dibarlaw

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.

Larry : What I am always impressed with is there does appear that Gary and support craftsman have ROOM to work! Which I am crowded at best to do anything. It does make a difference! The other Larry

Here is the one from my friends original 1927-54. Note the heavy beveled glass. Also note the Hidem at the rear bow has an aluminum insert. Probably only for the Sport Touring, Roadsters and Convertible Coupes. Also a photo of the 1925-25X "Around The World Buick" at Horseshoe Curve Altoona PA. It shows the shape of the rear window.

Larry : These are for McLaughlin Buicks. Much more substantial and much more wood to the bows.

Yes it is a 1937 248 with the marvel BD1 carb which is the same as my car has. It is missing the Delco automatic choke. It looks to have been detailed at one time since it has the decal on both sides of the rocker cover. Decal was originally only on the ignition side. I did that to my car back in the 1980s.

Leigh: Thank you for posting this. I feel it should move quickly at your price.. If only I had not bought the last Buick (a 1925 Master touring). I would have been able to consider this. Best For Your Sale: Larry

I believe this is what Fred was referring to in my 1926 Standard Coach thread. Quite a buy at $19,000.

Lamar: I think that Fred is referring to the price of the nicely restored roadster in CA. Just a comparison. I know it is just our opinions here. This 1926 Coach would get some interest at less then $5,000. So he is asking more than double that can be expected. If there was some interest I could go and look at it since it since it is about an hours drive from me. The 1927-24 Roadster that I posted about with spare parts and engine /trans 2 years ago from Lititz PA. and then the reseller in Hagerstown MD. Was offered to me at $12,000. (To get me to jump at it he was threatening to dump a Chevy 350 in it so it can go down the road at 80MPH!) It was still a full on restoration of a very degraded 1950s fix up. I felt $7,500 was a lot for that car. Again, my opinion. I just would like to hear from some of the folks who get these cars and what their experiences are.

Gary: And all the excellent documentation of your restoration of your 1937 will be of tremendous value to others. Larry

Yes Leif it is a good price. It is still over 2,000 miles from me. If It was closer I would have gone to get it.

Nick is one of our new BCA members after purchasing the 1922-45 at Hershey. I have spoken to him several times. He is very enthusiastic about his new project.

Thank you for posting the other photos. I agree that the 1924 model 33, 4 cylinder coupe is looking to be a rough project. It appears to have a 1925 Standard radiator and shell. May even be a 1926 or 27 radiator as it does look more rounded than my 1925 shell. The side view shows the hood going uphill to the radiator. The 1924 4 cylinder cars had a painted shell with an aluminum bead around the inner edge of the shell opening and was about a 1 1/12 " shorter than the 1925 -1927 shells. If any one gets this car I believe I can source a correct radiator for it.