packick

I have known John for almost 40 years now and he has a knack for getting me to spend money. When laptops first came out I tried his out and ended up buying one; when HD TVs first came out I saw his and ended up buying one; when DVRs first came out I tried his and ended up buying one; and when we came back to his house one year after him getting me all worked up at the Hershey car corral, I ended up purchasing my 1955 Buick Century 2-Dr. Hardtop. Well, now he talked me into purchasing a 2-post lift. I placed the order yesterday and expect to pick it up sometime next week. One saying John has beat into my head over the years is, “It’s only money.” But, I may have won in the end. I built my garage about 10 years ago. John as seen it several times and maybe it influenced him to build his. “It’s only money, John.”

For what it's worth, I just finished reading David McCullough's book "The Wright Brothers." Excellent book! I didn't know that before they made the actual first flight, they spent several years at Kitty Hawk experimenting with gliders to get the wings, turning process, and center of gravity just right. The book also spends quite a bit of time on the 1908 Flyer. The one thing that I got the wrong impression of from the book is the size of the 1908 engine. I thought it was a lot smaller than what is on this replica. I am sure the replica is correct.

John: "and the front sway bar end link rubbers were almost non-existent. Jon is going to buy those parts tomorrow" I wonder how Hudson Jon can get ahold of these parts in just one day for a 1937 Hudson Terraplane? It takes me at least a week to find, purchase and expedite-ship those parts for my Packard. Maybe I should have bought a Hudson?

John: You DO want to keep the TV on the cart. That way when you view those YouTube how-to videos (e.g., how to operate the cigarette lighter, how to vacuum out a car, etc.) you can roll it right to where you are working and never miss a step.

Boy, that is the neatest trench I have ever seen.

I was wondering if anyone could tell me where the engine number is located on a 1935 Packard 120? The "Standard Catalog of American Cars 1803-1942" claims it is located on the front left side of the engine. But it also says that's where to find the engine number on a 1936 or 1937 120 engine which I know to be incorrect since the engine number on those engines is located below the distributor. So I question where it says the 1935 engine number is located and that is why I am asking for verification. Thanks.

John: Lets all hope that after all you have been through building this fantastic garage that you are not allergic to it. That would be a bummer. Overall the garage looks great. Ours looked like a big building sitting high on the plains in Texas before my wife got to landscaping it. Now it blends in with all of the other buildings on the property. Good job! Can't wait to see the ultimate finished product, inside and out.

A guy in our local Packard club had the same problem with his '58 with silicon brake fluid. He switched back to Dot 3 and never had the problem again.

Ethanol? I think the correct pronunciation is "Deathanol." I have had to replace the fuel pump in each of my 4 vintage cars because of that stuff. Now I only use non-ethanol gas. Lesson learned.

Matthew, you are correct. The only other AACA show that I have attended is at Hershey, and that too is a nice venue. As there is no local AACA region here in the Northwest (the closest one is about 275 miles away), Hershey and Virginia Beach are are the only two that I have attended.

I agree. We flew from Seattle, WA to attend the show with our friends from Virginia. I am so sick and tired of attending National meets held on the parking lot of a hotel. This was a beautiful spot to hold a show and everything was well organized. Great job!!!

John: You forgot to mention that standing around and supervising is exhausting work. I am bushed. Or maybe it was doing the touch-up paint on the '23 McLaughlin Buick to get it ready for the AACA meet in Va. Beach is what wore me out. Anyway, the garage looks great and they are doing a superb job on the cement floor. We hope to drive some of John's vintage cars into the garage when we return from Va. Beach on Monday. By the way, for John's Canadian, New Zealand, and British blog followers, 28 sq. yards converts to 23.41156608 sq. meters.

John: I assume you had ethanol gas in the rototiller? Would Stabil for ethanol have been any better, or is that what you used? Maybe some of this Thread's "Brain Trust" could chime in on this too.

John: How did the work crew ensure the posts remained in an absolute vertical position overnight? I usually see freshly cemented posts with temporary angle bracing attached to them after the crew has set them using a level. Or have those already been removed before you took the picture? Just curious.

Thanks Eric. That's a good clue that maybe Buick had the first power seat.

A friend of mine asked when Buick first sold a power seat in its cars, and was Buick the first auto company to do so? Was it in its 1946 cars? Thanks.

That picture of the roller machine headed up your driveway reminds me of Gen. Patton on one of his tanks. That thing is huge! Let us all know when the garage warming party is scheduled.

This past Saturday, I drove about 130 miles one-way to attended an old car swap meet that I have attended for the past 30 years and was very disappointed. What was disappointing was that there were very few old car parts/vendors there. It seems the antique and collectibles crowd has taken over the meet. I am aware that the online auction sites (e.g., eBay) has removed most of the old car vendors from these meets over the past few years, but this time it was very noticable. Has anyone else experienced this with their local swap meets? As far as I am concerned it is not worth driving 2.5 hours to attend this meet and will probably not go again.

These quite often come up on eBay too. I think there is one out there now.

I researched this many years ago when I was restoring my '37 120 Convertible Coupe. My car was an original unrestored car that I purchased from the original owner. When I had a new top put on, we found the radio antenna wire running down the driver's door frame, under the door sill, and up to the top across the center bow. It was stapled onto the top of the center bow and it looked like it had been there since Moses' day. I also found out that there was an option of mounting the antenna under the running board. And Dave is correct, sedans had an option for either mounting the antenna it with two holes drilled into the driver's side cowl, or up the drivers side post onto chicken wire that was underneath the cloth top. I suspect that the antenna wires attached to the center top bow or the chicken wire were factory installed radios; the cowl mounted or running board antennas were either dealer-mounted or aftermarket-mounted. That's just my guess. No matter how the antenna was mounted, you still couldn't hear s**t from the radio. Interesting thing with my radio, when the top us up reception is OK, but when the top is down there is no reception. Another Packard feature. But when you think of it, those radios weren't very loud, and with the top down and the wind blowing by, you probably couldn't hear the radio anyway.

Old-Tank: I was told that in 1955 there was no body manual produced for our Buicks. Was I given bad info.? If this is true, are there other years that would suffice for the '55s? Thanks.

Mud: When I installed my trunk seal I put the seam at the bottom. It just seemed logical to me when you think about how the water would flow. And I don't think the rubber parts are painted but maybe someone else can chime in here.

Was there that much difference between the '53 and '54 Skylark hoods? Rubber-the-Right-Way offers a kit for the '54 Skylark: http://search.rubbertherightway.com/psearch/svc/search.php?uid=3&q=hood+insulation&x=0&y=0&mode=all&f[104]=Buick&f[105]=1954

Nice looking car. Looks like she's already set for the car show circuit. Congrats.

John, I wonder if Deathanol (ethanol) is playing havoc with your fuel system. It is killing just about everything I own that runs on fuel, including my weed whacker. I have had to replace 2 fuel filters on one of my old cars (the baffle in each self-destructed), and a fuel pump on another. It destroyed he seals on our weed whacker. Damn stuff! Since I have found a local gas station that has non-ethanol fuel, that is all I use now in my vintage cars.