neil morse

My Super has the optional 3.9 rear end, so what Matt says about its cruising speed is accurate. I routinely drive it at 60 mph. I have had it up to 65, but I prefer to drive at around 55 to 60, where it seems very comfortable. Good luck with your search -- Buicks are great cars, no question. Neil

You refer to the "larger" series, but I'm assuming you understand that you are actually referring to the cars with the larger engine -- the Century, Roadmaster, and Limited. The Super is the larger-sized body with the smaller engine. As a happy Super owner, I would suggest that you might want to consider broadening your search. You might find that you would be just as happy with a Super. The interior trim of the Super is identical to the Roadmaster. The Limited (of course) is in a class by itself because of its larger wheelbase, and if you're set on a Limited, then you will be "limiting" yourself (pun intended) to a very small sample. The Century is what everyone wants because it was the first factory hot rod to come out of Detroit, but keep in mind that it actually has the smaller body and is not as spacious on the inside as a Super. PS: I agree with Mike that the Super currently offered by Specialty Sales in Pleasanton is grossly overpriced. If you're looking for a nice Super, you should be able to pick one up for a much more reasonable price.

Wow, a "two-for-one" special! 😜

What's going on with the speedometer on the Chrysler? I can't figure it out.

Hi Greg: Thanks, the bottom pair look like what was on my car. I will call you. Neil

Another banner day here for this project -- everything back in the instrument panel, and the panel back in the dash. Getting the gauges back in the panel and the panel back in the dash was the most challenging part of the project, no question about it. I'm hoping it will all pretty much be downhill from here on -- I just have to put the rest of the dash back together, install the switches, radio, glove box, etc.

Speedometer This is what my speedo looked like when I bought my car: I had it rebuilt and recalibrated by a local speedometer shop, and did a cosmetic restoration that involved using a reproduction part for the plastic face. It was okay, but the ivory plastic piece had a greenish tinge that I wasn't too happy about. Then, just when I was getting ready to put it back in the car, I felt very fortunate to find this NOS face for sale online: I substituted the new face for the reproduction, and I'm very happy with the result: I'm just about ready to reinstall the instrument panel, and then I have to put the rest of the dash back together. All in all, this has been a very satisfying project!

I just got through all seven chapters -- thanks so much for posting these photos!

Great!

Hi Peter: I don't know whether you resolved your fog light wiring, but I ended up just powering mine from the + terminal of the charge indicator. There was discussion earlier and in the other thread about using the BAT terminal of the regulator, but since there's already a 10 gauge wire connecting that terminal to the + terminal of the charge indicator under the dashboard, it seemed unnecessary to me to run yet another wire through the firewall. Neil

Enjoy it in good health, and please keep us posted. By the way, I really like the black-wall tires. It's very refreshing to see a car set up the way most cars actually were done at the time.

I'm a little rusty on my MoPar nomenclature (having moved to a Buick), but I think that Dlynskey is correct that the Newport badge during that era denoted the 2-door hardtop. There is no "Windsor New Yorker." You are mixing apples and oranges. The Windsor was the 6 cylinder top trim level, the New Yorker was the 8 cylinder top trim level. Contrary to what you say, the Royal was always the lowest priced Chrysler as far a I know, not the top. The Royal was the lower trim 6 cylinder, and the Saratoga was the lower trim 8 cylinder. I'm impressed that you are asking questions about a car that you have purchased but you haven't even seen yet! That takes guts, although I have to say that I don't think you can have possibly gone wrong here given what I've seen so far. On the "Fluid Drive" issue, you are about to be initiated into the somewhat confusing world of MoPar transmissions. The name "Fluid Drive" actually applied to the fluid coupling, which was offered for many years on a standard three speed or a four speed "semi-automatic." The "semi-automatic" transmission, that was actually a four speed with a "high" and "low" range (that shifted once when you took your foot off the gas), had various different names depending on the make of car. From Wikipedia: "The semi-automatic came under a variety of names - Vacamatic, Prestomatic, Fluidmatic (Chrysler), Simplimatic, Tip-Toe Hydraulic Shift (DeSoto) and Gyromatic (Dodge). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_Drive But what's that Dodge on your avatar? Seems like you should already know this stuff! 😉

Yes, I believe you are correct.

Not a thing. As the former owner of a '48 Windsor, I can promise you that you've made an excellent choice. These MoPars will run forever without the slightest complaint, and the interior on your car is spectacular (as well as the rest of it, for that matter). Congratulations, you've made an excellent choice.

Are you sure about that? From your photo, it looks like my car where the metal piece just surrounds the rubber grommet and holds it in place. From your photo, it seems you can see the edge of the metal and it's just rubber in the middle. On my car, there is also a cut in the metal so it can be removed. Did you try to remove it? You may be surprised.

Yes, I see that it already looks pretty crowded in there. The "metal cover" is actually just around the edge of the rubber and is easy to remove. Once you take that off, you may find that it's possible to enlarge one of the holes in the rubber to fit another wire.

Peter, you will see that the biggest hole in the firewall for wires is at the top driver's side corner. There is a large rubber grommet. I believe the factory grommet had two different size holes -- one for the main harness that goes straight out, and one for the smaller "tributary" that takes a 90 degree turn and goes to the horns, starter, and distributor. The grommet that was on my car when I bought it (not sure if it was from the factory) had a third "blank" opening that could be punched out to take another wiring loom, a little smaller than the smaller of the original two holes. A former owner had opened up the third hole for fog light wires (among other things). When I got a replacement grommet from Steele, it had all three holes opened up. I don't know how your car is set up in terms of non-standard items. I'm using that third opening for my fuel pump and Pertronix wires, as well as wires to the carb for the under-dash starter button that my car uses instead of the accelerator switch. But anyhow this is a long-winded way of suggesting that you take a look at that large opening and see whether there's room there to run your fog light wires, even if you have to open up another hole in that rubber grommet. As you mention, there aren't many options.

Gone! At least Ebay works fast when things are reported to them.

Another fishy ad on Ebay -- a valuable car being sold with no reserve, photos taken from the website of a reputable seller. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1941-Buick-Super/274033088809?hash=item3fcda51929:g:H0UAAOSwCSpdkoe0 The photos and description of the car are taken from here: https://www.connorsmotorcar.com/vehicles/225/1941-buick-super I reported it to Ebay.

I don't know whether this helps or not, but my car doesn't have the spring you show. Also, it seems odd that your photo shows that the spring is secured by a wiring clip that is not otherwise serving any purpose. I'm wondering whether this is stock, or someone modified your car at some point? Of course, it may be that the spring is stock, and it just disappeared from my car at some point. At any rate, the hood latch on my car does not "retract," and I never found this to be an issue. Pull it out to open the hood, push it back in when the hood is shut.

@Matt Harwood Your idea seemed so good to me that I went ahead and ordered some of the green LED's for my turn signal indicator lights. As I reported above, I had used several thicknesses of a photo filter gel to get the green color back. I said it worked "great," but the truth was that I thought the green color wasn't quite right -- they looked a bit yellowish. The LED's work much better -- a very nice deep green color. Thanks for the idea!

Matt, I believe all 4-doors were set up this way back then. My Super 4-door is the same way, and I had a '48 Chrysler 4-door that was the same. I think it had to do with discouraging rear seat passengers from entering or exiting the car from the left side (exposing them to traffic), but it's hard to see how the fact that the interior lights didn't go on when you opened the door would really discourage people. Maybe a form of reminder? Who knows? Beautiful Roadmaster -- good luck with the sale.

No, he said it was running and driving when he bought it. He had just pulled the interior apart to redo it. It had seats in it when he got it. Maybe the radiator is tucked way down in front somehow?

The owner was working on the interior when I came along. He bought it recently in pretty much the shape you see in the photos. He said the body had been mounted on a Chevy truck frame. I didn't even notice the radiator situation -- very odd, as Ken says. The main thing I noticed under the hood was how much space there was between the firewall and the engine -- at least two feet. Here's a pic of the inside -- other than the dash, it was stripped clean.

Almost, but not quite.