BuickBob49

$3.79/gallon for real fuel would be a bargain for me. I am paying $4.79/gallon for it in Portland, OR, for my 39 Roadmaster. I'm paying $3.59/gallon for premium E10 for my daily driver.

Nice 39 Roadmaster! More photos, please.

Much sportier than my sedan! However, they are all fun to drive. Just came back from a short trip on Interstate 205 at 55 to 60 mph. Still had plenty of power. All the windows open. Ninety degrees! I can smell the odor of the warm oil wafting through from the side door from the garage to the patio. Nice!

Excellent Part 2 of the restoration story in HCC! I thought about your car, again, when I was out driving my 1939 Roadmaster 81 this afternoon. These late 1930s/early 1940s big Buicks are great fun!

These are all great dashes. Like Barney, I am particularly taken by the 1939 dash. Here's a photo of the dash in my Roadmaster. It has characteristics of the dashes that immediately precede it, but it also has some great Streamline Moderne elements with the wavy accents in the cluster and the waterfall radio grille. A transition! I have an aftermarket translucent shift knob that matches the red wheel trim ring. I also like the layout in my 1949 Super dash. What a difference ten years makes!

Your story in HCC is an inspiration to us all, especially those of us who have late 1930s big Buicks!

Dave Tacheny. 763_427_3460. Call Dave 4:00-7:00 pm Central Time. Google his name and his address should pop up. The 763 Area Code is new. Dave doesn't do email. A phone call or a letter works best. That's fine. He's a great guy!

That washer was key to making the shifter on my 1939 Roadmaster work. (See my post in your other thread.). O didn't know what all was wrong with mine. I obtained a shifter arm and the top section of rod from Dave T in Minnesota. It had all the parts that I needed, including that domed washer. Maybe you can just buy the washer from him. You need his phone number. I don't have it at hand. Someone else surely does and can jump in.

The shifter on my 1939 Roadmaster has always been pretty sloppy. It has long throws between first and second and not much spring, if any. You feel like you need to walk the shifter through neutral-- over and up. It won't move through on its own or only with little effort. Is this normal? My 1949 Super is much different, as I stated above. Short throws and tight shifts, with some spring pressure. Can anyone else comment on their impressions about shifting 1939 Buicks? I'd like to get a sense of whether I am seeing a normal operation, or whether I can add a spring or make some adjustments.

I am looking for a new gas tank for my 1939 Roadmaster. The bottom of the gas tank is paper thin. It flexes quite a bit and the drain plug isn't seating correctly. Does anyone have a reliable source for new gas tanks for these late 1930s/early 1940s large Buicks? Thanks!

You should also look at the connection between the shifter arm and the rod assembly going down to the transmission. My 39 Roadmaster had a homemade setup with a nut on top with a shoulder on it to keep it from coming off. The shifter seemed sloppy so I tightened the nut. Then I couldn't shift into second and third. I backed it off. One day, the nut flew off and the shifter assembly landed in my lap. What a surprise! I called our friend and savior Dave T in Minnesota and he sent me the correct domed washer assembly for the connection and it fixed the problem. Still a bit sloppy, but no more surprises in the lap. Buick made some real improvements to the shifter in the 1940s. My 49 Super has a very tight H pattern with none of the sloppiness found in the 39 Roadmaster. Good luck!

I purchased a rebuilt AB pump for my 1939 Roadmaster from a local vendor. My mechanic tried to install it, but said that it wouldn't work because the arm was wrong and, I recall, because fuel lines were in the wrong places. He obtained a replacement pump just like what was on my car, like the AJ pump. Later on we found out that I have a postwar replacement engine. That explains why the AB pump was incorrect for my car's engine. See my post above with the photo of the replacement AJ pump. I am not sure where my mechanic purchased the replacement rebuilt pump. Maybe Bob's. It performs well. I always run pure fuel in both of my old Buicks. E0 is expensive, compared with E10. However, you either pay now or pay later when dealing with the effects of ethanol on your old car's fuel system.

Yes, an expensive exercise, but the outcome for me was a cooler running engine and, hopefully, a bullet proof water pump.

My 39 Roadmaster did the same thing two years ago. My local mechanic had a supplier who rebuilt the pump with a sealed bearing. Also, we needed to replace the radiator and chose to have one fabricated four rows deep, instead of three, to improve cooling. It helped immensely. Cost was about $1,000 for the pump and radiator. You can remove the radiator without taking down the front sheet metal. You pull the radiator up and over the engine. Your mechanic needs to have very small hands to take everything apart in those close quarters!

I knew someone would chime in. Thanks! For 1939 there is a small lever switch on top of the column shifter that activates the "Flash Way" rear turn signals in the Buick Eight trunk emblem, as shown in the eBay ad. On my 1939 Roadmaster, I don't have the optional front fender lights, so I added some small signal lights on the front bumper arms. (I didn't want to drill holes in my fenders to add the optional front lamps.)

Buick introduced rear signal lights in 1939 and front signal lights in 1940. Folks often add an aftermarket setup to the steering column on 1936, 1937, and 1938 Buicks, and use the front fender lights for signal lights. I'm sure others can weigh in here on how to do it.

What type of fuel are you using? E0, E10, or E15? Maybe alcohol in the fuel is causing vapor lock once the engine is warmed up.

The tires on my 1939 Roadmaster required tubes. The tires on my 1949 Super are tubeless.

I have a set of 7.60 x 15 American Classic radials from Coker on my 1949 Super. They are great tires. The whitewalls are the correct width--I used the original blackwall US Royal spare for comparison. I have a set of Coker's Nostalgia radials on my 1939 Roadmaster, 7.00 x 16. They have 3-1/2 inch whitewalls. Great tires, too. They also fit fine in the sidemount wells with the covers on. No more problems with stud ruts or longitudinal pavement seams on the roadways.

I'll look him up in the BCA directory. I've been a BCA member since 1978! Thanks.

Was it expensive? My 39 Roadmaster is a heavy car. A NoRol might be nice to have.

Great purchase! Please consider joining the Buick Club of America. Also, I see Oregon plates on the vehicles in your photos. If you live in the Portland metro area, please consider joining the Portland Area Chapter of the BCA. The chapter website has membership information and a list of upcoming events.

Pete, you're lucky here that you had a non-tilt column. My old 72 T-Bird's pot metal shifter collar broke twice. Taking apart the tilt steering mechanism to replace the shifter collar was very tedious, even for my experienced mechanic. He did it twice before I sold the car. Bob

I'm looking for one, also. There is a part number in the photo. That may be helpful in a search for more of them. .

I read the earlier post incorrectly, also. Sorry. However, my car came to me with the Trippe lights. They will work fine for me once I get them working again. I had one working a while back. I replaced the dead bulb in the passenger side one, but then had to replace the radiator and the wiring for the lights must have gotten compromised. I installed the small front signal lights because I don't have the marker lights on the front fenders and I don't want to drill holes in the fenders to mount marker lights. The driving lights on Gary W's 37 that he is restoring look great. They appear to be Trippe lights.