SpecialEducation

A few English errors here & there are much more tolerable than the recent posts in Korean...

I had to kill all of my forum notifications because the flood of emails was getting so obnoxious. I'm sure it has been taking its toll on the email servers, and I was still getting email notifications at 7:00 last night from Korean spam that was posted 16 hours earlier. It's hard to track important emails when they are burred in the middle of hundreds of spam messages...

I guess the admins were all in bed when they started. I reported the first one at about 11:30 CST last night. Since I only saw one username, I only hit report on the first post.

On the upside, I only saw one username. That's gotta make cleanup easier for the admins.

Back at it again... I anticipate a very full inbox in the AM...

I got the preliminary website up, so I'm gonna go ahead and throw this out there... Wheatland Chapter Saturday October 8th, 2016 10:00 am - 2:00 pm Scholfield Buick GMC 1333 N Greenwich Rd - Wichita, Kansas All Buicks and Opels are welcome regardless of year, model, or condition. www.WheatlandBuick.com

My inbox... about 80 of these since 2:00 this morning.

We knew a Haney family in Charlotte, MI, too, but I didn't suspect any relation (but can't rule it out, I suppose)...

Any idea if this is still available?

Hood ornament/scoop? I just need the pan...

That's pretty good. I had considered going with a MegaSquirt, but when you consider that this guy's $35 junkyard TBI turned into a $900 project, spending a little extra on a self-tuning system is probably worthwhile.

I wondered about that, but it looks like the street lights have been moved. Note that in the vintage photo, the light is behind the fire plug. In the Google Streetview images, the concrete behind the hydrant is obviously newer than the rest, and the lamp is on the other side. I did a little more digging and found this thread that has a little more info on the dealership, including this image: Of course, once I had the name, I found that this same image was included in the January 2011 Bugle. I also found this image here (there's some good bits in the comments on that page), where the dealership appears to be Bob Armstrong Buick: What I glean from this photo is that the current light poles seem to carry some of the same style & feel as the originals, but the ones that stand today are not simply relocated, they have been replaced. Also note that the vertical sign over the front door has been replaced with one that has the modern block letters & tri-shield. Even though I have 2 names to attach to this dealership, these images are about all I've come up with so far.

I'd totally dig an injected nailhead! Yeah, you can drop a bow tie in there cheaper, and that's why everyone does it. Ultimately you should do what makes you happy, but if resale is even remotely considered, pulling a throttle body off of an otherwise original engine is probably more palpable to a purist than seeing a modern corporate powerplant under the hood.

Horsepower is a function of torque & time. As we know from torquing lugnuts to headbolts, torque is just rotational force on a lever. Set your torque wrench for 100 ft.lbs (1 pound of force on a 100 foot lever, or 100 pounds of force on a 1 foot lever - same difference), and it doesn't care much about the speed in which you turn the wrench. So, yes, torque is torque. We add the time component on a rotating shaft in terms of revolutions per minute to get horsepower, but it's the way we've measured horsepower on automobiles that has varied over time. Sometimes it's measured at the flywheel, sometimes where the rubber meets the road (but I'm going to avoid the bhp, shp, whp discussion for now). Lets look at a Wildcat 465 for a moment. The engine doesn't make peak torque and peak horsepower at the same time. Peak HP of 340 is at 4400 RPM, while peak Tq of 465 ft.lbs is at 2800 RPM. Given Hp=(ft.lbs X RPM)/5252, we find that the engine is making 406 ft.lbs at 4400 RPM. The Tq output steadily decreased after 2800 RPM, but the RPM increased at a rate faster than the Tq decreased so Hp continued to climb until 4400 RPM. Also note that at 2800 RPM, the engine is "only" making 248 Hp. The phenomenon that Bernie is discussing is that while these newer small-displacement motors can generate an impressive amount of horsepower, they are often fairly low on torque. The high horsepower is a result of high riving engines derived through valve train design improvements and lightweight rotating assemblies that allow the engine to spin faster. Plug different numbers into the formula above and you'll find you can get big horsepower numbers with gobs of torque at low speed, or little torque at high speed. In other words, just looking at peak Hp or Tq numbers doesn't tell you much unless you know at what speed those peak numbers were made. Obviously, Bernie's butt-o-meter is calibrated for low end torque. He wants a kick in the pants at relatively low engine speed and doesn't give a flip about Hp at 7000 RPM. In other words, he should ignore Hp numbers, especially when attached to high RPM values and pay more attention to big torque at lower RPMs.

In 1956, my dad went with my grandpa to pick up a new 1956 Special from a local Buick dealership. That summer, grandpa & grandma and 6 kids (my dad being the youngest) went on a road trip from Lansing, Michigan to Yellowstone. US 16 originally connected Detroit with Yellowstone, including a ferry link across Lake Michigan. Much of the road from Muskegon to Detroit was known as Grand River Avenue. In Muskegon, the Milwaukee Clipper would take you across the lake and US 16 would continue to take you all the way to Yellowstone, and that is exactly what they did. Route 16 across Michigan was originally an old Indian trail and was decommissioned in the early 1960s. Today, only a short piece of US 16 still exists between Rapid City, SD and Yellowstone. I told you that story to tell you this one: Dad recently picked up a 'Buick Magazine' dated November, 1955. Flipping through the pages, he noticed this awesome shot of a Buick dealership at night. Looking closer, he even found some clues as to where this dealership is! Note the US 16 and Oakfield signs in the detail of the image. Dad did a Google search for "Grand River & Oakfield" and found it to be in the Detroit area. Going to Street View, he found that the building still stands! The big windows are covered or removed, but there are still some architectural clues visible that say this is indeed the same building. I'm curious if anyone here can provide more details about the history of this dealership... Sorry, Mr. Earl. I just realized I was going to title this thread 'Show Us Your Backstory... US 16'

Kim sent me a few more photos... Looks like I'll be looking for the owner of this car as well, as soon as we get the repro seat skirts into production...

Well, we've got all new foam and dad & I aren't as heavy as we used to be, so it seems like a good time to address this issue!

A gal posted this on my Facebook page, so I thought I'd share. She's not looking to buy the car, just to come for a visit to see it again. It might be a nice opportunity for the current owner to learn a little more about the car's history... ISO my dad's 1956 Buick Special. It had belonged to his dad also. I live in the United States, my mom sold it, and the last dealer I tracked down told me the buyer was from Switzerland. I can't buy it back, I just would like to see it again, and maybe arrange a photo with my 2 boys with the Buick for my dad before he passes, while he still remembers his old faithful. He is in his 80's with Parkinsons and early stages of dementia We had a few pics made with my oldest son, but the youngest at that time wouldn't sit still for a pic. If anyone could please help me find this car, please contact me. It is all original yellow/white and green interior. And only about 47,000 original miles on it. It was only driven in car shows and parades when I was growing up. And from time to time to keep the motor running! https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1105254126193748&set=o.169746389767574

Funny... Amazon says this is a 2002 edition in the title: http://www.amazon.com/The-Buick-A-Complete-History/dp/0971146837 ...but the cover & description says it covers thru 2004.

The sheet metal I had was 34 inches wide, so it ended up 34" x 20.75" The material I use is rated at 6 years, which means it should still look good 6 years from now, but no guarantees afterwards. I know a lot of folks will spray with clear to increase longevity. I can also get a 10 year film, but I don't generally keep that around. One issue with the selling signs or kits is the potential copyright issues. Does the club have anyone who can advise as to which logos may still be held and require licencing, and which ones are public domain?

Oh, I like that idea. An Opel part on a Buick is a bit more palpable than a FIAT part...

Greg Roberts, The Vintage Glassman Chickasha, Oklahoma (405) 222-8191 Rtheglassman@aol.com He's been chasing the swap meet circuit around here for years. Bought a pax door window from him back in 2012. Dad wasn't sure if he wanted to go with new all around, or just replace the one piece of cracked glass, but was spending enough money on the car at the time that he decided to just do the one piece of glass. Just recently, dad's been thinking we should go back in with all new chrome frames, too...

If you are thinking new glass, you can buy new windows with the new chrome pre-installed.

Not that i'm an expert on this vintage of Buick, or conducted a thorough inspection on the car, but assuming the drive train is complete & correct, I would have expected it to go for $20-$25k,

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047191/