Ralph55

I try to restore the trunk light in my 1955 Super - all that's left is a cut wire dangling from the trunk lid and an empty light bulb socket. Quite a sad sight... Can someone post a photo how those two connections look(ed) originally? What kind of bulb is correct there and where should the 12 V connection emerge from the body side? I added the bulb and the connector on the wire during my experiments:

Yesterday I removed the door trim of one of the rear windows which still was equipped with the original felts: those staples were really twisted from the backside! I needed an angle grinder to remove them - that's a kind of sturdy quality you won't see today any more 🙃 After finding a proper way to bend the rear window felts so they'll match the body shape I decided to use adhesive to attach the felts supported by some tiny screws.

hehehe... glueing the felts right to the metal is something that came to my mind, too - but if you want to keep your car "original" you've to do some research on how the real craftsmen solved the problems in times I wasn't event born 😉 If I take a look at my staples I think they'll never pinch through metal....

Last year I bought some window felts and some kinda strange little rectangular brackets for attaching them to the door. Because the window felts on the front doors of my 1955 super were (probably) attached at the wrong position I didn't change them. Today at a car show I noticed the holes of/for those brackets in a 56 Special (see attachment below): The window felts of the Special are obviously long gone - but you can still see the holes of the brackets. So my question ist: How do I "shoot" the brackets through the felt + door metal? Is there a trick or some kind of metal penetrating nail/bracket gun???

You mean a vapor separator with a return tube? Like this one from Mopar...

Sorry, I did forget to mention that my Carter pump arrived from the US yesterday and I'll replace the Airtex in the engine compartment with the Carter back at the tank. Great thing aside: Because amazon International couldn't meet the delivery date they didn't charge shipping - so the pump was really a bargain... 😁 But are you really sure with the suction side? At 1:54 it''s boiling between pump and carb -->

After a 20 miles highway drive I sampled the temperatures along the fuel path - it turned out the fuel is probably boling inside the metal fuel filter close to the carb which draws heat from the engine block obviously! As there are two filters (one is right after the pump) I'll remove the one right before the carburetor. To avoid the fuel boils inside the carb bowl I'll add an additional insulating base gasket for the Carter WCFB.

Oh... after a quick check: I didn't install the safety relay a year ago - because I couldn't find the oil pressure switch back then 😬 After doing some research I think there is only an oil pressure sensor for the gauge - but no switch because there's no separate warning light. I found one article on how to "retrofit" the 322 with an electric oil pressure switch using the 'little tapped hole just above the oil filter mount'. Do I have to get an oil pressure switch or would it work if I just attach the wire of the relay reading "to oil pressure switch" to the pressure sensor?

@Marty Roth I did already add that kind of "emergency shutdown" relay to the pump 👨‍🚒

@old-tank the recommended Carter fuel pump P60504 is discontinued. 😪 The successor is P90091 which only makes half of the gallons per hour. Do you think 15 GPH are still enough? The P60504 had 30 GPH... Though the Carter info tells me P90091 is the replacement part for P60504, my guess would be https://outlawspeed.com.au/shop/fmp60430

cool! 😍 Next week I'll replace the Airtex and relocate the pump. Then I'll use a thermo-insulated hose for the last mile!

Reflecting on Tank's input and having a look at the new arrangement of the fuel line after motor revision (Image 1) it seems the metal line right over the engine block creates a "grill enviroment" 😁 So if the engine heats up it "grills" the fuel inside the pipe over the whole length. Probably the pipe literally soaks up the heat because being made of metal 😱 Pump to filter Tank to pump (it's a low pressure one)

Hm... I see - moving it away from the engine compartment keeps the pump cool. Do you think it would help if I wrap the fuel line and pump with https://www.thermotec.com/products/sleeving/express-sleeves ?

Thanks for the hint, Tank 🙂 Never heard of a vapor lock before - but I'm here to learn... I added an electric fuel pump in the engine compartment. What would be the reason to mount it near the tank? The current thermostat is brand new and was replaced during the engine revision in winter. So when the pump is electrical - can a vapor lock still occur? I think the pump keeps pushing fuel to the carb - even if the fuel between pump and carb is vaporized.

Does anyone know the temperature range of the gauge in 1955 or 1956 Buicks? My 1955 Super shut down the engine while driving when the temperature reached N (the center position of the gauge). After 20 minutes of cool down the engine started again. When checking the actual temperature of the radiator (with a BBQ thermometer 😋 ) when the needle pointed to N I found out that's just 150 deg Fahrenheit! With my 66 GTO the regular temperature is 170 deg. I tried to find the water temperature range in the shop manual - but no luck there:

After some research they discovered that there are indeed ball joints with integrated worm gear which have the teeth in reverse direction (available with a matching driven gear). What happened was that such a set of driven gear and worm gear was ordered during the makeover of the transmission. The solution was to order a new set with the worm gear pointing in the other direction - which will reverse the driven gears turn direction which then will make the speedometer operate when driving forward. Strange things happen for sure - but why always with my cars... 😉

tank & the other Buick fellows, your comments are appreciated: I'll be meeting the guys at the engine shop tormorrow in the morning and now I've got some questions I can ask and some things we can try 🙂

ah... that's what I needed to know: initially my oil pressure is between 50% and (H)igh - after driving a while it drops when idling, but returns to high as soon as I hit the gas pedal... I've got the original driver's manual - but sadly it doesn't contain anything like "how to read your Buick's gauges". I'm sure there was some kind of engineering intention with the while arc when they designed this car - but the knowledge what it really means seems to be lost now (it isn't mentioned in the shop manual either)...

Just to explain: The engine received the break in not inside the car but on a test stand. For breaking in the new engine they used a special oil which was replaced by the 20W50 afterwards - but I don't know the type. The explanation for choosing the 20W50 was that the 50ies engines have gaskets which always leak a little bit - using heavy oil reduces the amount of oil working its way through the gaskets...

Oil type is 20W50 and about 160 miles since rebuild. The idle speed should be at factory level because the original Carter carb is still in there (also rebuilt)

I got my 1955 Super's engine rebuilt in January. Before my idle oil pressure was about 50% after 10 miles - and it never went below that. After the rebuild it goes down now to the end of the white arc (like in the picture attached) and it stays on 50% only for the first 5 miles when the oil is still cold. I can't tell whether a) the rebuild restored the perfect factory-like settings and the lefthand-side of the white arc is OK OR b) something went wrong with the oil pump re-assembly and I lost significant oil pressure Can the needle go any lower than that - or does this position mean the engine has still about 10 PSI pressure? Maybe some of you Buick veterans can enlighten a newbie like me 🙂 Best regards Ralph

Hi guys, I'm currently in progress of restoring a 1955 Super. During the winter months the engine and transmission were completely rebuilt. One of the things I hoped to fix was the speedometer: the speedo never worked before because one of the previous owners (for some reason unknown) removed all of the teeth from the driven gear! So after the transmission was rebuilt a replacement driven gear was inserted and I expected everything just to work fine... BUT: The speedometer now only works in reverse gear! Everyone keeps telling me that this is just impossible... To double check I used another redline speedo AND another speedo cable (just in case the other one was twisted inside) - but the effect remains the same: the redline only shows in reverse gear... I am quite sure that neither the transmission nor the speedometer were ever modified or "enhanced" by some third party parts. When the engine was opened it turned out that it was never ever serviced before... Anyone experienced something like this before? Kind regards Ralph

I'm trying to restore my 1955 Buicker Super to its original beauty - sadly many rubber parts were removed when it once was repainted (long before I owned it). The missing rubber parts now make the whole ride experience err... kinda clanky :-) Currently I wonder what kind of insulation (rubber, felt stip, ...) was originally installed between the front door and the window - from both sides (inside out and outside in) I can see the bare metal (see picture below). Would be cool if anyone could provide a photo of the original door insulation!

I see, Doggy - but the problem is: I'll have to order thingy in Trumpistan - so I need the correct english part name :-)

Hi all, I just noticed that a tiny something (let's call it a thingy - because I'm from Germany and can't name those special automotive parts very precisely :-) got lost somehow... The thingy is a metal cover which pulls down the flipper rail when closing the door. If you know where I could get a replacement thingy me and my 55 Buick would be eternally grateful... Kind Regards Ralph