Daves1940Buick56S

Cool. And with your open plan, you could easily add later if you want. Cheers, Dave

Earl: Since the ceiling is open, how about a sprinkler system? That would answer the fire issue. Or did I miss that and you already put it in or are planning to? Cheers, Dave

Well I just got a flag about political posts. Let me be clear: this is not political, I don't care about how this is implemented, or not. What I am talking about is physics and engineering. Period.

Understand. First, I was talking about power required on fast charge. Spreading it out does mitigate that like I pointed out. And as far as the transpo of fuel, of course, but I was focusing on the increased load on the grid. Most of what you mentioned doesn't impact that. Shifting to EV will reduce the energy required but a lot of that is off-grid. At least some refineries generate their own power, for example.

Good question. The issue is that suddenly you are adding a 1 MW load. And then in 20 min it goes away. The housing developments etc have the same energy requirement but spread out in time. It's the instantaneous power not the energy.

All good points, but most people don't understand anything about electrical power generation beyond the sockets in their walls. For those that deal with these issues, some of the numbers you quoted should cause concern. A 250kW additional power load, even if for only 15 or 20 mins, will be noticed back at the gen plant directly on that branch. And plug in 4 vehicles at once and you will really create a bump! Consider that our nearest plant here in DC is at Dickerson and is currently totals a little over 300 MW when adding in the adjacent cogeneration facility. A sudden load of 1/300 of the total, while it may not seem like much, could be problematic in the summer peak hrs. And that is just 4 cars. When EVs get more numerous you will likely have a lot more than 4 vehicles using the FastCharge at once. Plug in 40 at once and you could create a brownout in the summer. So the short term answer would obviously be limits on fast charging in times of heavy load. But if people are expecting this capability and they still end up having to wait a couple of hrs for a full charge they will be frustrated. Longer term, more generating facilities will be needed along with upgraded energy transmission infrastructure to support a greater number of EVs. It will be expensive and controversial as most folk don't want new plants nearby or overhead HV transmission lines. (No, you cannot bury them either. Besides the astronomical cost, Maxwell's Equations still apply and the max distance before bringing back to the surface to a substation is abt 30 miles.) The additional amount of energy required for even 50% of all light vehicle-miles being by EV would be abt 3.7 x 1011 kWh, or about 10% of the total of the current-year 4.1 x 1012 kWh. That is a lot. (For the pedantic, I got the total vehicle-miles from the NTHSA and divided by 2 for 50% and divided again by 3 as that seems to be an accepted mi/kWh under avg driving.) Current renewable is about 7 x 1011 with growth about 10%/yr. Since the duty cycle of wind and solar is not 100% this will mean more generating plants will be needed, probably natural gas fired. I'm not arguing against any of this, just saying we should go in with our eyes open and understand what will need to be undertaken.

Interesting. Lou Wildt, quoted in the article, was one of the owners of my '38! Perhaps he redid the dash woodgraining and got rid of the chevron. My interior was originally tan mohair and when the interior was redone it was changed to gray Bedford cord. Perhaps he redid the dash then although it was pretty difficult to get it out which made me think it had not been removed since the car was built.

Ok, I do remember seeing pics of this before. I am kinda, no actually very glad mine wasn't like that, I like the Butt Walnut in which I redid mine. Original panel was like Matt's, kind of straight grain. I also have an extra dash with a amateur-applied straight grain, not real good. I finished installing the clock today. All done but the rear view mirror. Cheers, Dave

Do you have any pics of the chevron pattern? Thanks

Thanks all! After installing the garnish moldings and the lock buttons I can see no room for any kind of grommet. Don't know what the material was that crumbled off the hole edges. After relooking at the mirror it is metal - magnets don't stick to plastic! The color looks to closely match the gauge panel color. The is no other paint underneath so it was either painted this color originally or the woodgrain was stripped off at some point. So I went ahead and filled the cracks with JB Weld and will sand and repaint. At some point I will call Dave T for the proper replacement.

I am trying to wrap up putting the dash and garnish moldings back in my car. I am getting down to the last couple of items and I have 2 issues: 1. The small grommets on the lock button openings on the door garnish moldings need replacing as the old ones crumbled off before I sent out the moldings to be woodgrained. I took a look at standard sized grommets and no go - the diameter difference between the buttons and the opening is pretty small. Any ideas? 2. My interior rear view mirror is plastic bodied and has cracks. I can probably fill, sand, and paint but - is this the original mirror or an aftermarket replacement? Pics attached. Thanks, Dave

Thanks to you both! Gary I did look at your posts first since they are the "bible" of 37/38 rebuilds. But I was still unclear on how the how the sub-body worked with the adjusters. I will look at the Torque Tube article next. Probably won't get to this until after Xmas. I steel-wooled up the left door/window handles today, right side done and on. Putting the trim back on the garnish moldings tomorrow, hopefully reinstall by the weekend, reattach the rear view mirror and the clock, then the interior will be complete! UPDATE: Yes, the Torque Tube article is very helpful. Should be enough for what I need.

Last Fall I found out that the vertical adjustment on the left headlight is non-functional. The beam just points up to signal the Space Station. So far no answer. I have been tied up getting the interior back together (dash and new glass) but that work is almost finished (about 6 months later than planned!). So I will be looking at this soon as weather here intermittently permits. I went back and looked at Gary's posts on his '37, and what I could glean out of the Shop Manual illustrations and the Parts Manuals that I have, but I think I need more info to do this. I think what I need to do is to remove the sub-body so I can get access to the adjustment mechanism. I suspect maybe a stripped adjust screw or related issue (the vertical adjust screw turns to no effect, the horizontal adjust works well). Does anyone have any advice here? Will I end up having to remove the whole bucket assembly? It would also help if I had a nice exploded drawing of the bucket with all parts, haven't seen one so far and the Shop Manual drawing is too vague for what I need. Thanks! Dave

Matt: Yes, AMG. Brain fart and typo on my part. Wait, don't you call one of your kids Captain Pedantic lol? Anyhow, *I* am not buying this car. My 15-soon-to-be-16-year-old "assistant"/mentee is. But he is undoubtedly looking to me for help when it does break. I have been trying to tell him that working on a car like that is decidedly different and more difficult/expensive than working on pre-1970 iron. Surprisingly, his Dad seems to be ok with this car idea. If I were his father I would say "no way" since putting 500 HP in the hands of a 16 year old driver is like giving them a loaded gun. But I am not surprised by what you said, it's what I expected. I will try to dissuade him, but he has stars in his eyes right now. Thanks for the info! Cheers, Dave

I hope you all don't mind a Buick pre-war guy asking a question here. My young assistant is just getting his license and looking for a car. He was leaning towards some late '60s American iron, but lately has become enamored of the 2004-2005 MB E 55 AGM. Mainly due to 500 HP and that you can get them for under $14k (with over 150k miles!). Obviously I have concerns with a young driver and that much power, but besides that - MB used to be money pits when they got older. Is this still true? Can a "backyard mechanic" actually work on these or is it pretty much dealer only? I seem to recall that MB service used to require special tools, etc - is that still true? Thanks in advance, Dave

In the photo is Queen Elizabeth, George VI's wife, Princess Elizabeth's mother. She was the Queen until he died and then became the Queen Mother.

Sorry for the delay. The structure from the top down is the pot metal shell with insert red lenses held by 2 brackets which is in turn held to the shell by screws. From the 2 brackets are 4 studs which are pressed into the bracket. This is a failure point as the studs can be twisted loose from the bracket. Another failure point is the castings with the threaded holes on the shell. And of course where the wings of the shell attach. Skill using JB Weld is useful here. So the shell assembly with the 4 studs pointing down is inserted thru a gasket into the corresponding holes on the decklid. On the underside the lamp buckets go over the studs (with an intervening gasket of course) and nuts hold them on. Very carefully remove the nuts. Use penetrating oil or grease to make sure the studs don't snap off or, more importantly, tear a hole into the brackets inside the shell. Pry off the buckets (sockets and lamps come with) and then *extremely carefully* pry off the shell assembly from the decklid. Make sure it goes up evenly or the wings will break off. Cheers Dave

Daytona Beach! And a nice 1949 56S looks about to run over 4 Sweet Young Things...

Black it is! Pics coming...

Don, yes I have seen this. I have also seen black, although they were likely repainted. I decided to stick with the black in this case, and it looks better with the black hoses. I also forgot to mention I considered having the center bar rechromed, but that would mean repainting the crest. So I cleaned it up, hammered out the dents, and polished as best I could. Patina don'tcha know! Cheers Dave

The 1938 dash has a chromed 3 sided frame trim around the radio speaker. This frame also contains the map lite. 1. The groove bottoms in my frame were apparently painted in a gold color. What is original? I have see the frame all chrome, and black grooves, and I think red grooves. Rechroming is not an option, so black or red? 2. My plastic map lite cover also has the bars and letters painted gold. Am i right that it's supposed to be black? Cheers, Dave

More Defroster added Installed in vehicle Sorry the last one is turned, the new Forum SW does not like vertical pics. I also has a hard time getting these uploaded. Buggy Forum SW. Hope these pics helped Cheers, Dave

When I got my '38 it had the Deluze heater but was missing the top piece (with the doors) and defroster. I looked for a while on E Bay and finally got one with the defroster assy. Unfortunately it was gray hammertone instead of brown crackle. So during the downtime I had the shells and doors bead blasted and primed. I stripped the defrost plenum, primed, and painted black gloss. I stripped and overhauled both motors and painted by hand with black gloss sign paint. The frame holding the core I primed and painted gloss black. I hand painted the 2 pipes coming out of the core gloss black. I tested the core for leaks and cleaned up but did not paint. Finally, I painted the shells black crackle and lightly sprayed over in gloss brown. Before Motor work Black crackle Core and frame Bottom shell Front badges Front shell Shell assembled

In the Spring while things were quiet I decided to tackle the rear turn signal assembly on my 1940 56S. I knew the pot metal wings had fractured long ago and it leaked into the light buckets, rusting them and finally shorting out the left signal. 1. Removed it and it's a pile 'o parts 2. Stripped and JB Welded back together. If you do this, remember to assemble on the trunk lid installed in place and glue it there as there is a compound curve on the trunk that must be matched. I used a couple of thin newspaper sheets to protect the trunk. Then sanded the whole assy down after curing. (Derusting, sanding, and painting the lamp buckets is not shown in this thread) 3. Primed 4. Sanded and painted 5. Side trim installed 6. Lenses installed. I stuck with the old ones since the new ones don't have the shield behind the letters that makes the cool "arrow" effect. 7. New shield installed. 8. Installed on the car.

For a while now I have been noticing a double click noise at idle. I thought it might be a misadjusted valve but I checked all of the valves and they are all good. It seems to be more towards the front of the engine. I could not isolate with a stethoscope. I tried pulling the ignition cables one by one and no change. I know a double click usually means piston pin but it should diminish with spark disconnected. As RPM increases the noise fades into the background, i.e. is gets no worse. Ideas? I have audio clips and can email them if anyone wants to hear. The new Forum SW no longer allows m4a files - too bad. Thanks, Dave