midman

Update on my engine rebuild: Reeves found a small crack in the block. He said it did not show up under pressure until he hit 70 psi. He said it would "probably" be OK. I told him to have it repaired. $$$ As suggested earlier he is going to machine the rods for insert bearings. The crank is OK, cam is OK. Getting the cam bearings redone. Need oversized pistons. I've been looking for more than a 2 months, nothing so I have to get them made. $$$$$ Head is good so just getting redone and new seats installed. When Reeves is done I am going to do the final assembly. I'll post the assembly as I go.

Larry, With all your free time now, you'll have it worked out before you know it. Don't do that engine unless you really have to. My engine rebuild is going typically. 1.Well those cam bearing surfaces look OK, you SHOULD be fine......well since it's apart redo them. 2.There is a tiny crack in the block. It doesn't show up until 70 psi you SHOULD be ok..........well it's a bare block now let's get it stitch welded then I know it's good. 3. You need OS pistons (can't find them anywhere). They'll have to be made. and on and on and on. I love my hobby, my bank account does not.

Yea, it seems to me it is kind of silly to restrict your pool of "qualified" people to 15 or 20. If you are prescreening them why restrict it at all. But then again it's their show. Though as edinmass said they think they have more than they do.

I'm sorry to hear about your father as well. I bought some hard to find parts from him a couple of times. I'll join the chorus and recommend a good auction house. If you have any good project cars I would add them to the auction as a draw. If it is advertised right and there are some good pieces the rest should sell well though as stated before not all at full retail. I hope your father and family find peace.

Sadly this probably happened because of the fear of lawsuits not because they wanted to keep the rights. Our wonderful lawsuit happy country is to blame I think. And we can't just blame lawyers for this. I've seen to many ridiculous lawsuits go to trial where the jury somehow came to the conclusion some idiot who wouldn't read instructions, follow directions or use common sense is entitled to millions of dollars because of an accident he or she is to blame for. I am even running into businesses in other countries that will no longer sell me parts because they are getting sued across the pond somehow now as well.

Well there is some of this stuff around. When I got my 1931 Buick it came with a folder of engineering drawings of the engine. The car was flipped by a dealer so I found the original sellers. The owner had passed away and the estate had sold the car. Turns out the guy bought the car in 1965 and he happened to be an engineer at Buick. He was smart enough to raid the Buick archives at that time and save as much as was still around for the old Buick. The family had a whole file cabinet of drawings! Everything for the car except the body wood. All of it would have been destroyed if he had not done what he did. Of course they thought this material was worth a fortune, I was willing to pay up but not that much. Long story short I touched base with them a couple of months later and they had come around so we made a deal. Well over 100 drawings when all was said and done. Everything from running boards to radiators, dimensions, metal hardness, everything. Of course this is just one year of one model of one make, but who knows what else is out there. I donated the drawings to the Buick Heritage Alliance and they were nice enough to give me a full set of digital scans. So they are available to anyone at the AACA Library for research.

Hey!!!!! What's wrong with green? ?

I think some of it is that our old cars and bikes need maintenance and we are so used to just jumping in and going with the newer stuff. Points, grease this or that every 500 miles, oil in the cups, valve adjustments, clutch adjustments, etc. etc. When it's a fresh restoration it gets done, but then the star fades. Me, I solve this problem by never finishing the restoration?. I'm always driving around after restoring this or that component and doing a road test.

Well I have to agree. The Philadelphia area is notorious for this too. Someone who was inconvenienced, let alone hurt by such an event will sue for damages and then their spouse will sue for loss of congigal relations, both will sue for loss of salary and emotional damages. And the most amazing thing is they will win all this in a jury trial made up of their supposedly reasonable peers.

Now that's funny, no one hurt. I'm sure the plastic will be narrower next time

It's up for sale on the bay http://www.ebay.com/itm/232357958647

I'll get a video up next week on the horn. In the mean time here is a vintage ad and another variation of the le Testophone

Terry, That is a heck of a collection. Isn't that hand signal a Naillik? I am still hunting for one of those. They also wrote a booklet, The Story of the Hand which I am gonna find one of these days. Thanks for sharing the pictures. Chuck

I'm not sure about Packards but my Buick coupe originally had a vinyl material on the top. It was replaced in the 60's with a close match in black. It was originally a green vinyl material the same colors as the fenders (I found some original remnants when I was restoring the car.) I like green but even I think that would have been a little much with the two tones of green it had new.

Now that is cool. I would have liked to heard it. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled at Hershey this year.

I'm also interested in vintage, unusual turn signal lights and mechanisms. There were dozens of different ways that were come up with to signal Here is an aftermarket light cluster I liked because of the spelling and colors. This will probably go on the center of the rear bumper of my Buick even though it sort of looks like a motorcycle set up.

OK, somewhere on here I'm sure this was done before, but part of the fun of this hobby are the strange and wonderful accessories for our antique vehicles. I am always on the lookout for this stuff and I have some unique items I'll share as we go, but I'd like to see what else is being collected out there. I'll start with my newest item. The Testophone. An early 1900's aftermarket horn that I believe came in 4 and 8 trumpet versions. Each time you press the bulb the horn toots and then changes to the next horn for the next toot using a ratcheting barrel in the middle of the body activated by the air pressure of the bulb. I picked this one up at an estate auction. The horns were loaded with ancient bugs so you know it was used, and the last person to tinker with it went crazy with threadlocker binding up the mechanism and every thread on the thing. After lots of penetrant, heat, and unfortunately some modifications to disassemble it, it now works as designed. I'll add some more of my crazy accessories later but I'd like to see what else is out there. Chuck

Wow

Reeves Enterprises in New York is converting the rods to take inserts and rebabbitting everything else after checking the block and head for cracks. He is going to go over the head and also balance and I am going to do the final assembly. Roger Fields sold me the overdrive unit a couple of years ago. It has been sitting a while but it looks like it was done well. I'll go over the motor and mechanicals on it and hopefully we will be good to go.

Well, I pulled the motor and trans. Pretty straightforward but it was tight maneuvering it out of the engine bay with the mounting ears of the flywheel housing. Craziest clutch and flywheel setup I've ever seen though. A 2 plate "self contained" clutch with its own friction surface.. Anyway I dropped it off ar Reeves last week, now to go through the tranny and clutch. I am probably going to put in an overdrive torque tube setup I picked up a year or so ago too. I'll post more here as it goes.

As most of you have already mentioned, the market is changing. The market will always be changing, and depending on your point of view, for better or worse. I'm still waiting for prewar cars, other than common stuff, and with intact wood and mechanicals, and not sedans, to be had for 10k or less. My guess is I will be waiting a long time, so in the interim I buy what I like and can afford regardless of where "the market" is going. Some I buy direct from the owner, some I've bought at vehicle auctions, if I believe they are a good deal for me. Sometimes they are and sometimes they are not good deals. Has nothing to do with the selling venue if I do my homework. For me I was always interested in cars and motorcycles, and before I got married I cobbled together anything with wheels I could afford, but once I was married and my family and career started to grow all of it went by the wayside for 20 years. When the kids were grown and I started to have a little money to play with the wheels started coming back into my life. I started where I left off, 60's and 70's stuff, but then I slowly became interested in early cars and bikes. Who knows what the future will be like in the collector car world or the world in general, but one thing is certain.....it will change.

I thought this issue was shelved and everyone moved on but obviously that is not the case. What is the big deal with leaving things as they are. As the club has stated numerous times the museum was always a separate entity with AACA in its name. Now all of a sudden the club is saying they are under tremoundous pressure from the membership to make the museum drop AACA from their name. Really, as far as I could see everyone had moved on except maybe the club board. None of us will be around forever, and certainly neither the club or museum board members are going to have a statue erected in their honor or books written about them.So maybe cooler heads will prevail in the not too distant future, and the desires of the people that gave of their time and money over the years will be fulfilled with combined or separate entities working for the common good of promoting the preservation and history of motor vehicles. Unfortunately burning bridges will make that much more difficult in the future. Chuck Hoffman

Hi Don, Thanks but I have that manual. That is sort of a PM guide and general maintenance. Unfortunattly it does not get into the heavy work. On a side note I had pulled the head as I was trying to diagnose the motor and found that there are no torque specs from back then either. I did find a reference in an old general service manual (Dikes I think) that stated "Do not use a wrench bigger than 9" to tighten the head bolts." I got a kick out of that. Chuck

Hello Buick Guys, I am going to pull the motor on my 31 next week to get it rebuilt (babbit bearings started to go, at least the rods). I've pulled a few engines in my day but never on a car with a torque tube. Of course there is no shop manual that I can find for 31 that would walk me through it so I am hoping I can I get some tips from someone who has done it? Can I disconnect the torque tube and pull the engine and trans like I would do in a more modern car? If not what would be the correct order of disassembly? Other than that it is ready to be pulled. Thanks ahead of time for any help. Chuck

I talked to most of the recommended shops. I decided to go with Reeve Enterprises in NY. They are 4 hours away but they seemed very knowledgeable and were OK with just doing the babbit and head work. They also walked me through pressure testing my block to check for any cracks. I'll post how it all goes. thanks for the help. Chuck