packick

I have had several old cars in which I replaced the vent window rubber, after which I could still hear the wind in all of them. I don't know if Steele (from whom I purchased the rubber) does not make the seals exactly to factory specs, or if the rubber constancy is not what it used to be as in the old days, or something else but they still whistle air. No drafts though. Yes, it drives me nuts too. Especially when the rest of the car is pretty much noiseless.

BuickBrothers: The small shoe goes on the front. I have attached two pictures. Both are from the left side, one front and one rear. These are on my '55 Century. Hope this helps.

I don't know where I got this, and I apologize to the author, but modern fuel can alter the timing marks on an old car. Here is what anonymous said: "In the early 1950's Regular was 79 octane and Premium was 85 Octane. Regular is now 87 or 88 Octane in most cases. The point is; when manufacturers like Buick called for Premium fuel, you can now use Regular that actually has a higher octane than the Premium when the car was built allowing you to buy gas at the cheaper price. But, for those who insist on Premium because it says so in the Owner's Manual, to get the bang for the buck, you need to advance the timing further than the factory specs. By mid-late 50's octane was increasing because of the higher compression engines that were now being used - all the old straight 8's were now gone and the horsepower race was on." Hope this helps.

Nat, I was too young to remember the cranking speed. But I don't remember sitting for long periods of time because the car wouldn't start. By the way, I always burn ethanol-free gas in my old cars. Been burned too many times with ethanol.

Thanks for all the information. From what I can deduce from it, I would lay money on the fact that the gasoline today is not the same as it was in the old days is the root cause of hard starting when the engine is hot in today's world. I don't ever remember my father having any trouble starting his late 40s and early 50s Buicks when we traveled on vacation. After traveling many, many miles, he would pull into a gas station, turn off the engine, fill up, and the car would immediately start. From what I have read, even the ethanol-free gas we get today is different from the olden days leaded gas. Maybe the removal of lead in the gas had some effect? Anyway, thanks for the responses.

Here's a question that pertains to an early 50's car (Buick, Packard, etc.) with a 6V system. When the car is cold it starts normally. But when the car is hot, like pulling into a gas station to get gas, the car just cranks and cranks and cranks and not start. And because of the 6V system, the cranking is very slow. After it cools down a bit it will start. So here is my question. With an accelerator pedal starting system, when pushing down on the accelerator pedal to restart a hot car, is the system pushing more gas into the carburetor thus flooding the engine, or does the initial pushing of the accelerator pedal NOT push anymore gas into the carburetor? The suspicion is that the engine is getting flooded and is not vapor locked. Your thoughts? Thanks for the help.

Gegrunt: I am not a Buick expert but these sure look line rear fender skirts to me. I have a 1951 Packard with fender skirts and the holes at each end look the same. On the car there is a nub where one end slides into, and on the other end there is a bolt and that secures the skirt to the car. Anyway, that's my guess. For what year Buick I don't know.

You might try to contact Bill Scorah, Roster Keeper for the 745's. His email is cleanenergy7@q.com. Maybe he knows something about the car. Good luck.

Thank you everybody for your replies. I think what I will do is start out simple by adding a bit of Marvel Mystery Oil to the crankcase and see if that help. Failing that, I will then tear into the engine and do a further inspection. One question on the amount of Marvel Mystery Oil to add. I think the oil capacity on this engine is 7 quarts. The instructions on the Marvel Mystery Oil bottle is to add 1 quart of it to the crankcase. To me, that seems like it would REALLY thin down the oil in the engine to the point of causing a problem. Is 1 quart what I should add to a 7-quart crankcase? If not, what would be a good amount to add to the crankcase to see if it is going to reduce the tappet noise? Thanks again.

NTX5467, it could be the oil I use. I doubt that it is a push rod as all new and exactly the same push rods were installed when the engine was rebuilt. I switched from 10W30 oil to 15W40 some years back. 15W40 is what I use in all of my vintage cars. But maybe the '55 Century is more temperamental than the others. I will be changing the oil and filter before I set off for the Buick Nation Meet so I may try 10W30 again to see if that eliminates the tappet noise when cold. By the way, the tappet noise becomes less as the oil warms up.

At least.

I forgot to mention. The engine had a complete rebuild about 7,000 miles ago, and the oil was changed about 200 miles ago.

When I first start my '55 Century you can hear a noisy tappet . . . clack, clack, clack. After the engine warms up the noise seems to go away. Is this something to be concerned about? We plan on driving the car to the Buick National Meet in Spokane next year, for us, a 600-mile round trip, and don't want to be stuck somewhere along the road. Other than the noisy tappet, the car runs great.

I agree with First Born. I would prefer the mice as opposed to Talk Radio. Anyway, my wife found some packets that are supposed to deter mice. They smell like mint. You put one or two around the car, NOT in the car. I also put one in my office in the garage. The scent is quite powerful but pleasing to the nose. We will see if they work. Or maybe they are like, wait for it . . . . . . . . snake oil.

The mice seem to be loving the stuffing from the seat in my old Buick. I only drive it once a month they have ample time to do their thing. They have pulled a lot of the stuffing out and it's all over the place. Is there a mouse-resistant stuffing that you can use to deter the mice from doing this? I assume the stuffing is used to stop the seat springs from squeaking (no pun intended).

Luis: I had this same problem with my '55 Century. It turns out it wasn't the brakes at all. You mentioned that you had the front end rebuilt. I also had the front end apart to replace the rear main seal on my car. After this job the brakes pulled. What the cause of the brakes pulling left and sometimes right was the adjustment on the steering cross shaft (to what the pitman arm attaches). At the end of this shaft is a slotted "screw" that I had to adjust as per the manual. The left side of the shaft on my car was way off, the right side was off a bit. Turning this slotted screw in a couple of turns solved my brake pulling problem. You may need to make the adjustment, drive the car for a bit, then maybe have to turn the screw in or out a 1/4 turn or so to fine tune it. I would bet your car has the same issue as mine. I don't know how many hours I spent working on the brakes when that wasn't the problem at all. Hope this helps.

Mark: I don't know if a picture will help you in determining the proper length of the wheel cylinder pins, but here is a picture of the right-front brake setup on my '55 Century:

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I would think that with guys like us, eBay's sales would drop since buyers are becoming frustrated with their search results and just give up. Or maybe we are just a drop-in-the-bucket to eBay's overall sales. I know I use eBay less and less.

Has anyone else had problems searching for items for their specific vehicles on eBay lately? For example, if I type in "1955 Buick" in the search, all sorts of items appear that have nothing to do with 1955 Buick or even Buick. Totally unrelated items are listed and many, many of them. It didn't used to be like that. I have given up on general parts searches for my car on eBay; now I only search for a specific item . . . even then other junk appears.

These are great cars. Any old car will have problems, things wear out. But there are no endemic problems created by the Packard company. While they will do over 80 mph, but that is not really advisable with an old car. However they will cruise all day long at 60 mph. They are not full CCCA classics . . . maybe some day. Mechanical parts are fairly easy to find (points, plugs, bearings, etc.), but body parts are very hard to get. So make sure the car you are interested in has all of its body parts. You said the car you are interested in is restored so missing body parts may not be an issue. Keep us posted and let us know how it went with the purchase. Packard Forum people are always willing to answer questions.

Here is part of the assembly. Sorry for the fuzzy picture. Hope this is part of what you are looking for.

JohnD, you're right. There are a lot of heater hoses on the '55s. I replaced all of mine as they were cracking from age. And I measured them, 31 feet in all. Also your caution about the hood reminded me of when I was young my father, who owned a '55 Special, would always yell to the gas station attendant (remember those guys?), "DON'T SLAM THE HOOD!" The way to shut the hood is to lay it down, then press it into the locked position.

DOC: Your pictures are very reminiscent of my '55 Century when I first brought it home. It was lots of work but I enjoyed every minute of it. Here are some before and after pictures of mine. So keep at it and congratulations on your new "baby."

And remember. You can possibly raise the brake pedal height by adjusting the rod length that goes into the Master Cylinder.