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


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Matt, I find this thread quite confusing. You decide to restore a very rusty Series 61, even the chassis is very pitted and then buy what looks to be a nice and quite restorable series 41 and pull it apart to put on the rusty old Series 61 chassis. The logic of all this escapes me....

 

John

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The Century is a much more rare and desirable car. The 320 engine, transmission, and rear end combination is worth the trouble. It was passed on to me at a very good price because Al wanted to see the car saved. The Special chassis will be either be passed onto someone who needs it, or else I will use it in my next project. The bodies on both cars are essentially the same, so I chose to use a better body to restore the Century. The Century chassis is solid and has been almost completely restored at this time. The original body on the Century was too far gone for me to have the time and money to restore it. Also, the Special has the wrong year engine in it, so it would not be possible to restore that car with that engine to original condition. In the end, I will have a nicely restored Model 61 and then we will see what the final story is on the Special.  

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This morning I removed the left front fender and left rear fender. The previous owner had obviously removed the left front and rear fenders recently. The bolts in both were all in nice condition and easy to remove. I then removed the right rear fender. For a fender that had apparently not been removed since 1938, it came off relatively easily. There were a couple of bolts that broke but I was able to remove the rest of them wthout any major difficulty. The pattern of the cuts in the apparently original fender welting are shown in one photo. This afternoon, I used a local AACA friend's larger blast cabinet to remove the surface rust from the exhaust manifold. 

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This morning I removed the center floor section over the transmission and the floor panel that surrounds the pedals. I removed the accelerator pedal and linkage.I removed the bolts holding the steering column to the dash, and removed the horn button, horn ring, and steering wheel. I disconnected the steering gear from the frame to allow the steering column to drop lower, and removed the ignition switch from the column. I think that the body is basically ready to remove from the Special chassis as soon as I disconnect some wiring. While I would probably prefer to do the body work on it Special chassis so I don't have to be too careful not to make a mess of the restored Century chassis, it will be better to go ahead and move the body to the Century chassis soon so I can get the Special chassis out of the garage to enable me to get our daily driver back into the garage before the weather turns cold. I also primed and painted the exhaust manifold with VHT primer and VHT Cast Iron Gray paint. 

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Yesterday, I worked on the Buick for a while but did not accompish anything worthy of mention or photos. This morning, I had better luck. I removed the instrument panel as well as the temperature guage sensor and the oil pressure line. I then removed all of the other wiring that connects between the body and the chassis. While in the area, I removed the bolts that hold the firewall pad to the firewall. I temporarily have an unruly pile of parts such as the headlight switch, turn signal switch and miscellaneous wiring from the Special on my workbench. 

 

Recently, on the 1937-1938 Buick facebook page someone posted a comment indicating that they had been told that the front fenders of a Special and Century were identical. I replied that they have different part numbers and that Dave Tacheny had told me that they were different. Today, I was able to confirm that Dave's information was correct. I took the left front fender from the  Special body donor car and the right front fender of the Century and photographed them side by side so it is easy to see how they differ. It looks like it would be fairly simple to adapt a 40 series fender to fit a 60 series, but they are certainly different.

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It looks like with a bit of cutting, relocating and welding it would be fairly simple to use one in the place of the other. I am happy that I don't need to do that, as I have the correct fenders for my Century project, as well as an even better set of Special spare fenders that I don't need and really should sell. 

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Thanks. Glad it seems "methodical", sometimes I do some stuff that seems sort of random to me. It just depends on what parts I have and what I might not have. I was about out of stuff to do when I was waiting on a few parts from Dave Tacheny and before I had located the Special to get the replacement body. I did not do anthing today because I had a Red Cross blood donation appointment this morning and it was raining so I did not want to do the body swap today. I need a good weather day to roll the Special out of the garage, remove the body, roll the Special chassis out of the way, roll the Century chassis under the body and gently lower the body onto the Century chassis. It might be better to build another body dolly for the replacement body and do the body work before I translanting it onto the Century chassis, but it will make storage much easier if I just go ahead and swap the body onto the Century chassis so everything important will easily fit into the garage.   

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Yes, I plan to probably use some short sections of 2 x 4s or 4 x 4s to support the body until I have addressed any issues on the bottom of the body before actually securing the body to the chassis.

 

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Disclaimer - Don't try this at home, kids! 

 

Today, we had a high of 72 degrees with Sunny weather. This morning's forecast called for a lot of colder weather and mostly rainy days for the next week or so. This afternoon, I decided it was time to transplant the body onto the mostly restored chassis so I could get my daily driver back into the garage. I spent a couple of hours working on this and then a couple of my fellow retired police friends stopped by to help. Their help allowed me to get more done than expected. I used my farm jacks from Tractor Supply, along with a couple of floor jacks and miscellaneous boards and bricks to accomplish the job. I was able to remove the body from the Special chassis, roll the Century chassis into place, lower the body onto the chassis and roll it into the back of the garage. With the help of my friends, we rolled the rusty original Century body on the body dolly out of its storage space on the side of the driveway and then rolled the Special chassis under the rusty body. I then lowered the rusty body onto the Special chassis. We then rolled it back into the storage area on the side of the driveway. Since it was getting dark, while I picked up tools and jacks, my buddies covered the engine with a tarp.  We then stacked the body dolly beside the body/chassis to get it out of the way. In the near future, I will need to clean up the garage and move some more parts into storage in/on the Special chassis/rusty body combo. When I have more time, I will assemble the hood over the Special engine and remove the tarp. I temporarily placed the seats that came in the Special inside the Century. After I get the garage cleaned up and organized, I can get started on body work. The body is on temporary spacers to keep it off of the chassis to make it easier to do the body work before dropping it the rest of the way down and installing the body bolts.  I think the photos will enable you to see how I did it, but I don't recommend anyone else doing it this way. The farm jacks work, but they really don't feel as stable as most people would probably like.  I used a floor jack with some boards (and bricks to get more height) to make it a bit more stable than the farm jacks alone. 

 

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That one looks a bit worse in the photo than it was in real life. With the doors removed, even with some extra parts in the body, the body is light enough that 4 guys with good backs could simply raise and lower it. We had three old guys with bad backs so we used the farm jacks on it. I think the camera angle made that one look worse than it was. The good body without any areas rusted out, and with the doors still attached worried me more than the rusty body without any doors. 

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17 minutes ago, keiser31 said:

I have done that sort of precarious thing before. Your wife might want to bump up your insurance....

 

 

No need, I am already worth much more dead than alive. 

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Today I cleaned up the garage. I also re-positioned  the rusty original body slightly on the Special Chassis so that it is now all lined up on the body bolts. I removed the body data plate from the rusty Century body so that I can install it on the replacement body. I also temporarily reattached the doors on the rusty body and put the Special hood in place to protect the engine. I placed the Special front fenders with the rusty body and covered it all up with the tarp to protect it from the weather until I decide its eventual fate. I moved the body dolly into the back yard to get it out of the way until I have some extra time to disassemble it. 

 

I then cleaned up the garage so that I can access the parts that I need and I can work around both sides and the back of the body. I can soon get started on the body work on the replacement body. 

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Today I was able to start on the rust repair. The most visible rust on the body is fairly bad rust pitting that was underneath the exterior side trim. Starting with an abrasive pad on an angle grinder and using several different grades of sandpaper, I was able to get the rust off and the surface fairly level. It will still take some work but I have applied some primer to protect it for the moment. I took a few photos during the process that shows the improvement.

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  • LOOKING VERY GOOD IF IT WHERE ME ID CLEAN THE RUST OFF AND THEN METAL PREP IT A COUPLE OF TIME AND USE PPG  DP40 OR DP50,THAT STUFF WILL SEAL ANYTHING,AFTER DRYING REAL GOOD YOU CAN TAKE A PICE OF 40 GRIT SANDPAPER AND ROUGH IT UP AND PUT BODY FILLER RIGHT OVER IT,THIS STUFF IVE BEEN USING FOR MANY YEARS,I DID THE REAR FENDERS ON MY MOON ROADSTER ABOUT 8 YEARS AGO AND STILL NO RUST COMING THREW,KEEP IT OFF YOUR HANDS CAUSE ITS TOUGH TO GET OFF,     DAVE
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I did not take photos that showed it after I got almost all of the rust off of it yesterday but I am not done with it. I probably could have gotten by without the primer at that stage, but I did not want to take a chance on any freshly cleaned metal developing any surface rust. I plan to get all of the rust off or else treat it with some ospho or a similar metal treatment. Today I did some more sanding and also removed a small fiberglass repair in the trunk tool tray that was done by a previous owner. I did not take any photos today. 

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Yesterday afternoon, I picked up some Ospho from my local hardware store. This morning, I used an abrasive pad on my angle grinder followed up with an air powered sander and finished cleaning up the rusty areas that were under the trim on the doors. After that I applied the Ospho. While it needs to sit overnight to fully treat the small amount of remaining rust, after just a few minutes, it had visible started turning black to show that the chemical reaction was working. Hopefully that shows up in the last photo of that area. 

 

I also found a previous deep crease in the bottom of the right rear door that had goodbeen filled with bondo in the past. I made a dusty mess in the garage by grinding a lot of that out. That will require a small amount of metal replacement.  I also took a couple of photos that show the rusted out areas of the garage tool tray that will also require some metal repair. I also applied Ospho to those areas for the time being. 

 

I had a few minutes available so I decided to clean up the body tag. After trying a few different methods, the easiest way to make major improvement to its appearance was spraying it with brake cleaner and using steel wool to polish the bad spots off of it. It looks much better. 

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This morning, I worked on the bottom of the body. Crawling around on the floor under the body with a sander and a wire brush makes quite a mess. I did not take any photos of this work. I need to figure out the best way to spray Ospho rather than brush it on to be able to finish the bottom of body. I have an idea that I might try on Monday.

 

I also took a chisel and hammer to the panels under the doors to see what other soft spots I could find. I was able to find a few other thin rusty sections to knock out so that they can be replaced with new metal. 

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Today I decided to finish working on the exhaust manifold. The replacement exhaust manifold valve body had the flapper valve rusted solid. I did not initially think I could get it free but I did. I learned from a friend that the way to free it up is to use a hammer to move it side to side rather than trying to rotate it to free it up. My initial attempts to free it up had broken the spot welds that hold the flapper valve to the shaft. I have had the area of the shaft soaking in a little bit of solvent for a few days. Today I was able to hammer the valve shaft back and forth a few times which totally freed it up. After that, I applied some new spotwelds to the flapper valve to secure it to the shaft. 

 

I also cleaned up and primed the air cleaner assembly parts. 

 

I realized that the replacement valve body did not have the weight and spring tab on the right side. I removed the weight assembly from the broken original valve body. I straightened out the spring tab so that I could easily use a small angle grinder to remove the weld that holds the spring on the valve assembly. I then rebent the spring tab and relocated the weight assembly to the replacement valve body and welded it in place. After using the small angle grinder to clean up my really ugly welding, I repainted that area of the valve body. The exhaust manifold now looks and works as it should.  

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This morning, I installed the intake and exhaust manifolds. Since it was below freezing outside today, I decided to use the trunk of the body as a mini paint booth inside the garage to quickly apply a coat of paint to the air cleaner parts. 

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I am terrible with a paint brush under even the best conditions. Trying to brush Ospho onto the bottom of the body would probably be a disaster. This morning I think I was successful in coating the bottom with an application of Ospho using a handy device that I bought at my local automotive paint supply shop. You need to be careful and use good ventilation for safety, as well as cover up well and use a mask, but it was a much cleaner and quicker way to apply the Ospho to the bottom than a brush would have been. I really could not take a good photo to show the work but the photo shows the inexpensive spray equipment that I used. 

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Yes,

It started with freezing rain this afternoon followed by a bit of a mix and then turned to snow. We have a little bit of ice accumulation with about an inch or so of snow on top of that currently. It is still coming down and is expected to do so for several more hours. The forecast calls for 2 to 4 inches of snow here. The biggest problem is we are not projected to have much in the way of temperatures over freezing for several days to melt it.  

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This morning. I headed out to the garage through the snow. We got about 3 inches of snow here. Some areas nearby got more and some got less. This morning, I sandblasted the battery tie down hardware and the air cleaner bracket that I forgot about yesterday. I then applied a coat of Ospho to those parts to take care of any remaining surface rust that I might not have gotten totally off.  This afternoon, I took my 1937 Century out in the neighborhood to get a few photos. We don't get a chance to take photos of our cars in snow very often. 

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Does anybody with an original 1938 Buick want to tell me if the battery hold down should be gloss black or semi-gloss black? I am not sure which it should be and I would like to know before I paint mine. 

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This morning, I painted the battery tray hardware. I decided to go with Gloss Black. I looked at the bottom of the body and found that I did not do as good a job of spraying the Ospho as I had hoped. Probably just operator error, but I decided to go ahead and use a paint brush to cover it better. It was as bad a job as I expected. Using a paint brush to brush acid on the bottom of the body would be a lot better without gravity. Luckily, that acid is not too bad. It might be possible for a good painter to paint it on without spilling it on himself and the floor, but it is NOT possible for me to do that. I did the job as quickly as I could and then rushed inside to take a shower to stop the minor skin irritation where I got a little bit on me. It was not fun, but hopefully the entire bottom of the body will now be protected from any previous rust issue.  Still waiting for the snow to melt. It will probably be a few more days. 

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This morning, I installed the battery hold down bracket. I then checked out the results of the Ospho application. The Ospho instructions indicate that a powdery white film may develop on the surface. Apparently the second application of Ospho worked since most of the bottom of the body was covered by a powdery white film. I followed the instructions and brushed the film off. After that, I used a couple of spray cans of black paint and think that I have the bottom of the body painted. I will give it a day or two to dry and if no touch ups are needed, I will be ready to install the body mounting pads, drop the body down and secure it to the frame. 

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Today I lifted the body slightly and rearranged the bricks that were keeping it spaced up off of the frame. I then lowered it back onto the bricks so that I could apply Ospho to the small sections that were previously sitting on the bricks. Tomorrow, I will touch up the paint on the small sections of the bottom of the body that were previously blocked by the bricks. After that, I should be ready to install the rubber body mounting bolt pads and install the body on the frame. 

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The weather is back to normal. The temperatures are higher and the sun will hopefully melt most of the rest of the snow, ice, and slush this afternoon. This morning, I painted the remaining small areas of the bottom of the body. I installed the rubber body mounting pads. I used some lubricant spray on them and then using some needle nose pliers, I was able to get them into place. With the lubrication, I was able to reach up through the mounting tabs, grab the piece that has to go through the hole, and by twisting and grabbing different areas of the rubber, I could pull it until it popped through the mounting tab and into place.  I then slightly raised the body using jacks, moved the chassis slightly to line everything up, and then lowered the jacks to drop the body into place. I then cleaned up the body mounting bolts and nuts and secured the body to the chassis.  

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Today, I finally got around to draining the rear differential. It was a little bit over full when I started as it started draining when I removed the drain plug. The existing gear oil looked fine. I then removed the rear cover, removed the old gasket and inspected everything. There was no sign of any problem. Nothing unexpected was located so I installed a new gasket and reinstalled the rear cover. I then filled it with Masterpro GL-4 140 weight gear oil and reinstalled the drain plug. 

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