1938 Buick Century Model 61 - Four Door Touring Sedan - Trunk Back

[MCHinson]

I have owned a 1937 Buick Model 61 for a few years. I enjoy driving it on a regular basis. I am also the newsletter editor for the 36-38 Buick Club. I arrived home with the project car on August 14th. This initial post covers the acquisition of this project and my trip home with the car. 

 

I have done a lot of work on antique cars and I have helped others with various antique car jobs. I have owned a number of antique automobiles over the last couple of decades but I have never completed a total restoration on an antique automobile. I have always thought that I should do at least one total restoration in my life. I blame Gary Wheeler for posting his amazing restoration work in the Pre-War Buick Forum. He makes it look really easy. He got me thinking that I really should restore a car. It also does not help that every other month, I have a deadline to publish the Torque Tube II and not enough other members are sending me technical articles, photos, or other Straight 8 material for me to fill the magazine easily. 

 

A fellow club member made me aware of a project car for sale. The car was a 1938 Buick Model 61. The price was really reasonable. Since I have a 1937 Model 61, it seemed a logical project for me to take on. It would mean I was working on something very similar to what I was familiar with, and it would be nice to have a pair of sequential year Model 61 Buicks.

 

The story on the car is that it was purchased in the 1990’s by a retired police officer from Brockton, Massachusetts. He planned to enjoy the antique car hobby in his retirement. He took the car to Al Proctor, who had a garage where he worked on old cars at the time. Al went through the car and fixed everything it needed except paint, as he was not a painter. Al delivered the car to the retired police officer and never heard from him again. In 2016, Al and a friend were driving around scouting for old cars on a Sunday afternoon and happened to see an old Buick. Al eventually tracked down the property owner and got a chance to see the car closer. The more Al looked at the car, the more familiar it looked. It was the car he had worked on in the 1990’s. Al spoke with the owner and discovered that she was the daughter of the previous owner who had Al work on the car. Apparently, he died in 1993, and the family left the car outside on various family owned properties from 1993 until Al discovered it in 2016. The Massachusetts weather was not kind to the car.  Al was able to convince the owner to let him buy and attempt to save the car. Cosmetically the car is a disaster, but mechanically it should be easy to restore. Al said he hooked up a battery and a temporary fuel supply and had the car running about 15 minutes after he got it home.

After Al’s son sent me a few photos and videos of the car running and driving,  I decided to buy the car. His asking price was so low, I did not even try to talk him down at all. The only problem that I had was I am in Southeastern North Carolina and the car was near Boston, Massachusetts. A few years ago, I had made a decision to sell my tow vehicle and trailer as I never intended to again have an antique car that I would not drive anywhere I wanted to go.

 

I began searching for a vehicle that I can buy that can serve as a tow vehicle. I found a few Chevrolet Suburbans for sale locally, so after a bit of research, I was ready to buy a used Suburban. I had previously been offered the use of local AACA and 36-38 Buick Club member Jeff Oaks’ trailer as well as a trailer owned by another friend and former coworker. I was talking with the other friend and told him about the delay in being able to buy the motorhome and that I had decided I could not put the trip off much more and was going to buy a used Suburban. He told me, “You don’t need to do that. I just bought a 2012 Dodge Ram 350 truck that you can use. Why don’t you just borrow my truck and trailer?” I could not argue with his logic so I agreed. It takes a special friend to loan you a truck that was so recently purchased that it still had the temporary 30 day license tag on it and a trailer that he had owned for only a few months, for a 1,700 mile round trip.

 

I arranged for some friends and neighbors to look after my disabled wife’s meals during my absence and planned the trip so that I could complete it quickly during a less traveled weekend to avoid traffic congestion, primarily in the Washington, DC and NYC areas. I picked up my friend’s truck and trailer on Saturday, August 12 and left Wilmington at 6 pm. I drove until about 2 am Sunday morning, stopped at a motel for a few hours of sleep. After that stop, I continued my trip making only necessary stops for quick meals and bathroom breaks as needed. I arrived in Abington, Massachusetts, at 3 pm on Sunday, August 13th.

 

My friend’s trailer is equipped with E-track rails. He had a set of brand new E-clip straps that were still in the packaging. The trailer did not have any D rings so I decided to go ahead and use the E-track hardware and his new straps instead of my own straps.  By 4:15 pm, we had the car loaded and strapped down, and I started south. At my first stop on the trip for fuel, a couple of hours into the trip, I checked the trailer straps and everything was OK. The station’s bathrooms were out of order, so about half an hour later, I made another stop for some fast food and a bathroom break. Being rather tired, I almost neglected to check the straps before driving away from that stop. Luckily, I checked the straps. The front two straps were OK but I quickly discovered that they were the only thing holding the car to the trailer. The back two straps had both snapped! I hesitate to think what would have happened if I had not checked those straps! I pulled out my good heavy tow straps and spent about an hour re-strapping the car to the trailer.

 

I continued the trip south until 3 am, to get south of Washington DC, to avoid a lengthy delay on Monday morning with DC’s terrible weekday morning traffic congestion. As soon as I passed DC, I found a motel and got a much needed 4 hours of sleep. Monday morning, I completed the trip home, arriving at 1 pm, just in time to take my wife to lunch.

 

After lunch, I unloaded the car. Being all alone and having a car with no battery, and no fuel supply made this an interesting task. Still being really tired, I might have not chosen the most logical way to do this but it worked. First, I removed all of the straps from the car. I then took one of the long tie down straps and secured it to the front bumper and to the trailer so that it would serve as a safety strap to stop the car from rolling much further than the end of the trailer. I simply pushed the car a little and it rolled off of the trailer, fairly straight. It stopped when it reached the end of the strap but the rear end was sitting a little bit out in the street, so I then simply pulled the truck and trailer forward a little bit to straighten the car up and get the rear end out of the street. I then unhooked the strap from the front bumper and tied a rope to the rear bumper. I then started using an old garden tiller to pull the car where I wanted it. That worked well until I attempted to pull it over the curb and into the driveway. The garden tiller simply did not have enough power for that task. I moved the tiller and pulled my 1937 Century out of the garage. I used bungee cords to secure an old tire to the back bumper of the project car to protect my 1937 Century in case of a collision. This proved to be an unnecessary precaution. With a few trips in and out of the project car to turn the steering wheel as needed, I was able to pull the project car into the place in front of the garage where I wanted it. This task was complicated by to the fact that the driver’s door can’t be used due to the top hinge being rusted away. My plan is to clean it up as much as possible outside and air it out for a few days before putting it in the garage.

 

I have removed the remains of the trunk shelf from the car and removed the mouse nest from the glove compartment and taken a lot of photos to document the car’s condition. My plan is to use a pressure washer to wash the car inside and out. I think that most of the spiders got blown away on the trip home, but I will feel better going over every square inch of the car with some high pressure water anyway.

 

The body is a mess. The good thing about this car is the mechanical condition. It was in good mechanical condition before the previous owner died and it got left outside for a couple of decades. Al actually had the car running and I have seen and heard video of it driving in his yard. I have to add a temporary fuel supply and a battery and the car should run. I have either taken on an ambitious project, or else I might be a little bit misguided or maybe a little bit crazy. Time will tell. I am going to let the photos tell the rest of this story for this issue. I have already called Dave Tacheny and given him a heads up on what I am going to need. As soon as it get it cleaned up and some disassembly completed, I will be able to give him a complete list of what I need to try to complete this project.

 

After I got it unloaded, I started searching for the source of the mousy odor. When I opened the glove compartment, I found at least one source of the odor. After removing all of the mouse nest, I found the remains of a box of 4 headlight bulbs and the missing radio knob. I thought the tire pressure label still being intact beside that mouse nest quite interesting. I know that I am going to need some good photos of someone else’s 1938 Century Model 61 trunk. Lots of stuff should be quite similar to my 1937 Century, but that area is not. The trunk is what I think is going to be one of the most challenging thing for me to repair. Wish me luck, I am going to need it!

 

The first few photos show the car at Al Proctor's house, including one with Al. The rest show the condition upon arrival at my home, up to the point that I was pulling it into its temporary parking position in the driveway of my house. 

 

For anybody who owns a Straight 8 Buick, I would invite you to join ther 36-38 Buick Club. Members of the 36-38 Buick Club will get a detailed view of the restoration of this car in the club newsletter. I will attempt to share a good portion of it here but probably won't have time to go into as much detail here as I do in the newsletter. I am also posting photos as things progress in a facebook photo album so that Al Proctor's son Chris can see them and share them with Al easily. 

 

[MCHinson]

These photos cover the past week or so. Each paragraph below includes a recap of each day's work that I have copied and pasted from my facebook album commentary.

 

I have gotten all of the doors open, removed the seats and used a shop vac to clean out about 4 or 5 gallons of rust, dust, dirt, additional mouse nests. I hosed down the interior with a garden hose and sprayed solvent on a lot of bolts that will hopefully be coming out in the near future. I installed a battery and a temporary gas tank and it ran well until I ran out of gas. It has good oil pressure and the temperature gauge shows it holding a steady 180 degrees. It runs and drives good in the driveway.  

 

I removed all of the door and window handles. I also removed the two passenger side interior door panels. These two doors will probably be restored and used on the car. The two driver's side doors are in much worse shape and will hopefully be replaced. I am not going to bother removing the door panels from those doors unless, I decide to reuse those doors.

 

 I only had time to spray down a lot of bolts that will soon have to be removed with some solvent. I can see I am going to need some more solvent soon. Today, I finished removing the back seat. The bottom two bolts that secured the seat back would not give up, several days of soaking with solvent did not break them free. I broke one of the bolts off and broke the caged nut off of the body on the other. I then decided to go ahead and strip the rest of the interior out of the body shell. I now have all of the upholstery and insulation removed. The mouse smell is now about gone from the car. I will soon have the car clean enough that I might be able to actually put the car inside the garage to work on it in the air conditioning. I have been soaking the body bolts with solvent for a few days now. Hopefully I will be able to start some major disassembly soon.

 

Today, I took the hood side panels off. I also took the grill halves out of the front end. All of the hardware holding the grill halves in came out easily until I got to the bottom two nuts. Those had obviously been sitting in a pile of wet leaves and other debris for years. There was no way to get a socket or wrench on what was left of those. When vice grips failed, I got out an angle grinder - problem solved. The carburetor is not the original carburetor model. It appears to be a 1939 or later carburetor. It is not too unusual to see a later carburetor on these cars. I am intrigued by the modification made to allow the later choke to work with the 1938 Exhaust Manifold. I look forward to getting a better look at that adaptive work soon.

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

WOW! Just WOW.

 

  Ben

[Taylormade]

Been there, done that.  You'll have a lot more fun putting it back together.  Looks like a great project.

[Gary W]

"DeJa Vu all over again"

Love it!  Congratulations Matt!  Good Luck!

If I can help you at all, please don't hesitate

Gary

[1937-44]

 You're brave. Good luck on your project.

 

[MCHinson]

This morning, I removed the accessory lights, front bumper guard, front bumper, headlights, and the right front fender. I was disappointed to find that the headlight buckets were both filled with mouse nests. The damage caused by the mouse infestation will probably require replacement headlights. All of the bumper and fender hardware came off relatively easy. The condition of the hardware was relatively good with a few exceptions. It was amazing how much of some of the hardware was rusted away and yet still easy to disassemble. I did have to use an angle grinder to grind one nut off of the bolt on one of the accessory lights to remove it. I don't expect to reuse the accessory light since they are not the correct accessory lights. I was intrigued to see that the passenger side light is a Driving Light and the driver side light is a Passing Light.

[MCHinson]

This morning, I removed the left front fender. I started working on removing the right rear fender but after a small section of the body around two of the bolts broke away when I turned the bolts, one bolt broke, and two came out without problems, I decided to call it a day and give the remaining fender bolts another good soaking of solvent and let them sit until Monday morning and try again. 

[wldavis]

Great work!  Enjoying your photos & text of the disassembly.

[39BuickEight]

I am replying just because I can relate and I love these projects!  Something about pulling an old car home on a trailer just grabs me.  

[MCHinson]

Today I removed the back two fenders, the running boards and the rear bumper. I then removed 6 body bolts. The body manual indicates that there are supposed to be 8 body bolts, but the two rear body bolts that are shown in the Fisher Body Manual don't seem to be there. As soon as I can buy some lumber and build a cradle to hold the body, I will be almost ready to remove the body and roll the chassis into the garage to start the chassis restoration. It looks like we are going to have some stormy weather for the next few days, so I might be delayed a bit on my project.  I seem to be amassing a few piles of 1938 Buick parts and a lot of labeled plastic bags full of nuts, bolts, washers, and other small hardware. The left rear fender is a bit rough and the running boards are going to be a challenge.

[Taylormade]

You're making fast progress.  I found organized bags of parts, well labeled, and lots of photographs will really help down the road.  Looks like you're in great shape.

[keiser31]

The amazing part is the fact that these vehicle quadruple in size when you take them all apart....

[MCHinson]

36 minutes ago, Taylormade said:

You're making fast progress.  I found organized bags of parts, well labeled, and lots of photographs will really help down the road.  Looks like you're in great shape.

I use a huge file format on my camera so I can enlarge any photo and see small details that I will need when I start reassembly. I probably should be making more notes, but I have all of the hardware bagged and labeled and take photos that will help me remember the direction that bolts are installed and other such small details. If I was not looking at a stormy week, I would probably have been able to take the body off in the next day or so, but I have to borrow a friend's truck to pick up the lumber and build the body cradle and I don't expect that to work out in the next day or so due to the incoming Tropical Storm.  

[MCHinson]

10 minutes ago, keiser31 said:

The amazing part is the fact that these vehicle quadruple in size when you take them all apart....

 

I have noticed that. I think I will have enough space in the garage but I am sure it will be a little bit tight. 

[Taylormade]

I'm currently watching my shelves go bare.  It's a very rewarding experience.  Not that I didn't love filling them up, but it's a lot more fun taking restored parts off the shelf and putting them back on the car.  I use my Canon with a very nice lens and always use the extra large format to document the restoration.  You're absolutely correct - you can zoom in and get incredible detail in Photoshop.

[MCHinson]

This evening, I was able to pick up the lumber that I need to build a dolly to hold the body when I remove it from the chassis. Hopefully I will be able to get the dolly built in the next day or so and start making plans to remove the body from the chassis so I can begin the chassis restoration soon. 

[Taylormade]

How are you planning to lift and suspend the body so you can roll the frame out?  When I took the body off my 32, I was lucky in that the guy working on some rust repair for me had a lift that he used to raise the body off the frame.  Once he was done, he delivered the body on a flatbed trailer and the local high school coach got six big linemen over to our house and they lifted the body off the trailer and on to the wooden dolly I had constructed.  Last month I finally reunited the body and frame using concrete blocks and 4x4s - which I don't recommend as the blocks can shatter - but it worked for me after lots of fiddling around.  I suspect your body is heavier than mine as I have an insert roof and you have a turret top.

[MCHinson]

 

 

I will probably use an engine hoist to do it like Gary W did on his 1937 Buick. I could manually lift it with the help of three friends and some lumber but I think the engine hoist would be easier on our backs. I don't see a need to reinvent the wheel. I am going to copy all of Gary's ideas that I can.

 

I had a few other things that I had to do today, so I did not have much time to work on the car today.  

 

I have finished the body dolly. My design for it is basically copied from Gary's. I built it based on his photos in his restoration discussion. I did make the uprights a little longer than his, since I think having the body a little higher will make the body work a little easier on my back. Hopefully tomorrow I will finish the rest of the disassembly necessary before I can remove the body from the chassis. 

[keiser31]

Are you going to add some structural "X" bracing to that wooden frame? I can see that wracking under pressure when pushed around since it is quite tall. And on cobblestone.

Edited August 30, 2017 by keiser31 (see edit history)

[keiser31]

Maye just some 45 degree angle braces at the eight inside corners. I just want you to be safe.

[zipdang]

Here's the cart I built to support my Fiat. Although not nearly as heavy as your car, I added a little extra bracing (as Keiser suggests) to be certain it won't go anywhere I don't want it to. Just as an aside, mine is now blasted, repaired, and painted. Cart works great!

[keiser31]

Those larger casters would work better on the bricks, too.

[MCHinson]

The casters are rated such that they should handle the weight fine. The body after the doors are removed is not that heavy. I modeled mine after the one that Gary used for his very similar 1937 Buick's body. I don't have plans to move it much anyway. It has to roll no more than 30 feet, twice. Once to where it the body will be stored while I restore the chassis, and then into the garage for the body to be restored. If it appears to have any lateral movement at all, I will add some additonal bracing, but for now, I don't think that will be necessary. The 2 x 10s and 4 x 4s are pretty solid and it has a lot of 4 1/2 inch #10 screws in it. Also, the brick driveway is a lot smoother than you might think.

[keiser31]

Good to know.

[Spinneyhill]

It can still "lozenge" = one long side moves forward relative to the other. One diagonal brace would be enough, in the bottom, acting as both tension and compression brace. If you have shorter pieces, put one each across a pair of opposite corners, about 2 or 3' long.

 

You are making good progress! Xclnt.

Edited August 31, 2017 by Spinneyhill (see edit history)

[Gary W]

Hi Matt!  Isn't it amazing how fast these cars come apart?  Honestly, if you could get a few uninterrupted weeks you can have the car down to it's frame.  

 

About lifting the body, If you have a few guys, you will have a lot easier time than I had, but what I did was:

1.  Used the hoist with a bolt in the spare tire holder in the trunk to lift the rear

2.  Rest the rear down on a piece of 2X12 supported by two strong jack stands

3.  Go to the front, use the hoist to grab that piece of wood in the center and raise the front.

4.  I used "GO-JACKS" under all four tires to slide the chassis out sideways

5.  Then you can basically "parallel park" your wood frame under the body.

 

**  The only difference I see with your frame is that I attached 2 angle iron brackets to each corner to help stabilize the legs.  The painter loves it.  Very easy to maneuver in the shop.

 

 

The body is bolted on to that piece of wood up front, and the crane is lifting from the middle of the wood.  The wood is pre measured to drop right on to the wood cart.

 

 

This was delivery day to the shop.  Notice the metal angle brackets at each corner.  Just helps tie it all together.

 

 

 

Matt...you are doing a great job!!!  I was where you are just 6 months ago, but I love seeing it all again.  Every photo adds so much to the knowledge base.

Good Luck and keep up the great work!

Gary

[MCHinson]

Gary,

 

Thanks. I actually bought the angle brackets like you used but when I started to assemble it, I realized that the ones I bought were a little too long and rather than bother to swap them for smaller ones, after it was all together, it felt solid enough that I decided to leave it alone unless it seems less stable after the body is loaded. I took the angle brackets back to Lowes and will pick up some shorter ones if it seems to need them. There is something to be said for the stability of 2 x 10 boards with sufficient 4 1/2 inch long screws holding it all together. I actually worry more about the lag bolts holding the casters into the 4 x 4 posts and the bottom 2 x 10s than anything else on the design.

[MCHinson]

This morning, I removed the doors. First I removed the right front door. The door check strap nut came off with no problem. After having been soaked in solvent for a few days, the bolts came out of the top hinge without any problem. Two of the three bolts came out of the bottom hinge without any problems. The head of one of the bottom bolts was so rusted away that there was no way to grip the bolt head, even after trying vice grips,  so I used an angle grinder to grind the head off. The portion of the bolt that was still in the hinge cause a bit of damage to the door skin when I removed the door.  

 

Next, I removed the right rear door. When I had the same problem with the bottom hinge of that door, I tried something better. I used the angle grinder to grind away two sides of the bolt head. This enabled me to grip the remaining portion of the bolt head with a set of vice grips and extract the remains of the bolt and enabled me to remove the door from the hinges. The amount of rust on the bottom hinges was surprising. Even after the hinge bolts were out, it took some work with a rubber mallet to separate the door from the hinges.

 

Next, I removed the left front door. Since the top hinge was totally rusted into two pieces, after removing the door check stap nut, I was able to simply rotate the door downward and the remains of the bottom half of the bottom hinge bent down and I was able to lift the door off of the hinge and remove it.

 

Next, I removed the left rear door. A couple of the bolts were rusted to the point that I could not use a socket on it, but I was able to simply grip the bolt heads with vice grips and remove them. The hinges on this door were rusted so that it was actually a bit difficult to remove the door from the hinges after removing the bolts. A few extra hits from the rubber mallet were necessary to separate the door from the hinges.

 

I removed trunk prop so that I could open the trunk all the way in an effort to use gravity to get more solvent into the hinge bolts. Hopefully after a day of so soaking, I will be able to remove the trunk lid. I also reapplied solvent to the remaining few bolts that are holding the floor panels around the shifter and the steering column. I hope that I will be able to get those apart tomorrow.

[MCHinson]

This morning, I removed the floor panel that covers the transmission. Even after soaking in solvent overnight, three of the bolts required an angle grinder to remove. Next, I removed the floor panel that fits around the clutch and brake pedals. All of the bolts came out of that with no problems. The steering wheel horn button and horn ring came off with no problems. I loosened the steering wheel nut and the spring tension popped the steering wheel right off. I replaced the steering wheel loosely so I can still drive the chassis in the driveway as needed. Next, I  attempted to remove the steering column bolts. All but one came out without much effort. The one with the slotted screw head refused to come out. I reapplied solvent to it liberally and will try it again tomorrow morning. If it refuses to come out tomorrow, I will drill that one out. After that one is out, I only need to cut or removed wiring before I should be able to separate the body from the chassis.   

 

I looped one heater hose to the inlet and outlet to enable me to remove the heater. I removed the radio and the heater. They both came out with very little effort. After the overnight solvent soaking, I was able to remove the screws that held the trunk lid to the hinges with little problem. The two screws that held the trunk lid prop were not as easy. I used my angle grinder to remove those to enable me to remove the trunk lid prop from the body. 

[39BuickEight]

This all looks and sounds so familiar.

[MCHinson]

This morning, I attempted to remove the remaining bolt holding the steering column to the dash. It was still uncooperative. I attempted to drill it out and that did not work because the nut on the top side decided to start turning. I then crawled under the dash and removed the four bolts holding the instrument panel to the dash. This led me to the interesting job of disconnecting/cutting/removing all of the wiring harness from the dash and separating it from the car's body. The temperature gauge line needed to be disconnected from the engine end and carefully worked through the firewall to remove it without damage. I was very happy that the temperature sensor unscrewed with no problems from the engine. Removing it resulted in a fast flow of clean coolant pouring out, which appears to indicate that the interior of the water jacket is in much better shape than the engine in many restoration projects. The oil pressure line needed to be disconnected from the instrument panel and carefully worked through the fireall from that end to remove it without damage. I was then able to reconnect those two gauges to the instrument panel, independent of the body to allow the body's upcoming removal from the chassis. I bagged the instrument panel in a trash bag to protect it from any more rain that might fall before I move the chassis inside the garage.

 

With the instrument panel out of the way, I was able to use an angle grinder to remove that last bolt holding the steering column bracket to the dash. I removed all of the remaing wiring harness from the loops that secured it to the body. I removed the voltage regulator and horn relay from the firewall. I also removed the clock from the dash. With the exception of simply removing the steering wheel (and maybe totally removing the steering column unless I can easily lift the body quite high), it appears that the body is ready to be separated from the chassis. Hopefully, I will be able to get access to an engine hoist or some friends on Monday to attempt that job.

[GARY F]

Nice work and good pictures. I enjoy following you and Gary W. every step of the way.

[MCHinson]

I could not help myself. This afternoon after church and lunch, I decided to do a little bit of preparation for removal of the body from the chassis. I did find one additional body bolt in the center of the rear in the remains of the trunk. I thought I took a photo, but aparently did not. I removed the accelerator pedal and linkage. I also managed to maneuver the clutch and brake pedal through the floor opening to get them beneath the raised body's floor. 

 

Using my best "kids don't try this at home" techniques, I raised the body about 4 inches off of the chassis. I used a floor jack under different corners of the body using some bricks as spacers, and some wood scraps to spread the force over a larger area of the rusty body sheet metal. I placed a couple of bricks under all four corners of the body to keep it raised. I also inserted two 2 x 4 boards between the body and chassis. The 2 x 4s can be used as lift points for the body's removal. 

 

I then removed the steering wheel. I am still debating if I want to try to maneuver the body off with the steering column installed or if I want to remove it before further body removal. I would like to leave it, and be able to drive the chassis around after I remove the body, but I realize it would be a lot easier to remove the body with the steering column removed. 

 

[Taylormade]

You'll have a much easier time with the column out of there.  You can always put it back on after you take the body off.  I was lucky in that my 32 Dodge has removable wooden floors.

[MCHinson]

Yes I realize that is the right way to do it. I have been holding off until the last minute to remove the column because I have a neighbor down the street who is a diesel engine mechanic. He works for a large construction equpment repair company. If I knew him a little bit better I could ask him to stop by with his work truck and use its auto crane to lift the body off with the steering column in place. I actually have another plan in place but I will save the explanation for this evening when I will have photos. I will probably be removing the bolts in the steering column long enough to lift the body and then reinstalling them as soon as the body is off. With the auto crane it would have been fun to see the body lifted off with the column still in place, but that is going to happen unless my neighbor sees what I am doing and offers to help with the auto crane.    

[Gary W]

Remove the column.  You have to lift way too high to clear it.  only three bolts puts it right back on.  It may be easier to remove the transmission lid with the shifter (or simply just remove the shift lever) to get a little more room to work.

 

Matt, you can support the rear with the spare tire bolt and an engine crane.  That opens the entire rear up with almost no interference to slide the chassis out from under.  

[MCHinson]

My "Labor Day" holiday certainly involved a lot of labor. Late on Saturday afternoon my son and his fiance were in town and visited my mother-in-law. He told me that her A/C had died and her lawn was badly overgrown.  Saturday night, I checked the A/C and determined that it was not anything simple that I could fix, so I referred her to the Heating and Air Conditioning contractor that I use. They came on Sunday and fixed her A/C. I found out that my wife's nephew who had been mowing her lawn recently moved away and her previous yard care company is no longer in business. I told her I would come over and mow her lawn on Monday.

 

This morning, I stopped by Tractor Supply to purchase four farm jacks to use to remove the body from the chassis on the 1938 Buick Century project. I am a bit of an independent minded person and I figured these would enable me to do this job without any assistance from anyone else. I think that I will be able to use them on some other projects in the future to further justify the expense. The local Tractor Supply store only had 3 of the 54 inch tall farm jacks in stock. They were also on sale so they currently cost the same price as their 48 inch tall farm jacks.   I bought the three 54 inch jacks and one 48 inch jack. I figured I could get the job done with those. When I got started on the job, everything worked well except the 48 inch jack actually turned out to be defective. I will return the defective one and pick up another 54 inch tall farm jack as soon as they have them back in stock. 

 

I was not willing to delay my plans to remove the body so I started the job by improvising for the fourth jack with some piles of bricks and a floor jack. That did not work well, so I relied on Gary Wheeler's recommendation that you can lift the rear of the body from the spare tire bracket mounting area. I took the the third farm jack and put it under the center of the rear of the body. The sheet metal is pretty rusty there, but I was able to get the lip of the farm jack under the panel where the spare tire bracket bolt would have been and it worked fine. 

 

When I got the body lifted, I realized that I needed to remove the emergency brake assembly to remove the front cable. I knew that the rear emergency brake cable was rusted in two, but the front cable looked good so I did not want to cut the cable. I simply leaned in the driver's doorway and used a ratchet to remove the emergency brake handle assembly from the body, disconnected the cable, and fed the cable through the body to allow the body to be rolled away from the chassis.  I removed the bolts holding the steering column to lower the column and reinstalled them after I rolled the chassis away from the body. I also removed the top of the transmission with the gear shift lever and reinstalled them after I had rolled the chassis away.

 

By going around to each jack and raising it slowly being sure to keep the body fairly level, I was able to lift the body up enough to roll the chassis out from under the body and then roll the body dolly under the body. I then lowered the body onto the dolly. I then simply rolled the body and dolly off to the side of the driveway for storage. The body dolly feels a lot more solid than the body does. I have already contacted Dave Tacheny about a replacement body. Locating a much more solid body to use in this restoration sounds very promising.  

 

Last, I rolled the chassis into the garage and beside my 1937 Century. Tomorrow, I need to do some rearranging in the back of the garage and pick up a set of wheel dollies that a local AACA friend offered to loan me for this project. As soon as I do that, I can roll the chassis into the back of the garage which will allow my daily driver to return to its normal garage space where the chassis will sit tonight. 

 

    

[Gary W]

Nicely Done!!  Love the contrast in your last photo.  Great progress.

[ILIKECARS53]

Good job!!!   I was hoping your neighbor would be a closet old car guy and reads the AACA forum.  LOL