neil morse

Hi Sebastien: What is that convertible next to your Dodge? Is it a Peugeot? The grill has a definite Buick look to it with all those teeth! I really get a kick out of seeing your baby blue Police Edition Dodge in these French settings! Are the siren and roof lights operative? I can't help but think about what a start you could give another driver by coming up behind him with the lights flashing (but I suspect that could get you into a bit of trouble with the local Gendarmerie)! Thanks for posting all these photos. I love the two Buicks together.

The same is true on my car, with no indication that the cover has ever been in a different position. I think you may be overthinking this, Ken. I bet one phone call to Doug Seybold would give you your answer.

This looks like an exceptional car and may be worth the asking price. The seller certainly knows how to photograph a car to great advantage, but I agree that photos of interior and engine bay should have been included. If it were anywhere near me, I would go to see it if only to get a look up close!

What a beauty! But what's plugging up the portholes?

Andrew, I sent you a private message with the email address of the seller. I'm pretty sure you can receive private messages even if you can't send one. Please report back here whether you got it or not. Good luck!

@Andrew_Latvia Hi Andrew, I got the following message from the seller: "Andrew has been in touch with me but when I send replies and pictures they get kicked back to me. I'm not sure if he's getting my emails." Have you received any of the messages from the seller? I told him that might have better luck if he would just use his actual email account and not go through the Craigslist system. I have a feeling that might be the problem. I would send you a private message, but I don't think you have enough posts to be able to use the private message system.

What is the dial switch forward of the driver's door?

Thank you, Andrew. I contacted the seller of the '41 Super. His response was as follows: "It is still available. I had no idea it had been posted to a forum. There have been a few people interested, some just keep kicking the tires and contacting me, but none close enough to really look at without planning a whole day around it. I don't believe I received an email from Andrew, if I didn't respond it was by mistake." I suggest you try again to send him an email through the Craigs List system. The email address is: 91f148a92a9e3ae983623cfa3c14c915@reply.craigslist.org

I will try, Andrew. Where are you located?

Labor is labor, but it can take a lot more of it to do things correctly. This car, sadly, seems to have been upholstered like a living room couch, with squared off cushions with piping on them. I'm no expert, but I doubt very much if this was the way it came from the factory. Here's a photo of the Bulgari car from another thread that shows just a bit of what the presumably correct interior should look like. That special stitching requires more labor for sure.

As I said, I haven't looked inside. And based on your description of what's involved, I'm not about to try! Maybe once you get your car on the road, we can take some comparison drives to see how my car compares with yours and see if we can detect a difference.

I'm not sure there's such a thing as "accurate" pricing. The right price will turn out to be a combination of whatever the buyer is willing to take and whatever someone is willing to pay. It sure is a beautiful and rare car, that's for sure.

From the Facebook ad (not the opening post): "About This Vehicle Driven 26,300 miles Manual transmission Exterior color: Burgundy · Interior color: Grey Fuel type: Gasoline Excellent condition"

Looks like a beautiful car. The ad says the exterior color is burgundy, despite what is written in the OP. But not a Roadmaster, as noted above.

Cleaning out the garbage will take some time. But the bigger problem with this ad is that this isn't a New Yorker. Even the ad acknowledges that it has a six-cylinder engine, making it a Royal or a Windsor.

I didn't even know this body style existed for the '40. Other than the unfortunate interior, it seems like a nice car, although a bit optimistically priced. Does it look like it's riding a bit high? Looks that way to me. Also, is the glass tinted or is that just a photo artifact?

Based on the red paint mark and the way it behaves on the road, I believe my '41 Super has the optional 3.9 rear end. However, I have not confirmed this by looking inside.

This looks like a very nice car -- especially the interior. The dash and seats look like they must have been redone at some point, but I couldn't find any reference to that in the description on BAT. In any event, it looks like it was done right. Bids are very low at this point given just what the current owner has done, let alone what else may have been done to the car. Looks like a 15-20K car to me.

I agree. Another great MoPar bargain. The original interior is great. The only thing in the ad that I find fault with is the idea that this is a "very COOL gangster car." No self-respecting gangster would be driving a '49 Chrysler Royal. What is a "gangster car" anyway? If people are thinking of Al Capone, they are off by about 20 years. I've had people tell me my '41 Buick is a great "gangster car." I just smile.

This looks like a nice step-down, but price seems extremely optimistic for a 4-door. Price for the 2-door in the ad posted by Xander seems ever crazier! At least the 4-door looks like it has decent paint and original interior. I love the step-downs, but is this really what people are getting for them these days?

Haha -- I had a feeling that this sounded familiar!

As an owner of the same model Buick, I would say this is a screaming deal! Some additional photos would be nice, but based on what I see here and assuming the information in the ad is on the level, this would be a great car for someone looking to get into the hobby without spending too much money.

Matt, as long as you're going to tackle those gauges, meaning that you're going to be removing the instrument panel, you may as well have your speedo rebuilt while you're at it if the trip odometer is really bothering you. I would not recommend trying to get those numbers aligned on your own -- there are a lot of tiny springs and clips involved -- but a speedo shop will do it for you. The worst part of the job is getting that panel off and getting the gauges out. Feel free to contact me if you run into trouble -- I have some tips.

In another thread, someone suggested that people have to drill through the engine-turned panel to install a starter button. That's simply not true. In fact, that would be a very difficult way to try to do it since those panels are not at all easy to remove and there is very little room behind them. There is plenty of space install a starter button on the underside of the dash. Here's a photo of what a previous owner did on my '41. I'm assuming that the '40 dash has the same basic design.

All's Well That Ends Well Some of you may have seen my post on another thread about my frustration with my front seat recovering project. It turned out that the three yards of fabric that SMS had made up for me were not sufficient for the upholstery shop to do the job because the bolt of fabric wasn't wide enough. Not having any experience in these matters, I had just asked the shop how much fabric they would need, and they said two-and-a-half "yards." So I ordered three "yards" from SMS, figuring a little extra wouldn't hurt. Almost a year later, when the fabric had finally been delivered and the time came when I had worked my way to the top of the queue at the shop, I delivered the fabric and the seat cushions to the shop. Later in the day, the guy called me to say that there wasn't enough fabric because it was too narrow. His calculations were based on a 60" width, and the fabric SMS had provided was only 50" wide. I had never gotten any specifics as to width from either the shop or SMS -- I just naively figured that they were speaking the same language and there was some kind of industry standard as to what a "yard" of fabric was. Well, apparently not! As has been nicely explained to me by a fellow forum member, bolts of fabric vary in width and you always have to specify. So lesson learned, but a little too late to help me. SMS first said they had more of the fabric, then said they couldn't find it, and finally stopped communicating with me altogether. I was super bummed. However, I then got a call from the shop saying that they had discovered some fabric in their own stock that they thought was a "pretty good" match and the right width. And it was only $65 a yard (as opposed to the fabric from SMS that cost $149). I went over the shop and had a look. It was almost as good a match as the SMS fabric, and by that time I had really had enough, so I said, "Great, let's do it." Yesterday, I went over to the shop and picked up the "new" seat cushions. I am finally a happy camper with no more blankets on my front seat! An extra bonus was that they found the original material on the backrest under the previous reupholstery job. I have seen a lot of samples of fabric that is supposed to be appropriate for a '41, including from LeBaron Bonney when they were still in business, and none of them looks quite like the original stuff. Here's a photo of it for the benefit of anyone who's looking for stuff to do a full interior. For comparison, here's what LeBaron Bonney suggested: It's hard to tell from these photos, but the "stripes" are much wider on the original fabric than on the suggestion from LeBaron Bonney. If anyone is interested in having a swatch of the original fabric, I would be happy to send you one.