Stooge

Before I came to my senses and found the correct 3 speed for my century, I had looked into using the 320 with a Muncie behind it. A company called Bendtsens makes transmission adapters for all sorts of engines, including all sizes of straight 8's, to be able to put most any GM transmission behind it, automatic or manual using the chevy bellhousing. they are the only company I am aware of that makes adapters for the straight 8's so I would have to believe that is what was used. I checked out the car on ebay, something looks "off" about it, but it could be the wheels aren't doing it any favors

Thank you Spinney, that is exactly what I was curious about. I ordered a few books the other night including the master parts list and service manual, but while I wait for those to come in, I was curious to see whats out there for replacements or new old stock. Bobs and Classic NOS parts have a few possibilities and this cluster especially looked promising but a factory replacement part number is not given, but given the suggested years, I may contact them about it regarding any stamping on the part itself http://bobsautomobilia.com/transmission/40-48-new-40-48-big-ser.counter-gear-.-cg-408n/

Picked up a big piece of the puzzle today after work, now i just need to figure out whats damaged or can be repaired. So far it appears just these pieces are the ones with chipped gear teeth, one is stamped with K227- 3 and the other has no direct stamping but does have TS259-10 on the main piece

I believe LeBaron Bonney sells a front floor carpet kit for around $300. they make a note of it as saying 'not original' so I am not sure how it is shaped, and you have to go through to the complete restoration kits and color to be able to see it when it breaks down the kit contents. https://www.lebaronbonney.com/cart/comp_kits.php

I hadn't realized there were separate parts manuals for both the chassis and body, but where I am missing a lot of original parts, it would probably be handy to have the manuals to cross reference what interchanges while I search for some of the not so obvious pieces. Thank you, the Faxon site seems to have a plethora of what I am looking for, and I also directed the my friend with the Edsel Villager to that site as they seem to have all of the literature for that series of cars. 10 pages dedicated to the transmission should be a pretty good start, coupled with a master parts manual, I should be alright, its just going to come down to finding the replacement gears I need. I have come across another book I am thinking of picking up, titled A Manual of Servicing Transmissions and Rear Axles 1935 -1942. I think its going to be slightly broad as they cover a large range of vehicle brands rather than specific to Buick, but it never hurts to have alternate sources to bounce ideas off of. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1935-36-37-38-39-40-41-42-Transmission-Rear-Axles-Repair-Manual-STEP-BY-STEP/282852434859?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649 Thanks! thankfully the door was a pretty painless rebuild, which is nice since I need to do the same to the passenger side door, so I can only hope that one goes as smoothly. Please don't rush on my account, i would hate to inconvenience anyone, and I am very appreciative both of any spares or extras you want to get rid of but don't want to throw out, as well as any of the sought after parts that I do not have that you may come across. Something i was thinking of was, does anyone make a reproduction radiator? i have seen one listed on Brass Works but i believe that is to service an original. Cooling is something i am generally paranoid about with any of my cars, and i plan to do a few roadtrips with the Century, and a radiator is an area i would like to not have to worry about too much. Although i suppose a reproduction is just as possible to have an issue as a rebuilt one. Fastenal freight called last night, and my transmission has arrived in Massachusetts, sent up from an associate of Pete Philips in Texas, so i am hopefully taking off from work a bit early to go pick that up a few towns over and i can really start to assess what i need as i will finally have a "complete" driveline.

I meant to link them awhile ago but got distracted on Bob's site http://bobsautomobilia.com/?subcats=Y&pcode_from_q=Y&pshort=Y&pfull=Y&pname=Y&pkeywords=Y&search_performed=Y&q=wheel+bolt&dispatch=products.search

I live in the next town over from them and drive by Then and Now all the time, they are very well regarded around here. they are very knowledgeable and although I have never used them for this, seem to have a respectable rebuild/ service they provide. Happy to help if something is needed from them, its quite literally on the way to my shop!

A little more progress on the door project, all pretty much going to plan so far I think Wire wheel on a die grinder to clean up the inside of the door that would be forever blocked off and treated with Rust Prep, a pretty volatile smelling spray that was suggested to me by a long time body guy. Leaves a grey residue on everything after about 20minutes and really seems to do the trick. then a quick primer followed by a few coats of black spray bomb. when I make the folds around the edges, i have already marked off where the plug welds, ( i don't have a spot welder, so i drill holes and fill to mimic this) kissed them with a carbide bit to remove the paint and primer and then they can be welded. i have never had much luck with any of the weld through primers I've tried. they seem to have poor adhesion and conductivity, but this has seemed to be working and still covers the hidden areas. i cheated a little bit, and just gave the beads a quick once over with a flap disc and sanding disc. i know i probably should've have spent some more time prettying it up a bit, but I will clean up the under side, exposed seam which faces towards the interior, where as this side of the seam, will never be seen again. A mixture of strong industrial magnets, clecos, side grip cleco, butt joint clamps and some locking pliers all got the chance to hold something and get in the way. having done a few sets of late '30s doors with their compound curves, i am fairly paranoid about the seem shrinking down and making a little 'valley', but i took alot of time and moved slow and am pretty happy with it. i had plans on tig welding this, but although the metal is pretty rust free, its a little contaminated and i could have been more optimistic about it, so it was all mig welded. i use .030 wire for everything. Still have a little work to do on it before I fold the edges around the backside and everything gets final welded but, its getting there. Hard to document, but the outer patch seam is pretty nonexistent Also, I am looking at picking up some literature, and was looking at the 37-38 Fisher body service manual http://bobsautomobilia.com/literature-and-decals/fisher-body-manual-for-1937-38-.-fm-378/ and also the All 1937 Shop Manual http://bobsautomobilia.com/literature-and-decals/shop-manual-all-1937-.-sm-37/ Are there any other suggestions? A master parts manual? Can anyone who happens to have the 1937 shop manual clue me in as to if there is any extensive section specifically for the transmissions, and more specifically, the bigger 6 bolt transmission? My transmission should be arriving any day now, and has been partially disassembled as well as needing a few replacement parts, and the older manual transmissions are something that I am admittedly ignorant on.

thanks! the size of this car for being a coupe is really something else, but it was a fairly tense 6hr ride back from Upstate New York back to Massachusetts in the pouring rain with out much breathing room to spare on the trailer

Can I play too?? When I was dragging my Century home last year

I'm still working my way through this thread, but something I had accidentally overlooked when I started reading, although I was aware you purchased this in Massachusetts, I had glazed over a very specific bit of information, the small town you purchased it in, Abington. Abington happens to be the town I grew up in, and currently reside in, and the Proctor's are a good friend's neighbor. After I bought my Century back in September and had started looking for an engine and transmission, it was met with the "Dang, we just sold a century with the 320 and transmission a week or 2 ago" Small world!

i like it! There's been one on ebay that I've had on my watch list for a bit, but in the pictures, its reading about 115* so I would imagine its broken so I passed on it. Your interior is absolutely beautiful and is in excellent shape, especially for being original!

Since i was pretty happy with the state of the replacement outer skin, i started to cobble together the inner structure/sill section. It didnt look too great but there was quite alot of good metal still left and i would like to replace/disrupt as little of the door as possible to lessen the chance of some aspect of the door losing its shape as more and more metal gets cut out. Started with a cardboard template to get a general idea of shape that i needed to cut out from the new 18ga sheet metal. Made a slightly rounded edge down the length of the new piece to match the inner sill area where the outer folds over, and started hammering out the curves on either side where the inner meets the outer, roughed in and approximated fist before i cut out the inner strucure, and slightly refined a bit afterwards. Still have some massaging, trimming and final fitment before it gets welded in, but its pretty close. I chose to leave the large support brace in the original place to the original sheetmetal and made a cutout to accomodate for it in the new piece. The metal in that area is still good and i was hesitant of cutting it out and risk having some aspect of the door fall out of shape.

MCHinson, ive been slowly working through your thread, and so far two things, absolutely phenomenal picture documentation and thorough explanations! and two, i am very glad the body and chassis of my car are in such good shape! With the exception of some surface rust on the frame and steering/suspension and a few of the expected rust areas in the door bottoms and an area on the floor behind where the front seats would be. As tempting as a parts car would be to steal stuff off of, my garage is full, my shop is full and my driveway is full, and fortunately,the handful of vital.parts i am missing shouldnt be too bad to source. Pont35cpe, i didnt know there would have been that much of difference between the 320 and the 248. I was aware that the bellhousings were sized differently and had a different transmission bolt pattern, but it is nice to know i have the easier one to deal with. Auburn, thank you again for being willing to check out your resources, but please dont inconvenience yourself. I dont have a timeline for the car, and theres enough work to be done to keep myself busy for a good while at my snail's pace!

Sounds great, Auburn, thank you, and for being a new member here, it is extremely generous and greatly appreciated. let me know when and I can make the trip over to you some weekend! After a week of back and fourth working with someone associated with Pete, the correct 1937 6 bolt top transmission, shifter, bellhousing, torque tube flange, (all parts I was missing) are shipping out from Texas today. it has been partially disassembled and there is a chipped gear that I will need to find a replacement for, but it is a nice feeling to atleast have all of the major componentry of a correct 'complete' pulley to axle driveline.

Don't worry too much about the steering column, I would hate to inconvenience you and someone else, its just one of the parts I've been keeping an eye open for so I can have atleast have a "complete" steering system along with the "complete" driveline to get a good start on it. Thanks again! Whats sort of funny about the Century, is I was just finishing up, ( I actually hadn't finished it yet, but was close) a several year- frame off- every piece of the puzzle changed -off topic truck project, and was adamant that the next project was "going to be complete and maybe even a runner that just needed to be cleaned up a bit". But then I found this and it was one of those love at first site finds, so I threw trying to find a runner out the window. I wont post pictures of the truck itself, as its a squarebody c10 off topic truck, but I had a little fun with the interior of it, and i'll post a few of that. Handmade sheet metal dash and center console, using stock '49/'50 Ford shoebox gauges and clock, sort of styled in a 50s custom aesthetic. this truck was sort of a back burner project without a timeline so I got a little distracted a few times with it, but a fun project and good learning experience as I am not a painter by any stretch

^ Beat me to it, that's what I was wondering, I think it would fit in the space, but may be cored differently from the smaller straight 8's versus the 320. Unfortunately, I don't a stock one to compare it to so I could not say for sure, but having different part numbers is some indicator I would imagine. Auburn, that is an amazing gesture, I and would be thankful for whatever spares, unused bits, junk, etc you would be willing to part with. I am very interested in a steering column and gear box if you are still communicating with your source, although, again, I cant seem to track down if different models have different length columns, but I believe Specials, Centuries and Roadmasters have different part numbers for the gearbox themselves, although I do not know what the physical differences are between them, or if they are interchangeable. According to google, Lake George is only about a 3hr drive from my neck of the woods, so it would be an easy drive up sometime.

Gary, thank you, and I actually have a whole folder on my desktop of pictures and notes i've grabbed from your build thread, to reference back with my car and trying to make sense of some of the non-labeled, not so obvious parts. Thank you for taking the time to document and share your restoration project, its helped me out immensely already, and the car is coming along absolutely beautifully!

Thank you for the offer! The main things I know I am missing right now, other any soft interior parts and seat, are the steering column, (surprisingly it came with a steering wheel, horn ring and button, although the handle is nonexistent and is just the inner metal ring that someone had wrapped in electrical tape) and box, pitman arm, pedal assembly and clutch fork, and radiator. Had a few unexpected expenses recently and then the correct transmission popped up last week and I figured I should jump on it, so collecting the rest of the parts will be a slow process, but I have enough to keep me busy for a bit. I'm sure there are a lot of other things i'll need along the way, but I need to do a good inventory of everything that came with the car. Someone REALLY went through a lot of trouble blowing the car apart but also labeling a lot of it, and I quite literally have atleast a hundred of these envelopes, several plastic crates along with some larger pieces that wouldn't fit in crate or envelope A quicky little job a bit ago since I wanted something shiny and pretty to look at, was cleaning up the gauge cluster. I want to leave the original painted glass and use whatever gently aged original gauges still work, but also get rid of the crust. Researched a bit and found a similar color paint, although it looks a little washed out in the pictures. i'll give the outer bezel a polish when im closer to that stage, not much sense in doing it now when its just going to sit for awhile

thanks Pete! I may have some names mixed up, but I believe the transmission is actually coming out from your way, if you work with someone named Dean?

Just getting started on the body work on the Buick. its in great shape overall, but the door bottoms, some sections of the door sills on the body and a decent section of the floor are going to need to be repaired. I've been working on sanding back and removing all of the crust, surface rust and old paint from the car, and started working on the driver side door over the weekend. I don't have a lot for tooling and equipment, but sheet metal work is somewhat of a hobby and improvising and making do is something i enjoy. Just a piece of 18ga that i shaped with some hammers, dollies and little bits and bobs I've collected. Just the lower curve and door crown held in with some magnets and am pretty happy with its fitment and following the rest of the door shape so far, and will be starting to recreate the inner structure in the next few days

Hi Buick Group, my name is Dan/ (Stooge on a few forums, Jalopyjournal, Garagejournal and a few others), I'm 30yrs old, this is my first Buick, though I've only ever owned GM brand cars, I work in a force laboratory and have a hobby shop on the side to putter around with some cars , both my own personal projects and for other people. I have a few off topic cars that I've been working on and recently started on my 1937 Century coupe, (series 60, although I believe it might be denoted as a series 66 ?) that I bought last year and saved from being turned into a rat rod as the previous owner was planning on swapping over onto a late model chevy Colorado chassis. I've worked on a few prewar cars for other people, but have mostly been front clipped hot rods, most notably a 1937 chevy panel truck and a 1937 Plymouth coupe. My current projects are finishing up a longer term 1966 GTO project for someone, a 1958 Edsel Villager station wagon that I am working on with a good buddy of mine who I flew out to Iowa with last year and trailered it back here to Massachusetts with, and of course my Century. The '37 had been pretty well stripped off a lot of the vital parts, (no engine, trans, steering column, seats/ interior) but did include a lot of parts, trim, brake cylinders, hardware, a lot of the interior/ window garnishings, door mechanisms, etc. all pretty well meticulously bagged and tagged as I think someone blew the car apart at one point in time, to either start a restoration or part it out. It will be a modest restoration, as I am planning on using the stock running gear, I have acquired a lowish mile 320 straight 8, I have the correct 1937 Big series 6 bolt 3 speed on its way to me being shipped from Texas from someone on a 1937-1938 Facebook group, and I will be using the stock century rear end and torque tube, along with the stock steering , (still need a column, steering gear box and pitman arm), stock brakes, and I am keeping it 6volt with using either a Rhode Island Wiring or YNZ stock harness with turn signals added. the only planned areas for deviation are a multi-carb intake and a fabricated exhaust. The interior will probably be fairly bare bones for a bit and I will be happy when I even have a correct looking split bench seat, ( upholstery is something I don't have the skills for yet and I can see budget being an issue with some of the costs of stock interiors I have seen). After reading stories on here (49 Buick Supers excellent RT 66 thread here and countless threads over on the HAMB forums), part of the end goal is I would really like to take it on some nice extended driving excursions when its finished. Some pictures to get started!

Still on the look out for a complete Century transmission if anyone has or knows where one could be. any leads would be appreciated, thanks!

the wing is just a little too ostentatious for me

A lot of beauty to see in those pictures!