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