VMac822

Ah gotchya Don, that helps. So I take it the mount post is part of the bracket? I'm going to tackle this next week.

Thank you Matthew. That is quite interesting! Looks like my C-clips have rusted away. I'll have to scare up new C-clips and the post pieces that go through the top shock eyes. May also look into cheating and replacing all that with grade 8 shoulder bolts and nuts.

I get a lot of tire bounce from the rear and decided it's time to replace the tube shocks in the rear. They look pretty ancient, I wouldn't be too surprised if they're the originals! With the rust accumulation I am unable to determine how the top ends are mounted. Any suggestions on how to take them apart? I figured I could start by removing the brackets then seeing how I can remove them from the old shocks. I bought new shocks from Cars, and while they appear to be the right ones, I am wondering if I need additional hardware. Any suggestions would be appreciated. It is interesting Buick used replaceable tube shocks on the rear and knee action on the front.

I talked to Flying Dutchman and they will rebuild mine for $125, provided that backing plate is in acceptable condition, or do an exchange at the same price with $75 core charge. Turnaround time is 3-5 days once they have mine in hand, so will probably have them rebuild mine since I won't be needing to drive the car again for 3 weeks.

Good information everyone, that is all helpful. Yes mine is a series 40. The pump doesn't have a grease fitting. given the car has a little over 100,000 miles I'm sure it was replaced sometime in the past. but I'll play it safe and go with a later style with the sealed ball bearings. I will call Dutchman tomorrow and see what they can do.

Thank you Ben and Bruce. Got your PM Ben, I don't have a parts book so don't know what my pump could interchange with. Bruce how do I tell if my engine is an early '38 or not? My engine serial number is 43548856 if that helps.

Yikes, I just posted about the water pump on my '38 Special and then found your post. Did you ever get yours sorted out or replaced??

The water pump on my '38 is pretty noisy and without the belt on the shaft is a little wobbly. Doesn't leak though. It has part number 1307344-1 on it. I have no idea how old the pump is, the car is unrestored with 104,860 miles with its original mostly untouched engine. I see there are NOS rebuild kits for around $50 here and there (mostly eBay) which I have concerns about. Replacement pumps are around $200. I see there is a shop in Oregon called Flying Dutchman that specializes in vintage water pumps http://water-pump-rebuilders.com/buick%20water%20pumps.html Has anyone ever used them and was their price and turnaround time reasonable? I should have done this over the winter but I want to take care of the water pump in the next couple weeks because I want to hit the road a couple times next month and wander a ways from home.

Good idea, thanks Spinneyhill.

Thanks again for the great suggestions! I'm going to pull the tires and get into it soon and see what all it needs. The good news is it tracks straight and steers well and doesn't seem to have much play in the steering so I think a lot of the components are pretty sound. I know king pins wear relatively fast so I'll definitely check that. Yes the car used to belong to Dave Tacheney. He bought it from the second owner I believe, and I'm the 5th owner. Here are a couple pics. Some of the paint has been redone but about 2/3 of it is original. All the gauges work, everything else but the clock and radio. It no longer has the original radio and one from a '39 I believe was installed in its place, but the last owner gave me a '38 radio that I'm going to tinker on and get working and install.

OK thank you for the input. I'm glad to hear the ride can probably be improved quite a bit. I would also appreciate some pointers on where to buy parts. I'll start with new rear shocks and doing maintenance on the knee action units up front but do you think it would be worth pulling them off and going through them? Is it very difficult to rebuild them? At one time my car was owned by a gentleman in Minnesota who specializes in prewar Buicks but his name escapes me at the moment.. My car came from Minnesota in 1996 and now lives here in Eastern WA.

Hi all, first post here! I bought a 1938 Special sedan a couple months ago that's in good original shape. It has 104,700 original miles and I have enjoyed taking it on a few drives. One thing I notice though is the tires really bounce when I hit even fairly mild bumps in the road and sometimes the front tires bounce pretty intensely. It causes the whole car to shudder considerably. It has wide whitewall nylon reproduction tires. I don't know how much of it is the tires and how much it's the shocks. I do need to check the oil on the fronts, knee action shocks are a new thing for me. I have no idea how old the rears are either. But when the car is sitting and I bounce it the shocks seem to dampen it quite well, seems they're doing their job. But realistically with old suspension technology and 79 year-old car with nylon tires what is the best I can expect? The nylon tires do a lot for the appearance of the car but if radials help I may switch them out eventually. Thanks much!