dibarlaw

Hidden_hunter: Sorry you missed us as we are 28 miles east at Chambersburg.

Wilbur: I have a 3 note Sparton that I am working on. I found this pamphlet on the net. My experience has had me clean and re-oil the cam mechanism. I made new gaskets for the air chamber from tracing cloth. I still have to make a new bearing for the electric motor since it is pretty worn. It causes some chatter and the note sound is not very pure. They are somewhat touchy to adjust. Mine is the "$35 Bucks" tune. Check out some u tube videos of "I'm' simply wild about horns on automobiles that go Ta, Ta, Ta, Ta." Or "Eddie Cantors Auto Song".

Rod: Sorry. I was not checking on this thread. I just saw it tonight. The top on my 1925-45 is..... Total length in up position 94 3/4". Measured with top fabric. Front header bow 53 1/2", 2nd bow 56 1/4", 3rd bow 57 1/4" and rear bow 59 1/4" all bows measured where the bows enter the sockets with out top material. The cut down top on my 1925-25 has all the bows the same width front to back. It should also taper out from front to rear. I hope this helps: Larry

The hand crank is indispensable for timing the engine/setting the points. I have started my 1925-25 4 or 5 times with the hand crank just to show some folks at our car show. Each time it only took a half turn.

Gary: I know that in an old "Torque Tube " newsletter there was an article on modifying the trunk light to operate as an extra brake light. Changing the socket to a double filament and pig tailing off of a tail light. I never got around to it but I still want to do it. As an addendum to my wiring harness account to Dave. I chose the RI harness as to how it would look and function as original. The extra loom and wires they added for me to have turn signals cancelled that out. Larry

Our 1925-45 "REMLEY" in soft focus. Our 1925-25 "Beulah" with wife Joan driving.

Dave : The RI harness was very nice. I had a local shop install it while they were doing some work to get my 37 into driver condition. On my to do list for them was a wiring harness and they suggested RI. Also on the list was to remove the added 1950s turn signal lights and get the harness with the extra wires to provide for turn signals incorporated into the parking lights and brake/tail lights. They had promised to have the car ready to drive to the 2012 Buick Nationals in NC. After the first few monthly visits to their shop we saw that nothing was getting done and the owner said that they would not be able to get the car ready for the Nationals. He then said that it was a good Idea to get a new wiring harness. I reminded him that this was on my original list. The statement was that no way could they get the car done on time since RI would need at least a months lead time to make up the harness. I called RI and they said that they had the harness in stock. 2 months after the NC meet (that I was supposed to be able to drive to) they were still about 1/2 done. They had the harness installed, BUT, they put the wrong one in without the extra wiring for the turn signals. (they did take care of it by installing extra outside wiring and loom at an extra $300+). So, after a lot of runaround, things not done on the list, double cost estimates etc. I had to get the car back and end this relationship. When we got the car back I drove it a total of 2 miles when it quit at the busiest intersection at rush hour. I had to push it to the side of the road and tow it home. What I found was that even though they had installed a new harness they did not clean any connections and there were several incorrectly made connections. I redid all the connections and I have had no electrical issues since. By the way .. After they said that they could not meet their deadline the owner told me it was foolish of me to expect to drive my car to the Buick Meet 350 miles away. After I had repaired their work we have since driven the car to the 2013 South Bend meet 1,750 mile round trip. To Nashville TN. close to 1,900 miles and lastly to Brookfield WI at 1,915 miles including touring.

They are also different between series. I sold a (fit a Standard) crank to the fellow who bought the 1922-45 at Hershey and he had to bore out the hole to fit his. I have one each of my cars, Master and Standard. The Standard having a slightly smaller bore.

I always remember the end day November 11th as that was my grandfathers birthday. Except he was born Nov.11, 1897. The other Larry

Bloo: The switch is out of my 1937-41. I did install a new wiring harness from Road Island Wiring.

Gary : I did the same re-work on the switch including complete disassembly and cleaning all contacts and building up the burned micarda insulation material. My lights do the same as yours so I believe that Matt may be correct about the dimmer switch. Larry

Bless you for posting the photos. We LOVE photos of all Pre War 1 Buicks.

Kyle: If your car is a model 44 it would have the wheel with the painted spider. Photo of a 1924-44 roadster. I see what you have on the car is a 1928 wheel. The model 55 sport touring and model 54 sport roadster would have a spider with walnut spokes. Photo of 1925-55 Sport Touring. Some of the other Master cars had the aluminum spiders polished. I am pulling apart my spare wheel/ column/box assembly right now. My spare has a nickeled column jacket and is for a sedan.

Terry: There are many variations of both the tubular and cellular styles. The most common tubular type can be "rodded" out to clean the tube passages. The cellular have the "honeycomb" shape in hex or octagon. and have the cells crimped or closed with water flowing around the inside of the cell cavities. No straight paths to rod out. Can only be cleaned by chemical means. I have also seen a combination of rows of cells and tubular radiators. The 1923 and 24 Buicks ( and some earlier as shown in the photo above) many are seen with a square core pattern. Same principal as the honeycomb design. The idea of course was to get a maximum radiating surface for cooling.

The engine in the chassis is not for the 1937.

With the paint issues and some incorrect components as noted I would consider this to be a #4-#3 car. My 2003 Price guide indicates about $4,000 for a #4 to a $8,000 high for a #3 condition. I use the 2003 figures (which were always high) since that is what I have seen these 20s cars actually sell for. Again popularity for open cars pushes the prices. The big sedans are always a hard sell unless they are a true bargain. Last year a 1923-55 Sport touring in the same #4-#3 condition sold for $8,500 with a parts car. The 2003 guide gives the range as $6,000-$12,000. It sat on the forum for several months. I then called and negotiated for another month. I was given the purchase price by the new owner. $1,250 less than I offered!...... Oh well the buyer was local.

Jack: If you wish to do front brakes I would check out some of the modifications done to some of the Great Race participant cars. Some were done as disk brake set ups. Either hydraulic or electrically controlled. Much easier modifications to make. The 1924 and later Buick mechanical set up required much more hardware not just the addition of some drums and cables to the front axles. Extra brake rods, cables pivot point, equalizer shafts. All pieces engineered to work as a unit. If set up and adjusted properly they are excellent stoppers. (Just don't get them wet.) I helped a BCA member work on his 1919 H45. When he had me drive it, it scared the beejesus out of me as it had hardly any brakes. Pedal to the floor and hardly any thing slowed. He said that when his father had work done in the 1970s he thought that that was all the braking it should have. I checked and he had parts missing from the right rear brake. So in effect he had a "one wheel brake system". After sourcing a few items from a local hardware store, we made some of the missing pieces in his garage. After replacing the missing parts, taking up all the lost motion in the brake rods and doing an adjustment he took it out for a drive. He was amazed that it would actually stop so well with about 3/4 pedal. Having said this these still are not like modern brakes.. The were barely adequate as speeds and traffic accelerated in the 1920s. Hence the need for 4 wheel brakes and better systems. I have driven early Buicks with 2 wheel brakes and felt perfectly comfortable but at a speed of probably not more than 35-40 MPH. And when driving these cars one must respect the limitations of the design.. in short be aware, be careful and plan ahead.

Dean's email dgtryon2516@gmail.com

In your first post there was a question .... "What about $8,000.00"? I thought that was the asking price.

It does look to a pretty nice car to have. I love what looks like the original paint. For me, the newer gold crushed velour upholstery is a turn off. But is sure looks comfortable. I see it has 1926 -1927 Buick headlights as well as later cowl lights. Also the non Buick taillight. What the correct 1923 headlights look like. 1923 style Cowl lights. A good bit of money for a car in this condition. But the 124" WB 7 passenger Model 50 is a lot of car.

That looks very close to the accessory cap for the 1925 Master Sport Tourings, Roadsters and Coupes. I saw one for sale at Hershey that I would have loved to have for my Master. Still it had a chunk missing at the base of the threaded section. The vendor had all these radiator ornaments in a foam fitted case. So I knew not to even ask a price. The 1927-1928 Godess caps that I have seen for over $400 were usually a crumbling mess. I would like to see these 1925 caps reproduced. I also think they are beautiful.

Hugh: When these were replaced in the 30s the trimmers did not want to bother with the inner lining. Also the wooden frame tended to warp and rot once they got wet from leakage. My oval Johnston window in the top I have on Beulah still has the wood frame for it. You can see from the photo the stains from leaking. Here are some photos of the frames. The 2 originals are the same size. One came out of the original Master top . One from a top Dave Blaufarb had for his 1928-25 and a copy I made out of poplar to match the metal frame remnants that I based my CAD drawing on.

Hugh: I will check one of my spare S/Gs as I believe they were pretty well stripped and the distributor casting was missing. The Master S/G that still has a distributer housing shows a lock washer against the serrated face and that is all. It does not look as it this section has ever been separated on this unit. Oh wait! I have my Standard's S/G in a box on the running board while the engine is out.... Just a lock washer. Coupling plate. Part#44402 Water pump shaft coupling. Larry

Don: Gerald told me that was the frame that came with the car. It was not cracked or broken! He had it re-plated. He did not send any inside photos as I did not ask. This is what the car looked like from the front.

Here is the 1928 Standard Roadster restored by Gerald Petersen and was at the 2014 Buick Nationals at Portland.