Thomas J. Bianculli

I have purchased a Carpenter reproduction trunk latch assy. and a NOS Lock Cylinder for my 1950 Ford Business Coupe. I have been told that the actuator rod is not reproduced and the one in my old unit is missing. I would purchase the rod itself, or an intact junk unit with the lock cylinder intact. I have been told the rod usually falls out when the cylinder is removed. The pot metal unit only, the painted part is not required. The picture was taken the day I purchased the car, the trailer hitch was removed the same day which pleased J.C. Taylor that sent me a note they do not insure cars that tow trailers after I sent them the photos for appraisal. I replied my son had removed it as soon as we got home.

I agree. I used to buy the high priced ones until they forgot to take it out of the NAPA box when they shipped it to me. I have been using NAPA ever since, and never use the last one before reordering as I know it will be a special order item.

Note the 320 decal is numbered VC12L, while the 240 is VC12. The 320 is about 7 inches longer than the 248. I will have to order one for my rebuild unless I can find the one I know is floating around. My super didn't have one when I bought it in 1969 and the engine was black. I have heard this was the primer color and cleaning had removed the original paint. I have yet to see a 1940 without the Dynaflash decal in the over 50 years I have owned mine. The oil filter is the wrong color in the picture. The sock under the oil filler cap is to prevent the blow by oil from messing up the valve cover. Hence, the rebuild in progress. The air filter decal is Chevy but has been on the car many years.

Bob's switch will work fine. I have used one for several years. I watch eBay constantly and have been able to pick up a couple of spares cheap as well.

If you decide to do inserts, Terrill Machine in Texas (254-893-2610) does the rods on an exchange basis for $48.00 each. They are also cheapest on most other internal parts. I sent the rods for my 1940 Super off to them yesterday. I used a USPS Medium Flat Rate Box that cost $15.05. My engine was running fine with good oil pressure but had piston damage and had to be torn down due to excessive oil burning and blow by. The bearings were not loose but the Babbitt had begun to separate on 3 or 4 of the rods. One probably would have failed had I driven the car to the shop rather than having it flat-bedded. I think I will feel a lot more confident with the inserts even though I got 50 years out of the engine that was in unknown condition when I got the car. The car has been in the shop since March, but thanks to the pandemic they only got the engine out of the car a couple of weeks ago. Since there have been no cruises or shows either I don't miss the car as much as I would have in a normal year.

Apparently Limiteds have a longer front spindle thus requiring deeper caps. I have never seen these offered or advertised.

The picture in this post with the shorter Buick logo is 1937 only. They will fit 1937-1940.

Buick used both Stromberg and Carter in 1940. I am running a Stromberg that I found in the back seat when I bought my car in 1969. When I bought it the carb was a Carter with inoperable accelerator pump. I was unaware of any parts sources at that time and had not even seen Hemmings, so I went to a local parts store and bought some gasket paper and attempted to "rebuild" it myself. I worked well for probably ten years and by that time I had moved back to PA from Maryland and built up a network and knowledge and a friend rebuilt it for me. I do not believe it was original to the car and had no throttle lever. Later I accompanied the same friend to a Buick Dealer in Ligonier, PA and lo and behold I picked up a NOS base casting for a couple of bucks. The carb survived on that rebuild until this year when the engine finally gave up the ghost. I just had it rebuilt and restored by Harry Benchwick in Youngstown, OH. Note the bracket that retails the throttle cable and the brass swivel with set screw that retains the pull wire.

Nice job. Apparently your wheel must have stopped shrinking. I did a similar repair on my wheel years ago. It looked good for a while, then the original sections continued to shrink and everything started to come off. I gave up and put up with an aftermarket cover for years, flakes of paint continued to work out and turn up all over the interior. Finally in 2012 I pulled the wheel when I put the car in for the winter and sent the wheel to Koch's in California. They asked me to send them the center plastic for color match. I see in my records I sent them a check for $429.00 on January 4, 2013. This seems low even for that time. The wheel is still holding up fine.

Many thanks, I have just ordered one, price was about 1/4 of the one on eBay. I took me about 5 minutes to figure out BHA was Buick Heritage Alliance. I was aware of them but unaware they had made so much progress and sold reproduction literature. Most of the other books I have were purchased from Faxon.

I just located one on eBay https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-1940-Buick-Dealer-Facts-Book-ORIGINAL-over-110-pages-FEATURES-MODELS/163610922408?hash=item2617f88da8:g:cwgAAOSwrqhclUVt From the pages shown, I am sure it is interesting, but at $199.00 Buy it Now I will go into the haven't purchased category.

I agree the black one should look better. In my past experience, many aluminum or silver paints don't look that good as they age. Again, unless my grandson decides to drop a big pile of money on the car some time in the future it will never get past DPC so I really don't have to worry about losing points. Before my current engine problem I was only 200 miles away from my 2,000 mile award. Wait until next year. Since my car is about 23000 before the changeover point and I actually have documentation in the service bulletins I will continue to have an interesting discussion topic, which this thread indicates. I would never have expected my query to generate 2 pages of replies. Thanks to all who have responded. Tom

I am not aware of this book which makes me a bit dumb as I have been fooling around with this car just over 50 years. I do search eBay fairly frequently and may come up with one sooner or later. I did pick up the 1940 Service Bulletins this way . The index shows 2 articles, page 45 discusses the leakage problem and recommends replacement, giving the part numbers for both units. Page 139 Goes into more detail on the problem, states the colors of both units and states the serial numbers when the change occurred on all series. The new unit cost the dealer $3.60 and the customer $6.00. $2.40 profit in 1940 would probably be enough that every service writer or whatever they were called at that time would be eager to install one on any non-filter equipped car coming into the dealership.

I expect to bring the filter home and paint it as soon as I drive the car to the shop to pull the engine. Tentatively I have a ride home lined up for a week from tomorrow, Sept 20. As soon as I get it home I will start on it. When done I will photograph it. Apparently most of the modern manufacturers use 001 in their part number. Several years ago I bought one of the high priced ones and the seller forgot to take it out of the NAPA box. I think their number was 16001. The last time I needed filters I got WIX51001.

Thanks, I found "The Great Oil Filter Debate" in a Chevy Message Board: https://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/engines/oil filters/index.html Apparently early L-1 units had a seam as well.

By the serial number, mine would have been black. K. Green has posted he has two engines, one early and late that do not appear to have been disturbed and both have black filters of the revised type. Others have raised the hypothesis that cars delivered east of the Mississippi did not have factory filters unless so ordered and any filter would have been dealer installed. At least in my lifetime my car will never surpass DPC quality so I will paint the filter black. Again I am grateful that so many have responded to my query.

Thanks to all that have responded. Surprising how much interesting conversation and research we can dig up over such an obscure item. I guess the consensus is I will not be off the mark if I paint it black. It will be a while but I will post a pic when done.

I think I have a gray one floating around but I think it is the wrong size. Somebody else mentioned the service bulletins in another thread and I found a reference. It seems filters were black on early models. These units had a seam at the bottom. This seam tended to leak and was replaced with a one piece filter painted silver. It further states on 50 Series cars produced at Flint it began at Serial 13657193, about 23000 units after mine was produced, so my filter will be black. I don't have a build date for my car, but once found a metal strip tag with a September 1939 date wrapped around the rear seat springs. Funny how such an obscure topic can create such discussion. Thanks again for your input, Tom

Thanks, Mike, It looks great.

Hi Dave, Thanks for the reply. See my post directly above. From the 1940 Service bulletins I found mine is an early unit produced, not like I said 2000, but 29,000 cars before the switch. This will produce something to talk about when somebody else tells me it is wrong at a cruise or show. Besides, the air cleaner (wrong decal-Chevy) and oil filler cap are already black with a silver decal so the 3 units almost in a line will match up. Thanks for taking the time to look up the picture for me, Tom

I got my answer on another thread about 1941 engine details. 1940 Super referred to the 1940- Service Bulletins.As I scarfed one up on eBay last year. Lo and behold on Page 139 it states Early filters were black and had a seam. This seam tended to leak and was replaced with a one piece filter painted silver. It further state on 50 Series cars produced at Flint it began at Serial 13657193, about 2000 units after mine was produced, so my filter will be black. I don't have a build date for my car, but once found a metal strip tag with a September 1939 date wrapped around the rear seat springs.

Thanks, Mike

I have owned my 1940 Super for 50 years. The engine was replaced with a 1948 Super unit before 1964, the last registration before I got it. There was no oil filter when i got it and at some time I installed a junkyard unit. I guessed and painted it in what I thought were AC Delco colors and attached a decal. I have tried to detail the engine as close to original as I can and the only visible difference is the mounting bosses on both sides of the block. The engine is finally tired enough that it will be rebuilt and while it is in the shop I intend to freshen up all the accessories before reinstalling. Does anyone have any idea what color the filter should be painted??

I used Koch's, www.kochssteeringwheels.com Tel: (661) 268-1341Fax: (661) 268-7011Email: customerservice@kochs.com They were very easy to deal with and asked me to send my horn ring plastic so they could match the color. Mine was done in 2013, and the check in my records is $429.00. Maybe more now but call and see.

About 47 years ago I removed the clearcoat and re-sprayed my dash panels. I did got completely get rid of the rust but I think they are still presentable to this day. I just resprayed with clear coat in a spray can. The wood graining is my primitive attempt, done with a kit left over from doing furniture 48 years ago. In addition to reproducing the 1940 Dash Plastic, Skip Boyer does the engine turning. His email is: richboy2@comcast.net Actually I think engine turning can be done with a rotary wire brush chucked in a drill press.