EmTee

How did you prep the chrome for paint? How well does the paint stick to the chrome and stainless? Are scratches or peeling a problem?

Definitely exercise it and see what happens. Best is to get it fully up to operating temperature, which should be no problem since you have the car road-legal now. I have a couple of 'test loops' that i like to use for exercising my cars or verifying repairs. one is ~20 miles long and the shorter one is ~10 miles. Find a similar route close to home that you can use to evaluate your car as you sort it out. That way, if you happen to get stuck at the side of the road you'll still be only a few miles from home.

Dakota Digital has some universal rectangular (and other) gauge sets that you may be able to adapt to replace the original analog cluster. https://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=results/category_id=69/mode=cat/cat69.htm

Very sorry to hear this. Tragic event, but particularly so under the circumstances and heading into the holiday season. Don't be afraid to lean on family and friends for support...

My default assumption is that it will take an additional 15% of the purchase price to make it reliably roadworthy.

Is that part of this project?

I wonder what the upholstery looks like under those aftermarket seat covers. Nice looking Buick that could be made even better with some elbow grease.

I did this for my wife's '93 Allante'. Trying to work on that car without the shop manual would be nearly impossible. I can imagine the Reatta is similar.

If it still had the original style rope seal, I would simply do the following: http://www.buickrestorer.com/rearseal/rearseal.html

Aren't antique car scavenger hunts fun!? Glad to hear that you're not giving up and the search continues. Picking up on something else Ed mentioned, maybe ask someone else to ride in the back seat when you expect the noise to occur. I have been fooled before by similar situations where I thought I knew where the sound was coming from, only to discover the source was somewhere else. Sometimes sound travels through the body or frame in a way that changes the apparent location. A dedicated observer is also free to move around to better localize the source of the noise.

Now that you have changed the fluid, I would try to drive the car as much as possible to exercise the transmission and allow fresh, hot fluid to circulate and free any sticky spool valves before removing the valve body. Run the transmission through each selector position. Have you verified that it's not a brake or wheel problem?

I'd call that a success! That said, I would check lug bolt torque on cold wheels after you've driven 20 ~ 40 miles. I also used a piece of wood to check torque ball drag when I replaced the seal on my '38, but I used my calibrated arm rather than a scale. Others on the forum who had done the job previously cautioned that it's better to err on the tight side, rather than setting it up too loose. Like you, so far no leaks (~1 year / ~1500 mi.).

Nice looking, but it's still a low-optioned 4-door sedan. It's not particularly desirable as a collector car, but would be ideal for someone whose family had one when they were young and wants to revive some memories. If I were that guy I'd probably start at $6000 ~ $6500 and maybe go to $7500 if if really is as nice as it seems. I wouldn't worry too much about valuation for tax purposes. You can download the bill-of-sale form from the NY DMV website. If the seller signs the affidavit with the negotiated sale price there should be no issue. In the end, the car is worth what someone is willing to pay.

Beautiful -- the owner is going to love it!

Where did you find this page?

Says the radiator was re-cored, but didn't specify whether an original style or 'high-efficency' core was used. A core flow test would be a good thing, just to verify that it is open and wasn't compromised by any fine material that the Evaporust may have liberated.

'72 is my favorite year for these - no 'battering rams' hanging from each end. Frank Cannon would approve of this one!

Crack somewhere in the water jacket? Did you try pressure testing the cooling system? Did you run EG antifreeze? If so, was there an issue with foaming?

My best friend's father owned a service station near Syracuse University. A regular customer was a professor who always drove a new Cadillac. His license plate was "HL". I always thought that was very cool and I've never seen another NY passenger car plate having only two letters. Apparently he got a 'heads-up' sometime before NY launched its personalized plate program (he undoubtedly had high-level connections in Albany) and he was assigned the plate and never let it lapse.

I'd start with hot water and dish detergent (e.g., Dawn). Maybe throw in some nuts and bolts, or small chain to provide some scrubbing action while sloshing the tank in every possible direction. That should get the dirt and chunks out. The varnish may require something stronger, but I'd prefer to not use anything more caustic than necessary. Following the detergent wash you might just try some fresh ethanol-laced gasoline to see whether that dissolves the varnish. If it doesn't, then maybe the tank is clean enough...

Possible short block for @old-tank?

That's what I am wondering also. My '67 had a hard pedal when I bought it, but the brakes seemed to work fine. I assumed that I needed to have the booster rebuilt (ugh) and procrastinated because other than the lack of power-assist, brakes functioned normally. Fast forward a couple of years and rear brakes began to drag (slow release). At that point I replaced all of the hoses and discovered the rear one was partially collapsed/disintegrated internally. After replacing the hoses the power-assist returned! I looked in an old Motor repair manual that I have and sure enough, in the brake troubleshooting section it lists 'restricted line' as a possible cause for a hard pedal.

OK, thanks for the picture. When you said 'bolt' I wasn't sure whether you meant a hex-head or just a slotted head screw. I know the original hex-head bolts on my '38 Buick have a thicker head than modern bolts. I haven't seen any new replacements that have a similar thick hex head. Fillister head screws should be available from several sources. Example: https://restorationstuff.com/

I want to know when you plan to make the first trip for ice cream!

No, I know that 3.07 posi was available.