Bloo

Yes. Since there is twice the capacity, it takes longer go dead, but also longer to charge. You're much less likely to run out of power. If for some reason you do run them down, just put the charger on when you get home. The car isn't going to take care of it on it's own in a reasonable amount of time. It depends. It would give you a truly awesome amount of cranking reserve. One Optima is electrically larger than a typical group 1 6v battery of the 20s-50s. Some forum members have done it. If by some chance the car is having trouble chugging down while cranking and not starting easily I would fix that first. It should have started fine on a battery available in the 20s. More battery capacity won't compensate for undersize cables, dragging starter, etc., at least not for very long.

I used smaller. I was having trouble getting cord that big through the spark plug hole, despite Fords having bigger spark plug holes.

Indian head is hard setting, but will need overnight to fully harden. I saw some for sale recently, no longer called indian head, but still the same stuff in a brown plastic bottle. It was labeled Permatex gasket shellac. The important thing to note is that the maker is PERMATEX. Beware similar looking brown bottles from other makers. They are usually not hard setting.

Braids are fine if they are big enough. The chassis ground only needs to be full size if the starter current is flowing through it. If you have #4, then larger cables and clean connections should make a big difference. Good luck! 🙂

#00 would be a good choice. Some cars got by on less (maybe #1) but probably never as small as the #4 typically sold for 12v systems today. <Smaller> - 8 - 4 - 2 - 1 - 0 - 00 - 000 - 0000 - <Larger> Think of it as a big circle from the battery post to the starter post, through the windings, and then from the starter case all the way back to the other post of the battery. For instance, if the ground cable goes to the frame instead of the engine/transmission, then there needs to be a third battery cable (or strap) running from the frame to the engine/transmission. It needs to be as good as the positive and the negative cable.

What you guys need is an real drivetrain engineer. As I recall there is one who is retired from GM who posts on 67-72chevrolettrucks.com. I believe he was from the truck division. Has anyone tried to sweet talk him into coming over here? I haven't commented much because I don't know how to solve the problem. I do understand what the problem is though, and getting the pinion angle and phasing "correct" is only going to work if the car has the original transmission, or one exactly the same length. To get a grasp on this, lets forget Rivieras for just a moment and talk about regular cars. A universal joint is not "constant velocity". In auto repair, a "constant velocity" joint usually means one with a bunch of balls in tracks, but that is not whats important. A cross-type universal joint is only "constant velocity" when it is running perfectly straight. If it is not running perfectly straight, and the input is running at a constant speed, the output is speeding up and slowing down as it turns. The more angle it runs at, the more wild the speed variations get. If you only have one u joint, it must run perfectly straight or this speeding up and slowing down will manifest as a vibration. The trouble is that the sort of u-joints we commonly use are full of needle bearings, and they have to run with some angle or the needles will pound dents in their journals and destroy the joint quickly. The way around that is to run "plain bearings", also known as bushings. The catch is if you do, grease wont really hold up as lubricant. You have to run the joint in an oil bath. Buick has plenty of experience with this. They ran a single joint with plain bearings inside their torque tube for decades. If you don't have a torque tube though, you have to run the joint at an angle and that makes vibration. The way to solve it is with a second u-joint. The second joint does exactly the opposite of that the first one does, and that eliminates the vibration. In order for that to happen the angles the two joints have to be exactly the same. The joints have to be phased perfectly (perfectly lined up in rotation) or the vibration will not cancel. This is what pinion angle adjustment is about in normal cars, getting the two joint angles exactly the same. Well... usually. There were cases in the musclecar era where more angle at the rear was specified. It was a compromise that sacrificed a little smoothness cruising in order that the cancellation would be perfect when the suspension was wound up hard under full acceleration. I'm not sure that was a great idea but it has been done. No matter. For perfect cancellation of the speed variations and thus the vibration, the angles must be perfectly equal. Some trucks have 3 u-joints, and now we are officially beyond my pay grade. Somehow the speed variations of two of them must add, and cancel the the speed variations of the third. I don't even know how to begin to calculate this. Hang on, it gets worse. That brings us back to the original RIviera. Apparently the 3-joint driveline was used to get the floor lower, or so I have been told. The joint angles are such that the speed variations do not cancel. Apparently some engineer figured out a way to introduce more speed variation to cancel whatever was speed variation was remaining by mis-phasing the driveline. Now we are way beyond my pay grade. There must be some particular angle that works. The splines would have to be arranged in such a way that a spline position exists that results in the correct angle. The next version of the Riviera (1965?) has double-cardan joints for a couple of the joints. A double-cardan joint is a constant velocity joint. That removes them from any calcualtions, and we are back to one joint running at an angle that needs it's speed variations cancelled. If you run the single u-joint perfectly straight it will eat itself, so it must run at an angle. There is no second joint to do the speed variation cancelling. Pinion angle won't really help either because there is a constant velocity joint back there, and any factory specified angle probably has more to do with keeping that joint happy than vibration. Apparently Buick continued using creative mis-phasing to cancel that vibration. Not surprisingly, the mis-phasing angle is different than earlier cars. If you change the length of the transmission, you change the angle of the front u joint. The amount of speed variation that needs cancelling will also change. If mis-phasing is what will cancel the speed variations, then the necessary angle of mis-phasing will also change. If you could calculate it, you might not even be able to get there with a stock driveline. No doubt Buick got that angle right for the number of degrees of mis-phase they were using. If you divide 360 by the number of splines in in the splined plunge joint, you will get the number of degrees change per spline. The probability of one of the splines landing on your newly calculated number of degrees is low. In that case the driveline would have to be cut apart and re-welded to your new specification. I said it before and I'll say it again. You guys need an engineer.

Maybe no difference these days as some, maybe most "smart chargers" have a tender function. A tender is a tiny low-current charger with a microcontroller of some sort in it that you leave hooked up to the battery all winter. It comes on now and then and charges a little bit, so the battery is always ready to go, but does not get overcharged. This has only recently become common. I probably wouldn't want to tie up a regular charger like that, even if it had the function, but some people might not mind. Tenders contrast with "trickle chargers" of the old days that had about 1 or 2 amps (maybe even less) and were meant to charge a low battery very very slowly to give it a deep high quality charge. While those could be hooked up for fairly long periods of time, they had no control circuitry and were not meant to be left hooked up indefinitely. They are hardly ever seen today.

In my opinion, if you want it, get it shipped and do the "get it running" part yourself. For one thing, I hear nailhead Buicks are prone to stuck valves after a long sit. Someone needs to check it out carefully. Then. proceed as @Rusty_OToole suggests. Some of the videos I have seen would give you pause (and that is putting it nicely). Also, it is usually all about the video, not the car. The culture has changed, and people who were raised into the hobby and know exactly what to do are uncommon now. Not non-existent, but uncommon.

Shops do let them just sit around. One of these days I will rant about battery warranties. They are not what you think. They are not necessarily bad, and can be good, but people misunderstand them terribly. You can just let it sit, but it is not ideal. All lead-acid batteries self discharge, and if they get run down a little and sit that way it is bad for them. Fortunately for you, Optimas of the spiral type discharge slower than other batteries. A tender would be a better idea. Get a really small one. There is no point in paying more money for more amps in a tender. You should be starting with a fully charged battery, and if not, charge it first with a battery charger. Better yet, get the tender and put it on a timer. Let it come on for a half hour a day. Thanks to edinmass for that idea.

Now what you need to do is figure out whether you are going to pull the heads or not. It is possible to do it without, but it is a lot of work. When I had this happen on a Ford 390 (an extremely similar engine design), I did it without removing the heads. I do NOT consider this less work than removing the heads, but if you are interested, here is how it is done. With the rockers shafts off, and the pushrods and spark plugs out and the battery disconnected, hit all the valve spring retainers at the top of the valve spring at somewhat of an angle (on the corner). Do this with a brass or plastic hammer. This dislodges the valve keepers, stuck from decades of use, so you can get them out later. Also look for pieces of perished rubber valve seal laying around trying to plug the drains in the head. You will find some. Get it all out of there. Don't let any go down the drains. With the piston down in #1, feed a bunch of CLEAN stiff twine, string, tactical cord, etc into the spark plug hole with a long enough tail left over you cannot possibly lose it. Rotate the engine by hand bringing the piston up so it stops hard against the pile of twine. Now you may have to make a tool to compress the valve spring from the top. Commercial ones are made (Lisle or KD maybe?), and could be really useful, but probably wont work on quite every valve. I don't remember what I used. It was probably some combination of a piece of Unistrut and an oxygen sensor socket, or something like that. Maybe it was just a stud or bolt and drilled unistrut. You need to be able to compress the valve spring by pushing on the outer ring, and have a way to get in to grab the keepers (2 pieces) from around the stem with a magnet, so whatever you push with needs to have a big hole in the side somewhere. When you let the spring up (slowly) you are in. If there are shims under the springs, do NOT loose track of which valve each one goes on. Remove the remaining chunks of valve seal. The twine makes sure a valve cannot drop in. It also gives you something to push against on ones that aren't stuck that bad. You can now use some combination of solvents (brake kleen, berryman, gumout, etc.) and penetrating oil (liquid wrench, kroil, mopar rust penetrant, etc.) and a lot of tapping with a BRASS hammer to get the stems loose in the guides. Once they are loose, rinse the guides really well with brake or carb cleaner to make sure all the varnish is gone so they cannot restick. You will probably find the guides are loose from wear once you get them washed out. Keep in mind all those chemicals are winding up in the oil, so drain and change it before startup. Put on new valve (umbrella) seals. Viton is better if you can get it (maybe blue ones on ebay?). I believe big block Chevrolet aftermarket umbrella seals will fit if nobody lists your engine. Double check that the valve stem diameter is the same as big block Chevrolet. If the seals are a little taller that is probably fine. Use your homemade tool to re-install the valve springs and keepers. Turn the engine backwards a little bit and pull your string out. Then move on to the next cylinder in the firing order. Repeat the process on all other cylinders in the firing order until done. Or, you could pull the manifold and heads (also a big job). Pushrods are the next possible issue. I suspect this uses selective pushrods to set the lifter preload. That means you will need to check them. None of mine were as tight as Ford suggests in the manual, and according to the guy who reground my cam (who I trust) you probably want the preload on the lifters to be about .060" (.030"-.090") at worst. It appears that my 390 (which had never been apart before that) was setup looser originally than the Ford shop manual procedure by quite a bit. Ford apparently does not believe their own procedure. Anyway, you use different lengths of pushrod to set this, so if you have any straight ones, keep track of what holes they came out of! Make a piece of cardboard with 16 holes, draw a fan on it for "front" and stick the pushrods in the holes when you take them out. If, due to valvetrain wear, you need a length of pushrod that was never made (5 out of 16 in my case), there is a company in Oregon called "Smith Brothers" who will make custom lengths. EDIT: @trimacar posted while I was typing this. I do think it is possible to unstick on the car, but I agree you wont believe how bad they are stuck. I think modern gas (for the last 20 or 25 years) contributes heavily to situations like this. I revived all sorts of long dormant stuff years ago, and even if carbs and fuel pumps gummed up I never encountered anything like this. When it finally happened to me about 5 years ago(?), the car was not long dormant. The gas was maybe 2 or three years old.

I don't believe it is a good idea to use a functional original neck. That Alfa was pressurized originally as was everything else from the era. The pressure raises the boil temperature significantly. A pressure cap and matching modern neck is going to be necessary to make that happen. If there is also an original neck, that will be a second neck. Removing it while under pressure is likely to get you burned. If you were going to do it, a lever release on the modern cap would allow you to release pressure first. Sooner or later though, somebody would just take the cap off on a hot day and probably get burned. Any good tig welder could add a neck to a welded type aluminum radiator. Any old fashioned radiator shop (they are getting really hard to find) could solder a neck on a brass radiator. I think it is a terrible idea, and I doubt anyone would do it because of the liability. A better approach would be to weld or solder an non-functional original type neck to the radiator to hold the original cap.

You would need to post what kind make and model of carb it is in order for anyone to make a good guess. If it is a Carter carb, that should be on a brass tag hanging on one of the bowl screws. Beyond that it is hard to say. Generally speaking, casting numbers don't mean much. They might be enough to determine what series of carb it is, but that on it's own is probably not enough to get a kit. Any meaningful numbers that aren't on a tag will probably be stamped, not cast. Exchange carbs have a long history of poor quality, sometimes with damage that cannot easily be fixed. Anyhow probably no one is stocking an exchange carb for a truck that old. You would be best advised to rebuild (or have rebuilt) the one you have, especially if it might be the one that came with the truck originally. Forum member @carbking makes kits for almost everything. Can you post any pictures of the carb?

Direct replacements for old cars like this generally don't exist. If there are exceptions they are probably Fords. The radiators you are seeing with the cap under moved the hood are probably for street rod use with a pressurized cooling system. A pressurized cooling system requires a modern radiator neck so that the pressure cap can control what is going out (or coming in) the overflow tube. The original cap is just a cap and the original overflow is up high and always open. Most of us wind up getting a recore if we can't salvage the original core. Good luck on your search.

These Chrysler speedometers don't last forever, but try inspecting and lubricating the cable first. Replace it if damaged. If that doesn't help, get the head repaired right away. If the head is at fault, it might suddenly start banging 120MPH and break the needle off.

Out here in Washington State, people have been running radial tires on literally everything since about 1980. The subject never came up back then. I busted a lot of tires when I was still a kid, and if there was a recurring problem with cracked wheels I think I would have seen some. This has come up before, and to be clear I refer ONLY to cars with drop center rims, of the sort that were used from the 30s through the 90s on a lot of steel wheeled cars in the US and elsewhere, and NOT wire wheels with the spokes through the rim, locking ring wheels, split rims, clinchers, or any of the other oddities that arise in the prewar era. Be sure to put enough air in if you go radial! None of this twenty-something pounds from the owners manual (or door sticker on later cars). Those ratings are to maximize ride quality on BIAS PLY tires. 35 pounds or more on a radial, always, within the ratings of the tire of course. Anyone who can't see themselves doing that should stick with bias ply tires. Don't drive around on rusted out wheels no matter what kind of tires you pick. Also heed @Marty Roth's warning about those little tags inside tires if you are going to run with tubes. They will cause tube failure. Peel or grind them off.

Almost no one used first back then except for getting the car rolling. Some guys even started from a dead stop in second if they were on the level or pointed downhill. That is one major reason you still see unsynchronized first gears 30+ years after Synchromesh became common. The other major reason is cost. You need a whole additional synchro hub and sleeve, which could in theory serve two gears. You only get one more synchronized gear though, unless you put in a fourth speed.

Yes, AC's K series (and similar numbers) were made through 1936, and AC-45, AC-46 etc. began in 1937. Doesn't the shop manual specify a spark plug? It would be pretty weird for them not to.

Congratulations!

I've been calling all of mine hoopties, but if that's the definition I might miss on a point or two. Re-examining my life choices now, like the day I sold that fender-flapping Studebaker Wagonaire that people would make room for on the freeway.

Nice!

Imagine someone painting a car without checking that the panels fit.

While you have it out where you can see it, also check that it does not leak vacuum when switched off.

The 3 dots look like spot welds. Is there any sign they could have broken free from one of the other pieces?

Make and model? Is a Humpback a Dodge panel truck? I think so but am a little out of the loop here. I don't have the answer as I have not seen straps like your picture. Also the picture is a little confusing. I see steering linkage. Which end of the vehicle is this gas tank on?

With a non synchronized first gear, when you disengage the clutch to put it in gear at a stoplight, you have to wait for the gears to spin down or it will grind. This can seem like an eternity, and in modern traffic sometimes it just doesn't happen quick enough. There is a faster way. Right after you disengage the clutch to put the car in gear, "touch" a synchronized gear (second or third) before putting the car in first. The synchronizer on second or third will stop all the gears and you can go right to first without waiting. This only works if the car is not moving at all.