neil morse

I certainly didn't mean to suggest that it wasn't worth posting! They're all interesting, as far as I'm concerned.

Glad you found it helpful, Ken. Good luck with yours. This part of the job involves a lot of repetition, but it's pretty straight-forward.

Yeah, you'd have trouble not losing money on this one even if you got it for free!

Good job, Mr. Moderator! Everything now consolidated!

Stockton isn't a long drive for me, but I would only be looking at the car out of curiosity since I'm not in the market for a second collector car. I was just wondering what you thought because this seems like a good deal for a nice driver.

Hi Don: I recently installed a new front wiring harness (from the dash forward) on my '41. The switches you're asking about are in a different place on the '41, but I assume the wiring is the same or similar. On the '41, the heater and defroster switches also do not appear on the wiring diagram in the manual -- I guess because they were options? Anyhow, I just replaced the wiring as it was with the original harness, which had a "hot" wire from the right side (switched) contact on the ignition switch to the heater switch, and then an extension from the heater switch to the defroster switch. So the heater and defroster fans only will come on when the ignition is on. The instrument light switch on the '41 is wired so that the "hot" wire on the switch comes from the tail light contact on the headlight switch. This is shown on the wiring diagram. So the instrument lights can only come on if the tail lights are on, i.e., when the headlight switch is pulled out either one click (parking lights) or two clicks (headlights). @Matt Harwood has warned against powering too many accessories through the ignition switch because it can create a problem if the current is being drained by the accessories when you need maximum current to start the car. While I'm sure that can be a problem in theory, I don't think I'm risking anything with the set up I have for the heater and defroster (which I'm pretty sure is the way they were wired from the factory). How likely is it that I would be trying to start the car with both the heater fan and the defroster fan running? Not very, I figure. Anyhow, that's how I've done it. Maybe Matt can chime in here. The heater and defroster on his Limited may be wired differently than on my Super. Also, someone with a '40 also may be able to tell you exactly how the factory wiring was done for these switches. By the way, your Special looks great -- hope you are enjoying it! Neil

58L, since you have the same car, what do you think of the price on this one? Seems like a very good deal to me.

This is what I get: (512) 657-4468

Which ones? Were there originally some other posts between Lamar's and mine?

Sign me up! Another nice MoPar. (Waste basket behind the driver's seat is a nice touch!) PS: I agree with Auburnseeker on all counts.

Hi Don: As Matt points out, he and I have '41's, and the linkage is a bit different. But it looks like Matt fortunately has a '40 on hand. To answer your other question (at least in reference to a '41), the hose from the fresh air duct on the firewall just fits through a hole on the right side of the radiator support. Apparently, there is no clamp of any kind, the hose is just twisted into the hole. Neil

5" Vintage Unity Spotlight, excellent condition, recently cleaned and lubricated, functions perfectly both mechanically and electrically. Comes with both 6 volt bulb (installed) and 12 volt bulb. $60.00 plus $20.00 shipping. PM me if interested.

Here's my '41 Buick Super -- if you think it looks a lot like the photo Matt posted of his Limited dash, you are right. They are identical. Keep in mind that both Matt and I have substituted LED bulbs for the original 6v incandescent bulbs. With the original bulbs, the lighting is much dimmer. It's interesting to me that the dash lights on the Buick are on a separate switch unlike later cars where the dash lights automatically came on with the headlights. The switch also has three different levels of illumination. With the original incandescent bulbs, this meant a choice between "dim," "even dimmer," and "WTF, are those things even on?" With the LED bulbs, the intensity is not adjustable -- it just a choice between off and maximum brightness. I think that back in the day there was a belief that it was "unsafe" to drive with your instruments illuminated too brightly -- or even illuminated at all. A friend of mine told me that his father taught him NEVER to drive with the instrument lights on because it made it hard to see out the windshield.

Greatest thread ever! (I only just discovered it and so far I'm up to page 7, but I had to skip to the end and post a comment and photo).

It's very interesting to compare this car to the '30 Pierce sedan that's currently being discussed in another thread. This one seems like the best deal at roughly $10K less than the other one. Yes, it needs upholstery, but everything else on this one seems better, and who really wants the horrible vinyl upholstery job on the other one?

The starter pedal? Don't keep us in suspense too long -- I'm very curious to hear the answer!

Do you have the shop manual? My '48 Chrysler manual had a pretty detailed section about the gas gauge. Assuming that the dash unit is okay (which it probably is), you need to pull out the sending unit and make sure it's working right. Then you can calibrate it when it's out of the tank by temporarily running an extra wire outside the car so you can hold the sending unit near the driver's door so you can look at the gauge while you move the float arm up an down. Then you can bend the arm so it accurately shows "empty" and "full" when the float is in the right position. I'm hoping your Plymouth is like my Chrysler with an access hole in the trunk floor so you can remove the sending unit without having to drop the gas tank. I was shocked when I found out that this feature was missing from my Buick. In order to remove the sending unit, you have to drop the tank, which it turns out is pretty much standard for GM cars. What were they thinking? Who knows?

While we are on the topic of Warner Bros. and Buicks, I notice that Lamar started this thread by mentioning the 2011 HBO miniseries "Mildred Pierce." The HBO series was actually not an adaptation of the Warner Bros. picture from 1945 starring Joan Crawford -- it was a treatment based on the original novel by James M. Cain. The HBO series was much more faithful to the book, very well done, and of course had a lot of great vintage cars, not just Buicks. But to get to my point, the Warner Bros. picture had a lot of great Buicks in it -- the principal one being the lovely 1940 Sequoia Cream Century convertible that Mildred gives her daughter Vita to celebrate her 17th birthday. (I realize the movie is in black and white, but that must be Sequoia Cream, don't you think?) Of course, Vita just "happens" to have parked next to a '41 Special sedan -- funny how the Buicks just seem to fill the screen. 😉 It's also interesting the the vent windows and frames have been removed from the Century. I assume that this had something to do with wanting the camera to have an unobstructed view of the occupants for certain close up shots.

Well, similar, but Bette's looks much sharper with the whitewalls and skirts! The odd thing about Mr. Blandings is that in the interior closeups with Cary Grant behind in the wheel, they for some reason use a completely different car. I'm not sure what it is -- I think it's a Chrysler product -- but it shows the steering wheel and the dash, and it's definitely not the Buick. In the Davis film, it's Buick all the way. Even the close up of Bette stomping on the gas in her sensational period heels to get away from the cops definitely shows a Buick.

In the end, poor Bette smashes through a picket fence and drives off the road. Apparently, even Warners couldn't afford to destroy a brand new Roadie, so the wreck seems to have involved at least two different cars. First, there's this one. (I can't tell you what this is, but it is most certainly not a '41 Roadmaster -- take a look at the rear bumper, just for starters. Then, in the final shot, the '41 seems to have morphed into a '40 as one of the officer's tries to extinguish the flames with a kind of "flit gun" extinguisher while the other officer pulls Bette's lifeless body from the wreckage. Quite a saga, and very enjoyable from an automotive standpoint!

She's too fast for them with that 320 c.i. powerhouse. But when she shakes them off, two uniformed officers in a '39 Special take up the pursuit.

In This Our Life As has been discussed elsewhere on the Buick forums, it seems evident that Warner Brothers had some kind of product placement arrangement with Buick. The other day I watched a great 1942 Bette Davis melodrama called "In This Our Life." The "star" of the picture as far as I was concerned was Bette's '41 Roadmaster convertible (which also figured quite prominently in the plot). When "bad girl" Bette is fleeing from the cops at the end, she is pursued first by two plainclothes detectives in a '41 Special.

Out for a spin on a slightly hazy 4th of July.

After checking it out, I agree completely. It's interesting that in addition to this Hudson that's really a Nash, he's also selling a Packard that's really a Studebaker. 😄