SpecialEducation

I have a white car that was Ziebarted. That black stuff under the hood looked terrible. One time when the engine was out I decided to clean it up, what a mess. Still gooey after decades. As I understand it, Ziebart is parafin based. Mineral spirits and a plastic putty knife will do it, but it's still a lot of work (then I repainted everything I cleaned). There's no magic formula that will cut the coating without removing the paint. One of these days I'm going to completely disassemble the car and have it blasted.

The daughter of an old friend goes to a middle school just a few miles from home. The choir was invited to perform in New York City in March, so they had a car show fundraiser to help cover the cost...

Oh, look at that...

All of the photos can be found here: https://mc2imaging.smugmug.com/AllBuickWichita/

Technically, it's damper, but misuse of dampener is so common you have to try spelling it both ways when searching (to dampen is to make something wet). Also try harmonic balancer. Sorry, I'm editing training manuals where both forms are used and I'm trying to drive towards consistency. There is this place: http://www.damperdoctor.com/ but I can't endorse one way or another.

We just cut a flat piece of neoprene and put in there. <$5. Is there ethanol in your gas? It will eat those soft bits in the fuel system.

Uneventful sounds boring, but sometimes boring is good! I'm gonna post just a few more here, and maybe save a little suspense for the Bugle. Have I ever posted a nice photo of Ruby? We had a nice '31 up from Oklahoma. He and the '55 behind it both went home with trophies. Tom Vosika brought the three '65s pictured behind him, with the Riviera GS taking an award as well. He's the manager of the O'Reilly's 2 blocks from my house, so he was the first non-club member to register for the show. Here's that Skylark up from Edmond, Oklahoma. The owner has been in contact with our chapter president as he needed some mechanical help after buying the car.

You bet. We had a Cascada, Manta, and GT all lined up together... Both GT owners did receive a copy of the August Bugle.

How about a pano?

For sale, not mine. It says she runs & drives. Wish I knew the story. Hope she finds a good home. https://www.copart.com/lot/36504886?cid

And one for Mr. Smock...

While I'm waiting for files to archive, I'll post a couple more fitty fo teasers. Processed in camera; no guarantees on color accuracy...

I don't think the wire wheels are "as factory." I really hate auctions that tell you all about how rare and collectable a car is, and tells you nothing about the actual car's condition or history. Yes, thank you, it has the "option package that includes 364/300 V8 engine," because all '58 Centuries had the 364 cu in, 300 hp engine. On the other hand, if I was looking to spend $65k on a car, I'd probably be willing to spend a few hundred bucks on airfare to go see the car first... I like the look of the '57 Cab better, but I'd drive it. I did always wonder how much cursing there was in the chrome shop over that grille, though.

See that, I didn't even have to say it, and you knew. My hard drive is full. I gotta make some room to be able to process this batch...

No, gravity keeps them in place.

Lemmie tell you a story on that. Now, I haven't worked for a GM dealer in 12 years, so things could have changed... I don't know what it was like when your dad had a dealership, but when I was running dealer trades (DTs), there was MSRP, invoice, and holdback. The REAL cost of the car to the dealer was invoice minus holdback. The more options, the bigger the holdback. We would stock optioned out vehicles, and trade with other dealers for ones with less options, meaning we almost always had a high holdback vehicle going out for a low holdback car coming in. When we traded, we traded for invoice. Since we kept the holdback, we got the high holdback for selling the cheaper car. THAT is why we never ordered what we knew actually sold the best. We let the other guys order the popular, low holdback vehicles for us. We LOVED doing DTs!

I just reviewed my pix of the Skylark, and I managed to keep Chuck out of all of them. One BCA member said he'd never seen a '54 Skylark in person before, only in pictures. He was completely beside himself. I had never seen one this color before; such a great, quintessential color of the '50s. I asked if we could get a new Cascada in that color, and I was told I could, if I ordered 10 of them.

Superior Chrome in Houston is one of very few shops in the states that can chemically strip and restore, and their work has a lifetime warranty. Yeah, it's not cheap, so if repros are available, they are probably cheaper. Www.justchromeit.com

44 registered cars on display. 2 pre-registered didn't make it, and one T-type Regal that showed and left w/o registering. The dealership provided 2 cars that weren't registered (including a Cascada), so we'll call it 46 Buicks & Opels on the show field. About $1500 raised for our charity. Pix to follow.

I don't remember how I determined it, but I know that at least 1 of my Sonomatics stated that it was a 4 ohm speaker. To be fair, this one isn't a tube set anymore, but I've got a total of three. There were at least two different circuit designs for '56, and I've got one of each still intact. It may have been one of those that said explicitly said 4 ohm. As Robin said, an ohm meter measuring resistance isn't exactly the same as impedance, so I don't recall if I ohmed it out. The original speaker in this unit actually sounded pretty good connected to the solid state amp... but not as good as that 2-way Kenwood.

I think I was oddly surprised that our '56 Sonomatic had a 4 ohm speaker. I grabbed a pair of 2-way Kenwood 6x9s at Best Buy, but I had to make a ring to space it back because the center tweeter protruded against the grille. I was afraid it would buzz if I let it touch.

Here's a little tease for Speedo...

If you can find your way to central and West street, there will be a few Buick-types handing out on the NW corner (behind Wendy's) if you will PM your name, year & model, and club affiliations, I'll print your windshield card tonight.