the brake pedal. You do this one wheel at a time till you only get fluid and no air out of each cylinder. The helper does not have to push hard, just steady, and without letting up till you close the valve at the wheel cylinder. I try to be ready to close the valve just as the helper is hitting the floor board. If you leave the valve open any little bit the system will suck air back into the line and you'll never get finished.

As to that situation with the parking brake, you will either have to have a new bracket fabricated and welded to the torque tube or come up with another anchor point. I hesitate to make any other suggestion regarding this as you do not want to crush the torque tube with any other bracketry. but if you are desperate for other ideas please let us know.

Good luck.

Edited by JohnD1956 (see edit history)
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Guest Rob McDonald

The “traversée de Paris” is an amazing phenomenon! It's no wonder that you're disappointed at not being able to attend with your Buick. I had no idea that Paris was populated with so many car enthusiasts. With the beautiful background architecture and many, many delightful French cars, this stands out as unique automobiling event. Every third photo had me asking, "What is that?!" Thanks for sharing.

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Beautiful car, ABV! For the brakes, I changed out the wheel cylinders on my '51 about a week ago. I bought this:

http://www.harborfreight.com/7-piece-brake-tool-set-188.html

The tool across the bottom of the photo is to remove and reinstall the big springs at the top of the brake that hold the shoes. The left end, with the cylinder and hook is to remove. The other end is to reinstall.

Can take the springs off in 10 seconds or less. Put them back on - took me a couple of tries, but still very quick. Since you have to take these top springs off to spread the shoes to get the cylinder out, may as well take the 2 lower retaining springs (under the circular caps) off as well.

For this, use the black tool in the Harbor Freight tool kit. Just press the tool over the cap, turn the cap until the slot in the cap is lined up with the pin and the cap and spring comes off. If you're lucky, it falls off. If not, it springs somewhere far and you have to go look for it. With those off, the pair of shoes can pull apart, out and drop down, now held to the car by only the parking brake cable.

Though before you drop the shoes down, take a photo or make note of how the parking brake lever fits in there (above the axle, below the cylinder), especially the little tab on the spring on the forward end of that lever. Get the tab on the wrong side of the shoe, and the shoe does not want to go back in so easily.

With the shoes down out of the way, pull the 2 push-rods out of the cylinder. Need to re-use these. Then the cylinder comes out 2 1/2" fasteners on the side you can't see, plus the brake line (probably 3/8").

While you have all of this off, about all that's left is the brake backing plate. May as well spray that down with the brake cleaner and wire brush. The idea is to keep any undesirable junk from making its way out to the drum surface. I also sprayed down all the springs, retaining pins, and caps - though all this is not very expensive to buy new.

More than you might want to know, but if you have 1/2 hour:

The video there goes through and does NOT use the drum brake tools, but just pliers and screwdriver. It can be done that way, but it also seemed like a good way to pinch a finger, scratch up the springs, or worse.

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.....

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There is still a leak and everything is wet and full of oil.

The 2nd good news is that the leak does not come from the rear axle, but from the brake cylinder.

Don’t know why they have changed everything but the cylinder.

I will only have to change the Cylinder.....Question 1: I didn’t find in the shop manual any explanation on how to empty the brake liquid from the system. Any trick to know? Any screwdriver to use? Any hidden part to look for? Question 2: Once the wheel cylinder will be changed, How to fill the car with brake liquid? I didn’t find any fluid tank. Where should I pour the new brake oil.....

Just a few quick observations here:

#1. I would not recommend reusing fluid-contaminated brake shoe linings.

#2. It sounds like you do not own a 1952 Buick Shop Manual. Est-ce correct? For 1953 Buick owners, the 1953 Buick Shop Manual is considered a supplement to the 1952 Buick Shop Manual, wherein only changes made to the 1953 Buick are detailed in the 1953 Manual. If it didn't change from 1952 (like the manual brake system), the 1953 Manual refers you back to the 1952 Manual.

#3. Re: the parking brake cable support. Try modifying a large steel washer to the size needed to fit the rubber grommet and then weld it to what's left of your existing circular ring/cable support.

#4. The brake shoe linings in the above pic look short to me and both the primary and secondary shoe linings appear to be the same length. Hard to tell from the angle though. Typically, in a Buick servo action brake system, the primary shoe lining is shorter than the secondary shoe lining. Are they the same length and what do they measure?

Vive la French fries!

Al Malachowski

BCA #8965

"500 Miles West of Flint"

Edited by 1953mack (see edit history)
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Just a few quick observations here:

...

#4. The brake shoe linings in the above pic look short to me and both the primary and secondary shoe linings appear to be the same length. Hard to tell from the angle though...

The picture is a little dark, but if one examines them carefully it can be seen that the brake shoe linings are of different lengths. The shorter one is to the left.

However, that means that they are installed wrong. The shorter lining is supposed to be installed to the forward side, not the rear.

Edited by Wheelnut (see edit history)
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Hey,

That looks like a tightly knit family here.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH for all the answers.

I am going to go through them in detail.

With all these explanations, things now sound to be at my level for me.

I know what to look for. All this is reassuring.

Thank you again

Alain

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  • 3 weeks later...

Nothing really new since last time here.

Following Eric W's advice, I tryed to order some stuff and tools at harborfreight.com, but they never answered (nor my mails, nor my calls).

The only reason I see, is that they probably considered the shipment costs would be more expensive that the tools themselves.

But they never mentioned it, even when I was in contact with international shipment team.

Next option for me to buy US tools will be the Rétromobile show (http://www.retromobile.com/) opening within 3 days in Paris.

I'm sure I'll find all I need.

On the opposite side, CARs Inc, from Shadetree77's list, were very reactive and I got my new wheel cylinders, ready to install within a few days.

Can't wait for next week end to work on it.

This is why my Buick stayed in the garage yesterday for the monthly Vincennes en Ancienne meeting.

It gave me the opportnity to take my Peugeot out, and to meet among others, a nice Buick super from 1941.

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I also realised that the links I posted a few weeks ago for "la traversée de Paris" could not reach the appropriate threads in the "Peugeot 404" Forum.

Pics are here :

Summer 2012 : http://www.pbase.com/abv/traverse_de_paris_et_2012

Winter 2013 :http://www.pbase.com/abv/traversee_de_paris_2013

Summer 2013 : http://www.pbase.com/abv/traverse_de_paris_t_2013

Winter 2014 : http://www.pbase.com/abv/traverse_de_paris_2014

Good week

ABV

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Oups ! Sorry for the 1941 Mistake.</SPAN></SPAN>

I saw “Pearl harbor 1941” on the plate of this car (</SPAN>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Buick_Super_Straight-8_ca_1940_dressed_for_war_at_Dover_Docks.jpg</SPAN> from Wikipedia), but was undoubtedly wrong.</SPAN></SPAN>

I went to the Rétromobile show this Week end (some pics hereunder).</SPAN></SPAN>

I was able to find some US tools as expected and started working on my breaks this afternoon.</SPAN></SPAN>

Thanks to your explanations, links and comments I felt confident… and managed to strip down the break system of my first wheel. So happy for this… Even if I know that what I did is very little, compared with what you all guys do here.</SPAN></SPAN>

Tonight, you must be informed that I AM THE KING OF THE WORLD !!!!!!</SPAN></SPAN>

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Edited by ABV (see edit history)
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We did it !!!

Once again, Jean Christophe from the "Peugeot 404 Club " came and gave me a hand.

I tried to do my best as an assistant. I prepared all I could before he arrived and then scrupulously followed his instructions.

It is so nice to be able to count on such experience. Things appear much more easy when you see them at least one time

But for sure, changing wheels cylinders and changing all the brake fluid (don't remember how to say) requires at least 2 persons.</SPAN>

Yesterday’s experience was a good one. And I have nothing to be ashamed of.

I committed myself not to lose too much time taking pics. So not too many today. But some souvenirs.

JohnD, to answer your question, we changed the 2 back cylinders.

I know I should have changed all of them, but will do it soon.

Yes we had our specific wrench and everything came out easily.</SPAN>

We exaclty did what you explained in your message of january 11th. Thanks.</SPAN>

Thank you EricW for your youtube links. It was so helpful that I was able to take the lead when it was time for putting the springs back !</SPAN>

Thank you 1953Mack and Wheelnut. You were right, shoe lining of the back right wheel were not correct and I could change them.</SPAN>

Unfortunately, we discovered a gasoline leak under the middle of the car (can be seen in the 5th pic). Probably due to the fact that the back of the car was higher, when working on it.</SPAN>

We managed to start the car but after 45 seconds it suddenly stopped</SPAN>

Probably due to the fact that some air came in the carburator.</SPAN>

It took too much time to make the gazoline come back and we killed the battery.

</SPAN>

We therefore could not try the car and the brakes.

Hope to come back soon with great news

Enjoy your week end.

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Edited by ABV (see edit history)
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  • 1 month later...

After several attemps, breaks seem to work fine now.

Thank you Jean Christophe !

So,yesterday was our real first time out to try the car.

Some dust on it, after several weeks in the garage...

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What I am worring about now is that, two weeks ago, we wanted to try the breaks and when going out of the garage, the garage door slammed on the roof.

i was dejected

I now have to repare the roof, but my main concern is that the antenna was broken.

Any chance to find a shop to buy a full set to replace it ?

I saw some pieces on CARs INC but didn't find a full set.

Thanks in advance

Alain

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Thank you retirednow. That's exactly what I wanted.

I put a bid but was unfortunately not able to get the sale.

At least, i know that I may have a chance to get maybe anotherone anotherday.

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Guest griff1419

Hi everyone. I have never restored a vehicle before. I have been looking at a 1953 Buick Special. All trim and chrome are there. Engine runs Automatic transmission, interior is rough body is in good condition. Glass intact all the way around. Is this a really difficult restoration project typically? I understand that all restorations can be difficult, I was just curious if come cars are less difficult than others. Any advise would be appreciated!

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Hi grift1419,

Welcome to this new project, that you have in mind.

My position would be as follows :

- start with a car that already works.

So that you can enjoy it a few weeks or a few month before starting the restoration.

This will help you to keep faith, when, once restoration started, your car will be in pieces, all around your garage.

- by starting a restoration you know where you start, but you never really know where you will end...

I had a professional garage that helped me, for the big issues, in my two first experiences :

My Peugeot 403 :

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And my Peugeot 404 :

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Then, the Peugeot clubs were very helfull for me for the day-to-day restoration.

I would therefore recommend that you meet people and attend oldcars meetings before deciding the scope of your restoration..

And as to my Buick experience, same approach : A car that already works to enjoy it before starting soon the restoration.

Already love my car.

And here, in this "Me and my Buick" forum, you will find lots of amazing guys doing amazing things !

Good luck

Alain

Edited by ABV (see edit history)
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Hi everyone. I have never restored a vehicle before. I have been looking at a 1953 Buick Special. All trim and chrome are there. Engine runs Automatic transmission, interior is rough body is in good condition. Glass intact all the way around. Is this a really difficult restoration project typically? I understand that all restorations can be difficult, I was just curious if come cars are less difficult than others. Any advise would be appreciated!

Alain has given good advice. But your question is still hard to answer. You will never know what the difficulty level is until you really know your car. For example, how do you know the floors are solid vs just hanging on till you pull the rubber mats? And how do you know those 50+ year old rubber mats will come out without breaking or disintegrating? Neither of those parts are available in the aftermarket, and the search for suitable replacements can get very difficult and costly.

One of the worst things you can do is buy a car and immediately begin stripping it down. It would be my recommendation that you get a car that is useable and commit one to two years assessing and listing what you would want to do to it. And keep in mind that a restoration done halfway is going to cause a big loss in value. If you cannot afford a full restoration then you are best served by trying to keep a useable car as much original as possible, and on the road.

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