ramair

Unfortunately Tuesday night I lost my shop to fire. The building was built by my great grandfather in 1905 out of redwood, it was used as a barn for draft horses. In around 1950 it was repurposed as a shop, corrugated sheet steel was wrapped around it and it has been a fantastic shop ever since. The last few years we have bought all kinds of new toys to add along with professional electrical conduit and circuit breakers. Besides that heartbreak I also lost my 1916 Buick Big Six D-55 touring. That car was the model that my great grandfather bought new in 1916 to replace his horse. I looked for that same model for many years and as some of you know that their are not to many left. On a minor note we lost 3 modern GMC trucks ect. Tomorrow the fire investigators will be on site. We have evidence that I cannot talk about now that will show that we were not negligent. However I would recommend to all, spend some money for a professional monitored heat sensor alarm and if you have a gas line either propane or natural gas shut it off when you are not using. Gas did not start the fire but once the fire got going and the beam gave way holding the ceiling heater a 1” gas line turned into a flame thrower which consumed the building quicker than quick. I will apologize for some reason all my photos are posting sideways

Another shot

My guess would be 1928 Buick 54 C country club coupe, a master series with 128” wheelbase, I base that off of my ownership of that model, I have a picture on file and if needed I can get the car out of storage and take a picture at the same angle .

I have not tried the do it yourself repair, but I can speak to John Wolf, could not be more pleased with everything I sent him. A side note , he also repairs the impossible to repair gas gauges, so far he has done my packard twelve, my 1968 Toronado and my 1936 GMC

Hi, I have several 66 Toronado parts cars , I have never parted any of them, but maybe it is time to help others, pm me and maybe I can help

I believe the 1916 D-45 had 2 heads for the twin cylinder blocks that had 3 cylinders each. If one wants to learn more about the ask Gregg Lange, he knows, seen or touch nearly every one of them since 1958. He tracks them and no doubt he knows of this 1915. If my memory serves me right I think there are about 5 @ 1914 B-55, around 10 @ C-55 and 20 @ D-55 models of course once in awhile another shows up.

I own a 1915 C-55 and a 1916 D-55 Buick, they are both referred to as Big six models they share the engine with the first year model B-55 of 1914, these engines are 331 cubic inch with cast pairs for the engine block. Coincidentally the cylinder block pairs interchange with the B35 and C-35 Big 4 cylinder. My 1915 has a BB1 carb and my 1916 has a properly rebuilt marvel ( I know some thinks that impossible). Both engines have been rebuilt and have about the same amount of miles. Both cars are powerful, but the 15 with the BB1 thinks it’s a rocket ship, I actually wanted to say Pierce Arrow, but did not want to upset Ed.

Eric Mac, thank you, ever since I looked at it for the first time 50 years ago I loved the Art Deco touches with the short cab, almost looks “chopped” along with the coolest artillery wheels. Here is the picture from yesterday’s shakedown run

My perspective on this starts with my first early car. My grandfather use to tell me about his 1916 Buick big six touring that his stepdad bought new in 1916. As some of you know they are a little hard to come by. Finally I found one ten years ago and bought it, many of my horseless carriage friends said no, don’t do it, buy a 14 or 15 instead so you can go on tours with the rest of us. As usual I paid no attention to the advice as I wanted that same car that my family had, fast forward 8 years and I had a chance to buy a 15 Buick big six, the car is overall in better shape than my 16. So did I buy it because I am now invited to the tours, no I bought it because Since it was in better shape than my 1916 I do not have to paint, nickel and redo the top for a lot of $ or time that I am running out of, full disclosure the picture of the 16 was taken when it was restored 30 years ago. So I have both sides of the question and have to say they really are the same car, once you take away some of the sheet metal advancements for the 16’, crown fenders and yacht line on the body sides. 1915 on top, 1916 on the bottom, notice the 15 has a 2 1/2 man top and the 1916 has a one man top

Forgot to add photo

Chistech, yes very similar problem except in order for it to work I needed to reverse the cable direction as the 1936 speedo accepts the new rotation when the drive outlet moves from the lower position to the top of the drive case. I will enclose a picture of a friends transmission so others will know what we are talking about

This is the color you pick if you want sell a classic at a affordable price ( I actually would call this Gumby green), look at the positives, someday someone that is color blind will get a good deal. Ask me how I know this

Three days before I have to load up for the pickups first car show. My friend Scott has pretty much taken care of loose ends. The door handle exterior escutcheons are in along with the door handles. These chrome plated brass pieces that are repops kept cracking and failing as they were to brittle when crimped. So they were annealed then sent to plater to be chromed again . Next was a crazy backwards running speedometer. This was caused by buying 3 transmissions to make one good one, come to find out I bought three 1935 Chevrolet transmissions that were supposed to be identical, “ now see small print” except they changed the back case because the speedometer cable entrance into the transmission now has a hydraulic brake master cylinder in the way, so in 36 they moved the speedo drive to the top of the case and changed the direction of the speedo head. This required some phone calls and a little time comparing part numbers . In the end all good, Scott was even able to change that back gear case without unhooking the torque tube rear axle , something you can’t do with a Chevy , because the longer wheelbase GMC has a 10” extention to the driveline. Next on the list was the poor shifting 3 speed transmission, i had a truck transmission shop rebuild this transmission for me with all NOS parts that I was able to buy over the years ( thank you Northeast transmission) however the transmission did not have a crisp shift, way to much slop. We found that the trans shop did not properly place the shift tower guide plate in its tangs, lucky for us it did not require a total disassembly. Tomorrow it gets a few miles of driving then a appointment with the muffler shop. I ordered replacement header pipe, muffler and tailpipe. The header and muffler were correct the tail pipe just does not look like it belongs, so tomorrow that will be replaced with a new one, fortunately we have a sales brochure with a picture of it, getting close. My next story will be about all the fun and games to license and title in the state of California. Those of you outside of California will be saying thank goodness we don’t live there and of course those that do live here do not want to be reminded of the fact. We should have a guessing game , A how many trips to the DMV and B how many trips did the California Highway Patrol came out to Verify ? Actually, Highway Patrolman wanted to help, DMV not so much

Let’s see ride in comfort hour after hour or screw your back up with a foam seat, but you may be able to lift that light seat up easily 3 times a year, that is if your back isn’t hurting from driving all day. If you need to go ahead and ask what I think of one of the foam seats that I have !

Has anyone applied that clear plastic that you see around rear fenders and front sheet metal on some of the new sports cars , probably after market, it would look better than the tar coating and may be easy to remove?

I think I found a cap that will work, it is about a 1/2” smaller OD, found it in my tractor parts collection. Believe it or not it is a gas cap for the international farmall letter series gas tractors, our farm used model C, H and M models. I recently retired 8 of these tractors as I felt it was too risky having employees drive 75 year old tractors without safety equipment, like roll bars, seatbelts and neutral safety start protection

George, that’s exactly what I was aiming for

Perhaps the variable Venturi flap is binding, hopefully no one has replaced your original brass and steel carb with a 1928 pot metal one as these have a tendency to swell and bind. I would look inside and make sure the flap moves and that there is minimal gap when flap is closed . Next thing to look at is the special double tapered spring under the big adjustment knob, sometimes these get stretch by previous owner or they get replaced with a spring from the hardware store, either way it will not work

Gosh since it does not have either a Johnson or Marvel carb on it we could get you to tackle it

I was wondering if anyone has a suggestion on where I could find a standard radiator cap for my truck. The original one is pretty beat up and rusty. As I stated before I only want to put on the GMC winged ornament on when I am around the truck. I found out today that there is a additional item that is different between the Chevy and GMC. The radiator neck is a lot smaller on the chevy. Remember that up until the early thirties most vehicles had a threaded neck and by the mid thirties most cars had the more modern cap that was hidden under the hood. So what I have looks like the non pressure cap that I have seen on mid thirties tractors. I will start calling vintage tractor companies and see if I have any luck.I have enclosed a photo of the backside of the cap along with the long awaited picture of the truck with the deluxe radiator ornament cap.

Ed, please send me your shipping address as I would like to send this to you to get it running, I know a lot of us have faith in your skills as SC38DLS has stated

I can turn the flywheel and the fan turns, but when I grab a spark plug wire I cannot feel a spark, does anyone have the point gap for a Pierce twelve?

I needed a little humor today , so I went for it

I am pretty sure that this will be the one V-12 that I buy that will not come with a $40,000 surprise, although I might spend some money replacing those irregular looking spark plug wires, although it keeps you from confusing the firing order. I will enjoy seeing how many minutes go by before Ed, AJ and George wait before they fall for the bait