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Buickborn

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Everything posted by Buickborn

  1. A few days ago, in my garage, I was proudly showing off the power antenna operation in my '54 76R when the thing surprised me by failing to climb to its full height even though the motor continued to operate. Then I found that it would not retract either. In manipulating the antenna by hand, I find that I can manually extend it to its full height, but I cannot lower it below the nearly-full height it had achieved when it quit. This is a pressing problem because the antenna at its current height is too tall to clear my old-fashioned swing-up garage door. Further, I'm thoroughly flummoxed not only by extremely limited access to the power unit inside the fender but also by the question of how I can expect to drop the unit out of the car with the antenna extended about 42 inches. Clearly, I need to figure out how to lower the antenna before I can remove the unit. Can anyone enlighten me on this puzzle? Once I have the unit out of the car, I plan to focus on repairing or replacing it, which will no doubt lead me to further questions. But for the time being I just need to retract or remove the antenna so that the car doesn't continue to be marooned in the garage! Thanks! ~ Charlie Manes
  2. Am I reading this thread correctly? Gent posts an ad on this extremely active forum and then bitterly complains because a fair number of its members contact him with inquiries? Complains with considerable indignance that accommodating the needs of those to whom he has aimed his advertising would be entirely too inconvenient/expensive for him to consider? While I know that we are living through crazy times currently, I hope we won't soon see anything exceeding this bizarre example..
  3. Lovely automobile! But I often wonder how it came to be that so many pre-war cars sport cartoonish whitewalls resembling those outlandish near-total-whites in vogue from about 1948 through 1952. Historically, nearly every period photo or illustration of pre-war whitewall-equipped vehicles (even the very upscale jobs) shows tasteful whites of about the same width as those prevalent in the mid-1950s, by which time designers apparently figured out that attention-grabbing whitewalls do nothing to enhance the design of any car.
  4. Kalaoboy -- Valuation on cars like yours is really a tough one. Too stock to appeal to the hotrod crowd, and the age demographics of your properly appreciative audience are such that they're doing more selling than buying. One major issue in your hypothetical sale is that of whether you're looking for a quick deal as opposed to lengthy advertising -- possibly for a year or more. In any case, since a Century coupe is positioned noticeably above a Special in the food chain, your car offers a fair amount of star power. Realistic price: upper teens - ???
  5. "Great providence" ??? Unless the seller is claiming some kind of holiness for this car, he probably means "provenance."
  6. Dave -- Congrats on your impressive gas mileage in your '41! Reminds me of the time an old Nash owned by a friend of mine pulled some astonishing mileage on a trip, having traveled many miles on the first leg of the trip while needing very little gas to refill the tank. Too good to be true, of course. Turned out a little later that a plugged tank vent (combined, presumably, with a very healthy fuel pump) had caused atmospheric pressure to partially crush the tank!!!
  7. Old Tank: well, it seems we have manuals that disagree, although mine is a regular shop manual as opposed to a body manual. In my manual, a single wiring diagram is used for both 66C and 100C bodies; that diagram shows leads to window cylinders: dark green/white to left, light green to right; seat cylinder wire is shown as pink. There are no leads corresponding with electric windows or electric seat. Having re-checked that far, I find (in spite of what I had previously thought) no such leads in any other 1954 models. So it appears that hydraulics were used only in Skylarks and Century convertibles.
  8. 1954 hydraulic windows: according to my manual, all '54 Buick convertibles equipped with power windows and/or power seats used the hydraulic versions instead of the electric. Possibly the rationale was to capitalize on the presence of the pump required for the convertible top (?).
  9. Well, in that case, you'd almost have to re-plate the front bumper to match -- as well as re-plating the "clearance lights" (by which the seller apparently means the parking lights and streamers). And, while you're at it, might as well . . . Yikes!
  10. Car has been re-listed after closing with no bids. Considering that it needs at least a better paint job and lots of re-plating of painted-out brightwork, maybe the seller will lower the opening bid next time around.
  11. Dave -- FWIW: generator airscoops were not peculiar to Buicks; they appeared on other GM makes of various pre-war years. So if you get no results with your request here, you might try other venues -- maybe even eBay.
  12. Is anyone besides me having trouble making any sense whatsoever of the previous half-dozen or so posts?
  13. Gangster movies . . . how did they get those narrow, high-profile cars to take corners so fast without capsizing? You don't suppose it had anything to do with film speed, do you?
  14. J.H. -- That is one handsome Buick! Unfortunately, I think the general appreciation for such elegant items has fallen victim to our casual, youth-dominated era. That is, it appears that the sought-after vehicles are those which seem personal and youthful as opposed to those intended for families or for making a proper arrival at the opera. Surely that disdain for maturity hasn't always been the case.
  15. Matt -- thanks for your elaboration. Nice to know that there may be a little life left in the pre-war sedan market, although it's hard not to wonder if most of the audience for such items is now either on the wrong side of the grass or convinced that they're shortly headed that way.
  16. Matt -- In your description of this very fine Buick, you suggest that it is a good candidate "to buy and fix up and come out ahead later." But it seems in recent years that the notion of profitably speculating via auto restoration has become seriously questionable -- especially in the case of pre-war 4-door-sedans. However, you're in the biz and you oughta know, so here's a question: is a plan to "come out ahead" by investing time and money in a sedan of this vintage even remotely realistic? Thanks! ~ Charlie Manes
  17. This is news to me, too. Could this minor difference have reflected a running change, as opposed to exactly correlating with model year?
  18. Iancemb -- guess you're right. But I don't recall having ever encountered such unpleasantness here before.
  19. Having noted the auction text to the effect that this car, as a 1955 prototype, incorporated some 1954 features, I found it an irresistible "I Spy" challenge to ferret out such features. Head hanging and eyes cast down, I must admit that I could find only two: the 1954-style engine oil filler planted in the valley cover, as opposed to the 1955 dual filler/breather caps in the rocker covers; and the plain 1954 brake pedal pad, as opposed the 1955 version that boldly proclaims "Power Brake." Can anyone here top my lackluster results?
  20. Well, Hans, I agree with your ideas about acquiring something that needs a friend. A car in which I have some "skin" not only is a source of greater satisfaction for me than one that would reflect merely a fat checkbook, but it also provides stronger bragging rights😄. Further, it helps to invite others into the hobby, by means of the message, "If I can do this myself in my own humble garage, then so can you."
  21. Hans -- I'm glad that Riv found you as its new owner! I'd seen it on eBay a couple of times and was surprised at the modest bidding for such an iconic car -- probably due to interior work needed. No doubt you'll have that little matter fixed in no time. Congrats on your excellent acquisition!
  22. Just wondering . . . does anyone on this forum have a clear sense as to whether the number of U.S. collectible cars going overseas is at all offset by the number of such vehicles being imported here? It appears that Americans are running quite a trade surplus of sorts in this market -- that is, selling more than we're buying -- especially in the case of high-end vehicles. Given the country's large population and relative affluence (not to mention the natural American preference for American cars), it's hard not to wonder why so many of our collectible cars have to go overseas in order to find homes.
  23. Hans, it looks to me like the Elko NV Riv that was advertised in Hemmings for a while -- even appears to be wearing a Nevada license plate.
  24. Roadmaster -- Your busy-engine problem seems odd for any American non-performance car built as late as 1963, by which time the low axle ratios of the past were long gone (except in trucks and performance cars). Near as I can determine, your Special should have a 3.23 axle ratio, which, with 13" wheels (assuming about 25" tire diameter), equates to about 2590 engine revolutions per mile -- not exactly overdrive conditions but well within the comfort zone of a high-revving engine like the V6. Have you been able to determine the actual rpm of the engine while underway? Sometimes conditions other than rpm will cause an engine to seem busy, such as a noisy exhaust system or even a heavy-duty fan. Further, RPM-related problems caused by excessive torque converter slippage would only be aggravated by larger wheels/tires, which would add loading and increase heat generation.
  25. This pattern of lower-level Buicks being represented as Roadmasters is extremely common, especially on eBay, where sellers, when challenged on that account, often claim that the eBay input format accepts only "Roadmaster" for Buick models. Seems that a likely anti-deception precaution would to ask for a photo of the data plate; but over the last few years we've seen data plates switched out in order to further the deception. And once in a while someone adds a fourth porthole to a '49-'54 non-Roadmaster for the same purpose. By the way, I'm not sure I agree with the argument that the difference between a Roadmaster and a Super (not mention the junior models) is of little consequence. After all, no one would say that about a Packard Super 8 vs. a 120 or a Chrysler New Yorker vs. a Windsor, etc.
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