Hubert_25-25

Those push pins look correct. I can see them in the first photo of the 1926 model 40 with the original interior.

Wilson, The length of the bolt without the threads is about 2 1/2" long. So the base of this triangle is about 5" long. Once you get behind the upholstery, you will likely see the outline of this in the wood, and you will certainly see the 4 mounting holes from the screws. The second picture is a similar hand fabricated bracket that is on the 1927 Buick that I am working on. This one has the top rest post that goes thru the sheetmetal rather than on top of it. Hugh

Larry, Attached are the pages about setting the valve timing. The first 4 pages are from the 1926 Buick Export manual. In essence, valve timing is correct and checked by a) putting a piece of paper in the #1 inlet valve gap area where you check with a feeler gauge. b) Put slight tension on the paper. c) Another person Rotates the engine slowly. D) As soon as the paper is let go. Stop. The engine should be on the 1-6 line or less than 1 flywheel tooth width past (below) - the 1-6 line is just below the center mark in the timing window. I am also assuming that someone put the flywheel on correctly and 1-6 is TDC for the engine on #1. I have known engines to have been assembled with the flywheel on the wrong bolts. This is the page from the 1925 Buick export manual. Same instructions. So you can use what you know from your engines. This is the layout on my 1925 Buick Standard. I do not know if the teeth count is the same for a Standard and a Master, as the crank and camshaft gears are different sizes. The final check is the paper check on the #1 intake valve. Hugh

Those straps are a really interesting approach. They are break over straps to limit the compression and still stay attached. There must have been some movement in the clamps to necesitate adding the strap.

I need some engine design help. This 1911 Metz has many lubrication issues and I am looking for pointers to correct the problem areas. I do not know if these are mistakes from 1911, or if someone lost some major part in this engine. This is an air cooled 2 cylinder 4 stroke. Last year of this design. 1912 is a 4 cylinder. 1 )Upon removing the cylinders, the walls were completely dry. They look like a hone will clean them up as the scratches are not deep. Should I use a hone with 3 flat stones or a hone with balls on the end of wires? There is no ridge at the top. 2) In review of the pistons, there are no oil holes behind the oil control rings. I would think maybe eight 3/16" holes would be a good idea? 3) I have never seen this style of compression rings before. 2 rings in tandem on the same groove. Was that factory or a means of filling a wide ring groove with modern compression rings? A friend mentioned that he had seen this on airplanes. Anyone else seen this? 4) piston top is dished. I have no idea if these are the original pistons, but it seems likely as even the middle ring around the wrist pin - I have not seen this type of retaining for the wrist pin. 5) I will have to check if the piston is steel of aluminum. The underside of the piston skirt looks like a pretty porous casting. The piston itself looks like pretty low mileage. 6) I also thought that a little 2 cycle oil in the gas is not a bad idea to ensure some lubrications is always available for the cylinder walls. - Although Volkswagen did not do that. Now lets get into the other lubrication issues. In 1910, this engine was splash lubricated. In 1911, Metz added a 6" deep sump and oil pump gears to one of the cam shafts. So now the problems. The oil sump is 6" deep below the engine. The camshaft is at the top of the engne. So the oil pump gears on the end of one cam have to lift the oil around 18 inches. 1/4" ID copper tubing is used from the base of the block. The oil is lifted 18 inches and then squirted onto the windage tray to do splash lubrication. In this next picture, you see the bottom of the engine for the new added 1911 sump. The 1/4" ID tubing has a piece of 3/16 " ID tubing sodlered into it, and the solder is broken. So this is just sucking air. - but. Should this have a larger tubing (rather than smaller) soldered to it, and then a check valve used so that it will maintain oil in the vertical tube after the engine is shut down? Without a check valve, you will never maintain prime. Any thoughts on a 1/4" or 3/8" check valve that would be a good candidate here? I do not know if a part was lost here, but this is not good engineering? So now, could I just convert this back to a splash only engine? The last item is the windage tray. The edge of the big end of the connecting rod just barely touches the oil level in the windage tray. I would think that maybe a piece of sheetmetal added to the big end of the connecting rod might push more oil out of the windage tray so there is more splashing and making an oil rich atmospheric environment in the crankcase. Thank you for looking at this post. A lot of effort has gone into restoring this car, and now we are trying to get it to run, but we have these serious motor problems. This is not my car but I am helping a good friend to get it to run. Hugh

I do have this broken speedometer that came from a friend. It is a 1928 Chevy AC speedometer. It does have an 80 MPH speedwheel. The bezel is not as "deep dished" as the picture from the catalog. I can rebuild and calibrate these, but I have to use all the parts that come with it. I would suggest that if you do find one on Ebay or the like that you want rebuilt, it is best not to open these or try to turn them. I open them in a special fixture to prevent damaging the bezel, and I don't turn anything until I have pulled them apart and cleaned and checked the bearing surfaces. Hugh

I am located in Lake Jackson Texas which is 50 minutes south of Houston. All of the photos I have shown above are of the "Standard" AC speedometer. They have a round bezel. The one used in the Master Buicks uses the same speedometer internal parts, but the odometer cage is different and the trip reset rod comes out the middle bottom. The bezel and faceplate are also different. Below shown is a 1925 AC speedometer used in the 1925 Buick Master. These Master units are much harder to find. The quality of the pot metal kept getting worse every year that AC made speedometers in the 20's. That said, every now and then they got it right and I do find good later model units. I do have one very rough unit that may be a 1928 Chevy unit, so I will try to grab a picture. Hugh

Buick used 75 MPH AC speedometers thru 1927. In 1928 the speedometer was drastically changed again and the speedwheel went to 80 MPH. This was for both the Buick Standard and the Buick Master. Sometimes an 80 MPH speed wheel shows up in a 1927 speedometer, but that is because a rebuilder put it there. So for 1926, I would say that Pontiac used 75 mph. Attached is a page from the thick Buick master parts catalog. United motors section. It lists the Buick speedometers. I have also included a two page tech paper that I wrote showing the progression of the AC speedometer between 1924 and 1927. The last 2 photos are the 1925 AC speedometer for my Buick, and the 1927 AC speedometer showing the backlit feature. As a side note, I only restore and calibrate 1924 thru 1927 AC speedometers. I 3D print parts as there are potmetal parts inside that no one makes and I replace those. I also calibrate these and I use remagnetized magnets. I completely disasssemble, clean, check bearing and gear clearances, and I rebuild using sunthetic grease. If you need one restored, I can do yours or I do have a few candidates that I can rebuild. Hugh

Wilson, This is how Buick built the back seat. The seat back and the seat sides are upholstered to the car. The upholstery nails are under the "gimp trim". Gimp trim is folded over leather or vinyl and held with decorative tacks. Gimp trim is like hidem. It hides the functional tacks or staples. Remove the gimp trim to see the upholstery tacks. The seat back is installed last, so it is the first to peel back. Start with taking of upholstery tacks from one side of the top of the seat back covering. See if this exposes enough to get into the side panel. I am thinking it may not. So plan B is remove all the tacks across the top of the seat back covering. The seat spring assembly is held up by about 5 webbed straps across the top of the spring frame. Remove the tacks in the straps and the spring assembly can be pulled up and out of the car. With the springs out of the way, you should be able to get into the top back corners of the rear seat sides. Also a photo of an excellent tack puller. This works better than the 2 prong tack pullers. Hugh

If you are going to "drive the problem" out of the car, you need an additive that works on sticking rings. Lots of snake oil out there. Not sure what is better than another. A leak down test will tell you if #6 is a valve or piston problem. That would determine if you pull the oil pan (pistons come out the bottom) or pull the head for a valve job. I am in the court with Don. I would not drive the problem out, but rather do the leak down and follow up on that data. If it's a piston, then it is an opportunity to inspect the oil lines and the oil screen. There is also no loss in pulling the cylinder head and cleaning all the carbon out and dressing the valves. Hugh

1926 Buick photos if this helps?

Wilson, I am going to repeat much of what is explained above, but add some details. These first couple of photos show the brackets that hold the "top rest iron stud". These plates would not be difficult to make with 1/4" plate steel and a nut welded to it. Basically get the top rest stud to rest on the top of the body sheetmetal. These were originally 7/16-20 threaded, but a 1/2-13 nut would be more common to put together. Note that there is also a 1" x 1/4" flat bar underneath the top rest mounting for support that extends to the wood frame. This is the top rest iron stud. I found that this dimension was a little short. Larry made my first set and I had to remake these about 1" longer and expect to cut them to length. These were originally black painted steel. I had mine made from stainless. More expensive Buicks had these nickel plated instead of black paint - so an upgrade. Notice in the Buick code, BE is black enamel and NP is Nickel Plate. This shows the top rests available from Myers Early Dodge, and subsequently vintageandclassicreproductions.com. Made in Australia. If you go on the website is says $175 each, but that is AUD, so $113 USD ea. Shipping is reasonable. I expect to buy another set of these for a Buick that I am working on. You will spend a lot of time looking for the correct clamps and likely never find the right ones. The top rests are the way to go IMO. The leather straps are made by antiqueautotophardware.com . This is like jewelry hanging on the car. Now we get into the top details that Buick did not want to address. I am going to start with a photo from Leif (light colored top). It appears the top rests were not meant to be left on the car when the top is not folded. Notice how the top is stretched if the top is up. Water would leak in where the bolt comes out. There is exposed wood showing behind the canvas. I believe that the rests were supposed to be kept in the car until needed. That's why they are lost. So the remaining photos show a sewing detail that I did so that I could leave these top rests on the car. Dave Blaufarb had his top made in a similar manner and that is where I got the idea from. This allows me to leave the top rest in place and not worry about water intrusion. This is not a necessary adjustment, just a suggestion so that you are aware of the issue. One last item that you will need. If you plan to drive your Buick with the top down, you will also need to have a boot cover made and more importantly you will see the 2 straps inside that hold the rear window. These straps prevent the rear glass from bouncing on the spare tire and breaking it or shaking the tacks loose. There are 2 fasteners in the hidem on the back of the car, and 2 DOT snaps into bow #1. The top boot does not need to be as elaborate as the factory made and covering the top sockets, but it should have the straps and be a bag to hold the components. I did an AACA Buick Prewar posting on how this top boot was made. Hugh

Larry, Is this rear axle still for sale? If so, is it a Standard or Master? Hard to tell with those Truarc wheels. Hugh

Andrew, What are all the parts that you need to replace in the rear axle? 1926/1927/1928 Buick Standard are the same rear axle. It would be less expensive to source an entire rear axle than to make the axle shafts. These later axle shafts are better than the ones used in 1925. Your's broke because it was either abused or mis adjusted. If you can locate a rear axle and have someone remove the rear axle parts that saves on shipping. Because of the torque tube design, that is a big triangular section of iron to ship. If you could get them to separate the torque tube from the rear axle, that would make a much smaller package. A smaller lot would be: - 2 axle shafts - The ring gear assembly comes out easily with the axles removed - The pinion shaft with the bearings is not too difficult to remove. Just the shaft is long and you can take as is or have the shaft cut off. I would take it long. They can keep all of the external metal housings. Hugh

So I am going to throw this out there for general discussion regarding these heat tubes. In the case of the 1927 car, I would replace the tube because someone installed a smaller ID tube than stock. Replacing a tube looks like a lot of work. I have put copper blanking plates on both ends of the vertical intake heat tube on my 1925 Buick. I put the blanking plates in - in case I ever have or could develop a pin hole leak in the tubing. The blanking plates should stop any airflow from entering or leaving the casting. So I don't see a compelling reason to change out a heat tube. Hugh

1) Measure the distance around the area where the bead of the tire goes. 69 1/2" is a 22" rim. Take this distance and divide it by 3.14 That is the diameter. 2) Then measure the maximum width of this rim. 3) See where this falls in the chart. A 24" rim that is 4" wide is a 1923 or 1924 wheel. 1928 rims are 21". The axle is useless. Get rid of that first and at least you only have two wheels to store in a small space until sold. No front brakes on 1923 Buicks, so likely that is what they are from. Hugh

Larry, Thanks for the clarifications. I am always amazed at the subtleties betwen the Standard and the Master. Yes, this is a Master windshield with the top pins at 44" apart that I took the dimensions from. Glenn, Drawing attached if you want to make a sun shade for your 1925-25. Larry and I have both made one of these for our touring cars. In the drawing, the top pins are 42" apart. Hugh

Glenn, I have not verified that my windshield uprights are parallel. The windshield that I am using is likely a Standard but there may have been some changes by the owner. The top rectangular windshield is 42 3/4" wide. The sides are 10" long. The odd thing is when I measure across where the caps are, I get a width of 41 3/4", and I think the rectangle should not angle in. For location, when the upper windshield is closed, the top of the windshield is aligned with the top of the post. The convertible top locating pin on the posts are the only thing above the windshield. The gap between the glass panes is 3/16" to 1/4". This gap is filled with the rubber that is shaped like the letter 'h". The frame is 1 1/4" wide, and 3/4" thick. The outer side has a slot to hold weatherstripping. The lower windshield is supposed to have a rubber cap over the metal cap. The flat head screws are for the windshield end caps. The fillister screws hold the lower windshield frame. The metal spacers go in the rubber on the lower windshield sides that is 3/4" cross section. The curved weatherstrip at the base of the lower windshield has a flat section that lays on the cowl. The upright supports have rubber pads on the base. Bob's Automobilia has all the weather stripping. Hugh

Charles, Do you have a photo of what is on your car so that we know what pieces you are missing.

Craig, In the link that I posted, you will find the people that make the venturi blocks. Not a normal carburetor repair part. This will allow the air valve to sit against the inner wall of the carburetor. I mention this because your photo shows the big air valve screw adjusted out too far and compensating for the poor venturi block. It should essentially be flush with the end of the indexing tab. But don't just screw it in until the block is replaced, otherwise that will put excess pressures on the spring. There are also notes on the blanking plates - making them or have Olsons Gaskets make them. You can find small sheets of copper on Ebay. Easy to cut with tin snips. Put the copper between 2 pieces of wood while drilling to prevent the drill from grabbing the thin sheetmetal, and go up in drill size and not a large hole all at once. Hugh

Here is an article to take you thru rebuilding and checking the carburetor and the heating system. Gaskets are 1/64 paper. Make yourself or Olsons Gaskets may have them. https://forums.aaca.org/topic/372573-1920s-buick-marvel-carburetor-rebuilding/#comment-2311177 Hugh

Thank you for the kind words. I have now finished making and installing all of the hidem. I have put my scissors away. So now I have been able to get the Buick out into the sunlight to take some photos. I do not have the top rests and top boot for the car, but the top can be lowered for photographs. It makes a pretty wedding day car. Hugh

The first 3 pages are the notes from when my vacuum tank quit working and left me stranded. Ran great for several months. Last 5 pages are the process I went thru when I rebuilt it. The best gasket to use on the Banjo vacuum bolt are the rubber style inside of the metal ring that Brian Heil found. Hugh

Frank, Glad that you are making good progress and that the Buick is running better. Bob's Automobilia has replacement choke springs. I bought two in case I messed one up, but I have been able to replace this spring without taking the lever off the choke shaft. Hugh I am also surprised to see the heat riser tube OD the same for Master or Standard in 1925. Hugh

So needing to make a few adjustments to the interior before I can hide all the tack heads. At the door latches, I followed the panels that were on the car, but they were not done right as the latch showed. I did not like the look of the black latch against the beige interior. I decided to add a piece of wood into each latch post to try to hide the door latch when the door is closed. I am still leaving a small gap for the trim. I also added carpeting to the rear seat floor and I removed the large rubber mat. I was able to install the foot rest as well. Then I had to make "Hidem", as it is not available in this color. So Mark Kikta provided the details and I purchased a leather skive to thin the leather. Hugh’s notes for making ¾” wide hidem: - Cut leather to 2 ½” wide strips. - Seams will be done on a 45 degree bias. - Leather skived to .035” - Pen mark the leather on the back side ¾” from each side. - Use ¼” basting tape. Stick this on the outside of each pen line. - Fold the ¾” edge over 3/32” welting cord. Make the leather edge touch the pen line. - Create a 1/8” leather flat spot with the welting in the outside fold. - Repeat for the opposite side - Fold the welting to the middle on both sides. - Use the 5/16” presser foot and stitch each side. So one side of the rear seat is now finished. I have to make a lot of Hidem to cover the front seat and the rest of the rear seat. That is my job tomorrow. Hugh