Bloo

I hate to be "that guy", but 60 amp charging systems were certainly optional before 1969. I used to own a 1965 R9 (Police) Belvedere 1 with a factory 60 amp charging system. I have seen others. They use the same electromechanical regulators the normal cars use. The ammeter is labeled +60 and -60. A friend still owns this car, and if it weren't 50 miles away right now I would go get pictures and post them. One BIG difference is the wiring through the firewall. It is a separate harness, and bigger wire, with it's own little molded grommet. the "normal" cars run the charging system current through the bulkhead connector. That is adequate for 32/35 (37?) amp systems, and just barely adequate for 42/45 (46?) amp systems. You really oughta take that bulkhead connector apart and look, and clean and or replace the terminals (if they are beyond cleaning). Take a good look at the molded on wiring terminals at the ammeter, too. Melty ones need attention. I agree completely with certjeff1 that you do NOT want a bunch of mismatched crap on there. If you have the original alternator and regulator on there, keep them. These cars do not need charging system components all the time like some err... other brands. You can change the brushes without taking the alternator apart. On some models you don't even have to take the alternator off of the car. Bearings are cheap if you need them. The regulator sets up like an old generator regulator except there is only one relay. Use feeler gauges or drills to set the gaps and tighten/loosen the spring to set the voltage (see the shop manual). They also have 2 fuse wires inside the regulator to protect the system when things go horribly wrong. They can be replaced easily if need be (if you can solder). I once ran a 66 fury up to absurd mileage. The original alternator failed at about 270k miles when a winding on the stator got a little loose, rubbed through to ground and blew the leads off some diodes. When the car got wrecked at about 375-380K, it still had the original voltage regulator (with one fuse wire changed). By the 90s the cheapie rebuilders ran out of original stuff, and every alternator you got from the parts store had a 60 amp stator and a pulley for a 1970s A/C car no matter what you ordered. Replacement regulators were electronic and lasted 6 months if you were lucky. You could still get it done right at a real auto-electric shop, but hardly anyone did. I fixed a lot of burned up bulkhead connectors in those days. P.S. if you turn your lights on with the engine off, the ammeter should swing towards "D". If it swings toward "C" your ammeter is hooked up backwards.

Look at at a filter element for a 1965 361-2v (and probably 383-2v and a bunch of other various years). I recognize that housing. It was probably black with a yellow sticker on the side of it when it left Detroit.

Zero your ohmmeter first (short the leads and hit the "relative" button if its a digital one). About 0.8-1.0 ohm is expected.

Can you elaborate on this at all? I have a 1913 Studebaker that needs to be shifted quickly like that, and I have never really investigated why, but I think that maybe the gears just slow down really fast due to the heavy lubricant. Does your Buick use an extremely heavy lubricant (1500 or whatever) in the gearbox? Do you have a cone clutch? What exactly do you notice different with the graphite? Glad you got the death wobble fixed.

Check out this Doooo hubcap....

Thats normal more or less. It should charge a little bit even on slow idle. Remanufactured alternators of the last few decades for Mopars usually have the wrong pulley for the application they were sold for, and that can contribute to the no charge at idle thing. Another thing they did in the 80s and 90s was put 60 amp stators in nearly all of them, and it burns up the wiring at the bulkhead. Factory 60 amp charging systems had a separate harness for the charge wiring, and are generally seen on police packages, though I think you could order it on anything. I agree with Matt Harwood that the ammeter is probably hooked up backwards (because it goes to "D"). Put a voltmeter on the battery and rev it up. Voltage should be up in the 13s or 14s.

I believe thats a ballast resistor, probably for a Ford product, probably from 1956-1960 or so.

I think thats a fuel shutoff for some sort of motorcycle.

That is looking great!

My only experience with them was decades ago. It was fine then. That other thread really surprised me. Proceed with caution.

Having some other circuit blinking (backup lights?!) with the turn signals is almost certain to be a ground issue.

This. Its the same reason Ford "Fool" hubcaps and Pontiac "Pocoloo" (sp?) hubcaps exist.

Yes, 36 Fisher bodies are wood. Their promotion of the new all-steel top might leave one to believe that top is on a steel body but it isn't. As Pete Phillips pointed out, some Fisher bodies were still wood in 1937. While gathering information to rebuild my 1936 Pontiac doors, I took a bunch of pictures of the body of a 1937 Buick Roadmaster 80c. Wood everywhere. That is a beautiful 1934. Congratulations to the new owner.

It is nice to have a place where you can go ask a question like "In 1926, what color did Flubbermobile paint the Third Fetzer Valve, and did they install it with the vent up or down?" and get actual answers instead of 3 pages of "It's your car, you can paint it any color you want to" and "the valve functions equally well mounted either way" and "If you would just install a one wire alternator, you could get rid of the Third Fetzer Valve AND the Dumoflozzie as well". These forums and the VCCA seem to be the last 2 places on earth. On the other hand, there are numerous other forums and other clubs that cater to modified cars, some of which do it very well. Rodding at this point is a very old hobby. So is the musclecar culture I grew up in. I go to the local cruise in, and hear people talking about their grandchildren and great grandchildren. Nothing wrong with that. It illustrates that on average they aren't much younger than restorers, maybe 10 years. 10 years is about what it will take for the rodders and musclecar people to be in the same boat we are in now. You want young? Bring in JDM.

1939 for 1940 models in headlights. Individual bulbs and reflectors hung around longer in things like driving lights. IMHO a sealed beam driving light is post-1940 and likely postwar. On the other hand, someone could have stuffed a sealed beam bulb in a much older housing.

Ya, I caught that too, but now you guys are just pickin it apart.

Gaining driving skill is easier in a slower car. You have to make the most of what you have. For several years I was the scrutineer for a club that hosted driving schools and track days. Some guys buy the fastest thing they can afford, and then try to acquire the skills to drive it. That usually doesn't go well. The car is difficult to control under power, and nuance is completely lost. They learn slower and often crash. Top drivers almost always started out in a slow car. Juan Manuel Fangio - 1939 Chevrolet, Michael Schumacher - go karts, Niki Lauda - VW Beetle, etc.etc.

I was specifically referring to the piece in red (and the stuff underneath it) here. That is how the motor reverses at the end of the travel. Not the right motor in the pic, but they all have something about like that.

Thanks! What year is your car? Was it made in Canada or the USA?

On my Pontiac, some DPO had put screws around the windshield trim that were about 3/4" too long and they were blocking the linkage. If it is the wiper motor's fault, it has to be that either the flapper is leaking at that end, or the little reversing valve is not flipping over. Did you clean it out too?

Lots of 50s and early 60s cars in "Crime story", made in the 80s but set in 1963-64

How tall are you? There isn't much room in those. I had a chance to buy a "project" xk-120 fixed head coupe quite reasonable in the mid 1990s. I could not get in it and get the door shut. I am 6'3". Despite that, there are very few cars I cannot drive. I'm fine in open Jaguars of that era. I'm fine in Honda 600s, Fiat 600s, Saab Sonetts and Minis. Spridgets, too (although getting in is a bit awkward). That Jag was completely undriveable.

Wow! Nice job! I don't know about the sealer. I probably wouldn't, and if i did, then only on the intake. I'll have to hang back on that one and see what others in here think.

As a first generation (NA) Miata owner, I have to say that if you want a sportscar that just works, you can't beat an NA Miata. Mine has just over 300k miles on it now. Yes some things have broken but far less then you would expect from an average car. I don't think the engine has ever been overhauled or even apart. Outside of the heat shield on the exhaust, there aren't any bolts or washers out of place. It doesn't use much oil. It has been over the Colorado rockies several times in recent years, and I am about to do it again. These cars were good. Maybe even too good. They sort of have a reputation as a "hairdresser's car", despite being the most raced model of all time. That is because in years prior, sportscars were finicky things that took some mechanical ability to keep running. They weren't for everyone. When the Miata came along, suddenly anyone could do it. You could buy one on a loan, be a complete idiot about the maintenance, and at the end of the year it would still be running. Try that with a 70s Alfa, Fiat 124, or Spitfire. You might have wound up with a car payment, yard art, and no way to get to work. Yeah, if you had some mechanical ability you would probably be fine, but not everyone does or did. Probably the best recommendation in the thread so far is that Alfa. I have been away from the Alfa scene for a few years, so I don't know how much that has changed since the "reintroduction" in the USA, but in my experience you will meet more hardcore car guys in Alfa circles than anywhere else. Yeah, that Spider is going to be a bunch more work than a Miata, and the learning curve is pretty damn steep for someone without previous car experience. On the other hand, I met and talked with an ex-Lotus F1 driver at an Alfa club meeting, and one off the guys I used to hang with a lot in the 90s went to Europe in the 2000s and was a driving instructor on the Nordschleife. You meet people like this with an Alfa, not so much with a Miata.

Did you find the plate? The only thing I would suggest is that you carefully check for expansion room. On any engine the manifolds move a little, mainly the exhaust. It gets much hotter than the exhaust ports in the block, which have water around them. In use, when the manifold gets bigger it slides on the gasket. How much varies. The longer the engine is the more of a problem it is. For instance, on v-8s some guys get away with ignoring it for a while. On the big Buick 320 straight eight, there are actually 2 expansion joints in the manifold! Make sure that as the exhaust manifold gets longer that it wont "bottom out" on studs or bolts or whatever. Use whatever the factory did for washers if you have them. Don't use soft washers that will squish down and stop things from moving. If you have to wing it, at least use hardened washers, or cone washers with the small side of the cone to the nut or bolt head. Inspect closely for anything that would try to stop the expansion. Make sure the manifold is flat before you put it on. Adjust intake/exhaust if necessary, machine it if it is warped. Sorry I didn't really answer the question. I would probably use anti-sieze. There are not torque specs for my car, so I hadn't really considered that. Tighten from the inside to the outside and make a couple of passes like you would with any large item. If I used a torque wrench, I would probably use the specs from an early 50s Pontiac, after verifying that the threads are the same size.