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Gary W

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Posts posted by Gary W

  1. Is your fuel gauge accurate?  First be sure you didn't run out of gas.

     

    Next, you can check your mechanical fuel pump by simply emptying the glass bowl on the fuel pump, then crank the car over and watch as the bowl quickly fills up.  If it fills, you know your mechanical fuel pump is working.

    You can check your electric pump the same way....  empty the glass bowl and turn the pump on.  If you hear it whirring away, but the glass bowl is not filling up, perhaps it lost it's prime or the filter is clogged.

    Do you have the fine mesh brass screen on top of the glass bowl?  Check that it is clean.

     

    I would start with a couple easy tests first being the car was running.

     

     

  2. On my '37, I removed the cover completely to clean out the old oil.

     

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    Remove the cover and clean out years of thick goop

     

     

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    Done.. everything cleaned up

     

     

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    Scrape the old gasket completely

     

     

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    Now nice and clean, I applied a thin bead of permatex black

    Be sure you orient it the same way it came off so the fill is at the correct height

     

     

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    Button her up and fill only to the drain hole.

     

     

    • Like 3
  3. On 3/12/2020 at 11:09 PM, MCHinson said:

    Looking good. The trunk tool tray area is a common area for rust out. It is not an easy area to repair. 

     

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    Not that you'll be out in the rain much, but Buick recommends drilling drain holes in that lower trunk edge to help alleviate the rust.

     

    I love following your great progress!  Your dash is stunning  in black!  Great choice.

    Keep up the great work.  I'm re-living the dream all over again.

    Gary

    • Like 1
  4. Hi Dave!

     

    Yes, there is a "Buick Accepted" method for moving the front seat back.  

    Basically, you remove the front seat frame, and reposition the seat hardware under there forward, so when the seat is replaced, it is effectively in a new rearward position.

     

    The previous owner of my car simply drilled new holes in the floor to accomplish the task.  By drilling holes in the floor, he was able to reposition everything back about three inches.  But he also had to notch out the wood frame to allow battery access.

    The Buick method will give you an additional 1/2".

     

     

    Here is the procedure from the 1937 Dealer Service Bulletins from Oct 10, 1936 to July 15, 1937:

     

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    Page 23

     

     

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    Page 24

     

     

    Gary

    • Like 2
  5. How's your battery?  Are all your cable connections clean and tight?  Is the engine running when you notice the dimming?  The generator should be able to keep the lights from dimming.  But if the car is just sitting (not running) and  you depress the brake pedal, you are lighting two more lamps, which is a higher draw on the system.  

    I ran a ground to every single lamp to avoid ground issues.  It was required for the new UVIRA reflectors in the headlamps, but it also really helped the fog lamps that are mounted to powder coated brackets and needed the extra ground.  

    Just be sure you don't have a short somewhere when you press the brake pedal causing the dimming..........

     

    Your car really looks great.  These electrical gremlins kept me awake for a month trying to get everything settled!

    Gary

    • Like 1
  6. Hi James

    My '37 had a few "rubberized, fabric" insulators that supported the clamps.  

     

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    The rear hanger (turned on its side in this photo) is a heavy rubberized, fabric with the metal support riveted on.  The tail pipe clamp hung over the "hook" and gave it a little flexibility.  If you look at the factory service manual, my rear hanger is not what they show in the book, but it works well.

     

     

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    The '37 manual.  It shows the insulator type mountings used in four places, one rigid mounting up front right to the block.  (I did not have that support, so I did not use that one.  Mine is clamped to the exhaust manifold up front, and then has the four supports throughout the length.

     

    Hope it helps!'

    Gary

  7. Saturday November 16, 2019:  The Buick teaches me another lesson.........

     

    Good morning out there.  

    Here's one of those stories where you start the day with project "A" in mind (installing auxiliary fuel pump) and end up somewhere else!

     

    I've been working on installing an auxiliary fuel pump, solely for priming the carburetor after she sits for 7+ days.  

    The directions say to mount the pump close to the tank.   So...  I got under the car to seek out a good location and immediately noticed the right rear leaf spring leaves all "slid out" of stack!!!

     

    It's funny, last week I took the car out to get some 3-y ear "before and after" photos, and my wife noticed in some of the photos that the car looks like it was leaning.  

    I wrote it off to the angle of the camera.....  the position of the car in the photo....... until yesterday when I was under there.  

     

    Let me show you what I found:

     

     

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    The rebound clips held the longest three leaves.  But the fourth slid out to the inside of the car, the bottom stack went out to the tire.

     

     

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    I did notice a heavy scratch down the leaves, I have no idea where that came from or if it is related to this issue...

     

     

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    I was able to jack up the rear end, rest the chassis rails down on the jack stands which "unloaded" the spring.

    Just by loosening the stabilizer nut and all four U-Bolts, I was able to realign the leaves properly and tighten her back up.

     

     

     

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    3-years ago.   I went back to this photo just to see how far the nuts were tightened.

     

     

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    Then to the manual which states "It is important to tighten spring U-Bolts as tight as they can be drawn up with an 8" wrench"

    Retighten at 1000 miles and again at 2000 miles.

     

     

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    And tighten them I did!  Then I went to check the drivers side and those nuts took another turn also!

     

     

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    November 2016 to November 2019.

     

     

    I was thinking of getting another rebound clip for the middle of the stack.  I would get four, one for each side of the rear leaves.  Would that in any way change the riding qualities?

    It just seems that there are a lot of "unprotected" leaves in that stack, and I don't want this to happen again.  Originally, the springs had a tin cover the entire length.

     

     

     

    So here's my two cents:

    When I first assembled the spring plate, I used my Ryobi 18V impact wrench to tighten things up.

     I NEVER even thought to check the tightness with a wrench, ratchet, breaker bar.... after using the impact.  I assumed the impact made it nice and tight.  

    Wrong.

     

    Even yesterday, I still used the impact to tighten up the nuts because it works fast and it was 28 degrees out. 

    But when the impact was at it's limit, I put a ratchet on the nuts and EASILY got a full turn out of them!

    So I tightened up the other side as well and went out for a ride.  All good.

     

    So,  I think the issue is that the initial torque was insufficient.  

    But....  I dodged a bullet because if that bottom stack swung inwards, It could have pierced my gas tank.  As it is, I only have a little scuff mark on my tire

     

     

     

    Lesson Learned.

     

    Gary


     

     

     

     

     

    • Like 4
  8. 1 hour ago, 39BuickEight said:

    Does NJ require you to run the current tag no matter what (thus the 2 plates)?

     

     

    NJ requires two plates on every registered vehicle, one front, one rear.  You have to display the actual NJMVC issued "QQ" plates on your historic vehicle.  I think there is a petition brewing somewhere in Trenton to make it legal to only display a rear plate, but I don't know the current status.  I like getting my "QQ"'s personalized, I think they look cool.

     

    About two years ago, I was getting my 1930 Roadster ready for the Monmouth County Concours d'Elegance.  To finish the detail, I put original restored 1930 plates on the car.  I was tooling around the block and got pulled over by a local officer who first asked me if the car was registered, (the original plates didn't jive with his computer) and then told me I need to get the "QQ" plates back on the car ASAP.  I WAS carrying them with me on the rear package shelf, but that wasn't good enough.  They had to be affixed to the car. I didn't get a ticket, but I think I was close!!   I wish we had a Y-O-M program like some states, but so far.........  

     

    Always great checking in with you guys.  Love this place!

    Gary

    • Like 4
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