kgreen

My first thought was how many rounds do those things hold. Then on to see what would be available for headlight aimers for personal use once or ten times in my remaining life time. I found these: https://www.lujanusa.com/sniper/sniper.htm The price for these ranged from $800 to $1,400 on various sites. Headlight aiming is important, I recall dad set up a taped pattern on the back of the garage wall. At the time, he had the good fortune, or lack or fortune thus few tools, of having a blank wall in the garage. Glenn brings up a good point and a good method, but what do others of you use for headlight aiming?

Not saying you did this, but I put my flywheel on thinking it had only one dedicated position. I miss-placed the TDC timing mark because the flywheel didn't have a fixed position, rotation-wise. I was amazed that I found the correct flywheel placement on the first try. Then doubly amazed when my TDC didn't show up for cylinder number one, but for cylinder no five.

Suspension work - torsion bars also known as stabilizer bars. I'm not sure if the reference to these pieces are regional or possibly one is not as correct as the other. These bars work in torsion to resist roll, thus I see a name based on function. Steele Rubber refers to these parts as stabilizer bars. None the less, I replaced the rubber on both front and rear stabilizer bars using rubber parts available from Steel. This post is about difficult to replace bushings that aren’t routinely available. Rear bushing p/n: 50-0171-34, the housing rivet was drilled out, the bushing split on the rear horizontal, slipped over the bar, then the housing was re-riveted as shown below. The front stabilizer bar was not advertised as available for this car. A quick phone call to Steel with the help of a very customer-oriented parts clerk helped me find a bushing to match these specs: 2-inch width, OD 1.4375 to 1.5, bar diameter max at 0.674 inches. The 1938 Cadillac, p/n 70-0717-33, had the closest size with the inner hole diameter off by 1/16th-inch. The exterior shape of the original bushing was round, and the Cadillac was flat-sided. It also had a groove cut around the circumference that allowed the installation of two pins inside the clamp housing to prevent the bushing from drifting out of the housing. It fits like a glove even with that shape as shown below. Same process as the rear stabilizer, split the bushing on the horizontal, then open the housing enough to shove the new bushing into place. T

Matt, started to wonder if an item was standard on a particular series that there would be no designation. My reasoning is that the tag data told the line what to change on any particular car. Thoughts? I see the convertible top designation as having three choices. Would that be a color choice? Black, Tan or White? Looking at the "O" stamped on one of your data tags, the shape of the data tag where the stamping took place makes me wonder if the data tag was stamped on the line. I would assume the stamping would occur at the start of the line.

Pm sent

Are you looking for 16-inch or 15-inch?

I wrapped an engine to transport on an open trailer once. Amazing how the wind found every single edge that could be found to loosen the wrap. After 1,348 miles the engine stayed dry and the minor flapping didn't cause any heartbreaking paint damage. I'm not inclined to wrap a car for the same trip.

Oh John, that is terrible news. I'm so sorry that you've lost your wife and friend of 53 years!

Glad to hear so many with positive comments on PayPal, but they screwed me big time. I made a payment to a fake account but discovered it before the payment was processed. The fake account became so obvious that I even cancelled my credit card before the payment was made. I “contacted” them with the full details yet they let the payment go through. I appealed twice and they refused to settle the problem. I’m not able to delete my account so it sits in limbo. I use Zelle which is bank to bank. Gosh, you sure see a lot after dealing with so many privates sales on car parts. That last experience finished me.

Same pile as previous post.

Found this pile while pheasant hunting in SD.

My brother had a Vega and solved the oil consumption problem by rigging a five gallon can of oil above and off to one side of the hood to serve as an IV. He got almost 60 miles to the gallon; of oil that is.

A bit more progress, dealing with a missing part from the plater but have a spare to send out. Another odd thing about this car is that for a production car, two identical cars have slightly different parts. Sure, one answer could be that a couple parts got switched out years ago, but the different parts are not the type of part that ever gets lost or removed for service or accident. The result is that I have replated parts that I can't use. The top is installed, adjusted and operable. In a couple locations, Dan re-created rivets with stainless bolts turned on the lathe to make them appear to be rivets. The rear fenders and deck lid are polished and buffed. Aside from body prep, that task is one of the most tedious.

Ouch, Of the batch of parts to be replated, I got a strange part back from my plater in place of the part that I sent him. Someone out there has a top iron for a 40 Buick and I have who knows what? I do have a parts car, but I hate to lose hard to find stuff. Good luck, I hope you get the missing part back.

My F150 detected a large paint spill at a long running road construction project and immediately bumped me off "lane keeper" after a brief swerve. The Ford lane keeper system sort of self drives when on cruise control, but is not a full self driving car. Lane keeper maintains the lane with hands-off, the set speed on cruise control and distancing from the car in front. It won't stop for lights and has a watchful sensor built into the A pillar to detect eyes in a forward position.

Unfortunately, true

Same situation, college student with no money and a scored front rotor. I replaced the shoes and hand filed the worst of the grooves on the rotor. Now the brake pedal pulsated because of course I couldn't get a uniform rotor surface. That blew out the power brake booster. When the rod finally went through the engine a couple months later I sold the car for parts and walked.

The 41 Buick doesn't have the hump that we might be thinking about from the 50's-79's cars. It is wide and barely has a crown in it. As Studemax says, building your own is the best option. Something could be built to sit on the seat between the two front seat passengers or on the floor. If on the floor, it would be rather low and not convenient for the reach. If on the seat, then you sacrifice elbow room. Either way, those cups that have closeable lids are necessary, the disposable coffee cups from the fast food guys aren't reliable.

Exactly, how many variations exist out there?

The brass era car guys haven’t chimed in with any comments yet. Then there’s the guy that bought the model T with the crank start that couldn’t figure out how to start the car after he pulled into the garage all the way up against the far wall. He couldn’t reach the crank anymore. That was 1935 and the car is still in that garage.

The mirror is screwed to the forward part of the ventipane frame. This is an optional right side view mirror on a 1940. The left side would be mounted the same. These can be purchased through Fusick, https://www.fusickautomotiveproducts.com/products.asp?dept=809

You're absolutely correct: https://jalopnik.com/these-are-what-the-first-modern-flashing-turn-signals-l-1845692668

Thanks rocketraider, always interesting to learn a bit of car trivia, as well as making sure I put the correct bulbs in the sockets.

The car looks exactly like one of these, only different. I was curious to see what a variety of 40 Desoto's would look like. Photos compliments of Mr. Google.