Jim Nelson

John, I'm a 38-46s Buick fan just south of you in Clearwater. E-mail me at 'oldbuickjim@gmail.com'.

Welcome to Buick insanity. My 35-50 series had one of three sizes in 35. The 35-40 series had (all 5 bolt). a 5" bolt circle. Measure center to center 40 series measured 3" center from one to the next. Mine is a 50 series and has bolt to next bolt of 3-1/4 " spacing for a 5-1/2" bolt circle. Their 60 series had the 6" bolt circle. It also, on their 80 series, MAY have had a 6-1"2 bolt circle. Buick was having a cost issue in manufacturing - standardization ? ? duh - - -

JIC, if you still have a problem, I got an early '50' fuel pump the had the vacuum boost pump on to and the fuel pump below. That pump is readily avail at your NAPA store. I got it and bypassed the vacuum pump by hooking the input to the output. Also, you can not purchase any pumps with the glass bowl... Old ones and rebuilt ones are still around. The fuel pump manufacturers stopped them for safety reasons. There are good reasons as you might break it in a crash and have gas coming out the opening. Fire is very scarry.... Just a thought - - -

For those who want to know, here is my way. I use a small tach (2-1/8") mounted on the left of the column. It is from Westach mfg. They make a 0-3500 rpm tach. It works on either 6 or 12 volts. I had mine painted white background and a black needle and red tip. (ooops - sorry for the italics). Plus I use GPS to verify actual speeds. I then get one of those speed correcting little gear boxes and correct my factory speedometer to run in the 55 to 65 mph range. (± 1 mph) . In city traffic I stay with the pack. Only on the road with limited traffic, I use my factory (corrected) speedometer.. Always, IMHO and I'll stick to it......

You & I have chatted on stuff. I have converted my 38-46s into a good road car today. First, the guy offering a 40 series Buick who thinks (?) it will do 70 all day is either ignorant or just smoking funny cigarets. I have the 248 (now 263) in my coupe. I have Lloyds borg warner over drive and with that option, I really can drive 65 mph all day while turning 2350 rpm. I got 16+ mpg on that trip (+1800 miles ). Hopefully who ever buys that '38-40' car will talk to the rest of us who actually drive our cars and not have trailer queens. I use my torque and horse power curves that the factory provides. Our LONG STROKE straight 8's do not like to do long runs over 27 to 2900 rpm. (check it out ) My personal choice is - using the original 4.44 rear and over drive, I travel big hills ( on the east coast - we call them 'hills'. (You fellas on the left coast have real mountains.) So, I can do ours by easily down shifting out of OD until I get to the top and then up-shift back into OD.

Hi Frank, I have a '35-58 with manuals. Not easy to find. What is the biplane on your pix ? I'm old plane pilot that left aviation for Buick - pre-war.

Took my 35-58 to a muffler shop. They had many options for a muffler support. Its now all new from manifold to last length tail pipe. I managed to get it for $135.00 That was a good deal for a complete new system. The muffler is welded to the exhaust pipe and supports positioned where necessary to carry the muffler. I think I have three supports - one in front of the muffler and one behind. Last one just before the end about 12 ". Pix if you want.

My '35-58 as the same double sided key that runs the trunk locks and supposed to run the ign. lock. I sent my trunk latch / lock assembly to a lock guy in Ohio. He duplicated and provided a second key. I have the key type. Its not a B10 or B11 type lock. The ign. lock was drilled out so only the off/on switch works. If you need the key type / style (Briggs & Stratton). I can look it up.

Did you get any reply's ? Still working on my 35-58. Almost ready to start it up and begin breaking it in.

Yup, Glen picked up from Lloyds timely passing. He built mine back in 2014 (thru Lloyd) and did my second unit last year. I believe he has made a few improvements over Lloyds. As a ME, I think those were good improvements. Love my OD on the road.... cruise 65 mph at 2350 rpm all day long. (38-46s )

Walmart has several dif. size 'boxes'. Amazon has several 6v > 12v converters. The last one I saw was about ~ $25.00 with a max of 10A output. I like the stand alone agm batteries concept. Easy to move between cars. Different cap. so you can chose. Using 'suction cups' to hold the camera where you want / need - works. Hiding wires is a no brainer especially with bluetooth. Since my cars (38-46s and 35-58) are not 'show cars and I make them driving cars, converting to 12 v became important. Plus, converting to 12v is basically invisible. Only the most disconcerting / sharp eye, can tell. JMHO

BTW, Those items to the top corners are not bombs. They are supposed to be oranges as we are the orange growers in the states. I had to provide to placed to bolt the tags on the supports. Fortunately the spacing for the bolts worked out to be in the middle of the oranges. Hard to see but it worked.

I have a 1935-58 Buick. Fortunately, Florida has a rule that lets you use tag year if it matches vehicle year of manuf. Plus, we have a license plate collector who has a very large barn FULL of plates. I contacted him and went to his collection. I wanted a '1935' - Florida tag. Now if the tag I found is not being used (ID) and the tag must be original - no repaint - they will re-register the tag and give you a current tax paid sticker to be able to use like any regular Florida tag. I found a tag that was not listed for any county. Very unusual number series. I picked a tag that was in pretty good shape and I checked the local DMV to see if the tag I had was not registered - active. All good, so I sent it to the state DMV. for their blessings. It came back with their blessing and tax sticker. Yea ! I now have a very unusual Florida 1935 tag for my 1935 Buick. Its up to date - thru 2021.

I have a 1935-58 Buick. Fortunately, Florida has a rule that lets you use tag year if it matches vehicle year of manuf. Plus, we have a license plate collector who has a very large barn FULL of plates. I contacted him and went to his collection. I wanted a '1935' - Florida tag. Now if the tag I found is not being used (ID) and the tag must be original - no repaint - they will re-register the tag and give you a current tax paid sticker to be able to use like any regular Florida tag. I found a tag that was not listed for any county. Very unusual number series. I picked a tag that was in pretty good shape and I checked the local DMV to see if the tag I had was not registered - active. All good, so I sent it to the state DMV. for their blessings. It came back with their blessing and tax sticker. Yea ! I now have a very unusual Florida 1935 tag for my 1935 Buick. Its up to date - thru 2021.

My 35-58 has the chrome strip along the bottom. The 40 series was the cheeper version in 1934/35. The 50 series had more chrome such as head light buckets etc.

I vote to use the 263 engine. I got a 263 and had it rebuilt (like new ). Dave T might have a earlier front plate that will have correct mounting position. Easy swap. The 263 I got had a earlier bell housing (matched my 38 coupe). Dave can help you there. If nothing else, my 263 crank bearings were well within clearances. Replacing the rod bearing with new bearings will take up what little wear on the crank. Of course, measure JIC . I ended up rebuilding my 263, as s/n wise it was a '53' engine - last of the straight 8's. . Using the '37' manifolds is no sweat. Plugging the old 263 motor mount bolt holes gives you at least one (on right side) to ground the block to the frame. I did use a fiberglass insulation strip around the WATER PUMP LINE that goes from the pump to the block. Insulating that pipe corrects for IR energy coming from the exhaust pipe. This keeps the water from gaining any heat on its way to the block. Note how close the exhaust manifold is to the water pump line. Insulating the small portion of the exhaust pipe will give you uneven heating of the exhaust manifold. Can cause possible cracking. Let it be normal and correct heat gain to the cool water piping for the block. I also installed over drive. With the original 4.44 gear, this gives you a 3.11 ratio for road travel. I cruise 2350 rpm and 65 mph all day. My last trip was +1800 miles of easy driving , some on Inter-State speeds. I'm putting one in my '35-58' Vicky. That goes from a 4.88 down to a 3.41 rear ratio. Easy on the engine at 60 mph on the road this way. Lloyd Young's machinist (Glen) is still doing Lloyds Borg Warner over drives in Circleville OH. 614-571-4908. With Dave T helping, you can have it ready to swap and it leaves you with a '37, 248 to sell'. You can tell the appraiser that the engine needs work and we all know a rebuild runs around 6-7 k$. Ask anybody who has had it done today.

Well, I have to disagree. Installing over drive is fairly easy. I installed my first back in 2015. It is in my 1938 coupe. With the standard 4.44 rear, I cruise 2350 at 65 mph. My longest trip was a 1800+ round trip and it was an easy ride. The fellow in Circleville Ohio did the mod's for Lloyd Young for many years. Lloyd passed but the machinist still does the mod's. I'm putting one in my 35-58 now and expect to have it on the road by Mar. or Apr. He is 'Glen' at 1-614-571-4908. Details, I'm in Florida at Oldbuickjim@gmail.com .

There are several methods to getting LED turn signals. First, if you are doing a 6 volt system, here is a source for 12 volts. FIrst, getting a 6 volt to 12 volt converter . Amazon has one that gives you about 3 amps. There are some which put out 10+ amps. so you can power some accessories with 12 volts. The converter can be placed under the front seat or under the dash. This becomes your 12 volt source. Then you add dual filament bulb sockets. The first socket is your parking light socket bulb.. The second is a new wire that runs the LED turn signal. You are going to run a new wire to run the turn signal. This new wire is a 20g wire that goes to the turn signal control. You can replace the dual filament socket with a dual LED bulb. The rear socket is already a dual socket as it is a running / brake bulb. Just swap to a LED bulb. Using a LED flasher eliminates the resistors. The resistors were necessary to provide a 'load' for the flasher to function in the old system. Since you are replacing the original flasher with a new LED flasher, that solves that issue. Make sure the light in the control unit is a LED light bulb so you can see if your system is "flashing". This way you can use a 12 volt system and power it with a converter. All require some new wiring but its easy to get to. If you want, get a colored wire (your choice) to be able to trace it in the future.

Thanks, I will check and verify the year. You are : netpartsinc@roadrunner.com Where is a/c 909-.... Curious ?

Needed a 46 / 47 Plymouth wheel. One of my friends has a '47' and says the 46/47 wheels are different than later wheels. And help would be appreciated. Oldbuickjim@gmail.com

I request that my need be sent to me as I do on all my comments. I need the information to find what I need at the time. I normally get a response from aaca saying so&so is responding. I have not received that response. If you responded - I got nothing. Would you send your response to me to : Oldbuickjim@gmail.com Many thanks. My friend has a '46' Plymouth and needs a wheel so I said I would ask the guys at aaca who know every thing where I can find it.

I am in need of two 1946 Plymouth wheels. I believe the '46' and '47' wheels are different from earlier and later wheels.

1946 15" wheels needed

Yup, mine is the 50 series engine that continued with the design from - I believe '31'. You havevthe beginning of the 248 engine and mine was of the last of the 'side mounted ' design. I think you can replace your engine with a 248 if needed.

My 35-58 has a oil filter that is inside a can mounted on the right side. I bought the car and I got two extra oil filters. Here is a pix of the right side of my engine. Maybe this is what the factory installed.