Buicknutty

Just a bit on an update on the car. We decided to get a bit of the mechanical stuff done, like the brakes. As we will need to move the car from the lift over to a bay with better width in order to paint the car. But Oh my some things are a struggle! The new power steering lines for instance, one is just a bit short. It kind of fits but is awful close to the exhaust manifold to be safe, so that I have to sort out. Last night we got new brake lines installed and got some fluid back in it, and will start bleeding it today. New brake cables are also installed but need to be set up, though all the shoes have been adjusted, so we should have good brakes once all the rest gets done and set up. The gas tank was reconditioned a while back, and I have the new sending unit installed, so it's just about ready to go back into place. I have a good high density rad which is just a few years old but I had it cleaned and it's now ready to go back in. The heater core had been leaking since before we got the car so long ago I re routed a heater hose to by pass the heater unit. It was rather rusty inside, but it has now been cleaned, repaired as nec, painted and reinstalled with the new core. The blower motor was seized due to lack of use, but some cleaning and lube and it works fine and runs quietly from the dash control. The one thing we are having a struggle with is the fit of the right front fender, the door fit is good, but the fender is sitting too low and I have a lot of shims in the fender mount and it's still about 3/16's in low. Basically I got frustrated with this and decided to get onto some of the mechanical stuff which needs to be done as well. Sorry folks, no pictures today! All kind of boring stuff that seems to be taking far too long! I think some of this is me as after working on this car for so many years I just want to get it together and looking good. Part of my rush right now is there are changes to the certification standards for cars coming into effect early June and the gents I use to do safeties have decided they are going to retire from writing these, which here we call MTO safeties due to all the extra paperwork, computer documentation that will be required. Please make no mistake, under no circumstances do I want an incorrect safety! I want everything to be safe without exception!! If I've missed something, or screwed up somewhere I want to know about it and have it sorted out. I just don't want to show up at a shop who doesn't know me with this old car and get taken for a whole lot of money. That's it for now folks, thank you for reading! Keith

I agree, love the car and it's colour too.

No kidding, beautiful women in their prime make the world go around. Not trying to be too sexist here, though it may sound it.

I do always have the car on the ground when adjusting and setting up the panels. Thanks for the link, though it is currently listed as out of stock. This at least helps me with some more info.

This week we have been concentrating fitting the body panels back on making a few adjustments, then sanding and more high build. Including fudging the door gap on the driver's door similar to what I did on passenger side, adding a bit of material with the MIG and finishing it off. With only a bit more work the complete left side will ready for final paint. The truck lid is nearly ready to go as well, as is the hood. The one piece which will take a bit more fiddling with, is the right front fender. Way back in 2015 I combined two questionable ones into one decent fender, sandblasted and epoxy primed it, now however I have to get it all finished so we can make it look good! Keith

Thanks Sebastian! This makes more sense now, this is the piece which is still on the car.

No, not yet as I forgot to take my phone to the garage earlier. Hopefully I can remember tonight! However, that is just about what it looks like just a bracket which of course is designed to hold the correct speaker which has now gone awol!

I'll try to get a picture, but there is a small bracket there right near where the grille is, but by itself it will not hold a speaker. There does not seem to be any actual mounting point on the underside of the dash for a speaker. Thanks for the reply!

I have a question about how the front radio speaker mounts up under the dash. The original was removed long before we got the car and all that remains is one small bracket near the front under the dash panel, and there don't seem to be any other mounting points. Does anyone out there have better experience with this? I believe I must be missing something.

That's cool, not to worry!

Yes, that would be a neat look as well.

I quite like that combo as well and for me I'd go with that, though my wife likes the white, and the seats are done as well. So white it will stay.

I think the car will be very striking looking with the green paint white top, tonneau cover and interior.

Thank you!

That's a gorgeous car!

Well folks the work progresses. all of the brakes are back together on the wheels, though the new lines aren't yet run. Several other small things are back on, like the shift linkage, heater box and fan unit are ready to go on when we get the new heater core hopefully Wed. I sprayed a guide coat on the quarter panel and it looks quite good with a couple of small things we couldn't see with just the high build primer. Tomorrow or Wed I think we will try to fit the doors on again as we can now put the tires back on and let it off the lift to check the fit. If I can concentrate and get enough of the body work done hopefully I can get the car painted. At this point I really want to see the colour on it! For the spraying I used a more expensive gun I don't use often, and now I see why. It's toughie to get a nice job from it. Fiddled around with it quite a bit, but I cannot get it to spray as well as a much cheaper gun. This is done in the same colour as the final will be, but a single stage with no hardener in it.

We were on our first tour yesterday (Sat), a horseless carriage club garage tour, but we drove the 69 Electra. We put a bit over 90 miles on it over lovely paved county roads.

Of all the vintage pics here this one reminds me of a similar car I used to see early to mid 70's in the Whitby area of Ontario. Like this one it was a 2 door post, with a three speed, no radio either as I recall and driven by a woman around my Mom's age. I never talked to her but I saw the car a few times. I was Dover White with red interior and would have been the cheapest Buick you could have bought. I cannot remember if it had hubcaps or not, though they are an easy thing to change. I'm sure it's now long gone like so many others. Due to the harsh climate here in Ontario Canada, by the early 70's mid 50's cars were getting pretty scarce so seeing one driving around as what we now call a daily driver and still in half decent shape was quite noteworthy. That would be one of my fantasy restos, find a similar and do it up the same way as the one I remember, though I'd make sure I had a radio.

I guess it depends on how bad any leaks are, but otherwise I'm with the other guys as don't go that far till you get it roadworthy. The rear seals can leak badly, I've been there but they can be a bear to do on those engines, but if it's just seepage don't worry about it. The only thing you might consider would be to pull the oil pan and make sure the pick up isn't mostly clogged, though by the look in the timing chain area the engine doesn't look too dirty as John said so chances are that will be alright. The more you take apart, the more things can go screwy on you before you get it back together and working again.

That does look like the correct one, thanks. This is a part I never thought I'd have this kind of issue getting, but there you go. Keith

Thanks you very much Sebastian!

Thanks! I ended up doing something similar, though I made one up out of sheet material and bolted it up with the barest amount of sealant. Strange how the mistakes for the parts are happening.

Once again progress is being made, albeit slowly and with hiccups. The steering is all back together, torqued to spec and pinned as required. New springs and shocks installed also. One wee thing which drove me crazy was finding the new tie rod ends I'd bought last year. I carefully put them on the shelf unit designated for Wildcat parts, but now couldn't find them. My son to the rescue. He carefully went through each and every box and container till he found them, in a Nissan brake pad box, which had my name in it. The seller shipped it to me in that box. My confusion stemmed from the fact I do have a Nissan (300ZX) that I did a brake upgrade on, and my daughter has a Nissan which I did a recent brake job on too. Silly me I guess. I received the other axle shaft for the rear axle from my friend who pressed the new bearing on for me. So it's back in place too. So here's the next hiccup. What I thought would be simple, the diff cover gasket seems not to be. The local parts stores asked if it's an 8.75 or a 9.375 ring gear, though the shop manual makes no reference to this, that I can find. The ring gear seems to be just under 9 in, so we ordered that one, but it was wrong, so they got the larger one in for me and it's still wrong. The other local parts stores seem to be the same thing, as do Rock Auto. I've verified that it's the correct axle on the car. Any thoughts or comments on this? Also I finished painting the underside of the trunk now and we are in the process of re installing the replacement stabilizer bars with new bushings installed. One of the originals was bent and they were all very rusty so I was able to get to replacements from Bud's in Oklahoma. Unfortunately they no longer want to ship to Canada so my good friend here John D agreed to have them shipped to his place then forwarded to me. Convoluted but it works. So right off of the bat today the rest of the rear suspension is going back on, new springs, shock and stab bars. Everything has been cleaned and painted satin black. However, due to the amount of rust there's pits almost everywhere, which we are just living with. Once again this brings the thought that perhaps this should have been a parts car for a better one. However we are where we are and at least this semi rare car is being saved. According to the production numbers I've found there were less than 3,600 made. Just a drop in the bucket in '68.

My fuel pump was rebuilt about 20 years ago now, still working!

That's what I did on mine and they work very well now, again. As long as the vacuum booster side of the fuel pump is working properly though.