JWLawrence Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 Is GL4 an extreme pressure gear lubricant? I know it is used in transmissions, but not recommended for differentials. I have used 85W-140 GL5 EP gear oil in the differentials of my Packards. Look forward to the posts on your work and progress. It is going to be a very nice Buick. JWL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimy Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 1 hour ago, JWLawrence said: Is GL4 an extreme pressure gear lubricant? I know it is used in transmissions, but not recommended for differentials. I have used 85W-140 GL5 EP gear oil in the differentials of my Packards. Look forward to the posts on your work and progress. It is going to be a very nice Buick. JWL GL-4 is indeed an extreme pressure (EP) gear oil, and is suitable for HYPOID differentials. Rule of thumb I use is that if the pinion enters the pumpkin below the center line, it's hypoid. NON-hypoid diffs (for Pierce, thru 1928) don't need EP and often have some yellow metal components, so I use 600-W for them. GL-5, which seems to be the only stuff on shelves these days with the exception of O'Reilly's GL-4, is also EP but is primarily for anti-slip diffs and is reportedly much less friendly to yellow metals than GL-4. I don't use GL-5 on any of my vintage vehicles. My Jeepster owner's manual is very explicit that NON-hypoid "straight mineral oil" (now called GL-1) be used in the transmission and overdrive, and that EP lube (now GL-4) should be used in the differential. The manual says VERY explicitly not to use the same lube in both. Accordingly, I use GL-1 in transmissions, overdrives, and free-wheeling units. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 12, 2018 Author Share Posted January 12, 2018 Yes the GL-4 is rated for Extreme Pressure or Hypoid and is appropriate for the differential. Today I did not get any work done on the Buick. A few minutes after I arrived in the garage to start this morning, the power went out. The power was out for a couple of hours and after it came back on, I had a rush engraving order to produce for a customer who needed it shipped overnight. I went to UPS to ship the order and their computers were acting up and it took longer there than it ever has before. When I got home, my internet service was out. It took Spectrum a while to get that back online. Nothing much has gone right today except for the fact that the power was out when the weather was about 70 degrees instead of last week's sub-freezing temperatures. I started to post this this afternoon, and before I hit submit, the internet was out again. I had a local AACA Chapter Board meeting this evening and now that I am back home, the internet is working again. It has been an odd day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughing Coyote Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 Sounds like my week. Nothing going right. The biggest issue is when FedEx pulled into my driveway and turned it wide and wiped out my split rail fence. They were coming to pick up my defective fire extinguisher. The driver didn't say anything. Just drove off. 10 minutes later I came home from town and saw the fence rails and post all over the yard. Isn't life is grand? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 13, 2018 Author Share Posted January 13, 2018 This morning, I had a little bit of time to work on the Buick, although in another unusual occurrance, I had another customer with an engraving order that I had to make today and send overnight by UPS. Today, UPS still had some computer issues but it only took about 15 minutes to send the package today. It is a lot more fun working on the body that was not left outside for a couple of decades. None of the hardware needed any solvent today. I was able to remove the windshield molding, the dash, and the dash pad. After removing the dash pad, I was able to pop out the rivets holding the body data plate. I thought it was interesting to see the differences between the Model 41 body data plate and the Model 61 body data plate. I guess Fisher Body did not think there were enough Century's made to justify embossing the model number on the data plate. The Model 41 data plate has the model number embossed while the Model 61 plate has the model number hand stamped. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 13, 2018 Author Share Posted January 13, 2018 This morning, I did a bit of touch up painting on the frame. After that, I removed the back window frame. I then removed all of the hardware that was attached to the dash panel. The dash panel from the Special has one extra added hole that I will have to weld up, but overall is in much better condition than the original Century dash panel. I then decided that it was time to do some garage organizing and clean up. I removed the stack of parts that I had been taking up a lot of space on my work bench recently. I organized the boxes of Buick parts a bit and stacked all of the window moldings and dash panel together so I can hopefully do some metal repair and woodgraining soon. I cleaned up my workbench and the back area of the garage where I am doing the restoration. After cleaning and sweeping the area, I now have a nice area to work on the Buick project again. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 16, 2018 Author Share Posted January 16, 2018 This morning, I had a short time available to work on the Buick. I decided to get started on the dash panel. A previous owner had drilled a large extra hole in the dash for an aftermarket starter button. I really don't like incorrect switches or buttons or extra holes in the face of a car dash. My father was a welder. I do have a small wire feed welder but I am certainly not a talented welder. I welded a washer to the back side of the hole, turned the panel over, and managed to add a fairly ugly puddle of weld to fill up the smaller hole in the washer and fill the larger hole up to bring the surrounding area up to the level of the section of the dash. I then was able to use an angle grinder, followed up with an orbital sander to level the surface area of the repaired area of the dash. I then sanded the entire face of the dash panel, cleaned it up and applied a coat of dark gray primer to the dash. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 17, 2018 Author Share Posted January 17, 2018 The window moldings on a Century have different decorative trim than the windows moldings on a Special, so I am attempting to repair the Century window moldings so that the car will be correct. The Special moldings are in great shape, but the 20+ years outside in Massachusetts resulted in a bit of rust damage to the Century's window moldings. This morning, I cleaned up most of the window moldings. Three of the moldings have significant rust damage. I repaired one of them today. First I cleaned up all of the rust with a wire wheel, sandpaper and steel wood. At this point, I decided to take some photos, so the "before" photos are after the initial clean up. I then welded up the rusted out holes. My welding technique is not very good. My typical technique is start to weld on the lowest setting on my wirefeed welder, manage to burn a larger hole in the thin rusty area surrounding the original small hole. Build up a large thick puddle of ugly weld. Spend more time using an angle grinder to get rid of the pile of weld, touch up any missed points with the welder, grind down the new pile of metal, and eventually get to the point that I can sand it. Finally, clean it up and spray it with primer. The after photos are not that good, but I think you will at least be able to see that I managed to get rid of the rusted out holes in the moldings. I finished one today. Tomorrow, I will have to take the day off from the Buick project as I plan to attend the funeral of a local AACA Chapter member tomorrow morning. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spinneyhill Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 The paper thin edges are really hard to weld onto so I suppose it is normal to make those sorts of holes bigger before making them smaller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyankee Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 Get some copper (I had some pieces of tubing laying around, split it, and flattened) back up the holes you are welding with the copper. The weld won't stick to the copper, and it takes a lot of the heat so the edges of the hole don't burn away. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
39BuickEight Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 Something like that is a perfect spot to use allmetal. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 17, 2018 Author Share Posted January 17, 2018 1 hour ago, wyankee said: Get some copper (I had some pieces of tubing laying around, split it, and flattened) back up the holes you are welding with the copper. The weld won't stick to the copper, and it takes a lot of the heat so the edges of the hole don't burn away. I did the first one the hard way. That is one reason why I stopped after one. After I got started, I was determined to finish it but knew that I needed to find something to back it up for the other ones. I will try to find some scrap copper pieces today so I can do the other two without having to work so hard on them. 57 minutes ago, 39BuickEight said: Something like that is a perfect spot to use allmetal. That might be a good backup plan but I really like the idea of real steel being there. I grew up in my father's machine shop, but never wanted to let him teach me to weld because I figured I would end up working in that shop for the rest of my life. I am glad I did not continue his line of work, but I do wish I had let him teach me to weld. He taught welding in the local community college for many years. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 18, 2018 Author Share Posted January 18, 2018 Yesterday, I spent some time watching a few welding videos online. I found one tip that helped. It seems odd, but using a bit higher heat setting, with short bursts, and giving it a little bit of cooling time between welds in the same general area actually burns through quite a bit less on the thin metal pieces, both with or without any copper backing. Today, with using a higher heat section and with a couple of days of practice and after watching the online videos, I found my welding technique to have improved a bit. I finished one window molding and got the last one mostly repaired. The last one was the worst one. The last few photos show the "before" and "during" condition of repairing the two rusted out sections of that window molding. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 23, 2018 Author Share Posted January 23, 2018 Friday and Saturday, I was unable to work on the Buick because I was in Burlington, NC for the NC Region AACA's Annual Meeting. I don't work on the car on Sundays. Today, things conspired against me to keep me away from the project again. This morning, I had a medical appointment and this afternoon, I got swamped with engraving orders. The good thing about the engraving orders is they will help pay for the Buick restoration. This afternoon, I was also busy putting away a 553 pound pallet full of engraving supplies. I managed to get them all put mostly out of the way, but some of them are stacked a bit closer than I would like to my Buick project. A good portion of these supplies will be used for our local AACA Chapter trophies. I have to get started on that order soon. Now, If I can just figure out where I am going to store about 200 trophies until early March after I get them built... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 23, 2018 Author Share Posted January 23, 2018 This morning, I finished the metal work on the last window molding. I will still have a bit of fine detail work to do on a couple of them before I actually start painting them, but they are all basically done. It was nice to have weather that allowed me to move the painting out of the garage and back outside. The temperature was in the 60's this morning and in the 70's now. The two cans of primer that I had were different colors so they don't all match, which looks a bit weird, but should not be a problem. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keiser31 Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Nice! Will those get a "woodgrained" paint job? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 23, 2018 Author Share Posted January 23, 2018 Yes, They will be woodgrained. That is how they were when new, so that is what i will be doing. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 24, 2018 Author Share Posted January 24, 2018 This morning, I could not work on the Buick due to a medical appointment. After lunch, I was able to do the first stage of the woodgrain. I have painted the first coat (brown) of the woodgrain process on the window moldings and dash. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
39BuickEight Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 Looking forward to your wood grain results! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 26, 2018 Author Share Posted January 26, 2018 It has been many years since I have applied the woodgrain to a 1930 Ford Model A. The woodgrain on my 1937 Buick is a beautiful burled walnut grain. I realize that the burled pattern is not correct but I have to admit that I was tempted to replicate it on my 1938 Buick. Originality won out and I am going to do my best to recreate the correct Straight Grain Walnut pattern. This morning, I experimented with the second step of the woodgraining process for the Buick. I tried using a few different implements to apply the "grain" in Gloss Black paint. I tried with a bit of steel wool, some wrinkled up heavy paper, a stiff bristled brush, a heavy textured cloth rag, a small plastic knife and a fairly well used small plastic abrasive pad from a small pneumatic angle grinder. The plastic abrasive pad seemed to do the best although I have some concern that I may have applied the black a bit more heavily than I should have. I propped up the two pieces on the back of the trunk area of the project car to dry. This evening, I applied a clear glossy topcoat to those two pieces. I will see how they look tomorrow and make a decision if I want to continue, or start over. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spinneyhill Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 I used to know a fellow who did it with a worn out paint brush, i.e. very short bristles, not all the same length. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 26, 2018 Author Share Posted January 26, 2018 This morning, I took a few photos to show how the woodgrain looks after the gloss clear dried overnight. I am happy enough with it that I decided to do the rest of the moldings. I found that as I continued, I got faster and better on the job. With a little bit more experience, I found a good system that worked for me. First I applied the gloss black to the pieces with crumpled up heavy paper. Then I used the stiff bristle brush over most of the surface. I then used the plastic serrated knife over a few spots. I finished by going over most of the pieces with the plastic abrasive pad. I finished applying the black "grain" and leaned all of them against the car to allow them to dry. Late this afternoon, they were dry enough that I was able to apply the gloss clear. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Tate Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 Very nice! Are you going to stop at one coat of clear or sand and build up more coats? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 27, 2018 Author Share Posted January 27, 2018 25 minutes ago, Frank Tate said: Very nice! Are you going to stop at one coat of clear or sand and build up more coats? Not sure yet. I will give it some thought. It will be a while before I can install them so, I have plenty of time to add additional coats later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 28, 2018 Author Share Posted January 28, 2018 I did not have much time for the Buick this morning. I found one small spot on the dash panel that I did not like. I had a small section that would be very visible that had the "grain" running in the wrong direction. It just did not look right. I fixed that this morning. Later today, I applied another coat of clear gloss to the dash. I spent more time today doing some preliminary work on the trophies for my local AACA Chapter's March Chapter show. I cut the trophy columns to get the recently delivered boxes of column material out of my way and so I won't have to move Buick parts to get to the saw in the next month or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 30, 2018 Author Share Posted January 30, 2018 Over the weekend, I realized that I had not woodgrained the glove compartment door. On Sunday evening, I cleaned up the gove compartment door, and painted it brown. This morning, I had some engraving work to do, so I only had a short time to work on the Buick. I did the woodgrain on the glove compartment door this morning and took a photo of it. After allowing it to dry, I applied the clear gloss to it this evening. During a mishap on the initial body removal, the clutch pedal had been broken when the body shifted and fell a few inches. Today, I removed the brake pedal from the chassis to allow the clutch and brake pedal to both be installed on a temporary shaft so a local welder could be sure to get the angle correct when brazing the clutch pedal back together. After the repair, I cleaned up both pedals, painted them and hung them up to dry overnight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted January 31, 2018 Author Share Posted January 31, 2018 This morning, I installed the glove compartment door in the dash panel. I still need to find and install the glove compartment lock assembly. I am happy with the woodgrain results. It is difficult to get good photos of the woodgrain with flash but I think it looks good. I also reinstalled the brake and clutch pedals. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted February 1, 2018 Author Share Posted February 1, 2018 This morning, I cleaned up the emergency brake handle. I then primed it. I also cleaned up the glove compartment lock assembly. I used some 2000 grit sandpaper and a buffing wheel on a dremel tool to clean up the Ivory colored plastic on the lock assembly. I then installed the glove compartment lock and adjusted the gove compartment door. While not perfect, the plastic looks acceptable to me This evening, I applied a first coat of brown paint to the emergency brake handle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted February 2, 2018 Author Share Posted February 2, 2018 This morning, I applied a second coat of brown paint to the emergency brake lever. I am not quite sure what caused the problem, but the second coat did not react as expected. It developed a sort of bubbly appearance. I cleaned it all off, and sanblasted the remaining paint and primer off of the emergency brake lever. I then applied a different style of primer than the one that I used yesterday. I let that dry and this evening, I applied a coat of the brown paint and left it to dry overnight. I bought some paint for the face of the ash trays. I found a Rustoleum Gloss Khaki spray paint that is an almost perfect match for the color of the ashtrays. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
38Buick 80C Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 Matt et al, Way back in an old Torque Tube Magazine old Editor Harry Logan noted that Tower Paint in Wisc (Google it) was given and unrestored original "Fawn" or "Taupe" paint sample to match (which is the correct color for a variety of 38 interior parts). It's been a while since i called them but not THAT long ago. I asked for the Harry Logan Taupe/fawn color and ordered 2 spray bomb cans for i want to say around $15 each. It was easy. Your khaki should be fine and no one would ever question it, but I wanted to let those following or future readers know it's available. Tower paint also has a variety of factory colors available in rattle can. I have a can or two Botticelli Blue from them which is a pretty close match to the modern Botticelli Blue formula i had to get from Wilmington (DuPont, now AXALTA) when i presented the original DuPont Laquer Color formula to the local DuPont distributor. i.e. they called the factory to get the modern code in lieu of copying my chip. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted February 2, 2018 Author Share Posted February 2, 2018 Brian, Thanks for this information. It looks like this is the company you are referring to: http://www.apstowerpaint.com/index.php That information might come in handy. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted February 3, 2018 Author Share Posted February 3, 2018 This morning, I decided to start restoration of the ash trays. The first photo shows the rusty interior of one of them. The second photo shows it with the knob and front piece removed. The next photo shows those parts after sandblasting. The fourth photo shows those parts after priming the front of the ash trays and applying a coating of galvanizing compound to the ash tray's main component. The last photo shows the galvanizing compound that I used. Late this evening, I applied a coat of the Gloss Khaki paint to the front pieces. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Zimmermann Posted February 3, 2018 Share Posted February 3, 2018 You are going deep into the details...Which is, in my opinion, the sole method to really restore a car. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
38Buick 80C Posted February 3, 2018 Share Posted February 3, 2018 you know the ribs on the ash tray are to be exposed, right? Cause they were chrome/stainless...not being critical just wanting to make sure you knew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted February 3, 2018 Author Share Posted February 3, 2018 1 minute ago, 38Buick 80C said: you know the ribs on the ash tray are to be exposed, right? Cause they were chrome/stainless...not being critical just wanting to make sure you knew. Thanks. That is the first I heard of that. I am replicating the condition that I found, which appeared to be original, but might not have been. I would be interested in some documentation of that or some other input from other Original 60 series owners. It seems unlikely, but is it possible it was different on the smaller series and the large series? Restoring cars like this one is certainly more difficult than restoring a Model A Ford, or Mustang, or Corvette or other high volume collector car where more documentation and reproduction parts are commonly available. If I can confirm that the ribs should be chrome on the small series cars, I can send the original body's ash tray fronts out for rechroming when I finally get motivated to spend that money and send the chrome parts out soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
38Buick 80C Posted February 3, 2018 Share Posted February 3, 2018 (edited) Here are all the photos I have in my collection related to the ash trays. Most are of unrestored dashes, most are from Roadmasters (but read the map lights to see which model it is). Also note the factory photo of the special and see the drivers side ash tray. St Louis blue 4.bmp Edited February 3, 2018 by 38Buick 80C (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted February 3, 2018 Author Share Posted February 3, 2018 Thanks Brian. I am going to go with what I have for right now, but probably send the fronts of the other two ashtrays along with the other stuff to be chromed. On a sort of related question, What do you know about different woodgrain patterns on 1938 Buicks? Most seem to have small straight grain running horizontally on the dash. Some, such as in your first photo, have a somewhat larger appearing grain pattern running vertically on the dash. I am trying to figure out if there are Model specific patterns, a random assignment of different designs, or if most of us are using the wrong grain pattern. I am quite certain that the wood grain pattern visibile under the speaker grill of this car was original and it was a small horizontal grain style. I am quite sure that the woodgrain on my 1937 Century had been redone. It is a beautiful burled walnut or mahogany pattern but I don't think it is authentic as I have never seen another Buick of the era with that pattern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted February 3, 2018 Author Share Posted February 3, 2018 This morning, I drove my 1937 Century to our local Cars and Coffee. Temperatures were in the 30's so the turn out was not as large as usual and there were fewer antique cars there than most months. This afternoon, I buffed the ash tray knobs, reassembled the ash trays and installed them in the dash. After that, I installed the emergency brake handle assembly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
38Buick 80C Posted February 3, 2018 Share Posted February 3, 2018 29 minutes ago, MCHinson said: Thanks Brian. I am going to go with what I have for right now, but probably send the fronts of the other two ashtrays along with the other stuff to be chromed. On a sort of related question, What do you know about different woodgrain patterns on 1938 Buicks? Most seem to have small straight grain running horizontally on the dash. Some, such as in your first photo, have a somewhat larger appearing grain pattern running vertically on the dash. I am trying to figure out if there are Model specific patterns, a random assignment of different designs, or if most of us are using the wrong grain pattern. I am quite certain that the wood grain pattern visibile under the speaker grill of this car was original and it was a small horizontal grain style. I am quite sure that the woodgrain on my 1937 Century had been redone. It is a beautiful burled walnut or mahogany pattern but I don't think it is authentic as I have never seen another Buick of the era with that pattern. That's a subject that deserve's it's own thread and I am not the authority on it by any means, but here is some tidbits. Best of my knowledge 1938 Roadmasters and Centurys were available with either available with the Mahogany fine horizontal grain like the ones posted above or the "Chevron" pattern as seen below on this rare Model 87 (not mine was ni Maine the last i saw it but it has disappeared from public view). This car had an unrestored interior, but interestingly you can see the doors and the windshield trim is the mahogany. I have a very strong suspicion my 80C was actually this chevron pattern, but no one reproduces this pattern so...(also note the rarely seen door pattern on this 87, most are found with the pattern like the ones above. I have NO IDEA about 37's or 38 Specials and Limiteds, but I recall the old Torque Tubes have a lot of info and Harry Logan did a LOT of research on the subject. Admittedly i just paid attention to the 38 Roadmasters info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted February 3, 2018 Author Share Posted February 3, 2018 Thanks. I have done some reading on the issue over the past few years, and I was aware of the Chevron pattern. I am still trying to figure out if there is a definitive answer on why some have the vertical style like your earler Special photo and others have the horizontal small grain that seems to be most common. I have seen Specials with the vertical grain and I have seen Specials with the horizontal grain. I don't recall seeing the vertical grain on any other series, but trying to make sense of what pattern is found in which cars seems to be a nearly impossible task to figure out 80 years later. I am probably too concerned with figuring this out since I feel confident that the horizontal grain style will not attract any undue attention regarding its authenticy, but I still would like to know more about the subject. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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