Str8-8-Dave

The worst tire failure I ever had was when a low mileage modern Michelin radial tire blew out on the left rear corner of my Ford Econoline Club Wagon. The tires were 6 years old. They all had excellent tread and no signs of sidewall deterioration, but that tire said kapowee in the worst area of freeway near Detroit Metro Airport. Based on that experience I just replaced the 4 original tires on my recently acquired Porsche sports car which had 5900 miles on the original tires and close inspection of the tires revealed no visible defects. I happily shelled out $1700 for peace of mind that a car with no spare tire wouldn't fail a tire. Tires on my 1931 Buick are 5 year old Coker BFG reproductions but I took them off the rims to have rims powder coated and replaced the tubes when I put them back on the car. That car has a brand new spare identical to the tires on the ground. If that car spends more than 20 minutes at 50mph I will replace the tires on that car.

I can confirm31' 80/90 engines are the same. Attached are scans of 3 pertinent pages from 31 Buick Spec's and Adjustments which have better cutaways and depict the 2 pressure relief valves, one for oil pressure and one decides whether or not to circulate oil thru the temperature regulator. The regulator is there to speed warming oil when cold, then regulating maximum oil temp when warm. The spring for the pressure relief valve is a heavier stiffer compression spring than the regulator bypass valve spring. Hope this helps.

Other than soaking the joint between bearing and housing with Aero-Kroil or other good penetrating oil I think you are going to have to gently pry between ear on the iron housing and outer bearing housing, then start tapping all the way round the edge of the bearing housing. Tapping with a weighted plastic mallet around those exposed edges of the bearing while holding the housing in your hand should be safe and likely effective. Just keep working all the way round to avoid cocking and the bearing may surprise you and come out easily enough.

This is a follow-up from my latest Ebay car buying experience. I bought the 2015 Porsche 911 4S from Motorcars of the Main Line in King of Prussia, PA, I dealt with David Mizrachi who was absolutely honest and professional. I approached Motorcars after seeing the classified listing on Ebay via Contact Seller. Classified means no bidding, some have a make offer arrangement, this one did not. The car had 5970 miles on it, had 2 owners, spotless Carfax except there were 3 recalls open from Porsche. It was sold to it's first owner in FL by Brumos Porsche who is a renowned Porsche race team owner that races at Sebring, Lemans and other notable venues. the car was re-sold as certified used at around 4500 miles. It had original tires on it that David Mizrachi photographed extensively to show their build dates. I asked for pictures under the car and he forgot to get those while the car was on a hoist but then laid on the floor and took a bunch of good clear pictures. As time went by it became clear I was buying a virtually new 7yr old car. David took the car to the local Porsche dealer and the 3 recalls were taken care of. He also had the oil and filter changed an had the car inspected. I bought the car on a personal check and 3 days later David mailed a clear title, laminated original window sticker, a detailed bill of sale and a complete set of owner's manuals in the Porsche leather folder. I immediately insured the car and went to the MI Sec of State, paid the tax and registered the car and walked out with a license plate. I have since gotten the Michigan title. Motorcars is a Sirius XM dealer and I got an Email alerting me that the dealer funded a 6mo trial subscription. I needed to sell a car and clear garage space to accommodate the Porsche and David agreed to store the car in the back of his showroom, covered and on a battery tender for a month. David put me in contact with a transporter he uses and he initially quoted $1300 to deliver the car. I had better than expected luck selling the car I had so we bumped the delivery up 2 weeks. I contacted the shipper to firm the shipping and he actually voluntarily lowered the delivery price to $1000. Sunday, March 20, 3 days later the car was delivered. Once the car arrived my first moves were to install a Battery Tender harness on the battery and install some Weather Tech floor mats. The original spotless carpeted Porsche floor mats are resting in my computer room behind me, then I set about seeing exactly what I bought. The body and paint and interior are flawless. The car has 3M clear vinyl paint protection on the front of the car and at the rear fender flares. The original tool kit, tire sealant kit and air compressor are present in their storage compartments in the front trunk. This car is powered by a 400hp 3.8l naturally aspirated flat 6. It has all the performance option boxes checked, including Porsche dual clutch automatic trans, Sports Chrono package, Porsche Active Suspension Management, sports exhaust, 2 performance modes, one for street, one for track. It does not have distracting luxury items, standard cruise control but no adaptive cruise, sports steering wheel with paddle shifters only, it is not dripping with buttons, it is a coupe that has a metal sunroof ILO glass, Targa or cabriolet tops, it doesn't have handsfree voice recognition and the CD player only holds one CD at a time, there is no changer. That said it still has dual zone auto climate, 14 way electric seats with heating and cooling, power windows, ergonomic memory features, power windows, heated and auto dimmed mirrors, Bose 10 speaker surround sound, keyless enter and drive, rain sense wipers and Homelink built in garage door opener. The owner's manuals are massive, one for the car, one for the Porsche Communications Management system. After reading both for days I can tell you I have a pretty good idea of how to get around in the car's features and everything works as it should. On our way back from my wife's final follow-up appointment for the back surgery she had in December we stopped at Motor City Porsche where I sat with service manager John Wilson. Motor City Porsche was opened in 1987 by Eital Dam as a BMW franchise. I showed John a copy of the window sticker and I had a list of questions about exactly what a 7yr old car with very few miles needs in the way of service. John pulled my car up in the Porsche database and verified it's history. Porsche scheduled maintenance is structured with an awareness that some cars will not accumulate miles commensurate with their age and has "Additional Service" recommendations to accommodate that situation. Some items I was concerned about such as age of coolant and trans and clutch oil are within useful range both by time and miles so won't get attention. What will get attention at a service encounter scheduled for Monday, 4/11, are engine and cabin filters, engine oil and filter, drive belt replacement, spark plug replacement, all-wheel drive oil and brake fluid replacement, complete electrical system testing, complete vehicle inspection, coolant level and concentration testing, trans and clutch oil level check, new tires and TPMS sensors including mounting, balancing and 4 wheel alignment and a road test. So far I have had this car on the road 3 times. It starts runs and drives perfectly as far as I can tell, I'm hardly a test for it's performance prowess yet. It's fast enough and it's handling is good enough wife has signaled if I'm going out to play in traffic she will stay home and catch up on her favorite horror movies to avoid stress. I would describe the car as a 400hp go-kart with just enough luxury appointments to make it a distinctly German sports car. The owner's manual section on tire pressure and TPMS is interesting, there is a comfort inflation for the tires, good up to 165mph, then there's the standard inflation which, is about 4PSI higher than comfort inflation, you can enjoy all the car's speed with that setting. The owner's manual also states the warranty is void if you mount gumball slicks for track days because the chassis them becomes capable of high enough lateral acceleration as to starve the dry sump oil pickup for oil and destroy the engine. The sounds, smell and right brain stimulation are all delicious and unique. For the money I could have bought a C8 gen Corvette. I'm old school, I'll stick to the Porsche. Motorcars has a website section on previous car sales and my car was the 611th Porsche they have sold. I would have probably not found Motorcars of the Main Line, David Mizrachi or this particular car without the reach of E-bay. This is the first time I bought a car from an E-bay classified listing, the other 3 were all auctions. No complaints so far.... Dave The first block is a dealer picture walkaround. There were 90 pictures in the original listing and I wanted more, particularly under the car. All questions were answered without any pressure to buy the car. When I finally said let's go paperwork was handled efficiently with closing via Docu-Sign. The G-force lateral acceleration can be displayed on this user formattable display. There are many other displays that can be offered up by using a stalk on the right side of the steering wheel, anything from radio station to torque splits to TPMS data, to critical temperatures, to fuel economy. The Sports Chronograph can be configured as a stop watch timer or to display current daytime. The Porsche Communication Management (PCM) screen and controls below come with their own 200pg owner's manual and can access phone, navigation, maps, sound control, and lap timer functions to mention a few of it's features. It is a straightforward logical menu driven system with button entry to main menus, then sub-menu scrolling and selection via touch screen or the rotary knob on the right. Immediately below the touch screen is the CD player slot. Just below the PCM panel is the automatic climate control head which includes front and rear window defroster and heated mirror controls and heated and cooled seat controls. The transmission selector offers fully automatic shifting or manual gear selection via console shifter or steering wheel mounted paddle shifters. Console switch gear on the left includes Sport button for enhanced road suspension shift and throttle mapping, then Sport Plus which hardens suspension, shifts and throttle mapping, eliminates overdrive 7th gear and offers a launch feature which allows the brake to be held and engine throttled up to the rev limiter, then launch by engaging the clutch when the brake is released. BANG! It'll change your whole day. Definitely at track day thing. Next switch down switches suspension management on or off, last on left is traction control on/off. On the right we have a manual control for the spoiler wing which automatically deploys at 80mph, the sports exhaust switch and the auto engine start/stop lockout switch. When driving normally in automatic mode if the auto start is switched off the car enters a coast mode to conserve fuel. The parking aids are color coded proximity displays and there is a rear-view camera useful backing the car up. A feature to angle the passenger side mirror in reverse can be switched on or off in the PCM. Some escape reading, for about 200 bucks you can have your own copy to ponder... One of many pictures of the underside of the car David Mizrachi happily laid on the floor to capture...

I should have called this device simply a cutout relay. There is a current limit relay up under the dash in many of these early Buicks but it's purpose is circuit protection, it's a crude and not real effective replacement for a fuse panel. Pictured below is a Delco Remy cutout relay that mounts atop the generator on this 31 Buick and has only one wire out that routes to the ammeter which keeps track of whether or not the battery is being charged or discharged. That circuit then feeds the battery.

There was not originally, a diode in the circuit from generator to battery. That is a band aid added by someone to replace a missing current cutout relay or cure a generator discharge issue likely caused by a faulty generator that can only occasionally, probably at high engine rpm, raise enough voltage to charge the battery. In a case like that the generator is probably discharging the battery by letting the battery's higher voltage flow back thru the generator where it is wasted by making heat in the field windings.

David Dunton in Lawrenceville GA is desperately in search of a clutch driven disc for his 31 60 series coupe. If you have the clutch disc from this drive train you should message Dave, his AACA handle is Dave39MD

So- when I bought my 1931 Buick, even though I bought it on an Illinois title, there was a process to get a Michigan title. Due to the age of the car and the fact older VIN formats are not trackable in the National Motor Vehicle Title Information system (NMVTIS) National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) | Overview | Bureau of Justice Assistance (ojp.gov) my local DMV took the Illinois title and ran a search in the system to make sure the title was legit and there were no hidden lien holders. That was a long, nerve wracking 3 days but the Illinois title did pass the test. Key takeaways from this previously discussed topic... Talk to your state's DMV before you buy. They own the rules of the road in your state. Many older cars were never issued a title due to timing of passage of title requirements in the state they resided in Talk to Your State's DMV Before You Buy. Your state's DMV is aware that other states did not always title older cars and know what paperwork was required in other states to legally transfer ownership. Be prepared to show definitively the untitled car you are trying to buy came from a state that did not require a title and come to your DMV prepared with paperwork that satisfies your state's DMV that a legitimate sell/buy transaction took place. TALK TO YOUR STATE'S DMV BEFORE YOU BUY. Keep in mind your state probably benefits when you buy a car and want to title it in your state. Their equity is sales tax. TALK TO YOUR STATE'S DMV BEFORE YOU BUY.

I have a drawing of the 80/90 dual disc clutch but 50/60 use a single disc clutch. Looking at that drawing and illustrations in 31 Specs and Adjustments section on clutch leads me to believe those springs are either pressure plate springs or they could be shock absorbing springs incorporated in the driven disc hub. In the following section which includes transmission removal and installation the manual states that the tail shaft end of the trans needs to be supported carefully to make sure the input shaft splines of the trans go straight into the splines of the clutch to avoid "distorting the driven disc" which I suspect in severely misaligned cases could result in dislodging the driven disc shock absorber springs. That would then require removing the flywheel and clutch and removing the clutch from the flywheel and re-assembling from there. Make sure, if you pull the flywheel, you mark its' relationship to the crankshaft because if it doesn't go back on oriented correctly you will hate yourself later when the timing marks on the flywheel don't line up with the index mark on the bell housing while setting distributor timing....

I just moved a Porsche 911 from King of Prussia PA to Port Huron MI, a distance of 628 miles enclosed for $990. The price was a pleasant surprise as it was initially estimated at $1180. Advantage Auto Transport, Palm Coast, FL. I'd never heard of them but the dealer I bought the car from, Motorcars of the Main Line, suggested them. Car arrived in a 2-car trailer pulled by a Dodge Ram P/U, unscathed.

I had a temp gauge overhauled at Bob's, 175. New bulb, line, fitting gaskets and cal.

Make sure the reason the distributor is pointing to #7 instead of #1 is not because the camshaft timing gears jumped a tooth...

My car, a 1931 model 8-66S rumble coupe, was a really hard example for wire harness replacement because the original wire harness was gone before I ever saw the car. I bought a reproduction harness from Harnesses Unlimited. The very first step according to Harnesses Unlimited installation instructions, and rightly so, is to photograph/document routing and carefully remove the original harness. Some items like headlamp/tail lamp connecters and those metal Tees used to split off branches of the wire harness need to be saved from the original harness and transferred to the new harness. My car was also missing the current limit relay, but I found one and restored it, it's in the car and working fine today. Then I discovered Chuck Hoffman had the 1931 Buick wiring drawings. Getting these 5 or 6 drawings eventually saved the day, but also added a layer of confusion. All wiring on the Buick drawings was marked with color coding and allowed wires to be traced from the battery and generator to the current limit relay, instruments, lights and horn. The Harnesses Unlimited reproduction harness DID NOT follow the Buick color coding and instead uses a numbers system to identify connections from the battery and generator to the rest of the items I just listed. I spent hours verifying numbered wires of color that differed from the Buick drawings got routed to their correct end points. Another tactical error I made was installing the firewall insulator in the car before I understood the harness coming from the engine compartment on the right side of the car to the current limit relay and the harness that left the current limit relay to go to the headlight switch at the bottom of the steering column on the left side of the car are supposed to be routed in stamped channels on the metal firewall behind the insulator. Getting that all straightened out was fun... In the long run, patience paid off. The harness is in the car, routed and connected correctly per the Buick drawings and works flawlessly and reliably. This is one of five original Buick wiring drawings and it shows engine accessory wiring on the right side of the engine routed to the current limit relay inside the car and then to the headlight switch on the left side of the car. It also shows a metal Tee where the headlamp harness splits to go to the right headlamp including routing over the front crossmember of the frame under the radiator. All wire colors are identified on the drawings. This is the current limit relay that was missing from my car. All loads except starter and ignition go thru the relay so it is key. Think of it as an alternative to a fuse panel. Sorry for the sideways picture but this shows the Harnesses Unlimited wiring and how all harnesses come together at the current limit relay. The Harnesses Unlimited connections have to be connected by number from the instruction sheet. The harnesses are not faithful to Buick color coding. I try to do things in correct assembly order and got fooled on the firewall insulator because I didn't remove the original wiring from the car. Behind the insulator are channels in the firewall sheet metal with clips to route the harnesses to and from the current limit relay. This channel routes wiring from the relay to the headlamp switch at the bottom of the steering column. Harnesses headed for left and right sides of the engine compartment from the current limit relay disappear thru holes in the firewall insulator and are then routed down the firewall in the channels behind the insulator The 2-wire harness on the left goes to the ignition switch and the two harnesses on the right go to the instrument panel In the lower left corner of this picture you can see the harness that connects battery feed, generator cutout and ignition to the current limit relay, all on the right side of the engine. This harness on the left side of the engine came from the current limit relay and connects to the headlight switch and headlamp wiring. The headlight switch is a busy little feller.... As good luck would have it I had the radiator out of the car for repair when I started wiring the car. This let me easily route the right headlight wiring across the crossmember under the radiator. Another branch of the wire harness comes thru the firewall to service the horn. This picture also came thru sideways but show connections to the back of the instrument cluster. Lights- camera- action- the speedometer only instrument light comes to life. The little light switch on the right side of the panel controls panel lights only, headlight and parking light switch is on the steering wheel. Dome light wiring comes from the brake light switch under the floorboards on the left side of the car over to the passenger side B pillar to a slide switch on the pillar then to the light fixture. Of course I had to add Trippe driving lights and turn signals... Ahh- but it all works...

Deltran makes the original battery tender and the 6volt models like the older one I have are around 1.25 amps. It is a transformer with some onboard electronics that plugs into the wall and comes with ring terminal quick connect harness. Not sure you can buy the one I have, it may be obsolete. I use it on my 31 Buick's 6 volt NAPA lead/acid battery which is now 4 years old, never needs water and is always up to the task in the spring. I also use a 12v Deltran battery tender on the winter garage queens. Batteries in my tractors, Kubota side by side, 2 Ford trucks have never had a battery replacement, some after 10 years in service.

There are no Fisher Body drawings that I am aware of, only Fisher Body Service Manual illustrations and supporting descriptions of construction and repair advice. This is a scan of 1 of about 10 pages of illustrations from my 1931 Buick Fisher Body Closed Cars service manual. You might want to pop for a copy of this book or if there is 32 manual get that one. I suggest you get a manual from Faxon Literature rather than BHA. The BHA manual I have has such bad quality illustrations they approach useless. Then get friendly with Baird Bros lumber in Ohio and order appropriate ash lumber and make the parts. If it's just the longitudinal bows it should be pretty straightforward. The Fisher manual also shows how to cover the roof after the wood is intact. Best of luck Dave

No, not misunderstanding. One other easy one now that you have the front of the driveshaft exposed, block one rear wheel so it won't turn, get a helper to turn the other wheel while you observe the driveshaft. If it turns when you turn that unblocked wheel it's probably a waste of time taking the axle cover off...

Watch your fingers around the torque ball as you guide it thru the cross member. You are on the right track. Take it slow, use a helper/spotter. Good luck! We are waiting to see what you find. Dave

One other place that might know where to look is Classic and Exotic Car in MI

Did you try Steele Rubber? Even if the quarter window rubber isn't shown on the online list call them.

I was a 19yr old kid working at Williams Bros Sunoco in Westland MI when a customer, Jim Larry, who happened to be a Cadillac engineer told me how to get an application for the Cadillac Clark St. assembly plant in Detroit which I believe was the very first GM Cadillac plant. I started on the second floor in Dept. 1003 Body Wiring in late fall of 1970, first, attaching HVAC evap. cases to the firewall and routing vacuum lines, then moved to the brake pedal and booster installation area alternating between 2hrs on your side installing brake pedals, then 2hrs outside the car decking power brake boosters pre-charged with brake fluid and chasing hood bumper threads on top of the cowl sheet metal. I wore jersey gloves while decking the boosters because they were wet with brake fluid. One night I managed to get the left-hand pinky finger of a glove caught on the tap of the right-angle air motor and severely injured my left hand which won me a 2-week light duty assignment assembling A/C panel ducts up on the third floor, a job usually done by a guy known as "Vodka Bob" because he was so drunk when he got to the plant his buddies carried him by his arm pits up and down the steps of the plant entrance to prevent him from falling which he did many times. Bob was off on medical leave. By the time Bob returned to work general foreman Bob Boudreau told our department foreman Bill Shankle to start Krugler on the serial number tag installation job. That job was the very first job down the ramp from the third-floor body launch and was sought after due to its ease and importance. It required you to read a plant broadcast sheet of serial number/model number combinations and make sure the serial number tag agreed with the sheet, then look at the body coming down the line and make sure the model number on the tag agreed with the body style. We built 5 versions on our side of the street, model 8247-2dr Calais, 8249-2dr Coupe DeVille, 8347-4dr Calais sedan, 8349-4dr sedan DeVille and 7500-Fleetwood 75 limousine. Eldorados and convertibles were built at another location. The serial number tags were given to the worker who pre-charged power brake boosters with fluid. The other part of his job was to read a copy of the broadcast sheet and stamp model numbers on the serial number tags in a Schmidt tag machine to agree with serial number/model number designations on the broadcast sheet. On my afternoon shift the worker who did that job was pretty accurate. I would get one or two tags a week that didn't match and had so much time on my job which from start to finish required me to verify the serial number/model number combination on the broadcast sheet, look at the body coming down the line to make sure it matched, install the 2 pop rivets that held the tag to the cowl top sheet metal and install 2 Tinnerman U-nuts to the dash panel for the steering column support. On the few occasions I had a mismatch I had enough time to walk to the Schmidt tag machine and re-stamp the model number and still get it installed before the body went by. Getting this right was crucial, there was no verification of the match after it was installed until the completed car was delivered to Quality Control at the end of the line. If the model number was incorrect by that time, the steering column and instrument panel had to be removed so the rivets on the tag could be drilled out, then the tag had to be re-stamped and reinstalled, then the car had to be put back together. That was an 8hr repair. I never had an incorrect tag get out of my installation area. For a 19yr old pretty much unexposed an unaware white kid from the suburbs my experience in that assembly plant was the most interesting and at times challenging experience of a lifetime. The Clark Street plant was not in a good neighborhood and the workforce was very diverse, something I never experienced before. I was fascinated with the culture and people in that plant as much as I was with the assembly process. When the line stopped for lunch I often went downstairs to the food truck and bought a sandwich and took it back in the plant to eat. I rode in the back seat completed cars from the end of the line through a dizzying maze of tunnels to the delivery dock. On my breaks I loved to walk down to the body drop where a crane lifted completed bodies, moved them over a body drop hole in the second floor of the plant and dropped the body onto the chassis rolling by below. A crew of assemblers were in a pit beneath the first floor and the first order of business was installation of the body bolts. On the first floor I watched complete chassis come together from a bare frame. At lunch quite a few gathered around picnic tables on the first floor to eat and play cards. One hot summer night there was a grease fire that erupted in a pit below the floor which only caused the guys to pick up the picnic table and move it back from the pit about 10 feet, but the went back to their card game. Plant maintenance and plant fire department people got the fire under control quickly, but 7 pieces of Detroit Fire Department equipment pulled up in front of the old wood-floored plant just in case. When a model 75 limo came down the line a bald-headed Yiddish gentleman who was a craftsman from the Ternstedt plant would show up with a tool tray with metal inserts and installation tool that received the cast pins of individual chrome plated letters for the decklids of model 75 Fleetwood limos. He would step up on a platform at the rear of the line truck, open the decklid, used his special tool to pop the letter inserts into pre-drilled holes in the decklid, then carefully tap the letters F L E E T W O O D onto the decklid with a soft leather mallet, all the while being serenaded by some of his co-workers, especially a particular utility repairman, Ray Boatright, who hollered "Ass-head, hey ass-head. Whatcha doing ass-head?" The old craftsman would just turn and smile at Ray, it was all in fun. Another repairman named Will, who put a huge of chewing tobacco in his mouth at the start of the shift, take it out at lunchtime to eat, then replace it with another was observed one night in a heated discussion with the line foreman. I remember at some point in the discussion Will decided to spit. Tobacco was still coming out of his mouth when the stream reached the polished black shoes on Bill Shankle's feet. Drugs in the plant were a problem at the time. It was the era of the Vietnam war, Watts riots, and Woodstock. Marijuana was smoked openly in the plant. Even though I recognize today that was all part of the inner-city assembly plant culture, as a young teenager that was a bridge too far for me. I had a run-in with a young assembler who tried hard to convince me by working up the line and sitting in a car while I installed my serial number tags that Marijuana was good for me, he blew smoke from his joint in my face a few times. I decided I couldn't live with that and reported it to supervision who wanted to fire the offending employee and asked if I would help pursue the issue in court. I wanted no part of that and I quit. Things always happen for a reason. I worked odd service station and outboard repair jobs for a few months. In early December of 1972 I was hired by Ford Research and Engineering as a pay grade 5 development technician in a newly opened 8-million-dollar HVAC lab in Dearborn, MI. I spent 30 years with Ford and Visteon after that and it turned out to be a very rewarding career. If you are curious about the assembly plant experience there is a lengthy You-Tube movie shot by a visitor there in 1987, a few years after I left and just before the plant was closed for good. Here is a link.

E-bay car shopping is not for everyone, caveat emptor for sure. That said I have bought 4 cars on E-bay and only one was not what I expected. The 1968 Pontiac GTO pictured here arrived from a seller in Bend Oregon late one afternoon on Passport Transport. The driver backed the car out of the long, enclosed trailer running on 7 cylinders, puffing oil and leaking every fluid it had except fuel. I drove it veery carefully 2 blocks up the street and parked it in my garage where it went on jack stands for 4 months. Starting with the wheel bearing nuts held on by bent 10-penny nails I started taking it apart. It's only salvation was all the sheet metal was excellent. There were lots of panel fit issues, I re-hung the front fenders and replaced the front fender liners, lined up hood, doors, decklid. Then one day I met Milt Schornack of Royal Pontiac racing fame at a diner on Gratiot Avenue in Roseville, MI for breakfast and we laid out a plan to bring the drive train back to life. He came and picked the car up one snowy day in December and took it to his son's home, pulled the engine and trans and brought the car back. While the power train was out, I put the car back on stands and finished detailing the underside, then moved on to the instrument panel, steering column and interior trim. 4 months later Milt Schornack came and picked the car up and hauled it back to his son's house and reassembled the car. The car was the perfect sleeper secretary's cream-puff with power steering, power brakes, air conditioning, oh, and a Schornack built 406 cu in roller stroker motor that looked bone stock under the hood, all the vacuum lines were there, original Rochester Q-jet carburetor under the dual snorkel air cleaner, all the original decals in place, even a reproduction Delco battery. Milt did the trans as well and put a high stall converter in it to help get the car to launch. I had this car at the same time I had the Porsche 928 which was a much better E-bay buy. The only problem with that car was I used the seller's carrier to ship the car from Vancouver, WA to Detroit and the driver dropped a chain hook on the roof sheet metal while unloading the car. Other than that the car was better than expected. I also bought the 1931 Buick 8-66S coupe on E-bay from a seller restorer in Cary, IL. Anyone who has followed my "Me and my Buick" thread knows the car was off the rails with some stuff, most notably the shift lever, pedals and handbrake from a later model car. That said, the car had been treated to a good restoration of chassis, engine and running gear and the body and fenders were actually painted in the original colors. For the little bit of money I gave for that car I think it was well bought and fit my restoration capabilities to a T. Ahh- a snowy day in the hood. That's Milt Schornack, long time Royal Pontiac service manager and father of the Royal Pontiac Bobcat. In the day Jim Wangers from Pontiac Sales would get Milt to warm up new GTO's to hand off to unaware magazine editors to take to Woodward or wherever to do a little stop-light Grand Prix. Little did they know Milt might have swapped the 389 or 400 cu in rotating assembly in one of those review cars with 421 Super Duty goods! Those cars always got rave reviews with the magazines... Off to see the wizard... I had to realign every piece of sheet metal on the car but firewall and floor pan sheet metal was really nice... I tore the front suspension completely off the car, powder coated upper and lower arms, installed new ball joints, rebuilt the brakes with all new components and stainless lines and put new fender liners and seals in the car. When I got the car the instrument panel was a mess, wood grain appliques falling off, instruments were junk, wrong steering wheel and under dash wiring was a mess. Here the instruments were all replaced, appliques replaced and that is the very first reproduction Pontiac sport steering wheel, an option that appeared on the PMD build sheet. Another item that was missing was the stereo 8-track player. I rounded up a couple of those and with a little work on the bench got one to work. The original options spec'd an AM radio and the 8-track player. You can't make this stuff up... The other challenge was getting an A/C control head that worked... This is the final product with kick panels in place. Meanwhile, across town at uncle Milti's the components for the sleeper started coming together. Milt had all these parts balanced and blueprinted to his liking. Milt also spec'd a custom grind roller cam for the car. The stock looking 4MV quadra-jet got a Schornack calibration job after I stopped admiring it. 75 CC head job... When Milt got the engine apart the windage tray was missing and the bottom of one cylinder had a chip in it where the car tossed a rod. this is the new bottom end including Cloyes steel timing gear set. Then the heads went on with new valves, cc'd combustion chambers, screw in rocker studs and Crane valve springs. Open wide- this is a big pill for a little car... And here is the business end, looks pretty stock. I spent a few weeks overhauling the HVAC system for this car, there was so much crud in the evaporator case. And here we have the little sleeper out for a burger and a coke. Look at those big PMD pancake hubcaps and ooooohhhhh I just love those white wall tires...

The new toy cometh....

Thanks to all for your responses.

The Alpine radio is long gone sorry to say or I would have happily given it to you. I suspect a PO installed it because they disconnected the battery in the car which then requires entering a password to get into the Blaupunkt. I bought a used Blaupunkt and contacted them and they happily provided a password. That radio worked great. Radio wars- Alpine on the left got tossed, Blaupunkt on the right, correct for the car. The gizzy on the left bottom is the power amplifier and the bayonetted wire harness very bottom center connects the power amp to the receiver in the center stack. The original wiring had been cut to adapt to the Alpine radio and I cut it again to install an original hard-shell connector for the radio. Finally- in went the Blaupunkt.

So my 1931 Buick 8-66S coupe project is languishing in the garage waiting delivery of wood grained garnish and dash moldings and completion of the interior seat by Shelby Auto Trim. Due to timing of the recent sale of our summer home in Michigan's upper peninsula I missed out on buying a 1933 Cadillac V-12 coupe that Gullwing Motors had listed on Hemmings and E-bay for over a year. Someone else finally recognized a 90% completed high quality restoration of that beast was worth the $67,500.00 entry price and got to it before I could. That kinda stung for awhile but the more I thought about the more I thought I might want to diversify, have something, well, sporty, that I could drive now. Many years ago I bought a really nice Porsche 928S4 on E-Bay and had it shipped from Vancouver Washington to Michigan. It was a low mileage car in mostly excellent shape. I always go for original so I took the cheap Alpine radio someone put in the car and replaced it with the correct Blaupunkt radio. The original Blaupunkt power amplifier was still in place under the right door sill cover. The one place I varied turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I hated the original steering wheel they put in those cars so I bought a nice Nardi wheel with the correct hub and horn button and started to replace the original. When I removed the original I was confronted by a turn signal switch that was ready to fall apart because for some reason it had collapsed under the original steering wheel. It turned out someone else had the column apart and dislodged the lower column shaft bearing and not realizing what happened reinstalled the column which then would not install correctly. I had to buy a complete column from a Canadian salvage yard to harvest another bearing to repair my column because according to Porsche service records they had only replaced a few of those bearings over the span of models that used it and it was no longer in their interest to stock them. Then, as my wife would tell you, my midlife crisis hit. The 928 was my "sissy rod" for nice long drives in the country. Compared to my 1968 GTO and my 1963 max wedge dodge, the 928 was, well, rather boring. I set out to buy a real Porsche. I settled on a 911 Carrera 4S or Carrera Turbo 4S! I started shopping on Hemmings but their list of cars was skimpy compared to E-Bay's population and many of the cars I saw on the Hemmings site were listed on E-Bay. I looked at a ton of cars, early air-cooled cars are very pricey as they have a huge purist following. Water-cooled cars ran the gamut from dirt cheap low optioned high milers to very expensive low mileage later model offerings, many of which were turbocharged. I also did some research via Porsche Club of America (PCA) and discovered water-cooled naturally aspirated 911's from 1998-2010 had issues with intermediate shaft bearings. Porsche added the intermediate shaft (IMS) as a balance shaft and drove the overhead camshafts off the intermediate shaft. The rear bearings on the suspect models used 3 different varieties of sealed, lubed for life, single and doble row ball bearings, each having different life expectancies, all having a nasty habit of sending shards of broken bearing parts into the engine sump where they went on to destroy the engine. A Porsche Club member who owns one of the top repair facilities in the country developed a plain bearing replacement and sells it in a kit with an oil filter adapter, pressure hose, the bearing and a raft of special tools to successfully install the kit bearing but it is expensive and work intensive. PCA stated the only 911's in that range of model years not affected with the IMS bearing malady were the turbocharged cars which came from the factory with pressurized plain bearings on both end of the IMS. Later cars drive the cams directly from the crankshaft which takes the load off the IMS. Car #1: I found an 84 911 Turbo cabriolet in Arizona that had just under 5,000 original miles, clean CarFax, service records, a kazillion pictures of the car including hoist pictures of the pristine underbody and a great running and driving video of the car. It was very reasonably priced. There were a couple of items I didn't like. The convertible top was speckled with something that didn't look right. The car was silver with a light gray leather interior that I didn't really care for and the backs of the headrests had indentations where someone left a brass headboard or something in the back seat leaning or pushing against the headrests on a very hot day, the headrests were noticeably deformed. I asked the seller about the items and actually got a call back. The nice lady said there was nothing wrong with the top or seats "its still a new car" she said. She followed up with "If you want the car you should give me a deposit now because a gentleman from Nevada is coming in either today or tomorrow to buy it for his wife". I said I think I will pass. Car #2: I found another Turbo cabriolet listed by a Texas dealer. It was a 2008, silver with a red interior. It had a clean CarFax and I was able to trace the car from the original owner who bought it in Florida, sold it in Colorado, second buyer bought the car there and took it to Canada. Eventually it was sold at auction and bonded back to the US and was shown for sale by the Texas dealer. It had 24,000 miles on it which meant I would definitely want to see pictures of the underbody and get it's service history. I wasn't crazy about the red leather interior but it looked to be very clean with no deformed headrests or other issues. I contacted the seller and we chatted and talked on the phone. I asked if he could take some pictures of the underside and if he could provide service records. He said the car was just serviced and tried to impress me with how particular he was with his cars. He took one picture from behind the car of the underside while the car was sitting on the ground and didn't turn his flash on, the bottom of the engine was just a dark blur. I texted him and asked if he could put the car on a hoist and get some good pictures under the car. He wrote back and asked me what a car hoist was. I explained what a car hoist was, then politely told him I couldn't consider an expensive car like that without copious service records. Car #3: This car was a 2015 model, 911 4S cabriolet which is naturally aspirated and has all-wheel drive and more importantly is out of the model year range with the IMS bearing issue. It was rhodium silver with what I consider to be an absolutely elegant dark brown leather interior, and had a rare 7 speed manual transmission. The car only had 6,300 miles on it with a clean CarFax report showing 2 owners. It was listed in an E-Bay fixed price ad with best offer or buy it now by Marshall Goldman who has been a Cleveland dealer for many years and recently opened a new store in Beverly Hills, CA. I noticed they had 273 transactions and only a 67.5% positive rating on E-Bay. I looked into the seller ratings and there were some that couldn't say enough about how wonderful Marshall Goldman was to deal with and some others that complained they bought a car using Buy it Now and the dealer didn't even have the car and wouldn't talk to them. I then decided to go to the Marshall Goldman website to see if the car was still listed there. By this time it was after 9pm eastern time but I found the car and clicked on it to look at the pictures and descriptions there to see if there was something not shown in the E-Bay. By that time a chat person asked if I had questions so I asked her if the car was still available. She said she thought it was but told me if I gave her my cell phone number she would have a sales person contact me. Soon I got a text from Nate at Marshall Goldman who extolled the virtues of the car and said it was still for sale. I decided I would make an offer via E-Bay Best Offer to leverage the buyer protections there. I told Nate I was going to do that and he inquired why. I didn't say anything about the negative feedback I had reviewed on E-Bay but said the advantage with E-Bay is it offers buyer protection when you are dealing with buying from a dealer you don't know and gambling a lot of money. Nate was ok with that and asked what my offer might be. I told him my offer was going to be $2,000.00 under the buy it now price which amounts to only 0.089% less than the advertised price but I thought the dealer would go for that and the 2 grand would defray some of the cost to ship the car from California. Nate thought that was a good offer and said he would run it by the president of Marshall Goldman. A few minutes later he came back with a hand-shake emoji and said I should go ahead and place my offer. Then the fun started. I've been a member of E-bay since the early 80's and have made 1602 transactions since they started counting and have a 100% positive rating. I hardly ever sell anything there anymore because their seller fees have become outrageously high. As a buyer I find I can find stuff no one else has and other stuff everyone has but cheaper and often with free shipping. If something doesn't work out I can return an item or if it doesn't show up I get another item or my money back. For whatever reason I could not get E-Bay to accept my best offer. I kept getting an error screen that stated for my protection my account was limited and I should contact customer support. I got a live chat going with E-Bay support and after 40 minutes of trying to fix the problem they finally told me they couldn't fix the issue in the chat and I would have to resolve it in a phone call. I agreed to receive a phone call and grabbed the phone up on first ring, by this time it was 12:45am and I didn't want to wake my wife. The support rep fixed the problem in 5 minutes. I entered my offer and told Nate it was done, shut off my computer and went to bed. The next morning I got a response from Marshall Goldman. Instead of accepting my offer like Nate claimed they would they counter-offered me with a price only $100.00 under the buy it now price. I texted Nate and told him there was no way I would accept that. He asked me to be patient, "it must be someone in the Cleveland store that had no idea what we had agreed to". A couple hours later Nate wrote back to say he thought my original offer had now been accepted. I looked and that was not the case. We went back and forth a couple of times and they couldn't figure out how to accept my original offer but they managed to withdraw the erroneous counter offer and Nate asked me to make my offer again which I did, immediately. Over the next few hours my offer just sat there, no response from Marshall Goldman. Finally I got a note back from Nate explaining there was a problem with the car's availability, someone at the Cleveland store had supposedly taken a deposit on the car the day before I tried to make my deal. I told Nate I was still interested and he told me he would let me know if it was still available. I never heard back. This morning, some 2 days later, I got notice from E-Bay the Marshall Goldman car I had made 2 offers on was ending in 11 minutes. My wife and I were having breakfast and wondered why 2 days after I was told the car was sold the E-Bay listing was still active. This afternoon the car was relisted at the same asking price as before. I never heard anything back from Nate, but that's Marshall Goldman and Nate's loss. Monday night, the day Nate told me the car wasn't available, I put a deposit on the next car, read on McDuff... Car #4: Monday night I was in a bit of a funk, I'd had a spot on my forehead that I showed to our family Dr. and he referred me to a dermatologist. That was a month ago and I went to the dermatologist and they biopsied the spot and sent tissue out for lab analysis. It came back positive for Squamous cell cancer. I had a follow-up appointment Monday and thought they might not do anything because the sore healed and looked good to the untrained eye. Little did I know. Instead I had a much more extensive procedure Monday and it appears they got my cancer under control but there will be another follow-up to make sure. Monday night I went back to the 911 listings on E-bay and found another car. It is a 2015 911 Carrera S4 coupe, rhodium silver with beautiful black leather interior. It's an automatic with manual paddle shift. It has 5700 miles on it and is a one owner car with clean CarFax, service history and a massive list of equipment with a bunch of pictures and was listed $11,000.00 dollars less than car #3. This listing was a straight classified ad. The seller is David Mizrachi at MotorCars of the Main Line, an Automobili Company in King of Prussia, PA. After I talked to him briefly Monday night I told him I wanted the car. This guy was EVERYTHING the other sellers were not. For all the pictures the one thing I didn't see were shots of the underbody. David told me he would get them for me in the morning before I committed to buy. The pictures came back nearly perfect. The car had a very minor close encounter with a curb on the bottom edge of the front right fascia that is not visible from above. The belly of the car and the bottom of the engine look new. There is no curb rash on the wheels. The CarFax revealed there were 3 open Porsche recalls and David offered to take the car to the local dealer and get them addressed before shipping the car. I asked if he could store the car until beginning of April because the weather in Port Huron is awful and our garage is full of cars, 1 1931 Buick, 2 Subaru Outbacks (His & Hers), one of which we will probably drive to Texas to see my daughter who is expecting, then sell. David said he would store the car indoors in the back of the showroom with a car cover and a battery tender on it. I asked if they did the 3M paint protection film in his shop and he said yes and he would get a price on it. Later he discovered the car already had the protective film. He also shared a receipt for oil and filter and inspection service. At that point I gave him a security deposit via credit card. Tuesday morning he sent closing documents via DocuSign and I express mailed a check for the car. Since I will pay cash for the car and will register it in Michigan the bill of sale I signed off on DocuSign has yesterday has only one additional charge of $422 for documents and that's it. Finally, David got a quote of $1200.00 to ship the car enclosed via a carrier he has used for years. The Porsche 911 has been the company's flagship sports car for 50 years. The 2015 car I bought with naturally aspirated 3.8l dry sump flat six makes 430 hp and 350 lbs/ft of torque. It is several tenths of a second faster in 0-60 times at 3.8 seconds with the Porsche Doppelkuppling 7 speed automatic than the manual shift cars. It has fully automatic normal driving mode my wife can handle and dual zone climate control, heated and cooled seats, 10 speaker Bose surround sound to keep her comfy and entertained. It also has Rally Plus package with a rally chronometer, manual paddle shift, sport and sport+ driving modes with a launch feature and driver selectable suspension and exhaust settings. I can't wait to get it here to play with.... Dave This was my old 1997 Porsche 928 S4 I bought from a dealer in Vancouver Washington via a trouble-free E-bay auction. The 928 was Porsche's answer to NHTSA's claim that Porsche should be banned from the US market due to the inherent oversteer of early rear engined cars. The 928 is a front engine rear transaxle car with a torque tube drive to connect the lumps at front and rear. The car's weight distribution was near 50/50 compared to early rear engine designs with 30/70 weight distribution. Those cars handled very well in the hands of drivers who knew how to control them but they were not for hot rodding teenagers. The 928 engine had it's nemesis in the 7 foot long rubber camshaft timing belt which would destroy the 5 liter interference V8's heads in a jiffy if the belt broke. The ugly original steering wheel. 1997 was the last year for no airbag in the steering wheel. I decided the office would be much more to my liking with this nostalgic Nardi wheel. This is what I encountered when I tried to replace the original wheel with the Nardi wheel. The steering could have been lost had I not discovered this lower bearing had been wrecked when someone dislodged it from the column tube.