BuickBob49

If it is any help, here's a photo of the trunk on my 1939 Roadmaster. (I have sidemounts.) I suspect that the fabric is a reproduction, but the rubber mat is likely the original.

Similar situation for me on my 39 Roadmaster. A retired old-time tire store owner who now works out of his home garage mounted and balanced the tires. (He's a friend of my mechanic.) He charged me a very reasonable price for mounting six tires w/tubes. The job for me was to figure out how to take apart and put back together side mount hardware without clear directions from the shop manual or the owner's manual.

We just replaced the radiator last fall on my 39 Roadmaster. There is no need to take apart the front sheet metal. However, you must remove the hood assembly (both halves and the center hinge rod) and the right front brace. Then follow Daves1940's method described above for his 1940 and you should be able to pull the radiator up and out and over the engine. It may be more of a challenge to put everything back together--getting nuts started, etc., with the radiator back in place. Small hands are a plus here! We also took the opportunity to put in a higher capacity radiator. The car runs cooler, now. This is definitely a two-person job.

We need to find someone named "Dave" to purchase that vehicle. Then one could call it "'Cave Dave and His Cave on Wheels."

Thanks!

Dynaflash8, I have contemplated adding fender lights, but I hate to think of drilling holes in those nice fenders. Some day, maybe. Glad you like the car!

Great news! Once you remove the paint, those stainless steel strips should buff up nicely.

Don't get disillusioned with your 39 Special. Every old car needs some time for the owner to sort it out. I just drove my 39 Roadmaster this afternoon. It has taken me two years to address some deficiencies, but it still has a twenty-foot paint job and some other issues that I need to figure out. However, I have fun driving that car, and there is a world of difference when I compare it with the original unrestored 49 Super that I have owned for nearly forty years. Regardless, when I flick that ignition switch in the 39 Roadmaster and step on the gas, and that big straight-eight engine roars to life, I'm in another world! Just think, the prewar technology in your Buick, and other cars from that period, was really something when one compares it with what was cutting edge only three decades before! You'll get your car where you want it, someday. In the meantime, enjoy what you have, for the moment!

Here's a photo of my 39 Roadmaster showing the buttons. Do you have a sealed beam conversion? Maybe you have reproduction buckets.

My 39 Roadmaster has two very nice twist knob switches mounted on the bottom left side of the dash. (See photo.) The right one operates the heater fan. The left one may operate a defroster fan. (We're still sorting it out. Instead, it may operate the Trippe lights.) Both switches look period with the Art Deco/Streamline Moderne hash marks. They are attached on the bottom lip of the dash through holes and hardware clamps with threaded studs. Otherwise, you will see the ignition switch on the steering column and the headlight switch to the right. My dash light/map light switch is the same as what a previous contributor noted.

Montana car?

Great photo! Dealership is in Springfield, Oregon. In the same family since 1948. Building listed in the National Register of Historic Places a few years ago! Building based on GM dealership pattern book. (Referring to Fr. Buick post from Sunday.)

I swapped the cars this weekend and drove the 49 Super yesterday and today. The weather included sun, heavy rain showers, thunder & lightning, and BB-size hail. No problems for me with this unrestored car that I've owned for nearly forty years! Sunny and 76 degrees is our forecast for next Saturday. I am taking our BCA chapter out on a tour that morning. I hope that the prospect for nice weather will encourage other local chapter members to get their cars out and join us.

I put a set of American Classic bias ply look radials from Coker on my 49 Super (760x15 with 3-1/4" whitewalls). They perform well. The car handles nicely on the open road. Stud ruts and longitudinal seams in the pavement are no longer a challenge. I compared my new mounted radial spare with a mounted original bias ply 760x15 US Royal spare that came with the car. Height/width are the same. Other than a slight radial bulge, they look correct for the car. Also, I don't have any of the tie rod bumping complaints that I have read about when owners install modern sized radials that have the correct height but are wider than the originals.

I try for a drive my 39 Roadmaster or my 49 Super once a week year-round. It depends on which car I have at the house. (I store one off-site.) Here's a photo of the 39 Roadmaster after a drive around town late in the afternoon this past New Year's Eve day. The temp was 35 degrees. (Notice the exhaust vapor swirling around the tailpipe.) The heaters and wipers work great in both cars.

Any concerns about heat from the halogen bulbs?

I've owned Dave Corbin's 1939 Roadmaster for a few years. It is a really fine automobile! The car has a very nice shroud around the top half of the fan for improved cooling. It also has the sheet metal panel on the lower left side of the engine, but is missing the one under the starter on the right side. Nevertheless, the car still ran warm. As fate would have it, the water pump had a catastrophic failure last fall and threw the fan into the radiator. My mechanic and I chose to rebuild the pump with a sealed bearing and install a higher capacity radiator (four rows of tubes instead of three). We also reinstalled the fan shroud. Once warmed up, the car now runs just below midpoint on the temp gauge instead of between midpoint and high.

Here are a few photos of the rear center bumper guard on my 1939 Roadmaster. Let me know if you need higher-res versions,

I have a similar center rear bumper guard on my 1939 Roadmaster. It also unlatches and drops down so you can open the trunk. However, mine has three horizontal hash marks on each side of the base that match the hash marks on the other two bumper guards. Does anyone need photos?

Is it a "No-Rol" device? Were these an option on Buicks right around WWII? There is a 2011 Forum discussion on this hardware.

To pick up on my previous email and your query, as I see it, for 1941, the Special (40 series) and Century (60 series) were essentially carryovers from the late 1930s. The Super (50 series) and Roadmaster (70 series) were the new Torpedo bodies that Buick introduced in 1940. They were the impetus for the 50 and 70 series that carried through after WWII until 1948. The large Limited (90 series) was the big car with underpinnings from the late 1930s and carrying over through 1942. The old 80 series, which was also a large car known as the Roadmaster through 1939, shared much with the 90 series through 1940, when it became the 80 series Limited. (In 1940 GM downgraded the Roadmaster to the 70 series and gave it the Torpedo body.) So, you might have an accelerator pedal that fits the 80-90 series cars from the late 1930s/early 1940s.

It could be that your new pedal is for the large-size cars. It looks like the pedal on my 1939 Roadmaster. The pedal on that car has the thick section at the base and angles off to the right. The pedal on my 1949 Super is more upright, like the original one that you show.

My 1949 Super Model 51 has its original Stromberg carburetor and original Carter sediment bowl assembly with the stone element. The bowl screws into the cast metal cap, with a bale tucked underneath it. The key to keep the assembly from leaking is the rubber gasket between the bowl and the cap. I can obtain the rubber gaskets from NAPA and always have a few extra ones on hand in case I remove the bowl to dump sediment. No leaks when using fresh gaskets. The NAPA part no. is 730-9506. They also have a rubber gasket for a larger bowl, no. 730-9510. (I purchased the wrong one once by mistake.)

Folks, we got it taken care of. Thanks for your suggestions!

Have you tried antiquecarradios.com. Vince in West Virginia. I purchased a refurbished radio from him for my 1939 Roadmaster.