I limped home my newest toy this weekend:




My first car was virtually the same car with a 350 and a black interior. This car is a Custom 455 with a very odd mix of options (or lack thereof).

I have yet to find a complete buildsheet, but I did find a tattered one on the inside of the front passenger fender. I could barely make out one of the options listed...so hopefully, another copy is sitting inside a door panel.

I have most of my thanks to offer to Pete Phillips for rescuing me from a gas station somewhere outside of Sherman, TX, after the points took a dump. He rushed out to me at 9:30pm last night (during the last minutes of the Super Bowl!) with his tools and got me going again. I was fortunate enough to get a tour of his shop - which was a treat and a half! That's the kind of place I want to go to work every day. This irrigation business is for the birds!

So, I can't say this enough:

THANK YOU PETE PHILLIPS! You are a gentleman and a scholar. And a damn fine mechanic. I'm really disappointed you couldn't magically seal the hole in the radiator, though.

Adam,

I am glad you made it home, though with a few issues from the sound of it.

It was good seeing you down here.

Come on down again sometimes.

Glad things worked out...does this mean we're going to be treated to another Adam Martin Detailing Session? I'll have to whip me up a batch of popcorn to sit and watch

I'll definitely be cleaning up the paint and interior...maybe a little spiffing on the engine compartment, but bot sure what I'm doing with it yet.

I drained 2" of water out of the trunk after the monsoon yesterday...

I got it back in the garage this evening.

There's no greater site in the world than when you're hundreds of miles from home, broke down on the roadside and a fellow Buick man appears.Been there!! Glad to hear you made on back home OK after the rescue. So, is that snow on the hood and top or what.


If it's not snow, you really think that's gonna "clean up"? Oooops, I forgot who I was talking to here. The Miracle Man Detailer himself...

Beautiful car, beautiful color by the way.

Yes, it's snow. We had a bit come down today, so everything had about a quarter inch on top. The paint should come out ok, but the brightness of the repainted panel will stick out like it does now. I tested a spot to see if I could get it to blend better, but no luck.

Things I'm thinking about right now that need attention ASAP:

Cooling system
Ignition system
Blower motor making an awful noise (I ran it for 24 hrs straight on full blast)
Replace rear bumper & taillight surround
Buff & polish paint
Clean and fumigate the tarred up interior (37 years of smoking)
Diagnose rear window sill sealing problem (hopefully it's not a fist-sized rust hole letting all that water in!)

Here's the quarter that was repainted...it's quite a bit brighter than the rest of it.

Rear window has 2 rust holes.

Has anyone ever seen a plastic replacement radiator for these cars?

The copper/brass ones have to be ordered, and they're getting quite expensive!

Can't answer about the radiator but just wanted to say congrats on a fine looking car. I hope it does not give you too much trouble.

Trouble? haha! Too late for that:D

A couple of the pkug wires fell apart on me when I tried to swap them out today. I need to go buy a cap and rotor...then we'll be in business again.

Sounds like you got an "original" car there.

JD

Yesterday, I tossed on the new ignition parts and it fired right up! I've got a nasty exhaust leak on the passenger side manifold...so hopefully I can extract the bolts without breaking any. I'm going to try to have the car safety inspected with the leak there. I'd hate to have to pull a head to remove a broken bolt(s). I still need to license the thing!

If you can see where it's leaking, plug the hole with furnace cement. It will last a few days and then when your licensed and ready you can do the job right.

JD

I like the way you think, John

Why thanks!

Update:

The car passed safety inspection even with the gigantic exhaust leak.

As I pulled the car out of the parking lot at the inspection place, I lost oil pressure. I left it there for the night and came back on Saturday morning to check it out for myself. I tried repriming the pump with a priming tool, but no oil would get sucked up.

$63 later to the towing company, the car sits in my garage again. I pulled the oil pan to see what the blockage was, and there was a fair amount of carbon-like sludge and bits in the pan that appeared to be doing an excellent job of completely blocking the pickup screen.

Cleaned up the pan and reinstalled (after a 4 hour adventure of getting the damn thing off!). I filled with oil and tried repriming again. I felt and heard some grit in the pump gears, and I knew that wasn't good.

I pulled the pump and the gears were eaten up pretty badly. I replaced the gears and packed the pump with vaseline. Got it all put back together and within 10 seconds of priming, I had pressure again!

Now all I have to do is finish putting the car back together:

Exhaust had to come off from the manifolds
Flywheel cover
Motor mount bolts
Cooling fan
Distributor

I tore the power steering return line when I jacked the car up the other day...so just add that to the list!

Also, I have a massive transmission fluid leak somewhere...gotta figure out where that's coming from.

I had intentions of doing some wet sanding on the paint today, but the bucket of water was a bucket of ice when I got to the garage this morning.

Sooo, the next thing to do was to clean up the seats. I started by pulling the rear seat bottom out and cleaned it up on the floor. It turned out really nice, so I decided to take out the upper seat portion. I found TWO buildsheets - one on the seat bottom, and the other stuck to the seat back.

"While I'm at it" strikes again. I'm pulling the entire interior apart so I can redye all the nasty brown trim and the backage tray. I'm not sure about the carpet, but it would be nice to do that, too...especially when I have all this stuff out of the car.

I'm done for the day - gotta get ready for my sister's birthday...

Here is my progress so far:

Dirty seat bottom...




Clean seat bottom!




Nasty package tray from the leaking rear window...




Clean package tray!




Tearing it all apart...check out the BROWN trim pieces around the window.




This is what they are supposed to look like...maybe a tad darker, but this works really well.




Complete (almost) passenger side! The trim around the rear window was all cracked up and broken, so I had to epoxy all of the pieces back together before I hit them with the dye.

Right on.

Did you use anything special beyond elbow grease on the seats? I like the Meguiar's cleaner (#40 if I remember correctly).

Simple Green and a light scrub brush...it just started melting off when I sprayed it on.

I started with Wesley's Bleche White, but it wasn't doing the job I thought it would. I remembered I had a gallon of Simple green, so I tried that out. I'll be using that on the rest of the interior, as well.

Finished the rear portion of the interior today, with the exception of the left door panel...I can't open the doors on that side.:rolleyes:

Here is the left panel that is still dripping with smoke tar...and probably some other things as well.




Here's the clean one! I wish the top portion would come out a little lighter, but it looks like it's baked in.




Another shot..




Seat's in!

Tell ya what looks like somethin' I'd love to ride around in! Plenty white enough for me! Obviously you'll know ALL the little spots where it didn't quite come out as you wanted but it looks almost new to me. Cool.

Thanks Adam...I haven't used Simple Green much lately...we bought some after it first came out for it's environmental properties, but haven't used it a lot. Time to give it another try, I guess.

Couple shots to keep my momentum going...

New glass in the clock and all the bezels cleaned and polished, painted if necessary. These things are a major pain to mask off the right spots!! Also, notice the color difference from the left to the right side of the dash. That's not an illusion. That's really how nasty the whole interior was!

I got really tired of looking at the ratty 72 rear bumper and decided to take action








It only took a few hours...mostly because I had to clean and repaint all the silver trim pieces. I had to replace the left upper taillight bezel and find another lower metal piece that goes below the taillight itself, because they were both damaged in the wreck.

I also installed the lower quarter stainless trim that was graciously sent to me

WOW. I'm sorry but that's ridiculous. I saw the first picture and couldn't believe you saw that as "ratty". I WISH my bumpers looked like that! Then of course I saw the next one haha. Honestly if I saw a car whose bumpers looked like the "before" picture, I would go "wow the bumper looks brand new". Just shows ya what it's ACTUALLY supposed to look like LOL.

Call me picky

I really hate the way bent and crooked bumpers look.


In other news, I dropped the transmission pan and replaced the filter and gasket. I also replaced the o-ring that seals the electrical wires for the kickdown switch that goes through the case. It appears I have found the leak culprit. ALSO, it seems to have been starving for fluid with the old filter...causing a whining sound. The car no longer whines at all.

It'c coming along!!

Adam,

Looking good! Those '72 rub strips just didn't look right on the '71 trunk-lid trim ("BUICK" letters).

"LeCenturion" is finally coming along; wet sanding was occurring about three weeks ago; I was expecting it back around now, but again not hearing from Mr. Paint Guy in a timely manner .

Here's a question to draw on your expertise with the tail light assemblies: I finally scored a decent set of Centurion tail lights, which include the pieces that are kind-of "eyebrows", that fit up under the closed trunk lid, the ones not present on a LeSabre. They are practically sand-blasted, would need to have them chromed. If I leave them off, will the mounting points on the Centurion tail light units (which are not present on LeSabre tail lights) show cosmetically after assembly?

Thanks as always in advance,
Steve.

Nope...they are visually the same as the LeSabre taillights, with the mounts hiding behind the fiberglass/plastic upper taillight surrounds. So if you left off the chrome eyebrows, there is no problem. ASSUMING you didn't drill the fiberglass surrounds to mount the eyebrows already...

Where did you have your car painted? Locally, or did you send it away? Are there any pictures?:D

Locally, he's a nephew of a car-guy friend of mine, runs a little used car business and paints/restores cars in his backyard garage. No pics yet, just the old "before" shots that you've seen. Going w/ the original Nocturne Blue. I'll definitely post when I get it back.

Will I have to drill the gray fiberglass to retain the eyebrows? I have them all assembled, with the eyebrows just fastened to the top of the tail light units. Does one have to mount the tail light, then replace the fiberglass, then drill through it to run screws from the eyebrows to the anchor points? I'm thinking, if it's like that I'll probably leave them off. The Centurion grids on the lights, along with the trunk lid moldings, should be dress-up enough. BUT......

Still on the lookout for a decent Centurion grille (and inserts for the bumper of course).

Wow, there it goes again. Totally didn't notice that it was bent.....now that you pointed it out I do see it.

As usual, you are doing a great job. Whenever I clean things like this, I always feel that the parts are sticky. Do you run into this? If not, how do you avoid it?

Ed

If you're referring to the interior, I didn't run into a sticky situation at all:D

Everything's nice and dry.

What kinds of cleaners do you use?

Yeah-I mean the inside , especially the steering wheel. I use whatever cleaner I have- 409, Simple Green, etc. I recently had a 74 Nova SS and I could never seem to get the steering wheel clean enough. It was always sticky. If I hadn't sold it to buy my Buick, I would have had to replace the wheel. It was a desert car-maybe that enters into it.

Ed

The "sticky steering wheel" situation is pretty common.

Simple green has worked for me in the past. Use a scrub brush and work on it...a lot.

...from years of "hand scunge"

Mike

Grabbed some road wheels this evening from a guy on Craigslist...

All done with the buffing!

Arms and left shoulder are going to be sore tomorrow...

I was hoping the repainted quarter panel would blend a little better, but it still sticks out like a sore thumb.

Looking good!

Hey Adam, here's a question for you: do your windows roll hard up and down/need lubrication? If so, have you addressed it, and what did you use for lubricant/where did you lubricate?