ramair
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Posts posted by ramair
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I don’t want to be negative, but the pre 1936 GM pickups have a soft top that allows water in and there is lots of wood to be restored on this cab. To name a few A pillars, B pillars, cross brace behind dash, back of cab and all roof bows not to mention the sills. So really when you see someone totally redoing the wood in an old sedan this is the same except it has 2 less doors and is 5’ shorter. Whenever I see a picture of a vehicle with the door tied up and it’s hanging low I think to myself “ the termites aren’t holding hands no more”
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I have a 28-54C that I bought a few years ago, the previous owner upsized the tires to 7:00 X21 from 6:50 x 21 this gives me a comfortable cruise speed of 53 to 58 mph. I believe that you really won’t be happy with the car if you find gearing in that 3:55 ratio. 74 horsepower is really peppy compared to a ford model A , but in the real world unless you live in a totally flat area, you will be in second gear a lot. Also you will be dealing with slipping your clutch in first or reverse especially climbing a ramp or loading in a trailer. The truth is you can change ratio or add an overdrive, but if you don’t have at least 125 engine horsepower it will be a compromise. Some might say that on a light car with less than 125 hp would be ok. The other item I will add is the 1924 to 1928 external contracting brakes that Buick used would not be ideal to stop the car from 65 Mph especially in the rain. They went to internal expanding in 1929 I believe
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Wayne, the old picture of the pickup was taken in 1971 when I was twelve years old. I bought it for $35 and by 1972 i totally disassembled the vehicle. It really was a nice original truck, it was really a sin to do a body off frame, but in our youth we know everything. Over the years I would collect parts and restore components.
my biggest set back is the original engine was bored out at one time to a extreme oversized and then it was ran until it had severe taper. The machine shop advised finding another block. Tough to do as GMC used that engine one year only and they only made 11,000 pickups to start with. I did finally find an engine in Mass. cost 5 times more to ship to me than what I bought it for, I had it hot tanked, bored, pistons made, rods done crank turned and cam ground. Then came the bad news my machine shop never got around to assembling it so I took it to Scott Henningsen in Salinas, Ca. As some of you may know he specializes in pre war cars. The first thing he did is magnaflux everything and guess what severe internal cracking of water jackets . All the work down the drain, plus back to square one. I did find another engine in Kansas . The years went by and my dream of doing most of it myself was looking more like a nightmare. Luckily Scott kept the project going and I felt like I contributed by sourcing parts and working on solving issues like how to duplicate wrinkle finish, what to replace cardboard headliner ect. Like I said above I did not get to do it fast, or cheap, or all by myself, but I enjoy driving it and it won’t be smashed into a dumpster when I am gone,
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Wayne, I applaud you for taking on those tough ones. Perhaps if we knew if the OP has tackled difficult restorations before we could say something like “hey we are all over 21” go for it.
I will go out on a limb here and say that if you have not done much repair or restoration work on a early car, meaning a car that does not have a published catalog where you can almost build a new car by filling out the order form. I would say that you will have several most likely outcomes in this order, 1# your kids or grandkids will someday have to dispose of your half finished car, 2# you will finish it , but will dislike it for a number of reasons, 3# if you are married your wife might hate it because you have spent your free time with it, 4# you have to sell it because of property settlement , (see previous 3#). 5# is what everyone hopes for a speedy restoration that you can be proud of that you did it yourself and were able to afford it and you love your car and will keep it forever. I believe it happens although only to a small group of people. How do I base that fact, let’s look at cars for sale on Craigslist or FB, let’s see, blue tarp, crap stacked on car in garage with dust or picture of car on trailer, these are dead giveaway that they fall into my 1# through 4# above. What I propose is to buy the best car you can afford even if you have to stretch your budget a bit, believe me even when you bring that 10 or 20 footer home you will be fixing things and putting some sweat equity into it.I speak from personal experience , I was close to 1# as it took me 50 years to finish my first restoration when I was 62, on 3# and 4# yep, happily i am happy with my first complete restoration although it did not meet the criteria for 5# above , but hell I will take one out of three any day!
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I believe this to be a 1928 Master 2 door sedan.
I have a 1928 master 28-54C that I bought 10 years ago that wears a 30 year old decent restoration. Porsche 68 please take the advice of looking for a running driving car. There were a lot of Buicks built in the twenties and they are fairly plentiful today. Many suitable Buicks can be bought for what you would pay for either an engine rebuild or a paint job or a new interior. Keep in mind a nice restoration will take an excess of 2000 hours now times this by $100.00 per hour or it is still insane number if you can get a better deal on the hourly. If you want to try and do it yourself, please keep in mind that you should be young , endless patience, an understanding family ,like to drink adult beverages and do not mind developing a vocabulary of swear words. then maybe you will get it done. Ask me how I know!
Back to the model you are looking at, master’s were great cars, long wheel base , 4 wheel brakes ,74 horse engine and a a lot of fellow Buick owners here on the forum. The Down side is it likes 45 MPH and even though the engine is pretty perky there is really not enough power to change axel ratio or installation of an overdrive which is a difficult to install because of the torque tube driveshaft. The only other issue is the often misunderstood and much maligned Marvel variable Venturi updraft carburetor. I have been lucky to have meet in person and online some of the most helpful people on this forum that have helped me keep the carb working
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2 hours ago, trimacar said:
Mine was fine for 20 years. One morning I started it, steam coming from everywhere. Cracks between valve seats.
Maybe some blocks are ok, but many I’ve heard of many which have had the same metallurgical issue. Just the eights, not the twelves. And, not repairable when the metal crystalizes.
If you don’t mind me asking what did you do
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34 minutes ago, trimacar said:
Is it a 1938 Super Eight by any chance? The cracks in those blocks usually are between valve seats, the metal crystalizes and can’t be fixed.
That wouldnt normally account for oil in water though.
Of course the most infamous is the 1938 and that’s what it is. In all fairness I also own a 1938 super eight touring sedan for a while now and even though it has a curious engine vibration which I suspect was a wonky clutch I have had no cooling system leaks or heating problems with it. It has great acceleration not quite like my twelve when it was up and running but not to bad
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Gosh, from the angle that the photo is at I can’t see for sure but is that head gasket blocking all the cooling passage ways to the head?
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Since most of us have similar DNA, which goes back thousands of years, does the term “Hunter Gatherer” ring a bell, so I have bought a lot and sold very little. I would like to say that I have actually come out on the buy sight unseen, which proves that I am luckier than smarter. I would like to tell you of my latest experience. Last week I closed on a Packard (sorry Ed, but at least it first letter is a P). I had been looking for this body style for a long time and this looked like a nice example. I could not look at it in person as I was away for a wedding/ family trip so I relied on what has worked for me in the past, I pulled out my Classic car club membership directory and found someone in the same town as the car , bonus points is he had a senior series car very close to the same year. I made a quick call and asked if he could help me out, the answer was yes and after we negotiated payment which was tough as he did not want payment so we settled on a case of wine to be delivered on completion. Funny thing was my new friend had never heard of the long term Packard owner in his home town, but they both live a block from each other. I got a thorough inspection and detailed pictures along with very positive feedback, so I completed the purchase. I was having trouble getting the car transported out to me. I asked on a new thread for some suggestions, meanwhile my old transport guy called and said he would take the job, so a few days ago the truck heads for Texas, on Friday I get a call from the seller who says, I don’t know how to tell you this but I took the car out for its last drive around the neighborhood and I noticed that the engine temperature was running closer to 200 instead of its normal 180. So he double checked the water level which was fine, but he noticed a oil sheen on top of the water. No white scum in the oil, engine runs smooth, no vapor out the tailpipe or crankcase breather. So on the call he said that if I want he can return my money and reimburse me for turning the truck around or I can take delivery of the car and I can take it to a shop that specializes in prewar cars have them diagnose and then we will get together and see how bad it is, if not to bad he said he would pay, if catastrophic I could return car for refund, with me just eating transport in one direction. My faith in mankind is renewed. Now I just will prey that we are not dealing with the world famous Packard Super Eight, you know the old saying , there are two kinds of these engines, the ones that are cracked and the other ones that have not cracked yet.
personally I think it is a oil cooler seeping in to the cooling system and crankcase oil is keeping the engine from cooling properly, of course I could be wrong
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Matt, I hope you come back to this thread and read what some of your friends have written. Many here have never met you in person and for those of us that live thousands of miles away would have never made your acquaintance in person. I am sure I speak for others when I say that everyone was trying to get you across the finish line and truly want you to succeed. I could point out some of my bad luck and what irreparable damage I self inflicted after I could not find an appropriate enough swear word .
Instead I would like to point out the only shortcoming of the forum , even though I read this thread all the time and I swear I can even smell the transmission oil when you pulled the cover off, what I can’t see in real time is your facial expression or your voice to judge if I should give you advice of what to do, or should I say hey did Ed leave a bottle of the good stuff, let’s call it a day and have a adult beverage. Another words we might have overloaded you with ideas for what could be wrong when maybe it was time to take a break.
I will close by saying that the positives which is you have repaired rebuilt every major mechanical component and now you have proven that the transmission gears and shafts look like they are in great shape. I have experienced cracked cases and chipped teeth no fun, I truly wish you the best and I look forward to seeing you back here-
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Mike, more than willing to help get another rare one on the road. There were less than 12,000 made when new, there are probably 25 or 30 of these trucks left and most of those are sitting on S 10 frames with small block engines. As you are finding out some parts will interchange with Chevy, but unlike today’s GMC and Chevy there is a lot of differences, like engine, radiator,clutch, frame, front fenders, hood sides, bumpers, gauges, wheel size and even the bed length to name a few. In reality it share the cab, doors, windshield, tailgate , rear fenders, transmission and steering wheel and gear, front axel, rear axle and hydraulic brake system. So that we do not hi jack this thread I will private message you and after a while when you can post I would encourage you to create a new thread over in the “my restoration”. A couple of years ago I started one on my truck . unfortunately my truck was about 3/4 of the way done before I saw others document their restorations. Best thing I ever did, I had many questions answered and found leads on parts that were made out of
“unobtainiam”,
Michael
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‘‘Em Tee, call Tom’s Allante store in San Diego, over the years I have bought new and use parts from him, last time I talked to him he had 60 parts cars. He is also president of the Allante club
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Frank, Unless it is yellow, I don’t even want to think about how many gallons of paint it took to cover my truck properly. We even tried three different primer colors to see which one worked best
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Fair warning the 1993 compressor is a one year only and it is aluminum and is prone to lock up, then self destruct, ask me how I know “twice”, ps it is near impossible to get all the metal shavings out of the system
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I was not aware that the Packard 120 originally used porcelain. I have a Packard super 8 and a twelve with porcelain and someday I might have to redo the twelve and I am not looking forward to it as I have seen recent work from the few remaining companies that still apply “glass” and I think that it is a waste of money because if you ever tour with the car it appears to degrade almost immediately with use. On several of my restorations that did not originally have porcelain, I have used the jet hot coating, I have been real happy with the results. It is not shiny like porcelain and can not pass for it by any means. I like it and I know that many here would rather leave it natural. Picture below is my 1936 GMC with a 213 Olds engine, manifold done in Jet hot
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Recently I had repurposed some tar wrap steel piping to use as baracades, the uneven tar coating was unsightly so I tried numerous ways to remove. Mostly I tried different solvents along with scrapers and wire brush. The results were labor intensive and quality was unacceptable. I was really shocked one day when I drove by one of these structures that we had not gotten around to treating and it was stripped of the tar. I enquired with my crew and I was told one of our talented guys waited until a really cold day and then he got a small hammer and shattered the tar off with small taps 15 minutes to strip a 6” pipe 42’ long.
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Grimy, I thought about tying the clutch weight trick, but Packard thought otherwise, there is no access to those bolts unless you pull the transmission. Which would solve the mystery.
Johan I know exactly what you are saying about taking the fun out of driving, of course my wife says that when I hear the slightest noise when driving her car I go on a “witch hunt”, looking for loose change in the ashtray ect. so I guess it’s normal for me to react or (overreact)
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Dave, you have a great looking Buick, of course I might add that I have a earlier version of your car.
I think I know how frustrated you are with the vibration, as I have a similar issue with one of my 8 cylinder cars. I have a 1938 Packard super 8 that I bought 7 years ago. I have receipts from a complete engine overhaul from a well know Southern California shop that specializes in Rolls Royce restoration, the work was done a couple of years before I bought it. I can’t believe that they might of forgot something like check the balance.
so I checked as many things that I thought would cause the problem , short of total engine disassembly. We started with compression check, distributor test, oscilloscope, carburetor rebuild, fan balance and vacuum leaks. None of this helped. On this car it idles fairly smoothly, vibration increases noticeable from 800 to 2000 rpm , above 2000 not noticeable. I recently was able to talk to the owner that commissioned the engine overhaul and he said he took the car on a 2,000 mile tour from Southern California up to Canada and back and he felt it was Packard smooth. So now I have it narrowed down to a possible imbalanced clutch that was installed after the owner above sold the car or the fairly complex multidisc harmonic balancer issue . I understand that some people have gutted out the individual fiber disc and have rubber poured in them, hope I don’t have to go there. I am hoping it is something simple, the only thing that lurks in my mind is the crankshaft has counterweights that must be remover to reground what if one of those came off after rebuild! No, no , no!!!!!!! , off comes the pan
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SC38dls, your story reminds me of one told by an International truck dealer located near our farm. Pete told me that after World War 2 he came back to California and borrowed as much money as he could and started a IH truck dealership, he found out that our farm had a long history of buying International trucks so he thought he would come out and meet my family. On his trip of 30 miles to our property his old Buick had engine trouble and he stopped at the only Buick garage that was also a Cadillac dealership in a nearby town. The dealer said he could not look at the car until the next day but offered him a new Cadillac to drive. Old Pete learned a valuable lesson that day when he met my great grandfather and grandfather that day about “perception” and sales tactic ( shiny new Caddy + young whipper snapper) This sales event or lack of one happened in 1947, the year he opened up and old Pete told me about it in 1998, incidentally we did eventually buy a lot of trucks from him as he always, always drove exclusively Buicks after his lesson
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Well I was finally able to take my truck to a car show, I would have settled for a trophy for the longest restoration but instead they handed me a “regular trophy. Below are before and after pictures, late 1971 and a current photo 50 years latter
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AJ, I also would be a buyer for that car, as you know garage space is a premium and I only have one spot left that’s a little less than 10’, I was saving it for a Crosely hotshot, but looking closely at your photo I think I can fit it in😀
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Ed, I remember that great party, I brought some adult beverages and after I looked at was on the counter I realized that I brought sand to the beach!
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Check with Scott Henningsen at Henningsen Machine shop Salinas ca. He has built over a hundred of these carbs with all new parts and sometimes he is able to use some parts from the cars original carb to save some money. He will also sell individual parts . I am sure you have read on these forum threads that these carburetors have issues because of some design flaws plus age warping . I believe Ed once said that you might be able to pour gas in the manifold with a leaky cowboy boot and the car might run better than using original carburetors ( maybe not a word for word exact quote) but I am probably not telling you something that you don’t already know,
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Terry, if you order new screen material please do not go much finer than what you already have. We would refer to the size you have as a “rock catcher” , if you go to fine you know what will happen at the temperatures in your neck of the woods! The other issue might be way off in the future some new owner might not change oil often enough and then comes the sludge.
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How much to ask? 1935 Chevy
in General Discussion
Posted
For sure Bhigdog, I recently restored a 36 GMC that hardly had any wood in comparison and it drove me to drink, well actually I have owned that truck for 50 years and I was a underage drinker when I bought it, gee what does that say about me? Just kidding that was not a question !