1967 - 1997 Riviera

A question: Since you said you did have the radiator re-cored, did you also clean the inside of the radiator hoses before you hooked everything up? Even new rubber hoses usually have some dust, dirt, oils or what have you inside them, and it would be a shame to spread that throughout the flushed or new cooling system.

Where are the rest of the body parts, or is Bob going to do those after the main body section is complete? Not to get too far ahead in your project, but what are your plans concerning the worn and mice-infested seats that came with the car? If the seat springs are rusty and close to failure where will you get replacement(s)?

Correction: The replacement water pump, incorrectly installed by the dealer, had BALL bearings and not roller bearings. The roller bearing pump was what should have been installed.

Are the bearings in your original water pump ball bearings or roller bearings? Roller bearings would be able to withstand an axial load better than ball bearings. I remember a water pump that was replaced on our family Buick when I was a kid, and right before we went on summer vacation. The dealer installed the wrong pump on the engine, one that had roller bearings which was meant for a car without air conditioning, that could not withstand the additional axial load force from the air conditioner compressor. On the return trip home it started leaking and squealing loudly. Every time the engine got hot or close to overheating we had to stop to add more water and let the engine cool. We had to limp home that way for many miles. My dad was spitting bullets angry that the dealer made that mistake.

Just two things: 1) When you do a final blow with air from the compresor, please be aware that there is usually a very small amount of oil that is in the system to help lubricate the reciprocating compressor during operation. And if it is carried along and deposited on your surface before any application of paint, then you could very well encounter an adhesion problem that will come back to haunt you later. I think your method of a final wipe down with Acetone, which you've been using often on other components, is very good insurance against this. 2) Considering the amount of commendable effort you've put into the wheel restoration, I just hope you checked them at the very beginning to make sure they were structurally sound and reusable. I would hate to see you put in all this work only to find, when completed, that they are out of round, won't seal at the bead, or on the verge of failing, and will do so right at the worst time.

Gosh, how did they do that? Since you say you've mostly completed the chassis work, and are now into the beautification and artistic phase of things with the body at the paint shop, steering wheel restored and interior yet to come, is it too early to ask just what kind of tires you have in mind for your car? Will you be staying with blackwalls or going with whitewalls? And what about the all important choice of original bias-ply tube-type versus more modern radial?

Have you chosen who will perform the rebabbitting work? Or will you use this opportunity to have the rods converted to insert bearings? Will you be doing anything else to the engine besides that? I love to see the early 1930s big series Buicks getting some attention, so I'd be interested to hear your complete plan of action for the engine.

No updates since early December of 2016. Wonder if the project is still alive.

I once read somewhere that there was some wealthy, old fashioned farmer who lived in a town in the rural midwest. Was one of the most influential men in the area, with a house up on a steep hill. He was skeptical of automobiles even into the early 1920s. The businessman in the town nearest to where he lived wanted to open a car dealership but needed his financial backing. He said he would partner into financing the dealership for whichever make of car was able to make it up to his house. They then had a sort of casting call for all makes and models to see which could. (Most were probably 4 cylinder Ford Model Ts.) Turns out the only one that could was a Buick, so that's what became the first car dealership in the town. And the farmer finally bought his first car.

A work of art indeed!

Are you still intending to paint it black?

So the "battery box" sits below the floor?...And the battery is exposed to the elements, including rain and mud?

I agree with everything you stated and I would not want any Chinese parts in a vintage Buick either. But are all the brake return springs available today made in China? There certainly are spring manufacturers still in business here in the U.S.A. This is something that might be worth looking into, i.e., just what is the source of today's available springs. Also, when drum brakes were common on cars years ago, I always remember the springs being routinely replaced as part of a brake job. Must have had to do with metal fatigue and loss of elasticity over time.

Just curious to know why you decided to reuse the brake return springs instead of replacing them outright with new ones?

Mr. Albright- What is the color of this Skylark? Is Reef Blue correct?

What was the condition of the inside of the brake drums? Did you at least sand the brake shoe contact surface?

That 1940 looks a lot like a 1941 Chevrolet owned by my Father's maternal aunt, and her husband, until the day she passed away in the late 1960s. (Don't know what happened to the car.)

I recall that one factory version of the Ford flathead V-8 had a displacement of 239 cubic inches at the same time the 235 cubic inch displacement Chevrolet inline six was being sold. About the same displacement, and they were rated at roughly the same 90 horsepower, despite the Ford having eight cylinders to produce power versus the Chevy's six. This was possible because of the better breathing of those overhead valves on the Chevy. It always seemed to me that the extensive and varied efforts to improve the flathead Ford engine were a case of the proverbial "making a silk purse out of a sows ear", whether that was the Ardun OHV conversion or whatever. And one thing the Chevy sixes did not suffer from were the overheating and vapor lock problems of the flathead Ford or Mercury V-8. Talk to anyone who drove one. While working at one of my jobs during college, I had a chance to talk with a man who owned a 1950 Mercury. He said he always tried to avoid getting caught in a traffic jam in the summer because of the threat of vapor lock and engine stalling. He said he dealt with that possibility by always keeping a bag of grapefruit on the back seat. If he stalled out, he would slice open a couple and wrap them around the fuel line to provide some cooling so that the gasoline would condense back to a liquid and he could get started again.

Years from now, when your grandson is doing another restoration on the car, he will look at that block drain petcock you added and think to himself "Gee, those Buick Engineers certainly were clever!" Now I'd like to see just how you put the new, full-flow oil filter arrangement together. And what (spin-on?) filter you have chosen to use.

Glad to see that you are restoring the original radio instead of replacing outright with a modern unit. Plus, the planned addition of FM and an Ipod connection option should keep you happy for many miles of listening

I also would like to know who or what is the source of your replacement springs.

A few questions: 1) Did you have the crankshaft checked for straightness? 2) Did you have your crankshaft and connecting rods checked for cracks? 3) Did you have any machine work done on the block or head?

Going to resurrect this thread with some related information. I think the Chevrolet OHV, inline six, produced from 1937 to 1962, also known as the "stove bolt", was something like a little brother to the Buick OHV straight eight. The early fifties book (yellow and black cover) that NTX5467 refers to is "How to Hop-up Chevrolet and GMC Six Cylinder Engines." I got my copy as a gift from the father of a high school friend who raced dirt tracks in the 1950s and 1960s. I asked him what he thought of these sixes and he responded, quite enthusiastically, that "Those were good engines! I won a lot of races with those engines." He did NOT have anything good to say about flathead Ford V-8s. Actually detested them.

Just my two cents, but I'd advise you to opt for plan A and do it right. I once had a slowly leaking freeze plug on a 1977 Chevrolet Impala with the 305 c.i. small block V-8 that I did not want to $repair$ and I could not afford another car at the time. So I used the Barr's Stop Leak and crossed my fingers. Sure enough, it did work on sealing the leak. But, the first winter after that, I noticed the heater did not produce as much toasty heat as before. I had done nothing else to the cooling system, so I could only conclude that the Stop Leak, while doing a great job on the engine coolant leak, must have also clogged my heater core to some degree.

Perhaps you covered this in a different post, but what paint color do you have in mind for your 1937 Special? If you stay with the original color, what was that?