neil morse

Wheels and tires also look too small. Is it just me?

Looks like you're off to a great start, Grant! I'm so glad that you've started this thread so we can all follow along with your project!

Ouch! I think I will continue to live with the San Francisco hills and just use the old parking brake method for starting on a hill. (For those unfamiliar with our fair city, there is basically a stop sign or traffic signal at the end of every block, and some of the blocks are on a very steep grade. It's not uncommon to find yourself in a solid line of traffic headed uphill and have to stop and restart several times before you get through the intersection. Not fun with a 4,000 lb. car with standard shift!)

Hi Thom: Living in San Francisco, as we do, this might be a handy thing to have. I drove a '41 Caddy years ago that had one, and it worked very well. How much were they asking? Neil

No, it's not a fun job! Getting the instrument panel off and the gauge out is a major undertaking. Then you have the problem of getting the temperature sensor out of the block, which is often difficult because they tend to get stuck. NOS gauges sometimes come up on Ebay. I was able to find one for my '41 (same part as for your '40.) I saw one about a month ago on Ebay, but I just checked and it's no longer there. If you can get the original gauge out without further damage to the capillary tube and sensor, it is probably repairable. But given the uncertainty, you would be much better off having a replacement in hand before attempting the removal of the existing one.

You're welcome. Also, this may be obvious but I will say it anyway. (It wasn't obvious to me and caused me additional aggravation.) You need the tool to remove the handles, but not to install them. For installation, you just position the clips in place on the handles and push them into place. The clip will snap into the groove in the shaft and you're done. This of course makes sense if you think about how the handles and cranks were installed on the assembly line. Not realizing this, I was futzing with a screwdriver to get the clips in place while installing the handles until a friend helped me out! 🤪

It is possible, as Matt says, to grab the clip with pliers. However, this tool will save you lots of time and aggravation! https://bobsautomobilia.com/shop/handles-knobs/door-handle-clip-removal-tool-1930-60-hc-tool/

Yeah, it didn't sell so they jacked up the price by $11K! 😄 Odd strategy.

As I said, I'm willing to go look at it if anyone is seriously interested. But I don't want to just spin the guy's wheels since I'm not a potential buyer. I have met the seller before and he's a good guy.

1948 whitewalls on a 1971 car. Very odd choice. But otherwise seems like an interesting specimen.

I agree that it looks pretty good from what we can see, but what an odd approach to automotive photography! It's as if the photographer were nearsighted and could only focus on things right in front of his face. 😄

We saw this car last November. Still being offered at the same price. As I said on the other thread, I would be happy to go and take a look if anyone is interested and unable to come to SF. I am familiar with the seller.

You've got some exotic birds down there, Paul!

I would be very careful if I were you!

This looks like a really solid car, assuming the information about its originality is accurate. Being a Buick man myself, I would be happy to check this car out on behalf of any members who may be interested. Vallejo is just up the road from me in SF.

Looks like a nice car. I spent many hours as a youth in the Larz Anderson Museum.

No problem! 😄

I think you may be on to something, Marty. Here's a photo I found of Henry supposedly taken in 1930. Of course it's very hard to tell in the photo with Eleanor because of the way the photo is cut off!

Yes, just my attempt at humor that I'm afraid went right over Ken's head! Ken, on the gas tank, I also wanted to use ReNu but had the same problem of no local shop. I got a good referral to a radiator shop that offered the same service. It's not rocket science. As the guy at the shop told me, the key to applying a good coating is that "nothing sticks to rust." So they open a few holes in the tank and thoroughly sand blast the inside to eliminate all the rust, then weld it back together and apply plastic coating to the interior. I think the ReNu process is essentially the same. It wasn't particularly expensive and I thought it was worth it for the peace of mind. Have you looked at the inside of your tank? I found it was pretty easy to use my smart phone camera to take some pics through the hole for the fuel pipe/gauge sending unit. My tank had a lot of rust on the inside so I went ahead and had it coated.

Looking good, Ken. From the orientation of your photos, I see that you have the rare side draft carb! 😜 When's the first start-up likely to happen?

And that's one reason why this isn't anything near a $30K car! 😄

Khrushchev's Gaz parade car is in the Petersen Museum in LA.

You are not alone. The "Astra-Dome" dashboard was one of the greatest ever, and this one looks to be in excellent condition. I had a '62 plain vanilla 4-door Newport with a red interior. It was pretty boring, except for that magnificent dash! It's particularly arresting at night.

When I did my '41, I bought one of these reproduction faces and was prepared to use it (after repainting the insert that fits into the plastic face). The color had a bit of a greenish tinge and didn't completely match the ivory plastic in the other gauges. However, I thought it was "reasonably presentable," as I said above. This is what it looked like. Then, at the last minute before I put everything back together, I was fortunate enough to find an NOS speedo face on Ebay. It's hard to tell from the photos, but you can see that the main difference is that the hash marks around the edge are more uniform on the NOS piece, and the color of the plastic is more ivory. The colors on the chrome inset piece (brown for up to 50 mph, and red -- danger! -- for over 50) are also much truer on the NOS piece than my efforts to match the correct colors on the reproduction piece. The photo below shows my completed speedometer with the NOS piece. But I seriously doubt whether anyone other than me would have noticed if I had used the reproduction piece.